NEW DELHI — Russia is likely to carry out fresh sea trials of INS Vikramaditya next April, after a failed propulsion trial of the refurbished aircraft carrier further delayed the delivery to India until the last quarter of 2013.
LONDON — The German government has given the green light for the deployment of the Eurocopter EC665 Tiger attack helicopter to Afghanistan. The deployment will see four Tigers transported to Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of the country. From there the aircraft will be used to deliver fire support to ground troops, conduct convoy protection and provide an escort capability for transport helicopters such as the Sikorsky CH-53Gs being used by the German forces in the region.
The U.K. Defense Ministry plans to equip six Royal Navy mine-hunting ships with military X-band satellite communications gear over the next five years, with the first vessels to be outfitted by spring 2013. The ships will be the first to use SCOTPatrol 0.8-meter X-band satellite terminals developed by EADS-Astrium Services, a smaller version of the company’s legacy SCOT 5 terminals in service with 11 navies worldwide, including Britain.
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MOSCOW — On Nov. 22 the Russian air force received its first two Su-30SM fighters, domestic variants of the export best seller Su-30MKI. Thirty aircraft were ordered in March 2012. Deliveries to the military will continue in 2013 and last through 2015.
Singapore — Antonov is hoping to persuade Vietnam’s air force to upgrade its fleet of Antonov An-26s rather than phase out the aircraft. Industry executives say Vietnam’s air force is looking to replace its An-26s with new aircraft. Meanwhile, Antonov’s president, Dmytro Kiva, was in Hanoi this month as part of a Ukraine government trade delegation headed by the country’s prime minister, Nikolai Azarov.
BEIJING — Chinese national space contractor CASC has revealed a new medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV, the CH-4, which is primarily a civil aircraft, despite its exhibition at the Zhuhai air show this month toting bombs and surface-to-air missiles.
SALE SOUGHT: Indonesia’s state-owned aircraft maker Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) is hoping to secure a deal soon for the sale of more IAe CN-235s to the local armed forces. An IAe official says the company is seeking to secure a follow-on order in the coming weeks from the Indonesian navy for two CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and an air force order for one CN-235 surveillance aircraft. The navy ordered three CN-235 MPAs in 2009. The new order would increase the total of CN-235 MPAs in the navy’s fleet to five, the official says.
An Ohio congressman is trying to prod the FAA into providing a timeline for when it will take the next step toward establishing six sites in the U.S. for testing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in civilian airspace.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Marietta, Ga., (FA8625-07-C-6471, P00160) is being awarded a $38,333,017 contract modification for support of the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) to procure two spare C-5 RERP RFI engines and RFI engine kits. The location of the performance is Marietta. The work is expected to be completed by May 30, 2014. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WLSK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Selected aerospace and defense contracts for the week of Nov. 19-23, 2012. AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Marietta, Ga., (FA8625-07-C-6471, P00160) is being awarded a $38,333,017 contract modification for support of the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) to procure two spare C-5 RERP RFI engines and RFI engine kits. The location of the performance is Marietta. The work is expected to be completed by May 30, 2014. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WLSK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has found another weapon in the continuing battle to subdue the global piracy scourge: software. NRL has developed the Piracy Attack Risk Surface (PARS) project, which dynamically couples shipping, pirate behavior, and meteorology and oceanography (METOC) to identify areas that are subject to the greatest risk of pirate attack.
HOUSTON — NASA and Roscosmos have selected two veteran International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers for a yearlong assignment to the 14-year-old orbiting science laboratory that is intended to shed new light on human adaptation to long-duration spaceflight and other challenges facing explorers on future deep-space missions. Scott Kelly, a 48-year-old U.S. Navy captain, and Mikhail Kornienko, a 52-year-old RSC Energia test engineer, will begin a two-year training program for the mission early next year.
LONDON — The Italian army has unveiled plans to deploy its AgustaWestland AW129 Mangusta attack helicopters at sea. In a move that follows in the footsteps of several European countries, the army wants to be able to operate the Mangusta from the decks of Italian naval vessels — such as the flagship Cavour-class aircraft carrier — and provide “power projection from the sea.”
While replacing the aging Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine remains a high priority, the U.S. Navy needs to make sure it contains costs to keep funding intact for other shipbuilding programs, the service’s director of undersea warfare says. “Another major factor in the cost discussion is ensuring our efforts to build Ohio Replacement are integrated into the overall Navy shipbuilding effort,” Rear Adm. Barry Bruner says in a recent blog.
NAPLES, Italy — French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says France would favor proposed European legislation to classify electronic surveillance equipment as dual-use technology subject to export control. In testimony before French lawmakers Nov. 22, Le Drian said he backs a German proposal to designate spy software systems as dual-use exports, a move prompted earlier this year with the discovery that Muammar Gadhafi’s regime used a mass-surveillance system purchased from a division of French technology-maker Bull to spy on the Libyan public.
Houston – Researchers at Rice University have merged advances in nanotechnology and solar energy for the efficient generation of “solar steam,” a technology they suggest could find initial application in sanitation and water purification in developing countries.
Chinese proliferation of weapons of mass destruction continues to be a U.S. and global concern, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says. “China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. and other foreign concerns about its role in weapons proliferation,” CRS says in a report released earlier this month. “Nonetheless, supplies from China have aggravated trends that result in ambiguous technical aid, more indigenous capabilities, longer-range missiles, and secondary (retransferred) proliferation.
