ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT — The U.S. Navy executed its first-ever takeoff and landing of unmanned and manned aircraft in rapid succession on an aircraft carrier deck Aug. 17, putting the service one step closer to its goal of a mixed fleet of manned and unmanned aircraft in the coming years.
ABOARD THE USS RONALD REAGAN/ABOARD THE CNS HAIKOU — According to some who were aboard the CVN 76 USS Ronald Reagan at the time, at first they thought they must be mistaken: the Chinese would not have sent a spy ship to gather intelligence on a maritime exercise in which their country was actually participating. But they did.
CYGNUS: The third Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo carrier to reach the International Space Station reentered the atmosphere Aug. 17 for a splashdown in the Pacific east of New Zealand, wrapping up the second of eight resupply missions for the company under its $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Carried to orbit July 13 on an Orbital Sciences Antares launch vehicle from Wallops Island, Virginia, the pressurized capsule carried 3,550 lb. of garbage for its destructive return to Earth. It took 3,669 lb.
Below-deck testing of the U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft launch system has begun aboard the next-generation aircraft carrier CVN 78 Gerald R. Ford, Navy officials say.
LONDON—The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) has begun using its Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint intelligence-gathering aircraft operationally for the first time. While visiting forward-deployed personnel in Cyprus, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon confirmed the U.K.’s single aircraft was being used to support Operation Shader, the U.K.’s humanitarian mission in Iraq.
HOUSTON—Spacewalking cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed the Peruvian CubeSat Chasqui-1 as they embarked on a 6 1/2-hr. spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS), an extra-vehicular excursion devoted primarily to the installation and retrieval of external materials exposure experiments.
BEIJING — South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-Koo has authorized construction of the country’s long-delayed second assault ship, now scheduled to enter service in 2020. The design will be improved from that of South Korea’s first such ship, Dokdo, which displaces 19,300 metric tons when fully loaded. “The basic configuration will be similar to Dokdo’s, with more up-to-date equipment,” a spokesman for the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said after Kim made the decision to build the ship.
U.S. Navy engineers recently completed the installation of the first Central Atmosphere Monitoring System (CAMS) IIA on an in-service submarine—the SSN 752 USS Pasadena. The system ensures the cleansed air used in the submarine while submerged remains safe for the crew to breathe.
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army have demonstrated the autonomous deployment of an unmanned ground vehicle by an unmanned aircraft. The test, at Fort Benning in Georgia, involved the Lockheed/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopter airlifting Lockheed’s Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) vehicle into position to conduct an autonomous resupply and reconnaissance mission.
Aerojet Rocketdyne will demonstrate the fabrication of large-scale, metal rocket-engine parts through the use of laser-melting additive manufacturing (AM), under a Defense Production Act from Wright-Patterson AFB announced Aug. 18.
The California legislature has passed a last-minute measure to equally offer a tax incentive package to both contracting teams vying for the next-generation U.S. Air Force bomber program, overturning an earlier law that gave a $420 million discount to the Boeing/Lockheed Martin team alone.
As NASA prepares to announce the company or companies that will take crews to the International Space Station in the next round of its commercial crew vehicle development effort, planning is well underway for the flight tests that will certify the commercial vehicles for operational missions.
HAWKS WANTED: Japan will buy three Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks in its fiscal 2015 budget, the Mainichi newspaper reports. The unmanned surveillance aircraft will be operated by a tri-service joint unit at the Misawa airbase in northern Japan, with the aim of entry-into-service after five years, Mainichi says, perhaps referring to full operational capability. Estimated costs including ground equipment are about 100 billion yen ($980 million). Two U.S. RQ-4s were temporarily deployed to Misawa in May 2014.
Northrop Grumman has won a contract to upgrade 700-900 U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters, beating out teams including Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins. The upgrade with give the older UH-60Ls a glass cockpit with electronic displays replicating those of the in-production UH-60M. Upgraded Black Hawks will be designated UH-60Vs.
LONDON — Seven U.K.-based helicopter operators have been invited to tender to provide VIP transport helicopter services to the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF). AgustaWestland, British International Helicopter Services, Castle Air, Cobham, Gama Aviation, Qinetiq and Sloane Helicopters were invited in July to tender by the U.K. defense ministry for the five-year-long Rotary Wing Command Service Air Transport contract.
During flight test “Juliet” earlier this month, the U.S. Navy’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) successfully intercepted a subsonic, low-altitude target at White Sands Missile Range. Juliet is one of 10 follow-on operational test and evaluation (FOT&E) events planned for the SM-6’s missile performance and demonstration.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to acquire an IBM TrueNorth neurosynaptic processor, the most powerful brain-inspired microchip yet developed. The lab plans to use the chip for machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural network and other research. Unveiled Aug. 7 and developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), TrueNorth has a brain-inspired computing architecture powered by 1 million electronic “neurons” and 256 million electronic “synapses” between the neurons.
BEIJING – Australia will buy two more Airbus A330 tankers and one or two more Boeing C-17 Globemaster airlifters, local media report, quoting Defense Minister David Johnston. “When you get good service from a platform it prompts you to say, why don’t you get some more?” Johnston said in reference to the tanker-derivative of the A330 airliner. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has five of the aircraft, which retain the airliner’s main-deck seating and belly cargo holds.
HOUSTON – Orbital Sciences’ second Cygnus resupply capsule departed the International Space Station (ISS) early Aug. 15, following a 30-day stay that began with the delivery of nearly 3,300 lb. of crew supplies and research equipment.
LONDON – South African defense firm Paramount Group’s first aircraft, the Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (Ahrlac), has made its first flight. The first prototype of the turboprop-powered twin-boom aircraft flew from Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria on Aug. 13.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) aug. 22-24 — 254th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Bangaglore, India. For more information go to www.isam.in aug. 25 — 4th International Technical Specialists’ Meeting on Vertical Lift Aircraft RDT&E Patuxent River, Maryland. For more information go to www.vtol.org/pax
