RGNEXT has contract with potential $2b value from U.S. Air Force to serve as single prime contractor for operations, organizational- and depot-level maintenance and sustainment at Cape Canaveral AFS, FL, and Vandenberg AFB, CA. AIRBUS DEFENSE AND SPACE, INC. has $71.4m contract modification to acquire UH-72A Lakota helicopters with ARC 231 radios.
A radical fast-track plan to jump-start Canada’s stalled effort to buy the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is revealed in a briefing document obtained by Aviation Week.
The Pentagon is reviewing acquisition options for the Weather System Follow-On (W-Sat) satellite, which is needed to provide ocean surface wind speed and direction data for the armed forces. A strategy should be approved by year-end. U.S. Air Force officials hope to achieve Milestone A approval for risk-reduction work in fiscal year 2015, says Col. Heath Collins, deputy director of the service’s remote sensing program office.
The U.S. Air Force is planning to roll out a new increment of software for the ground station handling its new ballistic missile warning satellites next year, a key step toward certification of the satellites’ most advanced infrared detector. The Block 10 software for the Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) ground system will be delivered next year, says Col. Heath Collins, deputy director of the Air Force’s remote sensing system program office.
ABOARD THE KEARSARGE – The MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft is proving itself indispensable for amphibious operations while the AV-8B Harrier II is finding new roles for such missions, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officials say. “The Ospreys, they are exceptional,” says Capt. David Bossert, commanding officer of the amphibious assault ship LHD 3 USS Kearsarge, one of the ships participating in Bold Alligator 2014.
A heavy load of dust cast off by the comet Siding Spring 2013 as it hurtled past Mars last month could have damaged the fleet of scientific orbiters circling the planet, had they not tweaked their orbits to be as far away from the potential danger as possible.
China’s 10th Zhuhai air show does not start until Nov. 11 but it already has one new rock star on the Chinese military-blogosphere: the new CX-1 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). Already, scores of images of its full-size display mock-up show an uncanny resemblance to another famous supersonic ASCM, the Mach 2.8-3.0 Russian-Indian BrahMos. Both share the distinctive cone-inlet air intake, a two-stage structure and similar dimensions.
NEW DELHI—India’s ministry of defense is in a quandary over the replacement of the Indian air force’s (IAF) old Avro HS-748 military transport aircraft fleet.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) NOV. 11-16 — 10th Annual China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, Zhuhai Guangdong, China. For more information go to www.airshow.com.cn NOV. 12-13 — 11TH Annual Global MDA: Costal Surveillance 2014, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. For more information go to www.coastalsurveillancemda.com/
