Internal politics in Italy have prompted Alenia Aermacchi and Lockheed Martin to dash long-held plans for a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Italian final assembly and checkout (FACO) facility for the stealthy F-35 fighter. The event — which was to be attended by senior Italian air force and defense ministry officials, top industry executives, and U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the F-35 program manager in the Pentagon — was slated for July 18.
NEW CREW: U.S., Japanese and Russian astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Kononenko will launch to the International Space Station in June 2015, where they will join American commander Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who are scheduled to be three months into the station’s first year-long stay. Lindgren, a former NASA flight surgeon, and Yui, a retired Japanese military officer, are rookies. Kononenko logged 393 days on two previous ISS missions. They’ll spend about six months in orbit, the ISS partnership announced July 10.
As the nation’s newest aircraft carrier gets ready for its scheduled fall christening, the U.S. Navy continues to mount a defense for the ship and the program, which still face battles in Congress over cost and relevance. “Our biggest event this year will be the introduction to the Navy and the nation of our newest aircraft carrier, Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), with the christening and launch of on Nov. 9, 2013,” says Rear Adm. Tom Moore, program executive officer, aircraft carriers, in a recent blog.
LONDON — Antonov has test-flown a new version of the world’s biggest biplane, the An-2. The Ukrainian company says the updated model, called An-2-100, will offer enhanced performance thanks to its new Motor Sich MS-14 turboprop, replacing the Shvetsov ASh-62IR engine that dates back to the Second World War.
PARIS — Sweden launched an enormous, helium-filled balloon from its Esrange Space Center on July 12, carrying the PoGOLite (Polarised Gamma-ray Observer) telescope dangling beneath it.
Critics of the recent U.S. Marine Corps buildup in Darwin, Australia fail to recognize the long-term significance of the move, says Gen. James Amos, Corps commandant. Some say the additional 2,500 Marines will make no measurable difference in overall U.S. Asia-Pacific geopolitical standing. “That’s just an installment,” Amos said June 26 during a media roundtable discussion. The Marines plan to make a larger long-term investment there, he says.
The U.S. Navy brass is nearly gushing about the growing relationship it is building with what many Asian defense experts see as the Pentagon’s biggest potential threat in the region: China Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the U.S. chief of naval operations, lauded China’s interest in participating in next year’s Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) exercise, during a July 11 event sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Raytheon will design and test key subsystems for the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod and take the program through the preliminary design review under its 22-month, $279.4 million contract for the technology development (TD) phase. Work will include performance demonstrations of the pod’s active, electronically scanned array (AESA) apertures, prime power generation, cooling systems, jamming exciters and structural components, according to Naval Air Systems Command (Navair).
In another move to bolster presence in the Asia-Pacific, the U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed amphibious assault ship LHD-6 USS Bonhomme Richard and embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) arrived in Brisbane, Australia earlier this month. The Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) is in Australia to participate in the biennial combined-joint exercise Talisman Saber.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 15 - 17 — 49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, San Jose, Calif. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=16854 July 16 - 17 — RotorTech Asia Pacific 2013 Conference and Exhibition, "Embrasing Asia's Growing Helicopter Market," Singapore. For more information go to www.cdmc.org.cn/2013/rap/
Proponents of the U.S. antimissile Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which experienced a widely watched test failure July 5, are blaming reduced funding for what is now a long string of program shortfalls. But with another round of major spending reductions practically guaranteed later this year at the Pentagon, GMD will face a crowded field of major defense acquisition programs jockeying for precious defense dollars.
Sequestration could affect the second-tier suppliers for the U.S. submarine and aircraft carrier procurement programs, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations (CNO). “I worry about the nuclear supplier base,” Greenert said July 11 during an event sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He estimates that up to 80% of the components needed for the nation’s sub-building programs are single-sourced.
PARIS — Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy expects to complete a new turnkey satellite integration and test center for the Turkish military this fall, with final acceptance of the new facility, including all test systems, slated for May 2014.
With the recent successful carrier landing of the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) Demonstrator, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, is emphasizing the potential for electronic attack (EA) missions for future operations using that type of aircraft.
While foreign competition worries U.S. manufacturers of titanium aircraft components, consolidation remains a bigger concern, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). “There is concern that U.S. manufacturers are losing market share to qualifying country manufacturers that are able to use foreign produced titanium,” GAO says in a recent report.
PARIS — Turkey advanced plans for developing a new launch vehicle July 11, signing an agreement with national missile-maker Roketsan for the pre-conceptual design phase of the new launcher, according to Turkey’s defense ministry.
NEW DELHI — India will soon swap out its Prithvi ballistic missile for the newly developed Prahar missile as part of the Indian army’s ongoing transformational efforts. The Prithvi I missile, with a strike range of 150 km (93 mi.), will be “soon phased out” and replaced by the solid-propelled Prahar missiles,which are “more advanced, more competent and more accurate,” an official at India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) tells Aviation Week.
JSF REVIEW: The Pentagon Office of the Inspector General is evaluating the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in terms of its quality assurance — a review that is anticipated by the end of fiscal 2013, according to a senior Pentagon official. The review will come from the inspector general’s policy and oversight shop.
LONDON — The Spanish navy is the first customer for Saab’s Skeldar rotary-wing UAV. Saab was awarded a €2.5 million ($3.3 million) contract on June 26, but didn’t announce the deal until July 11, and did not say who the customer was.
