NEW DELHI — Saddled with obsolete training aircraft, the Indian air force (IAF) has decided to snub the long-delayed, indigenous HJT-36 Sitara intermediate jet trainer (IJT) and purchase new trainers from abroad. The IAF has issued a request for information for a lightweight, single-engine, twin-seat trainer with a secondary light attack capability, an official at India’s ministry of defense says. “We have asked the vendors to provide cost details for the direct purchase of IJTs for batch sizes of 10, 20, 30 and 50 aircraft,” he says.
There is apparently a price to be paid for the width and volume provided by the even-numbered Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) variants built by Austal USA and General Dynamics—a very tight squeeze through the Panama Canal. (LCS-4 photo: Austal USA)
Data mining the first two years of results from NASA’s Kepler planet-finding probe, using a statistical technique based on the discovery that multi-planet systems are more common than once thought, has confirmed 715 new exoplanets orbiting distant stars, scientists announced Feb. 26. Two papers to be published by the Astrophysical Journal outline the Kepler findings, the statistical technique derived from them and the results when the data were analyzed with it.
Award of a contract to develop a new cockpit for U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters could be imminent, with a Milestone B decision on launching the L Digital development program expected Feb. 28. Elbit Systems of America, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins are known bidders for the program, under which up to 763 UH-60Ls would be upgraded with a glass cockpit as similar as possible to that of the Army’s later UH-60M.
ROMEOS ARRIVE: The U.S. Navy officially delivered two MH-60Rs to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) recently. The helicopters are the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare operations, and the RAN will acquire a fleet of 24 Romeos. “We pack a punch now using the Hellfire missile that we’ve never had before,” says Cmdr. David Frost, who leads RAN’s squadron of Romeos. “It’s been a capability gap that we’re now going to be able to fill with this aircraft.
Sofia, the Joint NASA and German Aerospace Center (DLR) Boeing 747SP flying observatory, is on the verge of reaching full operational capability after completing the final commissioning flight for the last of four major science instruments.
Major U.S. Navy ship and radar programs for ballistic missile defense (BMD) have recently made significant headway. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a contract to support the engineering and manufacturing development of the U.S. Navy’s next-generation integrated Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). The contract has a potential value of $250.1 million over 10 years if all options are exercised.
Aviation Week Laureate Awards March 6, 2014 National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Join Us! Aviation Week’s 57th annual Laureate Awards will recognize individuals/teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation, vision or any combination of these attributes that inspire others to strive for significant, broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace.
The next likely deputy U.S. defense secretary, Bob Work, agreed with senators Feb. 25 that the U.S. Air Force Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) represents a necessary capability.
As the U.S. Coast Guard finishes up rebuilding its surface fleet and taking care of major fixed-wing aircraft needs, the service will next need to worry about finding replacements for its aging helicopters, says Adm. Robert Papp, its commandant. The Coast Guard should be monitoring the efforts of the U.S. Air Force to secure another search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopter to see if a basic model of that aircraft can be acquired to meet Coast Guard needs, Papp said Feb. 26 after his annual state-of-the-Coast Guard address.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is about to begin a new series of flight trials involving the Thales Watchkeeper unmanned aerial system. Trials are moving from Aberporth in West Wales to the ministry’s test airfield at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, where the aircraft will be able to directly support army training over the Salisbury Plain Training Area.
F-35 activities planned to take place after the program’s development phase ends in 2016 could slip by up to six months, according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, program executive officer for the stealthy fighter. Work leading up to completion of development of the multinational, $398 billion program is largely on track, he told an audience hosted by Credit Suisse/McAleese & Associates Feb. 25. “I’m measuring the days I’m off in those milestones by days and weeks,” he said.
The U.S. Air Force has ruled that the first Falcon 9 v1.1 flight conducted last fall does count as one of three required for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to be certified to compete for boosting U.S national security payloads into orbit, as the upstart company works to take on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly.
HOUSTON — NASA will hold off on scheduled spacewalks outside the International Space Station until late July or early August in response to the findings and recommendations of a Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) that probed the spacesuit leak that flooded the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano with water last July 16, according to top agency managers.
The U.S. Air Force’s portion of an emerging Pentagon wish list of extra spending in fiscal 2015 and beyond is $41 billion, including $7 billion in the year starting Oct. 1, according to the armed service’s secretary. Deborah Lee James also told the Bloomberg Government conference on Feb. 26 that the budget request coming March 4 will call for 283 aircraft to be retired, including the A-10 close air support (CAS) fleet and U-2 high-flying reconnaissance system.
MOJAVE, Calif. — Masten Space Systems has used its Xombie vertical landing launch vehicle to successfully fly what is thought to be a landing sensor package and software system for Astrobotic Technology, a Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) contender.
POSEIDON WORK: The U.S. Navy this month awarded Boeing a $2.1 billion modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise options for the procurement of 16 P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft full rate production Lot I aircraft and 16 Ancillary Mission Equipment kits for the U.S. Navy. Navy officials tout the P-8A Poseidons as a replacement to P-3C Orion aircraft, especially in the expansive Asia-Pacific. The Pentagon is now refocusing its forces on that region.
The U.S. Air Force’s top 10 acquisition programs will amount to roughly half of its budget requests in fiscal 2015 and beyond, but spending will prioritize new capabilities and even readiness over legacy weapons systems, according to the armed service’s uniformed acquisition chief. “It’s going to be a very delicate balancing act of capability, readiness and systems,” Lt. Gen. Charles Davis, the military deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, told the Bloomberg Government conference Feb. 26.
Embraer’s defense and security revenues grew 15% in 2013, but are coming under pressure from Brazil’s depreciating currency. The real’s value against the U.S. dollar has been dropping as the country’s trade deficit widens. The Brazilian manufacturer has reported net revenues of $6.2 billion for 2013, $1.2 billion of that from its growing defense business. The company is forecasting 2014 defense revenues of $1.2-1.3 billion—an increase of only 4% at the mid-point of the range, says JPMorgan senior analyst Joseph Nadol.
Raytheon says that it is ahead of its U.S. rivals in developing gallium nitride (GaN) technology for active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars and electronic warfare systems, following a number of performance and manufacturing demonstrations. “I can’t think of any reason you’d stay with GaAs [gallium arsenide] for any new system,” says Steve Bernstein, GaN program manager in Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems’ Advanced Technology Group.
PARIS — With Eurofighter Typhoon sales lagging, and Germany expected to reduce its planned order in the multinational program by 37 jets, Airbus Defense and Space is paring back export projections. “I’m not terribly optimistic as to future sales prospects beyond 2017 or so, because so far the export success has been rather meager,” Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders said during a Feb. 26 news conference unveiling the company’s 2013 earnings results. “In addition, we have governments considering uptake cuts for the Eurofighter.”
