The U.S Army is planning to demonstrate the avionics architecture proposed for its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) family of advanced rotorcraft. The proof-of-concept demonstration in late 2014 with an initial, partial version of the Joint Common Architecture (JCA) is intended to show whether it delivers the software reusability required to meet targets for reduced costs and timescales for development and upgrades.
NEXT-GEN JAMMER: Raytheon has been selected to develop the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod to replace the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system now carried by U.S Navy Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic-attack aircraft. The company has been awarded a $279.4 million contract for the 22-month technology development phase of the program. NGJ is planned to become operational in 2020. Under the TD phase, Raytheon will “design and build critical technologies that will be the foundational blocks of NGJ,” says Naval Air Systems Command.
Telespazio has been awarded a €216 million ($277 million) contract by the European Satellite Service Provider, ESSP SAS, as part of the European Union’s Egnos satellite navigation overlay program.
French defense procurement agency DGA successfully completed the first qualification firing of the new MdCN (Missile de Croisiere Naval) naval cruise missile July 1 at the Biscarrosse test range in southwestern France. The test, which marks the fifth flight trial of the MdCN since DGA awarded the contract to missile-maker MBDA in late 2006, was representative of the missile launching from a frigate. It follows successful completion of the first launch of the MdCN in its submarine configuration in October of last year.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force and the U.S. Air Force are working on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will give the U.K. access to tankers equipped with refueling booms to support its fleet of RC-135 Rivet Joint intelligence-gathering aircraft. Officers close to the Airseeker program, which will cover the procurement of three Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joints, tell Aviation Week they hope to have the MOU in place by the end of this year when the first RAF Rivet Joint arrives in the U.K.
The Pentagon’s multi-billion-dollar missile defense shield has failed for the third time in nearly five years to intercept a target missile, marking the latest disappointment in a string of lackluster flight test results since the last successful intercept test in December 2008.
Making good on its plans to maintain its Middle East presence, the U.S. has added three more ships to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR). The coastal patrol (PC) ships PC-2 USS Tempest, PC-7 USS Squall and PC-12 USS Thunderbolt arrived pierside in Bahrain earlier this month as part of a realignment that will see a total of eight PCs permanently stationed in the U.S. PC-3 USS Hurricane and PC-4 USS Monsoon will complete the Navy’s plan to station 10 PCs in Bahrain by spring of 2014.
TOKYO — South Korea will have a homogenous force of 16 upgraded Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion maritime aircraft by 2018 under an L-3 and Korean Air Lines program to refit eight aircraft that remain unmodernized. Separately, the South Korean navy is seeking 20 more maritime aircraft, which would considerably augment its anti-submarine capability.
Taking its lead from prior programs that helped establish the U.S. as a leader in silicon and gallium arsenide integrated circuits for high-speed processors and active-array radars, the U.S. Air Force has launched a program to develop advanced electronic and photonic components for future electronic warfare (EW) systems.
The U.S. honed its littoral combat skills and continued to strengthen its Asian ties this past month with additional Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat) exercises.
LONDON — The Royal Australian Navy’s first Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopter has made its first flight. The Seahawk made the flight on June 26 at Sikorsky’s facilities in Stratford, Conn. The aircraft will now be transferred to Lockheed Martin’s facility in Owego, N.Y., where it will be equipped with a mission system and sensors. Three more MH-60Rs for the Australian navy are currently in various stages of assembly at Sikorsky’s facilities, Australia’s defense ministry says. The first two aircraft are set for delivery in December 2013.
GeoMetWatch, a startup that is building on its engineers’ experience developing an unflown government hyperspectral weather sounder to produce commercial weather hosted payloads, has entered a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA to exchange data from orbit for surplus hardware and calibration services.
In observance of the U.S. Independence Day holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish issues dated July 4 and July 8. Subscribers to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network can visit www.aviationweek.com/awin for continuous updates.
FIREWORKS: A long-anticipated Missile Defense Agency test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program is planned for July 5. The operational test will gauge the first-generation Capability Enhancement I Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, currently deployed in Alaska and California. The interceptor will fly from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to knock down a target from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The GMD program had suffered a series of test failures before scoring a successful test in January.
As budgets in the U.S., Israel and across Europe contract, growth in global defense spending over the next four years will be concentrated in developing countries, according to a Global Defense Outlook report by Deloitte. Despite an overall contraction in defense spending by countries with large gross domestic products (GDP), those nations will still continue to invest in military equipment to address specific security concerns. For example, Japan will continue to invest in missiles, advanced fighter aircraft and helicopters.
NEW DELHI — India is trying to “fast track” production of its Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, producing 20 of the single-seat fighters over the next three years, despite lingering delays with the program, according to an official with the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO). After several delays, the first of the indigenous LCAs, being developed for the Indian air force (IAF), is expected to fly out by the end of this year or the beginning of 2014. “The LCA project has been put on [the] fast track,” DRDO chief Avinash Chander says.
