The draft solicitation for the Joint Multi-Role advanced-rotorcraft technology demonstration (JMR TD) has been released by the U.S. Army’s Aviation Applied Research Directorate, making it clear the service’s goal is to achieve performance, reliability and affordability well beyond what today’s helicopters provide.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 20 - 23 — NDIA Warheads and Ballistics Classified Symposium, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/2480/Pages/default.aspx
RUSSIANS COMING: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is asking the nation’s top naval officer for more information about reported patrols by a Russian nuclear attack submarine in the Gulf of Mexico that had not previously been detected. The ship-killing Akula-class submarine can come equipped with torpedoes and cruise missiles and is among the quietest in the Russian fleet. “This submarine activity reportedly occurred in June and July, simultaneously with incursions by Russian strategic bombers into restricted U.S. airspace,” Cornyn says in an Aug. 17 letter to Adm.
U.S. and French scientists plan to test the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover by “zapping” a nearby rock with “several megawatts” of laser power in the next few days and analyzing the resulting spectra to determine the target’s composition.
NEW DELHI — India’s air force has received the first of three Embraer 145 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft from Brazil’s Embraer Defense and Security. The delivery follows the successful completion of ground and flight tests which met the operational targets of Embraer and the Center for Airborne Systems (CABS) of India’s Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO).
The U.S. Air Force should consider stealing a page or two from the Navy and Army playbook for managing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) programs, a National Research Council (NRC) panel says. Both the Army and Navy follow procedures that foster strong ISR program management, according to the report, “Capability Planning and Analysis to Optimize Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Investments,” released earlier this month.
Pennsylvania State University is to lead fabrication of the ground combat vehicle planned to be produced through a series of crowd-sourced design challenges under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) program. Penn State has received a $47.5 million contract to develop an Instant Foundry Adaptive Through Bits (iFAB) that can be automatically configured to manufacture the Fast, Adaptable Next Generation (FANG) ground vehicle resulting from Darpa’s competitions.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has awarded SRCTec a contract, potentially worth almost $100 million, to supply systems to detect slow- and low-flying ultralight aircraft used to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery Ultra Light Aircraft Detection (ULAD) contract includes options for up to 50 systems for deployment along the southern border. The request for proposals (RFP) called for the first test article to be delivered to the CBP’s Tucson, Ariz., sector within 120 days of contract award.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is exploring whether a short-range missile defense target, designed to be one-third the price of using Patriot missiles in such a role, can feasibly be added to its arsenal to reduce the cost of flight testing. The Economical Target makes use of surplus rocket motors, coupled with a rudimentary rocket body to effectively form a sounding rocket suitable for some missile defense tests, says Thomas Webber, acting director for rapid transition at Army Strategic Command.
LOGAN, Utah — Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology used to make parts for high-performance race cars is being applied to the tricky problem of propulsion for cubesats and other small spacecraft that are typically launched as secondary payloads. Matthew Dushku, head of the Experiment Propulsion Lab here, has tested a hybrid rocket motor created with a 3-D printing technique from Windform XT 2.0, a picocarbon reinforced nylon material that can be laid up in layers as a powder and hardened with a laser scanner.
U.S. Navy emails and other documents suggest that officials muzzled bad test results for the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) variant, the USS Freedom, at a crucial time in the program’s development, when the service was considering which seaframe to pick for the $30 billion-plus fleet.
CHINOOK AT 50: Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter has become the company’s longest continuously produced aircraft. The first H-47 was delivered to the U.S. Army on Aug. 16, 1962. Boeing is nearing completion of a $130 million renovation of its Chinook production line in Ridley Township near Philadelphia to produce the latest model, the CH-47F. Thus far, more than 1,200 Chinooks have been produced for 18 operators, with more than 800 in operation for combat, cargo and humanitarian relief missions.
PASADENA, Calif. — Even as more senior staffers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here begin to explore Mars with the state-of-the-art Curiosity rover, a group of scientists, engineers and neophyte managers in their 20s is preparing to use whatever is at hand to validate space-to-ground laser communications.
GENOA — Italy plans a major reform of its armed forces, with the ambitious goal of increasing or at least maintaining operational capability while simultaneously cutting personnel, infrastructure and support components. This is what Defense Minister Giampaolo di Paola wants to achieve through a special law, to be approved by Parliament before winter, followed by a number of detailed decrees.
LOGAN, Utah — A growing market in the developing world for small satellites and demand for more capable orbital spacecraft like Darpa’s planned Phoenix testbed are behind ATK’s recent decision to broaden its line of small satellites.
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