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.
NEW DELHI — The MiG-21 FL fighter, a variant of the MiG-21 that heralded the supersonic era of the Indian air force (IAF), will enter the annals of military aviation history after the aircraft fly their last sortie on Dec. 11. Marking the beginning of the end of almost 50 years of MiG-21 operations in the IAF, four MiG-21 FLs will fly a “box formation” as their final sortie. “The deafening roar of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 FL afterburner, an iconic delta-wing fighter aircraft, will no longer be heard after Dec. 11,” an IAF spokesman says.
Crews traveling to Mars and back with today’s technology will face a 5% increase in their chances of developing cancer later in life, based on new data from NASA’s Curiosity rover released at the International Geophysical Union in San Francisco Dec. 9.
Over the next three years European aerospace and defense giant EADS will reduce its head count by 5,800 — including up to 1,450 layoffs -— as part of a plan to put its defense and space business in line with projected revenues, the company announced Dec. 9. The plan, presented to the group’s European Works Council, follows a July decision by the EADS board of directors to consolidate its Cassidian, Airbus Military and Astrium units into a single Airbus Defense and Space Division (Airbus DS), and to rebrand the company as the “Airbus Group.”
A remote-sensing satellite built by China and Brazil failed to reach low Earth orbit following a Dec. 9 launch atop a Chinese Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyuan space center in northern China, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. In a Dec. 9 statement the ministry said the rocket carrying the CBERS 3 satellite malfunctioned after liftoff at 11:26 a.m. local time and that it failed to deliver the satellite to its intended Sun-synchronous orbit at 770 km altitude.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., has been awarded a $48,500,000 modification (P00230) to previously awarded FA8625-11-C-6597 for advance procurement funding of long lead efforts associated with five additional C-130J aircraft. The work will be performed at Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., with an expected completion date of Dec. 31, 2016. Fiscal 2012 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $48,500,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Navy launched and recovered its new E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft from a carrier for the first time earlier this month. The aircraft were launched and recovered Dec. 3 from the CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt following hundreds of practice landings on shore.
In December 2011, Iran proudly displayed on state television a stealthy U.S. unmanned aircraft it claimed it had downed while conducting reconnaissance overflights. The trophy was a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, an aircraft publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Air Force two years earlier. The Pentagon played down the embarrassing loss. One reason may now be clear.
