BAE SYSTEMS-led team completed initial aircraft handling trials for Asraam and Paveway IV weapons on the F-35B Lightning II. KAMAN AEROSYSTEMS extended its deal with Bell Helicopter to supply skin and skin-to-core components for three more years. DERCO AEROSPACE was selected by Tronair as exclusive distributor of its GSE for the military aftermarket for next three years. RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS began flight testing its prototype Mi-171A2, developed by MIL MOSCOW HELICOPTER PLANT.
LUXEMBOURG — The 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA) has approved nearly €6 billion ($7.4 billion) in new spending aimed at keeping Europe’s launch sector competitive and continuing support for the International Space Station (ISS) while completing a two-pronged robotic mission to Mars.
President Obama has not yet nominated Ashton Carter as the next U.S. defense secretary, but a number of media reports suggest he might be the one. Carter has been on the shortlist since Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced his impending departure. His name had also been mentioned as a possible successor to Hagel’s predecessor, Leon Panetta. Unlike former lawmaker Hagel, former Deputy Defense Secretary Carter is steeped in Pentagon management and acquisition.
WARTON, U.K. — BAE Systems has begun systems tests on the first of 22 new Hawk jet trainers for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). Engineers began testing the electrical, fuel and hydraulic systems of the aircraft – designated ST001 – in November. The aircraft is significant, as it is the first to be assembled by the company since 2010, and also the first to be produced in the newly reconstituted Hawk assembly line now located at Warton after it was moved from Brough, East Yorkshire, which resulted in the loss of 900 jobs at that facility.
NEW DELHI – India and France have agreed to expedite the process of finalizing the purchase of 126 Rafale Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), but the estimated $20 billion deal is unlikely to be signed during the current fiscal year due to lack of funds, pushing it past April 1, 2015.
NEW DELHI – Mauritius will buy a Dornier DO-228 aircraft from India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) to boost maritime surveillance along its extensive coastline. The 1 billion rupees ($16 million) contract was signed by Mauritius and HAL on Nov. 27. “The Dornier aircraft has been fitted with several role-specific equipment to meet the specialized requirement of the customer,” Chairman of HAL Dr. R.K. Tyagi says.
LUXEMBOURG — After launching Europe’s first two fully operational Galileo navigation satellites to the wrong orbit in August, the European Space Agency (ESA) may have salvaged the spacecraft. ESA says ground stations received the first signals from the first of two full operational capability (FOC) Galileo satellites on Nov. 29 after the spacecraft’s perigee was raised from 13,800 km (8,570 mi.) to 17,300 km altitude.
LONDON – Brazil has become the third country to select MBDA’s Sea Ceptor air defense missile system for its naval vessels. Brazil joins the U.K. and New Zealand in choosing the system, which is developed from the company’s Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) and the Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Asraam).
Germany’s government is leasing a converted Airbus A340 from Lufthansa to transport German aid workers who may become infected with the deadly Ebola virus. The aircraft, an Airbus A340-300, has been fitted out by Lufthansa Technik with a special isolation unit and other facilities which would allow patents to be given more comprehensive care than was previously possible on the smaller aircraft types being used to transport patients.
U.S. Navy Expeditionary Forces Command Pacific (CTF-75) Coastal Riverine Squadron 3 in Guam recently received more Riverine Command Boats (RCBs), which the service says will increase readiness in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility. “The addition of these two RCBs significantly enhances the Coastal Riverine Force (CRF) capability throughout the Western Pacific,” says Cmdr. Eric Rasch, executive officer of Coastal Riverine Squadron 3, homeported in San Diego.
HOUSTON – The first of about 20 planned small plastic parts, or coupons, emerged last week from Made in Space Inc., the 3-D printer delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) in September. The printer served as a prototype for a space additive manufacturing capability that may one day become an essential part of NASA’s tool kit for human deep space exploration.
One year after a police helicopter crashed into a public house in Glasgow, Scotland, air crash investigators say they are getting closer to publishing a final-draft report on the circumstances surrounding the incident. The Airbus Helicopters EC135 T2 twin-engine helicopter, operated by Bond Air Services on behalf of Police Scotland, crashed into the roof of the Clutha Vaults public house in Glasgow’s city center on Nov. 29, 2013, killing 10 people. Fatalities included all three helicopter crewmembers and seven people inside the public house.
The Pentagon should expand and refine its reporting to Congress of the Defense Department’s regional missile defense programs, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. “The Department of Defense’s (DOD) June 2014 regional ballistic missile defense (BMD) report addressed five of the eight required reporting elements, and partially addressed the remaining three required reporting elements,” GAO says in its report, released earlier this month.
