NEW DELHI — The U.S. is reviewing a request from Pakistan to provide a variety of excess defense articles (EDA) from its worldwide military hardware pool.
With Moscow consolidating its hold on Crimea, the U.S. State Department is suspending approval of defense exports to Russia, a move that could prevent the launch of U.S. commercial communications satellites on Russian rockets. “State will continue this practice until further notice,” the department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) said in a March 27 announcement on its website.
Europe’s new Sentinel-1A Earth observation satellite has successfully deployed its 12-meter (40-ft.) radar antenna after launching to low Earth orbit April 3 atop a European variant of the Russian Soyuz rocket. Built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by prime contractor Thales Alenia Space, Sentinel-1A is the first in a series of Earth observation satellites specially developed and built for the European Commission’s flagship Copernicus environmental monitoring and security program.
SHADOW DOWN: An RQ-7 Shadow UAV crashed near a Pennsylvania elementary school and was run over by a car on April 3, according to news reports. The UAV, produced by AAI Corp., was part of a training exercise at the Pennsylvania National Guard base at Fort Indiantown Gap. The National Guard there also trains with RQ-11 Raven UAVs.
LONDON — The head of the U.K. Military Aviation Authority (MAA) has expressed concerns over a lack of suitably qualified and experienced personnel across the U.K. military aviation community.
While overall Pentagon antisubmarine warfare (ASW) funding appears to be dropping this coming fiscal year, U.S. Navy officials say they are developing the right programs and tactics for successful ASW missions.
NEW DELHI — In a bid to boost its aerial surveillance, India will buy six aircraft that can be used for supporting its indigenous Airborne Warning and Control System (Awacs). “A tender has been floated to global vendors for the supply of suitable aircraft with necessary structural modifications, power and endurance adaptations and equipment installation or installation provisions for the Awacs,” says an official at the defense ministry.
As the U.S. Navy continues to invest in Aegis improvements and bolster its fleet equipped with the combat system for better ballistic missile defense (BMD), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is questioning some of the development and acquisition process for the software and hardware for the system.
The Brazilian air force will use its newly purchased Hermes 900 unmanned air vehicles for security missions during the upcoming soccer World Cup. Brazil has ordered an as-yet unknown number of the systems from Elbit in a deal announced at the end of March, but signed on March 14 through Elbit’s Brazilian subsidiary, AEL Sistemas SA. The aircraft will be delivered in May and ready for operations during the World Cup competition, which begins in June.
As the U.S. Navy embarks on wargames, reviews and upgrades to better assess and develop the lethality and survivability of its Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), a truer picture of the total program cost is emerging.
The U.S. Air Force launched the 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 at 7:46 a.m. PDT April 3 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. This is United Launch Alliance’s 80th successful satellite insertion and the third of 15 launch missions slated for the company in 2014. The satellite will orbit at 847 km (526 mi.) in a near-polar, Sun-synchronous orbit.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — SpaceX expects to take two further steps toward its long-term plan to develop a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle in the coming weeks, with the first vertical landing flight test of its modified Falcon 9R first stage and the attempted controlled water landing of a leg-equipped Falcon 9.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Virgin Galactic is gearing up to run full-duration hot-fire tests of its first-stage, liquid-fueled Newton engine for the company’s LauncherOne rocket vehicle.
The Dutch government is reinforcing its troops in Mali with the deployment of CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters. Three of the helicopters, along with 70 personnel from the Dutch Helicopter Command, will be deployed as part of the Netherlands mission to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), which began in late 2013.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The U.S. Air Force is set to start early implementation of the long-anticipated GPS Civil Navigation (CNAV) message at the end of this month, and will use the process to help develop new countermeasures against spoofing.
Facebook may have snapped up some of those who helped create Qinetiq’s Zephyr solar-powered high-altitude unmanned aircraft, but most of the team that built and flew the record-setting UAV now works for Airbus Defense & Space, developing an improved version of the ultra-long-endurance air vehicle. The former EADS Astrium acquired the assets of the Zephyr program from the U.K.’s Qinetiq in March 2013 to form the basis of the spacecraft manufacturer’s High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) program.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The U.S. Navy is preparing to conduct a new round of sea trails this summer with its X-47B stealthy aircraft to prove the unmanned system can clear the busy aircraft carrier deck in 90 sec. or less, just like its piloted counterparts.
LONDON — A man who flew his unmanned aerial vehicle over a submarine testing facility in the north of England has been prosecuted and fined for breaching U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations. Robert Knowles from Cumbria is the first person in the U.K. to be prosecuted for the dangerous and illegal flying of an unmanned aircraft.
An ethical framework proposed by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) could guide the nation’s policymakers, as well as NASA, in their deliberations over future manned deep space exploration missions and the additional health risks they are likely to pose for astronauts setting out for destinations beyond low Earth orbit.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — SpaceX expects to take two further steps toward its long-term plan to develop a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle in the coming weeks, with the first vertical landing flight test of its modified Falcon 9R first stage and the attempted controlled water landing of a leg-equipped Falcon 9.
Use of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) will be open to any NASA partner who can pay $1 million a night for specific observations, and a lot more if they are willing to replace the U.S. funds that will be withdrawn from the U.S.-German project beginning when fiscal 2015 opens next October.
Beechcraft T-6 Texan II turboprop trainers operated by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Army are to be upgraded to allow continued unrestricted flight within the modernized U.S. national airspace system being implemented by the FAA under its NextGen program. As a precursor to a procurement program, the T-6 National Airspace Compliance team plans industry-day briefings to solicit ideas from potential bidders at NAS Whiting Field, Fla., on April 22-24. The upgrade would allow T-6s to fly through 2025.
Even as it moves toward flight testing of advanced rotorcraft demonstrators, the U.S. Army is looking beyond its next generation of vertical-lift aircraft at what might be required longer term, including rotor systems that can operate over wide speed ranges. As a precursor to a 2030s-time frame Future Vertical Lift (FVL) medium utility rotorcraft, the Army is looking at both tiltrotors and coaxial-rotor compound helicopters as candidates for flight testing in 2017 under its Joint Multi-Role (JMR) technology demonstration.
