The U.K. Defense Ministry has canceled a three-week-long training deployment of Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft to Cyprus because of sensitivities over the deteriorating situation in Syria.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Air Force Procurement Funding Shifts:2013 Plan for Fiscal 2014 Compared to Actual 2014 Request (Then-year dollars in millions) U.S.
When it came time to make the 2014 budget request, Pentagon planners made large cuts to major U.S. Air Force airlift programs compared to spending estimates in the 2013 budget plan. In the 2014 request, lines for the C-130J, MC-130J, C-17A and C-5 programs were all cut more than 40% when compared to the 2013 plan for the 2014 outyear. However, two modification lines for the C-130 airframe got big increases. (See charts pp. 6-11.)
LONDON — Switzerland’s purchase of 22 Saab Gripen fighter aircraft has moved a step closer, after the program was given a green light by ministers sitting on the country’s national security policy committee. Committee members voted in favor of the 3.1 billion Swiss franc ($3.3 billion) program with 14 votes to nine and two abstentions on Aug. 27.
HOUSTON — Investigators assisted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are entering the next phase of troubleshooting of the July 16 spacesuit water leak that brought all NASA-sponsored spacewalks outside the six-person orbiting science laboratory to a halt.
Aviation Week A&D Programs Aerospace & Defense Programs November 13-14, 2013 Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Ariz. Strategic Priorities in a Sequestration Era. Learn which programs are being affected and where government is likely to place its bets. Register Today www.aviationweek.com/events/adp
MOBILE SATELLITE: The active Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) terminal base grew at a compound annual rate of 10% over the past five years, with more than 2.9 million active MSS terminals deployed on a global basis in 2012, according to Euroconsult. Revenues generated by the six active MSS operators reached $1.5 billion. “The industry remains very concentrated with the leading three operators, Inmarsat, Iridium and Thuraya still accounting for close to 90% and Inmarsat alone having a market share of 55%,” Euroconsult says.
LONDON — A German subsidiary of European missile manufacturer MBDA has successfully tested technology which could deliver a “dial-a-yield” capability to conventional weapons.
Looking to reduce its $8 billion annual fuel bill, the U.S. Air Force is seeking ideas for coatings and surfaces that could reduce drag on its current aircraft fleet, and potentially also benefit commercial operators. The Air Force Research Laboratory has posted a request for information (RFI) on engineered surfaces and coatings that would promote and protect drag-reducing laminar on wings, tails, fuselages and nacelles on current and future aircraft.
MOSCOW — The unique containerized version of Russia’s Novator Club missile system, integrated by the Agat company, is being developed for export with a new passive sensor. It is understood that Malaysia is the first export customer for the Club-K, which is built into modules that are outwardly indistinguishable from standard shipping containers, according to an Aug. 27 announcement at the MAKS air show at Zhukovsky, outside Moscow.
The unexpected appearance of a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft over Yemen’s capital of Sana’a starting Aug. 6 has focused new attention on the covert war against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that has been unfolding in the nation’s hinterlands for more than two years.
Seeking ideas from nature on how to make air vehicles more autonomous, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to establish a center of excellence for nature-inspired sciences. The center will investigate novel sensory systems such as smell, sound, magnetic and chemical sensing, and understand how to process their output and fuse the information to control air vehicles.
Wind tunnel tests on a high-power, air-driven generator designed for the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod have been completed and its developer is looking for other applications, including power generation on unmanned aircraft. The high-power ram-air turbine (Hi-RAT) developed by Advanced Technologies Inc. (ATGI) was flight tested by one of the NGJ bidders, but the Raytheon jammer selected by the Navy uses a different power-generation system.
APACHE SALE: In what the Pentagon calls a “first-of-its-kind” deal, the U.S. has agreed to sell eight new Apache AH-64E attack helicopters and Longbow radars worth about $500 million to Indonesia, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel confirms. Hagel provided details about the deal Aug. 25 during a joint news conference with Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro. The U.S.
ARMY AAI, Hunt Valley, Md., was awarded a firm-fixed-price, no-option, non-multiyear contract modification (P00111) of $11,798,626 with a cumulative maximum value of $1,530,786,418 for purchase of six Shadow unmanned aircraft vehicles and auxiliary equipment. Performance location will be at Hunt Valley, and funding will be from fiscal 2012 other funding. One bid solicited and one received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command – Redstone Arsenal (Aviation), Redstone, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0023).
The widely leaked news over the weekend that the Obama administration is considering military strikes in Syria, along with other Middle East turmoil, is forming the backdrop as Washington begins to seriously mull what kind of military to have over the next few decades.
Gregory Johnson, the former NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, will become executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis), the Florida-based nonprofit selected two years ago by the space agency to manage research across the U.S. National Laboratory elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The appointment is effective Sept. 1, according to an Aug. 26 Casis announcement.
