LONDON — The Polish government has decided to extend the life of some of its remaining Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-22 ground-attack aircraft. Poland is the last remaining operator of the Su-22 in Europe. Twelve Su-22M4s and six twin-seat Su-22UM3Ks will be retained by the Polish air force and upgraded for an additional 10 years of operations, Warsaw announced April 2.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Boeing and Sierra Nevada are studying cargo-carrying versions of the vehicles that each is developing to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), following indications from NASA that it will consider additional bidders for Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts beyond 2017.
PARIS — The newly reconstituted French government will see Benoit Hamon replace outgoing National Education Minister Vincent Peillon and Minister of Higher Education and Research Genevieve Fioraso, whose agency oversees funding for French civil space programs. French President Francois Hollande approved the new government on April 2 after his ruling Socialist Party suffered losses in local elections.
.S. Navy expects finally to release its draft request for proposals (RFP) for a new unmanned combat air system designed for carrier use within the next few weeks. The forthcoming draft RFP has been long awaited by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, who all are under contract with the Navy to review their design bids for the forthcoming program.
Saab and Pilatus have signed a memorandum of understanding under which the two companies will offer the Pilatus PC-21 trainer to the Swedish air force as a replacement for the Saab SK 60. The announcement comes less than two months before a close-fought Swiss referendum affirms or rejects the government’s decision to buy 22 Saab JAS 39E Gripen fighters, and Saab CEO and president Håkan Buskhe linked the deals:
PARIS — French space agency CNES has advanced plans to develop and launch the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission with NASA, and is also starting work on an operational constellation of electromagnetic intelligence satellites. The agency’s board of directors met March 31 to assess the status of SWOT and authorized CNES to sign an agreement with NASA defining the agencies’ respective roles.
Key members of the team that developed and flew Qinetiq’s record-setting Zephyr solar-powered high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft have joined Facebook’s project to deliver basic Internet services to everyone around the world. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that the social media company’s Connectivity Lab is working on using unmanned aircraft, satellites and laser links to expand Internet coverage. Search-engine giant Google is experimenting with stratospheric balloons for the same mission, under its Loon project.
NEW DELHI — The test launch of India’s heaviest rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk. 3, anticipated to take place in April, has been put off by two months, a senior scientist says. On March 28, scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) moved the rocket’s core stage, weighing more than 110 tons, from the Liquid Propulsion Systems Center at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu to the spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh in south India.
With the Indian navy acquiring advanced warships, the country plans to buy about 12 boom defense systems (BDS) to be used as a means of preventing sabotage and clandestine attacks by surface craft and divers against ships in harbor and anchorage. “We have issued a global tender to buy the BDS, which would also be capable of tangling the running gear of boats entering restricted areas,” a defense ministry official says. The navy also seeks to determine whether the system can foul propellers and rudders on small boats entering restricted waters.
Boeing has revealed the first details of the air-launched microsatellite launcher it is developing for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (Darpa) Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (Alasa) program. Conventional boosters comprise a stack of stages, each with its own engines and fuel tanks. Usually of decreasing size, these stages are discarded sequentially as the payload is boosted into orbit.
The U.S. Navy had some success mating Littoral Combat Ships and DDG destroyers with helicopters and a vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) in late-March LCS wargames, says Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, director of surface warfare.
BEIJING — South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will ask Lockheed Martin to invest up to 20% in the development of the proposed indigenous KF-X fighter, local media report. DAPA, which approved purchase of the Lockheed Martin F-35 on March 23, will begin negotiations next week with the U.S. Air Force on prices of the aircraft, to be supplied under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process, and with the manufacturer on offsets.
ASTEROID ALTERNATIVES: The chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is criticizing the Obama administration for continuing to “push” its proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission, “without any connection to a larger exploration road map and absent support from the scientific community or NASA’s own advisory bodies.” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) points instead to a “promising” proposal for a flyby mission to Mars and Venus in 2021 that his committee recently heard testimony on.
