The U.S. Navy is focusing on solving manpower and maintenance issues as it transitions its Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force (MPRF) to the P-8A Poseidon aircraft from P-3C Orion and EP-3E Aries II aircraft.
The U.S. Navy is getting closer to testing and proving technology that will enable submarines to launch and recover a host of unmanned vehicles that swim or fly. One of the key systems for enabling unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) and UAVs is the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), a specially designed launch-and-recovery tube being developed not only for Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM), but also configurable for many more platforms the Navy and special operations forces (SOF) have in mind for the future.
LONDON — BAE Systems is proposing air-to-air refueling as a new mission for its BAe 146/Avro RJ family of regional airliners. The company believes there is a potential market for a small, relatively inexpensive refueling aircraft either for use in the tactical mission or as a low-cost tanker trainer for countries with fleets of strategic tankers such as the Airbus A330 MRTT or the Boeing KC-135.
The U.S. Air Force’s 2014 spending plan for missile systems equipment is three times what planners were estimating just one budget year ago. The budget line, which procures equipment to supports missile systems such as the LGM-30 Minuteman, AIM-120 Amraam, AGM-86A Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), and the AGM-88A HARM, has a combined 2014 request and 2015-2017 estimated funding of $304 million, up from the 2013 budget estimate of $98 million for the same period. (See charts pp. 7-8.)
LONDON — The U.K. government has advanced a plan to to encourage closer ties between government and the U.K. defense industry to boost international exports and competitiveness.
LONDON — A private initiative to supply a test, evaluation, demonstration and experimentation facility for beyond-line-of-sight (BLoS) unmanned air systems (UAS) operations in the U.K. took an important step forward with the formal launch of the National Aeronautical Center (NAC) Sept. 9.
BEIJING — Avicopter is testing a technology demonstrator for a vertical-takeoff-and-landing airplane with a central lift fan. The manufacturer, part of China’s state Avic group, exhibited the unmanned piston-engine aircraft at the China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin this week.
NEW DELHI — India has issued a global request for information (RFI) to international airframers to supply structurally modified maritime aircraft for its coast guard. “The initial requirement is for six certified and modified aircraft,” says the RFI, issued by India’s Center for Airborne Systems (CABS). Phase II would feature an option for three more aircraft, plus a potential future requirement for another 10.
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Planetary scientists are preparing for at least 100 days of intensive study in the Moon’s tenuous atmosphere, after a spectacular nighttime launch from Wallops Island, Va., on a solid-fuel Minotaur V rocket that was visible up and down the U.S. East Coast.
STENNIS space center, Miss. — Upgrades to NASA’s enormous Apollo-era test stand at Stennis Space Center are on track for ground runs of the core stage of the agency’s heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle starting in 2016, according to engineers working on the project.
Bell Helicopter has announced Lockheed Martin as its first “investing team-mate” on development of the V-280 Valor tiltrotor aimed at the U.S Army. Other Tier 1 risk-sharing team members are to be revealed in coming weeks, the company says. Bell has completed negotiations with the Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) and expects to sign a cost-sharing contract this month to fly a V-280 demonstrator in 2017 under Phase 1 of the Joint Multi Role technology demonstration (JMR TD).
Aircraft and ships from the U.S. and Chinese navy plan to cap off a Hawaii port visit by the Asian leader’s vessels this week with a joint search-and-rescue (SAR) exercise. The port visit and exercise underscore the commitment made by both countries to bolster their naval relationships as the U.S. refocuses on the Asia-Pacific region and China continues to flex its military maritime muscle.
SYRIAN QUESTIONS: The thorny question of U.S. military action in Syria could have wide-ranging implications for defense investors, according to Capital Alpha Partners analyst Byron Callan. “Broader opposition to U.S. military involvement in Syria could lead investors to conclude that [defense] budgets will be cut by levels mandated in the Budget Control Act,” he says of the 2011 law that introduced sequestration cuts. “Events in the coming two weeks could conclusively fracture the simplistic notion that Republicans always support higher defense spending than Democrats.
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. — Aerojet Rocketdyne expects to begin preparatory work for restarting production of all-new RS-25 engines as early as next month for future use in NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) vehicles in the 2020s.
HOUSTON — The latest suspected source of the worrisome water leak into the helmet of European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during a July 16 spacewalk is a potentially clogged tube in the suit’s humidity removal system.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has completed the flight model of the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument slated to fly aboard NASA’s next flagship astronomy mission, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Built by EADS Astrium GmbH of Ottobrun, Germany, NIRSpec will be shipped later this month to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where the 200-kg (440-lb.) spectrograph will undergo additional testing prior to integration with the JWST spacecraft’s payload module.
