China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, Long March 7, is very likely to fly in 2014, says an industry official, confirming a delayed target announced six months ago.
RADAR SUPPORT: Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., has been awarded an $85,300,000 multiyear contract to provide the U.S. Army with small tactical radar - lightweight (STARLite) synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) system support, the Pentagon has announced. The contract was a noncompetitive acquisition, with one bid solicited and one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-13-D-C118).
Defense analysts continue to raise concerns that the U.S. Pacific pivot could lead to a possible confrontation with China in the region, and a recent think tank report says the two global giants need to take pains to avoid military tensions. “Military competition between the United States and China can have no positive outcome for either country,” says the report, “China-US Cooperation: Key to the Global Future,” released recently by the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
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Milestone decisions needed to move procurement programs forward are either on hold or slipping due to uncertainty about the fiscal 2014 budget and beyond and the Pentagon is establishing cost caps for new efforts, according to Richard Lombardi, the deputy assistant secretary of acquisition integration for the service. The establishment of cost caps is a new effort in line with the Pentagon’s Better Buying Power 2 procurement guidelines. Thus, caps have not yet been established for any Air Force programs.
Officials from Norway’s Andøya Rocket Range have suspended until further notice all launches using the S-30 booster following the failure of the Brazilian-made first stage during the Australian Scramspace hypersonic flight experiment last week.
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Chinese engineers are working on a hydrogen-fueled rocket engine almost three times the size of their current largest powerplant in that category. But the work is only at an early stage. The engine, which would develop thrust of 200 metric (440,000 lb.) thrust, exists as a concept or preliminary design. So far, developers are tackling critical technologies and have not built parts of a serviceable engine, says Zhang Nan, president of the Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Institute.
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The first pair of Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft destined for the Afghan air force (AAF) has passed through the U.K. on their delivery flight. The two former U.S. Air Force C-130s diverted into RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, after one suffered a technical problem on its flight eastbound on Sept. 24. They departed the U.K. on Sept. 26. The C-130Hs are the first two of four Hercules eventually destined for the fledgling air arm. The aircraft are due to be handed over to the AAF in early October. The second pair of C-130s is due to be delivered in 2014.
With the successful debut of its Epsilon rocket last week, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is advancing incremental improvements to the new solid-fueled launcher with commercial customers in mind. “We are taking a two-step development plan to launch a low-cost, high-performance Epsilon,” says Yasuhiro Morita, Epsilon program manager at JAXA. “We are aiming at the commercial market after the establishment of the next-generation Epsilon, and I hope to be very competitive.”
The importance of rare earth materials for military use and the increasing scarcity of such materials could prompt Congress to get the Pentagon to develop a more aggressive plan for safeguarding those materials, a recent Congressional Service Report (CRS) says.
While the MH-60 helicopter mishap in the Red Sea on Sept. 22 represented the second Seahawk variant Class-A mishap in the current fiscal year, the total of five such mishaps for all manned Navy operations has put the service on pace for its best year thus far for the rate of major incidents and accidents.
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NEW CEO: Alexander Mikheev has been appointed the new CEO of Russian Helicopters. Mikheev was a deputy CEO of Russia’s Rosoboronexport and has held a seat on Russian Helicopters’ board since 2008. Russian Helicopters will continue to expand its range of light helicopter models and also focus on development of its maintenance network in order to increase revenues from after-sales service. The contract with former CEO Dmitry Petrov, who has led the company since 2010, expires on Sept. 27.
India has placed two follow-on orders with Saab to equip its indigenous multi-role Dhruv helicopters with combat self-defense systems. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. [HAL] submitted the $33 million orders with the Swedish aerospace and defense company last weekend for serial production of integrated electronic warfare self-protection systems for the country’s Advanced Light Helicopter, a Saab official says. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2014. The twin HAL orders come after initial production orders were received in 2008.
The U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier CVN-73 USS George Washington and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, completed a large-force exercise with the U.S. Air Force this month in the Asia-Pacific region. George Washington and CVW 5 coordinated eight days of joint service, air-to-air combat training with the U.S. Air Force’s 18th Wing to include 27th Fighter Squadron (27 FS), currently deployed to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, and the 44th Fighter Squadron (44 FS) stationed at Kadena Air Base.
Brazilian-Ukrainian joint venture Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) is continuing preparations for the 2015 debut of a new variant of the Cyclone rocket from a 30-year-old launch facility on Brazil’s North Atlantic coast.
