AIR LAUNCH: A Payerne, Switzerland-based startup has joined with France’s Dassault, the European Space Agency and others to propose an air-launched, reusable, unpiloted space shuttle optimized for launching small satellites at low cost. Swiss Space Systems plans to use a vehicle based on Dassault Aviation’s Vehra airborne reusable hypersonic vehicle concept, and a throwaway upper stage, to orbit satellites weighing as much as 250 kg at altitudes of 600-800 km.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) — one of the Pentagon’s top contracting watchdogs – should consider rescinding or augmenting certain recent reports because of lapses in “professional judgment” used to construct them, a recent Defense Department Inspector General (IG) report says. The IG performed quality assurance reviews on 50 DCAA reports issued during the first half of fiscal 2010, evaluating assignments from all five DCAA regions and the Field Detachment to determine compliance with government auditing standards and DCAA policies and procedures.
Denmark will reopen its competition for a new fighter to replace its F-16s, the country’s government told the Joint Strike Fighter program office in a March 13 letter. Denmark is a Tier 3 JSF partner and was expected to order 48 F-35As The decision was taken after Eurofighter asked to rejoin the competition, the Danish defense ministry says, adding that it also expects Boeing and Saab to pitch the Super Hornet and JAS 39E Gripen. The JSF remains a candidate. Denmark expects to select a new fighter in mid-2015.
The U.S. military shift to the Asia-Pacific region will require continued investments in stealthy aircraft, submarines, reconnaissance platforms and ballistic missile defense (BMD), says Tom Donilon, the nation’s security advisor. The military will need to focus more on fifth-generation aircraft such as F-22 Raptors and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters as well as radars and other BMD-related equipment, Donilon said March 11 during a speech at the Asia Society in New York, according to the American Forces Press.
PORT OF CALL: The U.s. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship, the USS Freedom, arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam March 11. Following a brief port visit, Freedom will deploy to Southeast Asia and Singapore for approximately eight months. Marking the first of many planned rotational deployments to the Western Pacific for the new LCS platform, Freedom will conduct maritime security operations with regional partners and allies.
LONDON — Eurocopter and Kazakhstan Engineering have signed an agreement to explore the assembly of military helicopters in Kazakhstan. The two companies already have a 50/50 joint venture called Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering. It was established in 2011 to produce EC145 helicopters for Kazakh military and government agencies. The JV last year also agreed to assemble 20 EC725 heavy helicopters for the Kazakh armed forces.
The commander of a Swedish air force Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighter unit says his crews are ready to drop bombs as part of coalition operations following their participation in the Red Flag exercise in the U.S. During Operation Unified Protector, the U.N.-backed operation over Libya, Swedish politicians limited Swedish air force Gripens to a tactical reconnaissance and counter-air role. “Red Flag shows our politicians that we are capable of dropping weapons in complex air environments,” says Col. Anders Segerby, commander of the air arm’s F17 Wing.
An Indian cruise missile test was terminated March 12 after the missile failed to hit the target and deviated from its course during its first launch. But Nirbhay, India’s first indigenously developed subsonic cruise missile, did successfully meet its basic mission objectives, said India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which developed the missile.
LONDON — The Airbus Military A400M military airlifter has achieved European Aviation Safety Agency certification, marking another milestone as the company pushes to get the first aircraft delivered to the French air force before June and the Paris air show. The European regulator granted the aircraft its type certificate on March 13. According to the company, Military initial operating clearance is ongoing.
Honeywell is set to receive initial certification of a combined satellite-based communications and helicopter health and usage monitoring system (HUMS), which will send real-time alerts of exceedances and maintenance issues to ground personnel. The development, which will be offered initially as an option under a supplemental type certificate on the Sikorsky S-76C++, combines the company’s Zing HUMS and the latest Sky Connect III version of Honeywell’s satcom and aircraft tracking system.
LONDON — The first aircrew trained by the U.K. Military Flight Training System (MFTS) have begun graduating, but senior officials say they face a “voyage of discovery” as the service expands to cover other elements of training.
Unmanned aircraft could generate more than $13 billion in economic benefits within three years if the FAA develops regulations allowing their integration into U.S. national airspace by 2015, as directed by Congress, according to a new study by the industry’s trade body. The study by aviation economist Daryl Jenkins, commissioned by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), forecasts a rapid adoption of small, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for precision agriculture and public safety.
Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney are improving production processes for the F-35 to the extent that they could manage to sell the anticipated 3,000 of the tri-service, multinational fighters, says Program Executive Officer U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan. “That number is starting to get back into the sweet spot on the curve,” he says of the contractors’ costs, adding that the per-unit price is heading to where the “partners want it to be,” in the range of $80 million to $90 million.
LONDON — Eurocopter CEO Lutz Bertling is leaving the EADS-owned company to head up the rail division of Bombardier. Bertling, who took the helm of Eurocopter from Fabrice Bregier in 2006, will take on the role of president and chief operating officer of Berlin-based Bombardier Transportation, effective June 3, 2013. He will be replaced at Eurocopter by the current head of research and development at French automotive company PSA, Guillaume Faury.
Continuing the Pentagon’s penchant for UAV investment in the face of continuing resolutions and sequestration, the U.S. Navy announced the purchase of six more Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scouts. The MQ-8C is the extended-endurance version of the Fire Scout UAV, based on the Bell 407 helicopter rather than the smaller Schweizer 333 airframe used for the original Fire Scout. The 8C is being developed to meet special warfare requirements for more endurance and payload.
Combat systems, equipment and missiles related to ballistic missile defense (BMD) have proved particularly fruitful since the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)’s most recent Aegis flight test. Crewmembers of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie conducted a test last June 26 with an SM-3 Block IB missile and the second-generation Aegis BMD 4.0.1 weapon system, marking the second such successful intercept using the system, which anchors the U.S. European Phased Adaptive Approach BMD concept.
INDIA’s CALL: Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai is calling for joint design and co-production of weapons and defense capabilities with the U.S. Appearing recently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Mathai told an audience that the two countries should enter into joint defense projects, which is a sign that New Delhi is increasingly interested in more than just utilizing traditional “offsets” — i.e., local spending by western defense companies — to build up its own industry.
