LOS ANGELES — Boeing plans to open up the performance envelope of the Phantom Eye UAV following a successful first flight of the hydrogen-powered demonstrator at Edwards AFB, Calif., on June 1. The 150-ft.-span vehicle completed a 28-min. flight after lifting off at 6.22 a.m. PDT from the desert base using a specially designed launch cart. The aircraft climbed to 4,080 ft. and a speed of 62 kt. Boeing says that after returning to land, the vehicle “sustained some damage when the landing gear dug into the lakebed and broke.”
SINGAPORE — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is downplaying the prospect of so-called “sequestration” cuts to the Pentagon’s budget. “Sequester is not a real crisis, but an artificial crisis,” Panetta says, adding that Congress deliberately “put a gun to its head” with the Budget Control Act, which forces across-the-board spending cuts if lawmakers fail to make sufficient progress in reducing the U.S. federal budget deficit.
RISING SUN: The U.S. and Japan are working on new areas of defense cooperation, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “The U.S.-Japan alliance will remain one of the corne rstones of regional peace,” and the two countries are enhancing their ability to cooperate militarily, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told delegates June 2 at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue here.
SINGAPORE — Mongolia is considering ordering the Lockheed Martin C-130 for its air force, a potential sale that would be highly significant as the Asian nation has traditionally bought defense equipment from Russia, its major ally. An official from Mongolia’s defense ministry tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue here that a team from the ministry recently visited Lockheed Martin in Atlanta to discuss the airlifter, which is assembled in Marietta, Ga.
SINGAPORE — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he intends to visit China and is keen to discuss space- and cyberspace-related issues. “We must establish and reinforce agreed principles in space and cyberspace,” he says. He plans to visit China later this year, at the invitation of the Chinese government.
ARLINGTON, Va. — While the U.S. Navy embraces big-picture technological breakthroughs, the service also is looking for companies to help Navy programs make smaller technology strides, says Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, the chief of naval research. “Everyone wants to hit the home-run ball,” Klunder said June 4 during his keynote luncheon speech at the annual 2012 Navy Opportunity Forum in Arlington, Va.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) june 5 - 6 — AUSA ILW Mission Command Symposium, "Mission Command and The Network," Marriott Kansas City Downtown, Kansas City, MO. For more information go to www.ausa.org june 11 - 15 — AUSA's USA Pavilion Eurosatory 2012, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, Paris, France. For more information call Amy Frankenstein at (703) 907-2413 or go to www.ausa.org
U.S. lawmakers tend to treat the White House budget proposal as a suggestion, and then proceed to do what they want. But in the fiscal 2013 request, House appropriators changed Navy procurement lines disproportionately more than the other services.
A Sea Launch Zenit 3-SL orbited the Intelsat 19 telecommunications satellite early June 1 from the Odyssey floating launch pad, setting up a replacement in orbit next month for the aging Intelsat 8.
The U.S. Congress is closer than ever before to reversing a 14-year-old law aimed at limiting dual-use satellite technology that the industry complains has put U.S. exports at a competitive disadvantage.
Amid questions about America’s nuclear posture—particularly the role of the country’s ballistic missile submarine fleet—the U.S. Navy says it continues to prove the reliability of the Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missiles (FBMs) carried by the subs. The service conducted successful flights April 14 and 16 of four Trident II D5 FBMs built by Lockheed Martin. The Navy launched two unarmed missiles each day from the submerged submarine USS Maryland (SSBN-738) in the Atlantic Ocean.
MALMEN AIR BASE, Sweden — The Swiss air force is likely to field the MBDA Meteor ramjet-powered, beyond-visual-range, air-to-air missile and could buy additional PC-21 trainers to support its Gripen E/F fleet, which is due to be fielded at the end of the decade, says service chief Lt. Gen. Markus Gygax. Initially, the fighter will likely use the Raytheon AIM-120 Amraam now used for air-to-air tasks on F/A-18s. But eventually Meteor will replace the U.S. weapon, Gygax said on the sidelines of the Aerospace Forum Sweden 2012.
SINGAPORE—Boeing anticipates that South Korea will decide before year’s end on a winner in its F-X3 fighter competition, and the winner also could become a partner in KFX, the country’s indigenous fighter program. Companies battling for the F-X3 must include in their proposals information about how they could later help South Korea develop the KFX, says Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. He spoke to Aviation Week and other media in a June 1 briefing here.
