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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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.
