Raytheon and Chemring are to fire a live missile from its Centurion weapons launcher later this year. The system, initially developed as a naval decoy launcher, was unveiled at the IDEX defense show in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, having been in development by Chemring since 2009. The Centurion is fitted with 12 130mm barrels mounted onto a rotating platform. Each barrel can be individually operated and adjusted in elevation, allowing a mix of weaponry and countermeasures to be housed in the same launcher system, then rapidly reloaded by hand.
HOUSTON — NASA is looking into a possible cooling system leak after water seeped into the helmet of spacewalking European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano on July 16, prompting an early end to a two-man excursion that was to advance preparations for the arrival of Russia’s Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) later this year. Neither Parmitano nor lead U.S. spacewalker Chris Cassidy faced imminent danger, and all of the missed tasks can be rescheduled without urgency, according to NASA’s Mission Control.
GLASGOW, Scotland — The U.K. government will invest £60 million ($90 million) to advance cutting-edge propulsion technology in development at Reaction Engines Ltd (REL), a U.K.-based technology company that is building a radical new motor designed to power a reusable space vehicle. The new investment targets continued work on REL’s Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket (Sabre), which uses lightweight heat exchangers to chill the incoming airstream from more than 1,000C to minus 150C in less than 1/100th of a second.
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Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Kay Granger (R-Texas), whose districts have constituents interested in U.S. helicopter work, have organized and sent a letter to the Pentagon from more than 80 lawmakers trying to apply pressure against the Defense Department’s plans to buy Russian helos for Afghanistan.
The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman failed to execute a fourth landing attempt of the X-47B onboard the USS George H.W. Bush carrier, and the Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstration flight test program has completed its planned “at-sea” trials.
ROCKET TEST: Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have tested a rocket engine injector made with additive manufacturing (AM), the 3D printing process that allows complex shapes to be crafted at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional machining. Aerojet Rocketdyne produced the injector assembly, which fired liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen in the test series, using high-energy lasers to melt metallic powder in a buildup process.
NEW DELHI — Rolls-Royce aims to double its defense business in the next three to five years and is looking to team up with Indian firms, the company says. One such collaboration was the recent International Aerospace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd (IAMPL), a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) that was inaugurated in Bengaluru in the southern state of Karnataka.
As the U.S. starts to refocus its efforts on the Asia-Pacific, some of America’s largest partners and allies in the region are set to make significant military investments of their own.
NEW DELHI — A MiG-21 Indian air force (IAF) fighter crashed July 15 while landing at Uttarlai airbase in the western Rajasthan state, the fifth MiG crash in recent months. The aircraft was on a routine training sortie. “The aircraft crashed at about 9.30 a.m. local time and the pilot suffered fatal injuries, A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of crash,” defense ministry spokesperson Col. S.D. Goswami says.
LONDON — Bristow is exiting the military helicopter flight training business by selling off its share in FBHeliservices to Cobham. The deal, announced on July 15, sees Bristow selling off its 50% share in the joint venture to Cobham in a deal worth £74 million ($112 million).
The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) says it plans to keep a spotlight on the economic ramifications of the 2011 Budget Control Act’s automatic sequestration cuts and long-term spending caps.
While U.S. shipbuilders are looking to anchor themselves with deals in the Asia-Pacific to take advantage of the U.S. Pacific pivot, at least one type of U.S. ship is finding a new home in the region. A U.S. Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter — formerly known as USCG WHEC-716 Dallas — is now renamed as the PF-16 BRP Ramon Alcaraz for the Philippine navy after getting under way this month.
HOUSTON — Ad Astra Rocket Co., developer of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr), is moving forward with modifications to the company’s 200-kw. VX-200 ground test article intended to allow characterization of the engine’s thermal steady state.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert continues to praise the potential of the U.S. Navy’s new Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ship, calling it one of the service’s “tailored ships for tailored capabilities.” Greenert noted the ship’s unique ability to assist amphibious and related operations July 11 during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. Moreover, Greenert says, the ship is not a drawing-board concept. “We have that ship,” he says. “It’s been delivered.”
A renewed effort by the Pentagon Inspector General to target overpricing by defense contractors and overbuying by military services is paying dividends, according to a senior Pentagon official. In fiscal 2012, the investigative wing of the Defense Department uncovered $2.9 billion that could have been put to better use elsewhere. Fiscal 2013 isn’t over yet, and inspectors have already identified $23.4 billion that could have been better spent, the official says.
NEW MOON: An astronomer using the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a tiny moon orbiting Neptune, bringing to 14 the number of known satellites orbiting the blue-green gas giant. Designated S/2004 N 1, the moon measures an estimated 12 mi. across and completes an orbit every 23 hr. at an altitude of about 65,400 mi. above the planet’s clouds. Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute found the new moon between the orbits of Larissa and Proteus while trying to track fast-moving ring segments around Neptune.
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