PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has completed the flight model of the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument slated to fly aboard NASA’s next flagship astronomy mission, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Built by EADS Astrium GmbH of Ottobrun, Germany, NIRSpec will be shipped later this month to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where the 200-kg (440-lb.) spectrograph will undergo additional testing prior to integration with the JWST spacecraft’s payload module.
Advanced Russian-supplied anti-ship missiles in Syria will be a force to be reckoned with, a prominent defense analyst says, and could make the U.S. rethink maritime strategy in the region. U.S. Navy officials declined to speak about anything involving operations in the tense area—and shied away especially from any military topic involving Russia—but the service’s contention throughout the years is that its ships are equipped to handle any threat they face.
TIANJIN, China — Avicopter is developing a technology demonstrator for a high-speed helicopter, adopting a compound configuration that combines coaxial rigid rotors and nose-mounted counter-rotating propellers.
Lockheed Martin has conducted the first flight test of a prototype anti-ship weapon based on its stealthy AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (Jassm-ER). The flight was conducted on Aug. 27 under the joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and Office of Naval Research (ONR) Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) sept. 9 - 11— Aviation Week NextGen Ahead: Air Transportation Modernization Conference, "Re-Defining NextGen," The Dupont Circle Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
With the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) calling for the Pentagon to delay contract awards for the Ford-class CVN-79 aircraft carrier because of programmatic “shortfalls,” the U.S. Navy is defending the program to build the improved ships.
MINESWEEPER: The U.S. Navy successfully completed Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV) launch handling and recovery testing at sea aboard Littoral Combat Ship USS Independence Aug. 27. The test validated design improvements in the RMMV, its recovery equipment and the ship’s twin boom extensible crane, according to the Navy. The test also demonstrated the crew’s ability to communicate with two off-board RMMVs simultaneously. The RMMV is one of the linchpins of the LCS mine countermeasures package.
While the U.S. Army and Navy are making progress on developing land- and ship-based high-energy lasers, the Air Force is struggling to define compelling operational requirements for directed-energy weapons, suggests a new report by the National Research Council (NRC).
NON-PROPRIETARY: The government push to retain data rights to the weapon systems it buys and promote open architectures to avoid overreliance on original equipment manufacturers is an undeniable trend of the future in U.S. and allied defense acquisition, claims a recently retired Pentagon official. David Van Buren, formerly U.S.
Unless Congress changes the nation’s financial course, the U.S. Navy will be forced to make some drastic cuts in aircraft and ship numbers to accommodate a loss of about $14 billion due to sequestration and other budgetary issues, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending the U.S. Navy delay the detail design and construction contract for the Ford-class CVN-79 John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier until it sorts out some programmatic shortfalls. The Navy and Defense Department (DOD) have rejected the recommendation, which, GAO contends, is a mistake. “DOD’s current schedule for awarding this contract undermines the government’s negotiating position,” GAO says in a new report.
LOS ANGELES — Powered flight tests of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital spaceplane resumed on Sept. 5 with a supersonic sortie over Mojave, Calif., that included the use of the tail-plane feathering re-entry system.
HOUSTON — Houston is poised to seek a commercial spaceport license from FAA to establish a runway-based complex supporting reusable launch vehicles, spacecraft assembly and flight training, as well as aerospace research and education. The proposed spaceport would occupy 439 acres of Ellington Airport property close to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
LONDON — A series of aerial refueling trials to boost European interoperability have begun in Italy as part of a project developed by the European Defense Agency (EDA). The Collective Air-to-Air Refueling Clearance Trial aims to obtain refueling clearances for the Italian air force’s Boeing KC-767 tanker aircraft.
Alenia Aermacchi has signed a series of agreements with Polish aerospace companies as it pushes its M-346 to meet the country’s jet trainer requirement. Under its Advanced Jet Trainer program, the Polish air force is looking to purchase a fleet of between eight and 16 lead-in fighter trainers to train the country’s Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots. The air arm needs to begin training in-country as the current contract for F-16 crew training in the U.S. is due to end in 2016.
LONDON — Investigators probing the crash of a Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma in the Shetland Islands in August say they have not yet found any evidence of technical failure onboard the helicopter. Four oil workers died when the CHC Scotia-operated Super Puma ditched into the North Sea just minutes before it was due to land at Sumburgh Airport in the Shetlands on Aug. 23. Twelve passengers and the two pilots survived, although one of the crew was seriously injured.
U.S. Pacific Command’s interest in rapidly fielding a high-power microwave (HPM) counter-electronics weapon is revealed in a new National Research Council (NRC) report on U.S. Air Force directed-energy research and development. The report summarizes three workshops held from February to April, and does not address possible budget cuts, but provides new details of several Air Force directed-energy weapon R&D programs then under way.
As the U.S. Defense Department struggles with life under the full effect of the 2011 Budget Control Act and its annual sequestration cuts, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief is looking at allowing short-term cost exceptions for rotorcraft and post-Joint Strike Fighter research efforts. Frank Kendall, the acquisition chief, told the ComDef 2013 conference Sept. 4 that he is looking to follow in the footsteps of earlier defense officials in the 1990s who identified and fostered specific technology development efforts even as overall budgets dropped.
