The U.S. Navy ramped up its Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) program this month, with the launch of one ship and a delivery of another. JHSV-3USNS Millinocket successfully launched June 5 from the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala. The next day, the Navy accepted delivery of JHSV-2 USNS Choctaw County from the same company at the same yard.
Aerospace & Defense Programs November 13-14, 2013 Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Ariz. Strategic Priorities in a Sequestration Era. Learn which programs are being affected and where government is likely to place its bets. Register Today www.aviationweek.com/events/adp
PARIS — BAE Systems has conducted the first drop of a Raytheon Paveway IV precision-guided bomb from a Eurofighter Typhoon in the Phase 1 Enhancements (P1EB) configuration. BAE Systems confirmed that test pilots dropped the weapon over the Aberporth test range in West Wales on June 5 using one of the instrumented test aircraft, IPA6.
STRATEGIC MOVES: The Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee will begin marking up its take on the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill this week. That version of the bill, as well as the whole Senate’s version, is expected to significantly push back on House GOP efforts to rein in the Obama administration’s push to further reduce the U.S. nuclear stockpile, and Republican efforts to speed establishment of an East Coast branch of the Ground-based Midcourse system.
PARIS — Thales is planning to make its touchscreen-driven avionics human interface system available for integration into aircraft and helicopters by 2020. The manufacturer’s ‘Avionics 2020’ vision, which will be shown next week at the Paris air show, uses technologies developed from its Avionics 2030 ideas displayed in 2010.
NASA’s long-lived Opportunity rover is rolling toward a new destination at Endeavour Crater on Mars, following one of the nine-year mission’s most striking discoveries, a rock rich in clay minerals that points to an early, biologically friendly era dominated by water with a neutral chemistry.
NEW DELHI — India’s plans to loft France’s SPOT-7 satellite and six other small international spacecraft by early next year reflect a boost in demand for India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the global market, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). “We are getting launch orders from around the world,” a senior ISRO official says.
With a program to modernize the “night” side of the Boeing AH-64D/E Apache’s targeting system almost complete, the U.S. Army has begun taking delivery for the first upgrade to the “day” side of the attack helicopter’s sensor suite. Lockheed Martin has delivered the laser rangefinder/designator (LRFD) for the modernized day sensor assembly (M-DSA), one half of the Apache’s distinctive nose-mounted targeting system.
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A U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair)-sponsored program developed with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) support is creating better computer-generated urban scenes for training systems.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JUNE 12 - 14 — National Logistics Forum, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Crystal City, Va. For more information go to http://exhibits.ndia.org/ndia/public/MainHall.aspx?eventid=697 JUNE 17 - 23 — 50th International Paris Air Show. "Where Aerospace Leaders Get Down to Business," Paris, Le Bourget. For more information go to www.paris-air-show.com
Dozens of U.S. Navy-approved “deviations,” or waivers from service-required manning and other associated regulations over the past six years since construction began, mark the Littoral Combat Ship as a different breed of ships, according to a 2011 Navy document justifying the waivers. The waivers deal mostly with manning issues and highlight the differences in how LCS vessels are meant to be operated, according to the service.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is assembling a variety of “pressurizable” commercial airliner fuselages to be used for live-fire testing at the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Test Center in northern Maryland. The work is part of a long-running Army and DHS program to study cabin locations or designs that will yield the least damage if a bomb found onboard an aircraft detonates.
Reauthorization of the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA) – and its federal indemnification coverage and potential new federal mandates over seeking informed-consent waivers from launch participants and crew — could be hot topics as U.S. lawmakers and industry prepare to update the nearly decade-old law this year.
