Five companies are designing long-endurance, ship-based surveillance and strike unmanned aircraft under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program. TERN is intended to demonstrate the capability to provide Predator-class medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned-aircraft capabilities from the flight decks of small ships, including the U.S. Navy’s LCS-2 Littoral Combat Ships and DDG-51 destroyers.
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Startup World View Enterprises Inc. envisions a commercial high-altitude balloon experience for luxury-minded passengers and scientific researchers that will strive to deliver many of the prolonged experiences of spaceflight without the confinement, cost, risks or health limitations associated with rocket launches.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has postponed the launch of its €940 million ($1.25 billion) Gaia star-mapping mission by at least one month after the spacecraft’s manufacturer identified a technical problem with a component flying on another satellite already in orbit, the agency said Oct. 23. “Gaia shares some of the components involved in this technical issue and prompt notification of this problem has allowed engineers working on the final preparations for Gaia’s launch to take additional precautionary measures,” ESA said.
NEW DELHI — The launch of India’s first Mars orbiter, which was postponed due to inclement weather in the Pacific, has been rescheduled for Nov. 5. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be boosted by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which was also used for the Chandrayaan-1 Moon mission, on Nov. 5 at 2:36 p.m. local time from the Sriharikota spaceport in south India, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.
The U.S. Navy and Congress could consider “cross-class” block-buy shipbuilding contracts for its attack submarine and Ohio-class replacement ballistic-missile submarine fleets in coming years to help the service meet its fleet size targets within funding restraints, says Ronald O’Rourke, naval specialist for the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Congress could also consider shifting other Pentagon resources to help fund Navy shipbuilding needs, O’Rourke testified Oct. 23 at a House Armed Services seapower subcommittee hearing.
Commercial aftermarket growth continues to bolster United Technologies Corp.’s (UTC) business units, boosting the company’s overall commercial results and helping offset its struggling military business across the board, executives say. Pratt & Whitney’s large commercial spares revenues increased 22% in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the second straight increase after five quarters of decline. Legacy Pratt engine spares “are recovering” and the V2500 market is growing, helping offset weaker demand for PW2000 parts, says UTC CFO Greg Hayes.
ASIA PACIFIC: Kim Beazley, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., says President Barack Obama’s absence from the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit (APEC) due to the U.S. government shutdown and debt-ceiling dispute with tea party legislators was noted by other countries. “The inability of the president to be present at the APEC summit meetings was very bad,” Beazley told a Foreign Policy Institute audience.
Raytheon has completed flight tests of a low-cost missile rapidly developed to shoot down mortars, rockets and unmanned aircraft, but has yet to find a home for the weapon. Developed under the U.S. Army’s Accelerated Improved Intercept Initiative (AI3) program, the missile scored 22 successes in 24 “system intercepts” during testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., Sept. 16-30, says Michael Means, senior business development manager for Raytheon Missile Systems.
NEW DELHI — India has issued a final notice to AgustaWestland as it moves to cancel the planned purchase of AW101 helicopters for VIP transport that has been tainted by a bribery scandal. “We have issued a final show cause notice to AgustaWestland on Oct. 21 asking why all or any action, including cancellation of the contract, should not be taken against them for violating the terms of the pre-integrity pact and the contract for the procurement of 12 AW101 helicopters,” a defense ministry official says.
Current and future military cargo trucks could be turned into individual autonomous ground vehicles that could be herded into driverless convoys under a program being developed by Lockheed Martin.
Shortcomings in air traffic control and flight procedures are among a string of causes which led to the loss of a Norwegian Hercules in Sweden in March 2012, accident investigators have reported. Four aircrew and one passenger died when the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) C-130J Hercules transport crashed into the Kebnekaise Massif, Sweden’s highest mountain, during the NATO Cold Response exercises on March 12 of last year. The aircraft — call sign Haze 01 — had been flying a sortie from Narvik/Evenes Airport in Norway to Kiruna airport, Sweden.
The U.S. Navy issued a stop-work order Oct. 23 on the contract it gave Raytheon earlier this month for the service’s Air & Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), in the wake of Lockheed Martin’s protest. Lockheed spokesman Keith Little said Oct. 22 that the contractor protested the AMDR contract “after careful consideration,” adding, “We submitted a technically compliant solution at a very affordable price. We do not believe the merits of our offering were properly considered during the evaluation process.”
FAA has given Applied Research Associates Inc.’s (ARA) Nighthawk IV micro-UAV a special airworthiness certificate, which will allow potential customers to apply for agency approval to operate the 2-lb. aicraft in the national airspace.
LONDON — European missile manufacturer MBDA says it has successfully tested its Dual Mode Brimstone (DMB) air-to-ground missile against fast-moving ground targets. In a series of trials conducted by the company in October, five Brimstones were fired at a range of targets moving at speeds of up to 70 mph., from different launch conditions including long-range and off-boresight positions. The company claims every one of the firings achieved a direct hit.
LONDON — U.K. air accident investigators are examining pilot error as the possible cause of a fatal crash of a CHC helicopter off the Shetland Islands in late August. Four oil workers died when the CHC Scotia-operated Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma, registered G-WNSB, crashed into the sea while on approach to Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Islands on Aug. 23 after a flight from the Borgsten Dolphin drilling platform on behalf of oil company Total.
NEXTGEN HIT: Under continuing resolution funding levels for fiscal 2014, FAA’s NextGen program could see impacts from sequestration cuts to the U.S. military. Beverly Pheto, chief of staff for Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.), says defense agencies would likely see about $20 billion in cuts if Congress does not act to change cap levels. The cuts to the military could have an impact on the FAA’s NextGen program in terms of achieving critical mass of participating aircraft.
