DREAM CHASER: Sierra Nevada Corp. has made agreements with the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center to explore potential applications of European technology to the company’s Dream Chaser reusable human spacecraft. “This international collaboration will also help define missions outside the Dream Chaser’s primary mission of ferrying U.S. and partner nation astronauts to low Earth orbit, thereby helping to maintain the global space partnerships established between these agencies and the United States space program,” the company said Jan. 8.
The global aerospace and defense sector should see revenue growth of 4-6% in calendar 2014, with high single-digit or low double-digit growth in commercial aerospace outpacing ongoing declines in defense, according to Deloitte’s 2014 Global Aerospace and Defense Industry Outlook.
NASA skirted internal processes and cost-saving agreements established with the Department of Defense when it chose to refurbish the B-2 test stand at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, according to agency Inspector General Paul K. Martin. The SLS core stage is the foundation for the new upgradable heavy-lift rocket envisioned to send U.S. astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration.
LONDON — South Korea has selected Rafael’s Spike NLOS (Non-Line Of Sight) missile as the primary weapon for its new fleet of AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopters. Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) made the announcement on Jan. 3. The decision on the primary weapon comes a year after Seoul selected the Wildcat over the Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk in a $560 million deal announced in January 2013.
The U.S. Navy’s SSBN ballistic missile submarine fleet anchors the country’s nuclear deterrence future, but the nation needs to maintain the force structure and it cannot rely solely on those subs, a recent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report says.
LONDON — A committee of U.K. Parliament members (MPs) is urging the government to produce a fully developed strategy for the armed forces as it begins to work on a 2015 Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR). Publishing its report on Jan. 7, the House of Commons Defense Committee said the 2010 SDSR and the National Security Strategy (NSS), published the same year, had been governed not by any “strategic vision” but simply the objective of reducing the country’s budget deficit.
SpaceX launched its second commercial communications satellite — Thaicom 6 — with an upgraded Falcon 9 on Jan. 6. But the company fell silent immediately after the Orbital Sciences Corp. spacecraft was to have deployed, raising the possibility that the new rocket’s troublesome upper stage failed to perform as advertised.
LONDON — The Czech government has approved the sale of 28 surplus L-159 light attack aircraft to the American aviation service company Draken International. The aircraft, which have been in storage since 2006, were part of a larger order for the type made during the 1990s. But since the introduction of the Saab JAS-39 Gripen, some 36 of the L-159s, also known as the Advanced Light Combat Aircraft, have sat in storage, with the Czech government offering the aircraft to numerous nations without success.
UAV BOOST: The Pentagon is speeding UAV and Hellfire missile deliveries to Iraq under the existing foreign military sale with the country, according to a Defense Department spokesman. “We’re expediting delivery of 10 operational ScanEagles for part of the original purchase, as well as an additional four nonoperational ScanEagles, which will be sent to help facilitate maintenance of the original 10,” Army Col. Steven Warren told reporters Jan. 7. According to Warren, officials anticipate an additional 48 Raven surveillance UAVs will be delivered in the spring.
Less than a month after announcing a headcount reduction and restructuring in its European operations, Airbus Group also is making changes in its North American arm. Sean O’Keefe, once the head of EADS North America (renamed Airbus Group), is stepping down from his post. Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus Americas, will assume the role of CEO of Airbus Group in North America, with oversight of operations in the U.S., Canada and Latin and South America.
The U.S. Army is accelerating plans to cut its active-duty ranks so budgeters have more money to buy new weapons and systems, the service’s chief of staff reaffirmed Jan. 7.
Recent ballistic missile defense (BMD) tests prove that the latest operational generation Aegis combat system and missiles aboard the guided-missile cruiser CG-70 USS Lake Erie can do those missions, says the ship’s commanding officer. “No more tests are required for the 1B [standard missile] or for the 4.0 [Aegis system],” Capt. John Banigan tells the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN). “While it’s not finalized, it’s just a matter of paperwork. It is operationally effective.”
Medical experts face a significant challenge in their search for the causes, ultimate effects and remedies for the vision problems reported by astronauts assigned to long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station, according to a National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) review. The review urges NASA-guided scientists to expand their search for contributing factors, pre- and post-flight evaluation techniques and appropriate ground-based analog studies.
Jerry DeMuro has been appointed the next president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., following the retirement of Linda Hudson. DeMuro, a former executive with General Dynamics, will take over on Feb. 1, the company announced on Jan. 7, succeeding Hudson, who announced she would step down in August. DeMuro will be appointed as an executive director of BAE Systems plc in the U.K. and will serve on the company’s executive committee as well as on the board of the U.S. side of the company.
Timing is everything, and the chronology of signatures President Barack Obama provided on Dec. 26, 2013, to a couple of aerospace-and-defense-related laws has lowered and reformed a key tax benefit that contractors were receiving under certain awards from the federal government. Under the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013, federal reimbursement of certain contractor salaries applied to cost-type contracts has been capped at $487,000 — down from more than $952,000 under an automatically adjusted regulatory formula before the new law.
Operation of the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter in Afghanistan has been extended through November 2014, but the U.S. Navy has not yet decided whether to replace the aircraft that crashed in June 2013. The crash left a single K-Max operational in Afghanistan, ferrying supplies to and from remote forward Marine Corps bases. Lockheed and Kaman have said the aircraft is repairable, or alternatively a replacement K-Max is available.
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Canada is to have fully capable CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters by 2018 — 10 years behind schedule — under a new agreement reached with manufacturer Sikorsky. The Canadian government is sticking with the years-late Cyclone after an independent evaluation determined that the C$5.1 billion ($4.8 billion) program would be viable with changes to the project structure and governance.
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This week could see a surge of news on fresh fiscal 2014 appropriations, as House and Senate appropriators are working feverishly to put together a so-called omnibus spending bill by Jan. 15, when the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) of 2013 funds runs out.
NEW DELHI — India has entered the multibillion dollar commercial launcher market with the successful liftoff of the GSAT-14 satellite aboard its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) heavy-lift rocket fitted with an indigenous cryogenic engine.
