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.
Tel Aviv – Unlike previous lightweight and compact weapons that proved highly suitable for guerilla warfare techniques, the Iranian-made Fajr rockets currently supplied to Hamas in Gaza are significantly more devastating than earlier Grad and Qassams.
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Paris – NASA says that in addition to the shutdown of a Falcon 9 first stage engine, SpaceX’s Oct. 7 Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station encountered a number of potentially minor anomalies , including the loss of one of three flight-computer units aboard the company’s Dragon cargo vessel due to a suspected radiation hit.
AWARENESS SYSTEMS: Exelis Inc. of Alexandria, Va., has been awarded a $93.2 million contract to provide the U.S. Navy with material and services to design, procure, install and maintain the Adaptive Persistent Awareness Systems, the Pentagon announced Nov. 20. The APAS is an integrated system that provides command, control, communication, computers and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and persistent awareness. The work will be performed in various naval facilities worldwide and is expected to be completed by November 2017.
NEW DELHI – India has delayed plans to loft Nirbhay, its first subsonic cruise missile, until early 2013. Nirbhay’s launch was to take place in November from Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast in eastern India. “It will now be done in January 2013,” a senior scientist at the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) says. He blamed the holdup on launcher modifications.
Naples, Italy – The European Space Agency (ESA) will spend €588 million ($752 million) over the next two years to continue work on an upgrade of the Ariane 5 rocket, conduct detailed design studies of a successor and identify as many synergies between the two launch vehicles as possible, including development of a common upper stage.
Naples – The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos approved a draft agreement on Nov. 19 to cooperate on the two-pronged ExoMars mission to the red planet and discussed the potential for joint cooperation on Jupiter exploration and lunar robotics.
The performance of Iron Dome in Israel can only add to congressional support for co-production of the rocket-defense system in the U.S. In its version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, the House requires the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to establish an Iron Dome program office, calls on the MDA director to negotiate for data rights to the technology and to explore co-production of the system. The Senate has not yet passed its version of the bill , which also must be reconciled with the House version.
HOLIDAY NOTE: In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 22, and Monday, Nov. 26. The next edition will be Friday, Nov. 23. Regular publication will resume on Tuesday, Nov. 27. For those customers who also have access to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network, (www.aviationweek.com/awin), coverage will be continuous.
Aviation Week Events - Defense Technology And Affordability Requirements March 5-6 2013 Hilton Arlington Arlington, VA Join senior defense officials and discover where priorities and opportunities exist beyond the FY 2014 budget and hear First-hand how programs are implementing affordable and effective designs! Register now at www.aviationweek.com/events/dtar
London – The U.K. Royal Air Force ( RAF ) will soon deploy the first of its upgraded Chinook helicopters to Afghanistan. Two Boeing CH-47 Chinook HC4s were ready to go at the RAF’s main transport base at Brize Norton on Nov. 19, and are likely to begin operational flying in theater from the main British base at Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, in December. The two aircraft will join the Joint Helicopter Force ( Afghanistan ) supporting the International Security and Assistance Force troops.
New Delhi – India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has opened an electronics facility in the southern state of Kerala to produce advanced avionics for aircraft and helicopters. The $12 million factory is located in the Kasaragod district and will make airborne special purpose systems such as mission computers, display processors, and radar computers for Sukhoi Su-30s , MiG-27s and Light Combat Aircraft.
