Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Jay Menon
NEW DELHI — India’s first experimental flight of its latest Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk. 3) with a Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) will take place on Dec. 18. The 24.5-hr. countdown for the mission began at 9 a.m. local time on Dec. 17. The lesser duration of the countdown for the mission is due to the dummy cryogenic stage.

Aerospace companies, on average, managed to make money this year than last, despite some industry-buffeting storms, but the forecast for 2015 is less certain, according to the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). “Overall, aerospace and defense companies stayed profitable in 2014 compared with 2013,” AIA says in its 2014 Year-End Review and Forecast, released Dec. 17. (See charts pp. 7-8.)

By Tony Osborne
LONDON — The Netherlands government is restarting deliveries of naval versions of the NH90 helicopter six months after halting them over concerns about corrosion. Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said new agreements were now in place with the aircraft’s manufacturer, NHindustries – a joint venture of AgustaWestland, Airbus Helicopters and Fokker – which gave her confidence that the corrosion issues would be resolved.

By Tony Osborne
LONDON — The Netherlands government is restarting deliveries of naval versions of the NH90 helicopter six months after halting them over concerns about corrosion. Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said new agreements were now in place with the aircraft’s manufacturer, NHindustries – a joint venture of AgustaWestland, Airbus Helicopters and Fokker – which gave her confidence that the corrosion issues would be resolved.

Orbital Sciences Corp. will buy directly from Russia’s NPO Energomash a new rocket engine with a long heritage, to replace the surplus Russian

U.S. AIR FORCE approved full-rate production for LOCKHEED MARTIN Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile – Extended Range (JASSM-ER); company has

Credit analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services forecast that credit quality for U.S. airlines will continue to improve in 2015 due to cheaper

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to conduct three ambitious “firsts” in the next five years for its Boeing-led Ground-Based Midcourse

By Graham Warwick
Karem Aircraft is to continue work on an unmanned version of its Optimum Speed Tilt Rotor (OSTR) concept under a Defense Advanced Research Projects

By Bradley Perrett
The South Korean finance ministry has approved 8.8 trillion won ($8.1 billion) for full-scale development of the KF-X indigenous fighter, leaving

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope remains on track for a launch in October 2018, but with diminished cost and schedule reserves and a range of

The U.S. Navy completed tests earlier this month on the GhostSwimmer unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort

The U.S. and its allies need to develop even more integrated military forces to ensure security in Asia, according to the Center for Strategic and

/site-files/aviationweek.com/files/uploads/2014/12/asd_12_17_2014_spacescope.pdf

Boeing is planning for first flight of its 767-2C – upon which the U.S. Air Force’s new KC-46 tanker will be based – by year’s end, six months late.
Defense

PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA plans to invest >C$1b in R&D over next 54 months on next-gen high-performance aircraft engines; Government of Canada is funding

By Tony Osborne
LONDON – Airbus Helicopters, Cobham and Elbit have been downselected to compete to provide the U.K. armed forces with its next-generation training

By Jen DiMascio
After days of debate, lawmakers passed a fiscal 2015 spending bill that again weighs in on the back-and-forth over the U.S. Air Force U-2 surveillance

By Michael Bruno
Aerospace and aviation supplier Alcoa is continuing its rollup of metals providers — and critical link-forming with giant manufacturers Airbus Group

By Michael Bruno
Russia’s drive to re-establish a superpower-like weapons industry continues to pay off, literally, according to the latest version of a widely watched

By Mark Carreau
HOUSTON—For the third year in a row, NASA is perched atop the rankings as the best place to work in the U.S. federal government, according to a 2014

By Tony Osborne
LONDON—Poland has inked a $250 million deal to buy the Lockheed Martin AGM-158A Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) to equip its F-16

By Michael Bruno
The U.S. subsidiary of British aerospace and defense giant BAE Systems and Esterline of Washington state have agreed to a $28 million deal over

By Bradley Perrett
/site-files/aviationweek.com/files/uploads/2014/12/asd_12_16_2014_dossier.pdf /site-files/aviationweek.com/files/uploads/2014/12/F3Design%20Concept.jpeg Name: F-3 Description: The F-3 is the provisional name for Japan’s indigenous, fifth-generation fighter program.