LONDON — The Netherlands is to deploy four Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to Mali at the request of the United Nations, The Hague has announced. The deployment, on behalf of the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, will begin at the end of this year and will tentatively end in 2015, according to the Netherlands defense ministry.
As part of its recent analysis of the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding plans, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has envisioned a fleet size much different than what the service foresees. “CBO’s estimate of $21.2 billion per year for the full cost of the Navy’s 2014 shipbuilding plan is 34% higher than the $15.8 billion the Navy has spent on average per year for all items in its shipbuilding accounts over the past 30 years,” the report notes.
Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy are targeting the end of 2014 to have the extended-endurance MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aircraft ready for deployment on a DDG-51 Burke-class destroyer, to support special-warfare units operating under Africa Command. A modified Bell 407 light commercial helicopter, the MQ-8C, made its first flights from NAS Point Mugu, Calif., on Oct. 31, barely 18 months after the award of the $154 million rapid development contract.
LONDON — Air forces from across Latin America and the U.S. and Canada are deploying to Brazil for the region’s largest military exercises. Some 96 combat and support aircraft from nine countries are arriving at Natal airbase on Brazil’s eastern coast for Exercise Cruzex Flight 2013, running from Nov. 4-15.
TEL AVIV — The U.S. plans to fast-track the delivery of six V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to Israel, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says. The Pentagon will reallocate part of the next production group originally destined for the U.S. Marine Corps to meet the Israeli request for six aircraft. The V-22 is produced under a multi-year procurement, with the fiscal 2014 budget plan funding the production of 18 USMC Ospreys and three for the Air Force Special Operations Command.
AMOS-5: Amos-5 manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has devised a workaround for a power anomaly that prevented the operation of some of the satellite’s engines via its power supply 2. IAI says that “alternative activation methods” should allow all eight of the engines to be operated with power supply 2, according to a statement from Amos-5 operator Spacecom. IAI also has determined that the satellite’s original service lifetime of 15 years will not be affected by the problem.
As the U.S. Navy continues to hone its submarine payload delivery systems, the service is searching for unmanned systems to deploy from those boats, including submerged and aerial vehicles. Recent research and development tests have combined submarines with unmanned undersea vehicles used for the oil and gas industry, such as the Lockheed Martin Marlin.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 5 - 7 — National Defense Industrial Association Aircraft Survivability Symposium, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Claif., U.S. Personnel Only. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/4940/Pages/default.aspx Nov. 13 - 14 — Aviation Week Aerospace & Defense Programs, Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix, Ariz. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
HOUSTON — Three International Space Station astronauts reparked their Soyuz crew transport capsule on Nov. 1, opening a docking port on the orbiting science lab for the anticipated arrival next week of U.S., Russian and Japanese crewmembers. The 21-min. Soyuz TMA-09M maneuver concluded at 4:54 a.m. EDT, as ISS commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano redocked at the Russian segment Zvezda module.
Ever since Lockheed’s unsurpassed SR-71 Blackbird was retired from U.S. Air Force service almost two decades ago, the perennial question has been: Will it ever be succeeded by a new-generation, higher-speed aircraft and, if so, when?
Embraer’s defense and security business grew to more than 20% of the company’s net revenues in the third quarter, as continued market growth coincided with a decrease in commercial aircraft deliveries. Formed in 2010, the Brazilian manufacturer’s Defense & Security segment had net revenues of $266.8 million in the third quarter, up from $256.6 million a year earlier. This was 20.7% of the company’s total net revenues for the quarter.
NEW DELHI — India’s space agency on Oct. 31 carried out a launch simulation for its first Mars orbiter to validate the mission’s flight readiness before its scheduled liftoff next week, a senior space scientist says. The 8 1/2-hr. simulation, which was conducted at the first launch pad in Sriharikota in south India, included satellite battery checkup, withdrawal of the mobile service tower and testing of electrical systems, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.
SEOUL — South Korea may move quickly to order the Lockheed Martin F-35 for its derailed F-X Phase 3 competition for 60 fighters – and then again it may not. In a program that has become chaotic and unpredictable even by the standards of fighter acquisitions, a range of very different outcomes is in the offing.
Aviation Week A&D Programs November 13-14, 2013 Arizona Biltmore Phoenix, AZ Featuring the 2013 Program Excellence Awards recognizing the best in program performance and leadership! Top aerospace and defense program leaders come together to evaluate program performance — where money is being spent and best practices in tackling efficiency and cost, strategy, and supply chain.
U.S. Marines recently field-tested a wearable solar-powered system to extend the battery life of crucial electronic devices during a recent field exercise, Navy officials say. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and assembled at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, the Marine Austere Patrolling System (MAPS) combines solar power and an individual water purifier to help lighten the load of Marines conducting lengthy missions in remote locations with few or no options for resupply, Navy officials say.
SLOW START: The second so-called super committee of congressmen and senators set up to find a way out of the almost quarterly budget wars in Congress gathered publicly Oct. 30 to read prepared statements, and then adjourned until Nov. 13. House and Senate Budget Chairs Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), respectively, are now aiming simply for a bicameral spending blueprint for fiscal 2014, which started Oct.
NASA’s Kepler extrasolar-planet finder has discovered its first Earth-sized planet orbiting a distant star, but don’t crank up the interstellar spacecraft yet. While its composition is rocky like Earth’s, its 8.5-hr. orbit means it is far too warm to lie in the “Goldilocks zone.” That is the name scientists give to the habitable zone around stars, where the temperature is “just right” to sustain water in its liquid state, and perhaps life that would need liquid water to survive.
SEOUL — Curtiss-Wright Controls is working to turn South Korea from a customer to a supplier, exploiting the progress local manufacturers have made in gaining technology. Perhaps the most prominent opportunity is in actuation, the equipment that, for example, moves flight control surfaces, says Curtiss-Wright Controls Vice President Christopher Thomson. “South Korea has been a good market, growing faster than our other segments,” says Curtiss-Wright’s Tom Quinly. “We want to take it to another level.”
Defense analysts and U.S. Navy officials say further fleet reductions of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) are impossible if the nation is to meet its stated nuclear deterrence requirements. “The number of boats you need is not necessarily related to the number of warheads, but geography,” says Ronald O’Rourke, naval specialist at the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says the U.S. Naval Air Forces needs to do a better job reporting mission capability rates and readiness for its MV-22 squadrons. “From fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2011, MV-22 squadron commanders computed the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program MCR (mission capability rates) for five of the six squadrons using erroneous aircraft inventory reports and work orders,” the IG says in the executive summary of its report, released Oct. 23. The full report is classified.
