UAV COOPERATION: The U.S. Coast Guard told lawmakers this week it continues to work with the U.S. Navy and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to leverage their existing programs to develop naval cutter- and land-based UAVs to help meet maritime surveillance requirements. Ongoing efforts to evaluate cutter-based small UAVs will enter the final demonstration phase in early 2014, Coast Guard Vice Commandant Vice Adm. John Currier testified, with an investigation of payload capability.
The U.S. Navy is to begin making biofuels part of its regular operational fuel purchases, citing preliminary indications from its first production-scale procurements that drop-in biofuels will be competitive on price with petroleum-based fuels by 2016.
When it comes to defense acquisitions in the coming years for aviation and shipbuilding, no other U.S. partner or ally in the Asia Pacific comes close to India, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics.
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The new U.S. National Space Transportation Policy and a U.S. Air Force office developed in parallel with the policy should improve the prospects for government hardware riding on commercial communications satellites as hosted payloads, according to a White House staff member who helped draft the policy.
Aviation Week Laureate Awards March 6, 2014 National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Join Us! Aviation Week’s 57th annual Laureate Awards will recognize individuals/teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation, vision or any combination of these attributes that inspire others to strive for significant, broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace.
The U.S. Air Force must focus its reduced resources to “fight and win the full-spectrum, high-end fight,” says Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. The term “high-end fight” is Pentagon parlance for being able to fight and win in conflicts against peers or near peers, or those nations with robust and sophisticated air defenses. For the Air Force, this often refers to a need for aircraft capable of extreme standoff operation or those that can employ stealth or speed to penetrate such an adversary’s defenses.
Emerging wideband active, electronically scanned array (AESA) technology and other new avionics developments could boost the capability of aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Northrop Grumman officials said at a briefing in Washington Dec. 11.
The U.S. Army plans higher-power and mobile demonstrations of a high-energy laser weapon after the vehicle-mounted system engaged more than 90 mortar rounds and several unmanned aircraft in tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., from Nov. 18 to Dec. 10. The tests involved the Boeing-developed High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck carrying a beam control system and 10 kw-class solid-state laser. Low- and medium-power demonstrations with surrogate lasers took place in 2011.
SPIN-OFF SPINS OFF: Exelis – the publicly traded 2011 spin-off of ITT Corp., formed to take government aerospace, defense, information and services away from the parent conglomerate – said Dec. 11 it will spin off its own military and government services business, Exelis Mission Systems. The latest spin-off will occur by the summer of 2014, assuming final approval, and will result in a public company as well.
A high-profile budget proposal unveiled late Dec. 10 on Capitol Hill would save the Pentagon from absorbing any more so-called sequestration cuts than it already has — essentially freezing the spending floor for fiscal 2014 and 2015 at current, sequestered 2013 levels — but could further restrain defense contractor salaries.
LONDON — Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has delivered its first F-35 center fuselage section to Northrop Grumman. TAI is a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, and the section handed over in a ceremony at the company’s facility near Ankara on Dec. 11 will be installed on an F-35 destined for the U.S. Air Force. TAI invested in new facilities and tooling to produce the components.
SEOUL — A steady stream of new roles and orders for the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Surion helicopter is coming from the South Korean government, making a production run of 300 aircraft look probable and 400 quite possible. The army utility version of the 8.7-ton (19,200-lb.) helo has been in service for a year, after delayed development. A police version is in flight trials, an amphibious-assault version for the South Korean marine corps is under development with a production contract, and an army medical evacuation version has just been ordered.
A prearranged version of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill in Congress, unveiled Dec. 9 by leading military policy lawmakers, would cap taxpayer reimbursement of federal contractor salaries at $625,000, drawing a temporary cease-fire in one skirmish that has been raging as part of Washington’s war over U.S. spending.
The Royal Australian Navy officially accepted the first two MH-60R (Romeo) helicopters from the U.S. Navy this week, launching the start of a major Romeo fleet in Australia. The Royal Australian Navy is expected to buy at least two dozen of the helicopters between now and fiscal 2023, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics. The deals will be worth an estimated $2.1 billion, making the acquisitions the fourth highest-price defense-aviation-related program for Australia during that time.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will work together on concept studies of what its backers hope will become the first commercial mission to Mars, a Phoenix-class lander designed to demonstrate in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and thin-film solar arrays for future human missions.
AEROSTAT SURVEILLANCE: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has taken over responsibility for the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) from the U.S. Air Force. Operating in the U.S. since 1978, TARS provides radar detection and monitoring of low-altitude aircraft and surface vessels along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Florida Straits, and a portion of the Caribbean. The formal transfer of the TARS program, contracts, and operations responsibilities began in March 2013.
Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson says his secretive startup may enter a proposal in Darpa’s XS-1 two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle competition. “Regarding the Darpa XS-1, that’s one of many opportunities that we’re looking at with interest, but we’re really not ready to comment publicly on what we’re doing with that,” he said during a recent press telecon on the results of a full mission-cycle test of the clean-sheet BE-3 rocket engine Blue is developing to power its reusable suborbital New Shepard crew vehicle.
