With the successful debut of its Epsilon rocket last week, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is advancing incremental improvements to the new solid-fueled launcher with commercial customers in mind. “We are taking a two-step development plan to launch a low-cost, high-performance Epsilon,” says Yasuhiro Morita, Epsilon program manager at JAXA. “We are aiming at the commercial market after the establishment of the next-generation Epsilon, and I hope to be very competitive.”
The importance of rare earth materials for military use and the increasing scarcity of such materials could prompt Congress to get the Pentagon to develop a more aggressive plan for safeguarding those materials, a recent Congressional Service Report (CRS) says.
While the MH-60 helicopter mishap in the Red Sea on Sept. 22 represented the second Seahawk variant Class-A mishap in the current fiscal year, the total of five such mishaps for all manned Navy operations has put the service on pace for its best year thus far for the rate of major incidents and accidents.
Aviation Week 2013 Military Fleet & MRO Forecast! The MRO Fleet, Forecasts and Data you need to accurately plan and strategize for the future. See for yourself with a free demonstration: AviationWeek.com/FleetMRO Aviation Week Intelligence Network Click here to view the pdf
NEW CEO: Alexander Mikheev has been appointed the new CEO of Russian Helicopters. Mikheev was a deputy CEO of Russia’s Rosoboronexport and has held a seat on Russian Helicopters’ board since 2008. Russian Helicopters will continue to expand its range of light helicopter models and also focus on development of its maintenance network in order to increase revenues from after-sales service. The contract with former CEO Dmitry Petrov, who has led the company since 2010, expires on Sept. 27.
India has placed two follow-on orders with Saab to equip its indigenous multi-role Dhruv helicopters with combat self-defense systems. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. [HAL] submitted the $33 million orders with the Swedish aerospace and defense company last weekend for serial production of integrated electronic warfare self-protection systems for the country’s Advanced Light Helicopter, a Saab official says. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2014. The twin HAL orders come after initial production orders were received in 2008.
The U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier CVN-73 USS George Washington and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, completed a large-force exercise with the U.S. Air Force this month in the Asia-Pacific region. George Washington and CVW 5 coordinated eight days of joint service, air-to-air combat training with the U.S. Air Force’s 18th Wing to include 27th Fighter Squadron (27 FS), currently deployed to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, and the 44th Fighter Squadron (44 FS) stationed at Kadena Air Base.
Brazilian-Ukrainian joint venture Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) is continuing preparations for the 2015 debut of a new variant of the Cyclone rocket from a 30-year-old launch facility on Brazil’s North Atlantic coast.
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When it sprung up over a one-year period in 2008-2009, the MC-12W Project Liberty aircraft was deemed the fastest delivery of a U.S. Air Force weapons system – from “concept to combat” – since the iconic P-51 Mustang was handed to the Air Force’s predecessor during World War II.
China is eager to collaborate with Russia or Europe to use its Shenzhou human spacecraft and perhaps a planned cargo carrier to support the International Space Station, even as it works toward starting a Mir-class station of its own by 2020.
RPG NET KITS: Oshkosh Corp. of Oshkosh, Wis., has been awarded a $22,349,647 contract to provide the U.S. military with 479 M1240A1 rocket-propelled grenade net kits for use on the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected and Marine all-terrain vehicle, the Pentagon has announced. Oshkosh will also provide integrated logistics support to develop, validate and verify installation instructions, as well as engineering support. The work will be performed in Oshkosh, with funding from fiscal 2011 and 2012 other procurement authority funds. The U.S.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Procurement, Defense-wide: Outyear Funding Shifts, 2014-2017Compares Outyear Funding Estimates from Fiscal 2013 Request With Fiscal 2014 Request Then-year dollars in millions. Descending sort on Outyear % change. U.S.
Contractor Controlled Force has protested the terms of U.S. Navy solicitation for security guard services for Navy installations within the Navy’s Mid-Atlantic region, saying the service is violating intellectual property laws by incorporating the company’s Mechanical Advantage Control Holds program into the solicitation requirements and Navy guidance.
The Indian navy has received the first naval variant of the indigenous advanced jet trainer (AJT) Hawk Mk-132. “We built the aircraft in time for delivery to the navy, which has placed [an] order for 17 AJTs variants. Four more trainers will be delivered before April 2014,” says R.K. Tyagi, chairman of the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which made the aircraft. HAL manufactures the AJT under licensed production with the U.K.’s BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce for the Indian air force (IAF) and Indian navy.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has formally retired its last two Vickers VC10 aerial refueling tankers. The last two VC10s – ZA147 and ZA150-K3 variants converted from commercial Super VC10s – made final refueling sorties and a nationwide tour of airfields associated with the aircraft last week before returning to their home base at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. The aircraft will make one-way flights to Dunsfold, Surrey on Sept. 24 and Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire on Sept. 25 to await their final fates.
The South Korean air force has managed to derail the selection of the Boeing F-15SE Silent Eagle for its F-X Phase 3 fighter requirement, instead pushing for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning but again raising doubts about the openness of the country’s combat aircraft competitions.
Problems in the nation’s weather and environmental satellite programs were highlighted in recent separate U.S. Government Accountability Office reports.
SAR ENDS: The U.S. Navy halted search and rescue (SAR) efforts Sept. 23 for the remaining two crewmembers involved in the service’s MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter crash. Navy officials have concluded that given the time elapsed since the incident, aircrew survivability was extremely unlikely. The crash site’s location is known, and an extensive area has been searched multiple times by various ships and aircraft. The Knighthawk, attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 6, crashed in the central Red Sea on Sept.
