LONDON — The Chief of the U.K. Defense Staff has warned that overspending on equipment is leading to shortages in manpower to train on and use the matériel. In a December speech to the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI), Gen. Sir Nicholas Houghton, who became chief of the defense staff in July, said current levels of equipment spending could lead to a “strategically incoherent force structure.”
BRUSSELS — European Union governments have agreed to move forward, albeit slowly, on the joint development of key defense capabilities, including air-to-air refueling, a next-generation UAV, satellite communications and cybersecurity. During a two-day meeting in Brussels Dec. 19-20, the heads of state of the 28-member EU also discussed—but did not approve—joint funding of some military activities, such as those led by France in the Central African Republic.
BRAZILIAN SPACE: Brazil’s Visiona Tecnologia Espacial S.A. has signed contracts with Thales Alenia Space and Arianespace to build and launch a civil/military broadband communications satellite for the Brazilian government’s Geostationary Satellite Defense and Strategic Communications (SGDC) system. Visiona, a joint venture of Embraer and Brazil’s state-owned telecommunications company Telebras, is to become a satellite integrator for Brazilian space agency AEB. Near-term, the company has been tasked with integrating SGDC under Brazil’s national broadband initiative.
TERROR CONCERNS: The Moroccan government is boosting its defense budget in response to the risk of attacks from native terrorists and the arms race with neighboring Algeria, according to a new report from Strategic Defense Intelligence (SDI). The country spent $16.8 billion on defense between 2009-2013, and by 2018 that number is expected to grow to $20.5 billion. The country’s overall defense budget is expected to gradually increase from $3.8 billion in 2014 to $4.5 billion in 2018.
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
The Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013 notwithstanding, the top civilian and uniformed leaders of the Pentagon told reporters there Dec. 19 that the majority of so-called sequestration budget cuts remain in effect and that Washington faces tough choices about national security spending.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its €940 million ($1.3 billion) Gaia star-mapping spacecraft Dec. 19 after postponing the mission one month due to technical issues involving a component flying on another satellite already in orbit. Equipped with twin silicon-carbide telescopes built around a single, 1-billion-pixel focal array, Gaia is designed to survey a billion stars in the Milky Way, providing a precise 3-D map to better understand the galaxy’s composition, formation and evolution.
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8 is training for NASA’s unmanned Exploration Flight Test-One (EFT-1) for its Orion spacecraft, scheduled for early next year off the coast of Southern California. HSC-8’s aircraft will launch from San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship LPD-22 USS San Diego and assist the crews that will recover the craft into the ship’s well-deck.
Rockwell Collins’ Control Technologies division has submitted a patent application for a Sun- and star-sensing system that could augment or substitute for an aircraft’s position, attitude and heading avionics in a GPS-denied environment. The technology was developed in part by the former senior director of Rockwell Collins Control Technologies, David Vos, who left the company in May 2012 to become a “technology entrepreneur.”
MUNICH — EADS Astrium has signed an agreement with Inmarsat to resell commercial and military broadband capacity on the London-based fleet operator’s new constellation of all-Ka-band Global Xpress satellites, giving them privileged access to the globally available mobile broadband network.
The U.K., which has hoped to sell Eurofighter Typhoons to the UAE, has learned that any potential deal is at least on hold. “The UAE have advised that they have elected not to proceed with these proposals at this time,” says a note to prime contractor BAE Systems’s investors. The U.K. had been negotiating with UAE for the sale of about 60 aircraft, with Prime Minister David Cameron traveling to the Dubai air show in the hopes of lobbying for BAE’s bid to sell the fighter jets.
LOS ANGELES — Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are poised to push the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital vehicle to new heights and speeds during the third, and longest yet, powered flight test, which is planned for the coming days. The flight, from Scaled Composites’ Mojave, Calif., base, will be the most ambitious to date and is scheduled to include the first attempt at a supersonic re-entry using the vehicle’s tail-plane feathering braking system.
After sending the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite to orbit atop a Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) Dec. 19, European launch services provider Arianespace confirmed the dates of its first two Ariane 5 launches in 2014.
While the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has been attracting most of the attention in the Asia Pacific on its first deployment, aircraft carriers represent the real muscle behind the nation’s Pacific pivot, according to the service admiral charged with overseeing the fleet there. When it comes right down to it, Navy leaders say, nothing combines presence, power and flexibility on the sea like an aircraft carrier, and those ships will make the difference in the Asia Pacific.
BEIJING — Chinese development engineers encountered great challenges in developing the main engine for Chang’e 3 lunar probe, says the chief designer for the propulsion program, Jin Guangming.
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
HOUSTON — U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station area readying their NASA spacesuits, including the protective garment that leaked water into a helmet during a July 16 excursion, for a series of spacewalks intended to repair a crippled external cooling system.
BEIJING — China’s Chang’e 3 lunar probe, despite encountering unexpectedly extreme temperature disparities on the Moon’s surface, has six of its eight scientific instruments activated and operating properly. Optical and ultraviolet imaging experiments have begun, but as of Dec. 17 controllers had not yet activated an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and an imaging spectrometer operating in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The probe arrived on the Moon on Dec. 14 GMT.
BUDGET PASSED: The U.S. Senate passed the so-called Ryan-Murray budget framework Dec. 18, sending the compromise to the White House to be signed into law. Senators voted 64-36 in favor of the bill, although several expressed criticism of the framework or their inability to amend it like most bills considered on the floor. The agreement was announced last week by House and Senate Budget committee chairmen Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen.
Israel’s Urban Aeronautics has completed untethered, automated test flights of its AirMule vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft as it prepares for mission demonstrations scheduled for next year. The 1,000-kg (2,200-lb.) ducted-rotor air vehicle conducted several tests that included vertical takeoff, flight to a specific location and back to a vertical landing, the company says. A second prototype is planned to fly in the second half of 2014.
The Swedish defense materiel agency, FMV, has signed a 16.4 billion Swedish Krona production deal with Saab to modify 60 JAS 39 Gripen C fighters to the Gripen E standard.
