SEQUESTRATION: There are no other outcomes under widespread, automatic budget authority reductions except for a smaller U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy, according to the top civilian and uniformed acquisition official of each armed service. The officials told the House Armed Services tactical air and land subcommittee that the consequences mean a less-capable and less-ready U.S. military.
LONDON — Eurocopter and UAV manufacturer AeroVironment have signed a cooperative agreement to develop new capabilities. Announcing the move at the Association of the U.S. Army event in Washington Oct. 23, the two companies said the agreement would allow them to explore expanding into new markets and developing new capabilities to meet future customer needs.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) completed the flight of its first upgraded Mirage 2000 at the Istres-Le Tubé air base in France early this month, according to a spokesman of manufacturer Dassault Aviation. Faced with a depleted tactical air capability and an inordinate delay in signing the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, the IAF is pushing to expedite the upgrading of its Mirage 2000s. The first upgraded Dassault Mirage 2000H is likely to be delivered in August or September 2014, says an IAF official.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has completed the first two endurance demonstration flights of the Improved Gray Eagle (IGE) unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Army, flying for 45.3 hr. compared with 25 hr. for the in-service Block 1 MQ-1C. IGE was developed with company funding to increase endurance and payload with minor modifications to the Gray Eagle. Following the second customer-funded demonstration flight, GA-ASI says, it will analyze the data and share it with the Army to “allow them to decide the follow-on activities for IGE.”
Five companies are designing long-endurance, ship-based surveillance and strike unmanned aircraft under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program. TERN is intended to demonstrate the capability to provide Predator-class medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned-aircraft capabilities from the flight decks of small ships, including the U.S. Navy’s LCS-2 Littoral Combat Ships and DDG-51 destroyers.
Aviation Week 2013 Military Fleet & MRO Forecast! 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
Startup World View Enterprises Inc. envisions a commercial high-altitude balloon experience for luxury-minded passengers and scientific researchers that will strive to deliver many of the prolonged experiences of spaceflight without the confinement, cost, risks or health limitations associated with rocket launches.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has postponed the launch of its €940 million ($1.25 billion) Gaia star-mapping mission by at least one month after the spacecraft’s manufacturer identified a technical problem with a component flying on another satellite already in orbit, the agency said Oct. 23. “Gaia shares some of the components involved in this technical issue and prompt notification of this problem has allowed engineers working on the final preparations for Gaia’s launch to take additional precautionary measures,” ESA said.
NEW DELHI — The launch of India’s first Mars orbiter, which was postponed due to inclement weather in the Pacific, has been rescheduled for Nov. 5. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be boosted by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which was also used for the Chandrayaan-1 Moon mission, on Nov. 5 at 2:36 p.m. local time from the Sriharikota spaceport in south India, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.
The U.S. Navy and Congress could consider “cross-class” block-buy shipbuilding contracts for its attack submarine and Ohio-class replacement ballistic-missile submarine fleets in coming years to help the service meet its fleet size targets within funding restraints, says Ronald O’Rourke, naval specialist for the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Congress could also consider shifting other Pentagon resources to help fund Navy shipbuilding needs, O’Rourke testified Oct. 23 at a House Armed Services seapower subcommittee hearing.
Commercial aftermarket growth continues to bolster United Technologies Corp.’s (UTC) business units, boosting the company’s overall commercial results and helping offset its struggling military business across the board, executives say. Pratt & Whitney’s large commercial spares revenues increased 22% in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the second straight increase after five quarters of decline. Legacy Pratt engine spares “are recovering” and the V2500 market is growing, helping offset weaker demand for PW2000 parts, says UTC CFO Greg Hayes.
ASIA PACIFIC: Kim Beazley, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., says President Barack Obama’s absence from the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit (APEC) due to the U.S. government shutdown and debt-ceiling dispute with tea party legislators was noted by other countries. “The inability of the president to be present at the APEC summit meetings was very bad,” Beazley told a Foreign Policy Institute audience.
Raytheon has completed flight tests of a low-cost missile rapidly developed to shoot down mortars, rockets and unmanned aircraft, but has yet to find a home for the weapon. Developed under the U.S. Army’s Accelerated Improved Intercept Initiative (AI3) program, the missile scored 22 successes in 24 “system intercepts” during testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., Sept. 16-30, says Michael Means, senior business development manager for Raytheon Missile Systems.
NEW DELHI — India has issued a final notice to AgustaWestland as it moves to cancel the planned purchase of AW101 helicopters for VIP transport that has been tainted by a bribery scandal. “We have issued a final show cause notice to AgustaWestland on Oct. 21 asking why all or any action, including cancellation of the contract, should not be taken against them for violating the terms of the pre-integrity pact and the contract for the procurement of 12 AW101 helicopters,” a defense ministry official says.
Current and future military cargo trucks could be turned into individual autonomous ground vehicles that could be herded into driverless convoys under a program being developed by Lockheed Martin.
Shortcomings in air traffic control and flight procedures are among a string of causes which led to the loss of a Norwegian Hercules in Sweden in March 2012, accident investigators have reported. Four aircrew and one passenger died when the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) C-130J Hercules transport crashed into the Kebnekaise Massif, Sweden’s highest mountain, during the NATO Cold Response exercises on March 12 of last year. The aircraft — call sign Haze 01 — had been flying a sortie from Narvik/Evenes Airport in Norway to Kiruna airport, Sweden.
The U.S. Navy issued a stop-work order Oct. 23 on the contract it gave Raytheon earlier this month for the service’s Air & Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), in the wake of Lockheed Martin’s protest. Lockheed spokesman Keith Little said Oct. 22 that the contractor protested the AMDR contract “after careful consideration,” adding, “We submitted a technically compliant solution at a very affordable price. We do not believe the merits of our offering were properly considered during the evaluation process.”
FAA has given Applied Research Associates Inc.’s (ARA) Nighthawk IV micro-UAV a special airworthiness certificate, which will allow potential customers to apply for agency approval to operate the 2-lb. aicraft in the national airspace.
