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.
LONDON — The German government has placed an order for 15 Eurocopter EC645 T2 utility helicopters for the country’s special forces units. The €194 million ($252 million) deal, announced on July 11, makes Germany the first customer for the EC645 T2, which is the military variant of the EC145 T2 launched by the manufacturer in 2011. Eurocopter says the deal includes the helicopters and equipment packages for Germany’s special forces command, known as the KSK, to conduct their missions.
In a sign that NASA’s Texas footprint is still changing two years after the shuttle program’s retirement, Johnson Space Center Deputy Director Steve Altemus will retire this month to lead Houston-based startup Intuitive Machines, which will offer NASA-honed engineering expertise to the global energy and health care sectors as well as commercial aerospace.
BAE Systems has won AUS$580 million ($532 million) worth of contracts to support the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) fleet of Hawk Mk. 127 training aircraft. The larger of the two contracts is an AUS$435 million maintenance, engineering, full logistics and training systems deal to support the RAAF’s 33 Hawk aircraft. According to the company, the contract, which began on July 1, will support the aircraft at two bases, Williamtown, New South Wales and at Pearce, Western Australia.
The Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator made its first arrested landing July 10 on the USS George Bush, the Navy has announced. It was the first arrested carrier landing by an unmanned, autonomous vehicle and the first by a completely tailless aircraft.
NEW BOSS: Italian defense and aerospace group Finmeccanica has appointed Giovanni de Gennaro as chairman to succeed Giuseppe Orsi. Gennaro, who is a former head of the Italian state police, was voted in during a shareholders meeting of Finmeccanica on July 4. Adm. Guido Venturoni was selected as vice chairman. Gennaro succeeds Orsi in the role of chairman only. Orsi, who was also CEO, departed the company in February following his arrest on charges of graft over the sale of 12 AW101 VIP helicopters to the Indian air force in 2010.
LONDON — Oil and gas operators could return their Eurocopter EC225s to service within weeks now that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified fixes to the bevel gear vertical shaft, a critical component in the main gearbox that drives lubrication pumps.
The U.S. and its national naval partners that operate in the Black Sea are getting the opportunity this month to refine their sea-basing platforms and tactics, especially as they pertain to non-combatant evacuation and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, during Exercise Sea Breeze 2013.
The Pentagon’s modernization accounts may face disproportionate cuts of up to 20% in fiscal 2014 if Congress allows government-wide budget restrictions to remain in place, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel tells key lawmakers. If Congress fails to reverse current budget caps, the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request will be slashed by $52 billion, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned in a letter to key lawmakers July 10.
NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) must strive harder to make full use of the International Space Station (ISS) if taxpayers are to recoup returns on its substantial assembly and annual operating costs, according to NASA Inspector General Paul Martin.
The Norwegian government has downselected AgustaWestland and Eurocopter to meet the needs of the country’s new search-and-rescue helicopter program. AgustaWestland, offering the AW101, and Eurocopter, offering an upgraded EC225, were shortlisted by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security from four manufacturers to meet the needs of the Norwegian All-Weather Search And Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) program on July 9.
TAIWAN STATUS: Congress is sending President Barack Obama a formal nudge to endorse Taiwan’s entry in the International Civil Aviation Organization. The move came as the Senate passed a resolution late last month, which had already passed in the other chamber, from House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.). “Helping Taiwan access the latest in civil aviation safety is the right thing to do, and it is in the best interest of public safety,” Royce said.
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LONDON — The U.K. Royal Navy has begun training on the AgustaWestland AW159 Lynx Wildcat maritime helicopter in preparation for its entry into service in late 2015.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has settled on the basic design of the Ariane 6, the next-generation launch vehicle that will succeed Europe’s heavy-lift Ariane 5. Known as the “Multi P Linear” concept, the launch vehicle will comprise four solid-fueled boosters that make up the rocket’s first and second stages, topped by a cryogenic third stage based on the Vinci engine, which is being developed by the Snecma motors division of France’s Safran as part of a midlife upgrade to the current Ariane 5, known as Ariane 5ME.
NEW DELHI — In the first contract awarded to an Indian company to support its CH-47F Chinook, Boeing has chosen precision components maker Dynamatic Technologies Ltd. to supply aft pylon and cargo ramp assemblies for the tandem-rotor helicopter. The Indian air force (IAF) has opted for the CH-47F over the upgraded Russian Mi-26T2 to fulfill its requirement for 15 heavy-lift helicopters.
HOUSTON — Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano extended power cabling across the outside of the International Space Station’s U.S. segment for a future Russian lab, pre-staged utility lines and hardware to deal with potential cooling and power system failures and retrieved external science experiments during a NASA-sponsored July 9 spacewalk.
