2014 NOW HERE!!! Stop Guessing What the Future Holds With Aviation Week’s Military Fleet & MRO Forecast. This 10 year, year-over-year forecast provides an in-depth understanding of what’s to come so you can locate new business opportunities. To schedule a personal demo, call 866.857.0148 or +1.515.237.3682
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The echoes had barely died down from the speeches marking the christening of the CVN-78 aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford before Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, began citing all of the work that still needs to be done not only on the Ford but also on the whole forthcoming carrier class that bears its name.
PARIS — Europe’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at around 7 p.m. EDT Nov. 11 on a descending orbit pass that stretched across Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica. As expected, most of the satellite disintegrated in the upper atmosphere and no damage to property has been reported, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), though the agency says fragments reached Earth’s surface over the southernmost regions of the South Atlantic.
ARMY Northrop Grumman, Huntsville, Ala., was awarded a $39,200,000 modification (P00095) to a previously existing cost-plus-incentive-fee, multiyear, option-included contract (W31P4Q-08-C-0418) to provide research and development services in support of integrated air missile defense. The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2015. Fiscal 2013 research, development, test and evaluation funds are being obligated on this award. The Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE
HOUSTON — Russia’s Soyuz TMA-09M descended to Earth late Nov. 10, returning a two-man, one-woman crew after 166 days aboard the International Space Station, along with a potentially faulty component suspected in the mid-July U.S. spacesuit failure that flooded the helmet of European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano with leaking water, prompting a suspension of NASA-sponsored spacewalks.
BEIJING — The South Korean air force has raised its requirements for stealthiness in its next fighter, according to a newspaper report that suggests the Lockheed Martin F-35 is now the only acceptable candidate in the F-X Phase 3 competition.
FISCAL DESPAIR: Last week saw the chiefs of staff of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy testify for the second time on Capitol Hill about the “insidious” effect of the automatic, widespread budget rescissions known as sequestration, as well as the problem for national security under continuing resolutions of past appropriations. This week will see the second public meeting of the second so-called super committee of lawmakers charged with crafting any kind of budget deal. The Nov.
Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom is in need of yet another set of repairs in order to leave its Singapore pier and get to sea, U.S. Navy officials say. The ship has been plagued by problems during its first Western Pacific deployment.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 12 - 13 — Armament and Munitions Forum, "Industry/Govenment Partnerships Ensuring Readiness and Innovation during Budget Uncertainty. Lindner Conference Center, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/4050/Pages/default.aspx
The U.S. Navy is searching for even greater Electromagnetic Spectrum Maneuver Warfare (EMMW) capabilities. “Our initial focus on mastering EMMW has been on the cyberspace mission area, putting in place the required manpower structure and creating the necessary organizational constructs,” Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance, says in a recent electronic post.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Surface Warfare Mission Package successfully completed the second phase of its developmental testing recently aboard LCS-3 USS Fort Worth, Naval Sea Systems Command confirms. The Fort Worth finished the testing at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Div.’s Point Mugu range off Southern California Oct. 1-25, Navy officials say.
The U.S. Marine Corps is not adjusting its plans to buy a fleet of Lockheed Martin KC-130Js refuelers, despite recent testing and interest in outfitting its Bell/Boeing MV-22 Osprey with an aerial refueling system. Forty-six of 79 planned KC-130Js have been delivered, says Lt. Col. Richard Roberts, KC-130J requirements officer for the Marine Corps. Those plans have not changed since flight trials in August where a MV-22 Osprey outfitted with a hose-and-drogue refueling system conducted close approaches with an F/A-18C receiver.
A U.S. land-based anti-ship missile (ASM) network in the Asia-Pacific could help neutralize China in the region, a recent Rand report says. “A land-based ASM capability would be relatively easy to create in the U.S. armed forces and could be seen as a 21st-century extension of the Army’s earlier coastal defense role,” Rand says in its report, released earlier this month.
U.S. Air Force officials hope to finalize negotiations on a multibillion dollar contract for up to 50 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) cores by the middle of next month, according to the program’s manager.
The U.S. Navy started its first E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) operations at Wallops Flight Facility, Va., earlier this month, in the wake of an agreement with NASA to support FCLP training for squadrons operating from Naval Station Norfolk Chambers Field, also in Virginia.
For the second time, Lockheed Martin has tested the unique fairings that will shield radiators and other delicate hardware on the Orion crew capsule’s service module during launch, using pyrotechnics and release mechanisms to jettison the hardware with simulated ascent heating. Engineers at the company’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., heated one of the three fairings to 200F and achieved what they termed “successful separation of all three fairings while under flight-like thermal and structural conditions.”
Europe’s Sesar air traffic management (ATM) modernization program has funded nine projects to demonstrate the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into non-segregated airspace. The projects will support plans to begin integration of UAS into European airspace in 2016. Backed by €4 million ($5.4 million) in funding from the Sesar Joint Undertaking (JU), the demonstrations include integrated pre-operational flight trials and are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2015.
