SINGAPORE — Saab is hoping the critical seaways that link Asia’s trading partners will prove to be lucrative hunting grounds for its Saab 340 Maritime Security Aircraft (MSA). The company has bought its demonstrator aircraft to Singapore to show the aircraft’s capabilities to potential customers, using the country’s busy shipping lanes to provide targets for the miscellany of sensors onboard.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a €60 million ($82 million) contract to Ariane 5 prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space to continue definition and feasibility studies this year for Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 launcher. The Phase B1 studies will “pinpoint the detailed architecture developed so far and consolidate the launcher’s main characteristics,” the company—formerly EADS-Astrium—said in a Feb. 12 news release. The results of these studies will be unveiled in November during an ESA System Requirements Review (SRR) of the Ariane 6.
OPT-IN: In the continued absence of legislation that would require private companies to adhere to cyber security standards, the White House has launched a cybersecurity framework — a roadmap for private companies to better protect their critical infrastructure on their own. The framework is a kind of collection of global standards and guidelines that can help reduce the risks to cybersecurity. “While I believe today’s framework marks a turning point, it’s clear that much more work needs to be done to enhance our cybersecurity,” President Barak Obama said.
Problems flagged by the Pentagon’s chief tester that could hamper the ability of the KC-46 tanker to protect itself on missions have been addressed, according to U.S. Air Force officials. Raytheon’s AN/ALR-69 radar warning receiver is slated for use on the KC-46, which is being developed under a $4.9 billion contract with Boeing.
HOUSTON — The first of Planet Labs’ 28-strong fleet of Earth observing CubeSats leaped into orbit from the International Space Station’s spring-loaded deployer mechanism early Feb. 11. The first four of the San Francisco-based Planet Labs’ Dove Sats emerged from the launcher outside the orbiting science laboratory’s Japanese Kibo module in pairs at 3:32 a.m. and 7:41 a.m. EST.
SINGAPORE — Incongruously wearing a civil aircraft registration, the obviously military Super Heron HF unmanned air vehicle (UAV) comes to Changi bedecked with sensors for a wide variety of surveillance missions and surrounded by the flags of some of the 20 or so countries that use the basic Heron system. Occupying pride of place in the static display, outside the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) chalet (CD03), the HF will be unveiled today.
What was once a program to demonstrate a flying jeep has a new direction and a new name. Formerly called Transformer, the U.S. Defense Advanced Project Agency’s rechristened Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded Systems (ARES) program will now demonstrate a modular, unmanned vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) delivery system.
NASA and French space agency CNES have formalized a cooperative agreement on the primary instrument that will fly aboard the U.S.-led InSight mission to Mars. As NASA’s 12th Discovery mission, the $425 million InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) aims to land a sophisticated geophysical observatory on the surface of Mars to study its structure and composition.
SINGAPORE — With foreign interest in the V-22 Osprey rapidly gathering pace, the U.S. has decided to show off the type’s capabilities here at the Singapore air show. Two of the Bell-Boeing tiltrotors have deployed from their home base in Japan to feature in the show’s flying and static display.
AgustaWestland’s AW189 and the Airbus EC175 super-medium have been certified within days of each other. The 7.5-metric ton EC175 was the first to get EASA’s nod, receiving its certification two days after the company announced at its annual press conference on Jan. 28 that the aircraft had completed the certification process. EASA awarded the documentation to the EC175 on Jan. 30.
U.S. commercial remote sensing services provider Skybox Imaging has awarded Space Systems/Loral (SSL) of Palo Alto, Calif., a contract to build an advanced constellation of small Earth observation satellites for operation in low Earth orbit.
PARIS — A combination of new competition from U.S.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and an unfavorable euro-dollar exchange rate means European governments may need to increase subsidies for operations of the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle at Europe’s Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana.
NASA I.T.: NASA’s Inspector General (IG) is faulting a $2.5 billion, four-year agency effort with HP Enterprise Services to transition computer support from a field center-based framework to organization-wide oversight. Now at its mid-point, the effort has led to difficulties with IT security and timely software patches, according to a recent audit. NASA IG Paul Martin urges careful consideration by NASA before exercising a three-year extension of the November 2011 HP contract.
SINGAPORE — “Four or five nations” are showing strong interest in the Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, according to Chris Raymond, Boeing Defense, Space & Security vice president for business development and strategy. “These are down to a technical level, not a cursory what-is-it level,” Raymond said on the eve of the Singapore air show. “They are doing analysis of range and coverage, how it would fit in their fleets, life-cycle costs.”
NEW DELHI — Sweden’s Saab is partnering with India’s Kalyani Group to address the Indian military’s requirements for short-range missiles, an official at Kalyani Group says. The pact will initially focus on the very-short-range air defense (Vshorad) and short-range surface to air missile (SRSAM) programs for India. For Vshorad, Saab will provide a system based on the RBS 70 NG missile system, which will deliver a highly accurate, man-portable system with 24/7 all-target capability.
Astronomers and engineers are looking to September for a flight demonstration of NASA hardware that could deliver “arc second” precision pointing and stability suitable for planetary observations using instrumentation suspended from high-altitude balloons.
Beyond its futuristic appearance, what distinguishes the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer from its predecessors is the network of sensors watching over the many automated systems used to operate the ship with the smallest crew imagined for the largest modern destroyer in the fleet, program officials say. About 35,000 distinct sensor signals will pulse throughout the ship, says Capt. James Downey, Navy program manager, about seven times more than there are in a DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
Boeing may propose an upgrade package for Singapore’s Lockheed Martin F-16 fleet if the nation opens a competition, a senior company executive said in Singapore Feb. 10, on the eve of the nation’s air show. “Should they go that route, we’d be interested”, said Chris Raymond, Boeing Defense, Space & Security vice president for business development and strategy.
SINGAPORE — Russia ensures a strong presence at the Singapore air show this year as United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) brings the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional aircraft and the Yak-130 advanced jet trainer. UAC represnets the merger of Soviet-era legacy Russian aerospace giants into a single, vertically integrated corporation.
Sikorsky has begun ground runs of the U.S. Marine Corps’ CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter and is aiming for a first flight by the end of the year. The ground test vehicle (GTV), which will never fly, achieved “bare head light off” — engines running and rotor hubs turning, but no blades attached — on Jan. 24 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The 88,000-lb. gross-weight CH-53K is an all-new aircraft, designed to triple the external load-carrying capacity of the CH-53E to more than 27,000 lb. over a radius of 110 nm in high/hot conditions.
