Bell Helicopter is finalizing the design of its new Bell 525, a medium-lift helicopyter due for first flight in 2014. The U.S. helicopter maker has completed much of the detailed design, says Bell Helicopter’s chief engineer on the 525 program, David King. “We have been releasing detailed designs for a six month period now … and this month we are having a batch of critical design reviews (CDR),” he said. CDR is one of the final steps before the program moves into “build phase,” he says.
U.S. Air Force officials are confident that the RL10B-2 upper-stage engine for the Delta IV rocket, which has been grounded since an anomaly last fall, will perform nominally in boosting the fifth Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite May 22 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Air Force Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton launched an accident investigation board following the anomaly, when lower-than-expected thrust was detected by the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10B-2 during a Delta IV launch of Boeing’s third GPS IIF satellite on Oct. 8, 2012.
NUKE PROTEST: Two losing bidders are protesting a recent award made to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC of Reston, Va., by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for services supporting the maintenance and security of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
ISTANBUL — The Turkish army is getting ready to receive the first of six Karayel UAVs it has on order in the coming months. The Vestel-built Karayel, (Mistrel in English) is a high-wing conventional monoplane tactical UAV designed to meet the needs of the Turkish army. Vestel, best-known as a Turkish home electronics manufacturer, designed and developed the fuselage, avionics and flight control system in Turkey. The original Karayel, unveiled at the 2011 IDEF defense show, weighed 250 kg (550 lb.) and could carry a 50-kg payload for up to 8 1/2 hr.
While the U.S. is pretty well anchored in its nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier programs, the rest of its defense shipbuilding prospects are more adrift, according to the nation’s largest military shipbuilder. “This is more of a problem for the non-nuclear side of the business, where it’s a bit more dynamic,” says Michael Petters, CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII).
Encapsulating the general feeling among many federal lawmakers, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says, “The President’s budget on shipbuilding is a fantasy.” The Navy’s proposed investments would be difficult enough to achieve if sequestration continues, McCain said May 8 during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Navy budget. But even without sequestration, McCain notes, the Navy fleet force would feature the fewest ships since the early part of the previous century.
BRAC FEARS: Opposition to — and political fear of — another round of U.S. military base realignments and closures (BRACs) continues to take root on Capitol Hill as Sen. Mark Begich (D-Ark.) is pushing for his colleagues to pass a “sense of the Senate” resolution against the Pentagon’s requested 2015 BRAC. Begich’s resolution, introduced May 8, argues that BRACs, which require up-front spending but lead to long-term savings, would be “neither affordable nor feasible” in 2015 or 2017 under current budget-battle circumstances.
Congress continues to push back against the U.S. Air Force’s attempt to stop purchasing the RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk, using a new report on the divestiture of the long-range UAV as fresh ammunition to keep the Northrop Grumman program alive. The Air Force in its fiscal 2013 budget sought to retire and stop making additional Block 30 Global Hawks in favor of continuing to use U-2 spy aircraft for similar intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
ROME — Frustrated by apparent U.S. ambivalence in granting authority to integrate weapons onto its Reaper aircraft, the Italian air force is looking at possible alternatives, including a yet-to-be-announced “black program” to create a European medium-altitude/long-endurance (MALE) armed UAV.
The search for evidence of life on alien planets is likely to move closer to Earth, involve greater coordination among more capable space and ground-based observatories and require technologies that can detect the presence of oxygen in distant atmospheres, according to exoplanet experts.
ISTANBUL — Turkish state aerospace company TAI is in final preparations for the first flight of the country’s initial indigenous turboprop training aircraft. The Hurkus, named after Turkish aerospace pioneer Vecihi Hürkus, is undergoing ground engine runs and tests before the flight in June, according to TAI officials speaking to Aviation Week at the IDEF defense exhibition in Istanbul on May 7.
The South Korean defense ministry has ensured production of the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) T-50 series until at least 2016 by ordering about 40 of the type’s light-attack variant, the FA-50. The ministry’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration has given KAI a 1.1 trillion won ($1.01 billion) contract for FA-50 production, the company says. It does not disclose the number of aircraft covered by the contract, but an industry official says it is “about 40.”
A pending budget reprogramming request from the Pentagon to Congress will fill war-related gaps created by recent federal budget battles, but it will not solve growing readiness problems and other military issues triggered by sequestration, according to the No. 2. Defense Department official.
WEAK SUPPORT: Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, is questioning the Obama administration’s support for missile defense. “I continue to be concerned about what appears to be a lack of support for missile defense by this administration,” Rogers said at the opening of a hearing May 8.
Disturbed by recent reports of the cost of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate panel governing defense spending, is planning to hold a hearing in June on the nation’s largest weapons system.
ISTANBUL — BAE Systems and Turkish land systems manufacturer Nurol are exploring the potential of aircraft production in Turkey. The two companies signed an agreement on May 7 at the IDEF defense conference in Istanbul to look at what BAE Systems describes as business opportunities in Turkey and the region for its Military Air and Information products and services. The two companies already have close links; Turkish land systems company FNSS Savunma Sistemleri is a joint venture between Nurol and BAE producing a range of armored vehicles.
China’s development of a ballistic missile able to attack ships could represent a “game-changer” for the U.S. Navy mindset in that region, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, as the Asian nation reasserts itself as a maritime Pacific power.
