An industry trade group is trying to spur the release of the FAA’s proposed rules for allowing small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to operate in civilian airspace, which had been anticipated in March. On April 26, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed that the rules had not received the “appropriate signatures” needed before they could be forwarded to OMB for release to the public, the letter says.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) may 8 - 9 — Aviation Week CAM - Civil Aviation Manufacturing, "Meeting the needs of leading major manufacturers and suppliers in the civil aviation arena," The Renaissance Charlotte Suites, Charlotte, NC. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
LONDON — The Dutch defense ministry is looking to move forward on a range of F-16 improvements to keep the remaining fleet operationally viable until it is replaced by the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. With the F-35A schedule in flux, Dutch defense planners are not certain when the F-16 will be phased out, but are working on the assumption that all of the fighters will be retired in 2026.
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Pratt & Whitney warns that cutbacks in F-35 procurement and the termination of the F-22 will lead to at least three years of lower-volume production of fifth-generation combat engines, seriously challenging its cost-reduction goals for the Joint Strike Fighter engine. “The challenge is to get to more than 50 engines [per year], and then the volume is flat to down slightly through 2015,” says Pratt & Whitney Military Engines President Bennett Croswell. “That challenge is exacerbated by other systems coming down or going away.”
The U.S. Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office has unveiled details of its ORS-4 rail-launched satellite experiment. Dubbed “Super Stripey,” ORS-4 will combine the Scout launch missile rail system at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, with the Stripey target system at Sandia National Laboratory. Working with Aerojet, ORS is developing an expanded, three-stage, solid-rocket version of the original sounding rocket.
BERLIN — Commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye is proposing to buy competitor DigitalGlobe in a $792 million deal that would create the largest fleet of high-resolution imaging satellites in the world. The two companies have been in merger talks for several months, but negotiations recently broke down, GeoEye CEO and President Matt O’Connell told investors and reporters during a May 4 teleconference call.
China specialists contend that conflict with the U.S. is inevitable and that space- and cyber-supremacy, at least for limited periods, will be deciding factors in a confrontation if a Chinese attack is unexpected, short in duration and quick in resolution.
LOST OSPREY: The investigation of the April 11 crash of a U.S. Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey in Morocco is still under way, “but we know an awful lot” thanks to the tiltrotor’s crash-survivable memory units, says Capt. Greg Masiello, V-22 joint program manager. “We are confident we know where this may go, and do not anticipate any changes to the V-22 as a result.” The two pilots were killed and two crew chiefs injured when the MV-22B from Marine Corps squadron VMM-61 crashed during a military exercise with Moroccan forces. A U.S.
F-22A costs have more than doubled and fielding has been delayed, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says, because each increment was managed under the same program, instead of as separate acquisitions that require their own justifications and milestones.
The U.S. Army is standing up an acquisition team to begin planning a program to replace its Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility and Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from 2030 onward. Development of an initial capabilities document (ICD) for a medium rotorcraft to be produced under the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative — the first step in defining a new program — is being staffed, says Lt. Col. David Bristol, acquisition lead for the FVL medium.
NEW DELHI — India is expediting the purchase of 384 light helicopters to replace the current fleet of Cheetah and Chetak aircraft in the Indian army and air force. The Eurocopter AS 350 Fennec and Russian Kamov 226 Sergei are in the running for the requirement, a program expected to be worth more than $1.5 billion.
LONDON — Australia is delaying by two years the purchase of the bulk of its first tranche of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, deferring around A$1.6 billion in spending.
GENOA — Finmeccanica is showing the first positive signs from its ongoing restructuring, although its first-quarter 2012 results still lag behind the same period in 2011. Nonetheless, the results were generally above what the defense giant had been planning for, which allows Finmeccanica to confirm its full-year 2012 projections.
FORT WORTH — The U.S. Navy has completed an analysis of alternatives (AoA) for a new logistics aircraft, with the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor a leading candidate to replace the Grumman C-2 Greyhound now used for carrier onboard delivery (COD). The AoA conclusions have not yet been signed off on by Navy leadership, but “the V-22 is a pretty fair competitor,” says Marine Corps Col. Greg Masiello, Osprey program manager, speaking at the American Helicopter Society International’s Forum 68 in Fort Worth.
The U.S. Navy will conduct its own analysis of the capabilities required of a successor to Sikorsky MH-60R/S Seahawk shipborne helicopters while trying to stay engaged with the Army-led Future Vertical Lift (FVL) effort to develop a new medium utility rotorcraft to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk on which they are based. “Our main concern is operating in a maritime environment, which is not as much of a focus for the Army,” says Rear Adm. Paul Grosklags, Navy program executive officer for air anti-submarine warfare, assault and special missions.
Engineers on Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew vehicle project are turning their attention to a forward heat shield jettison test and a hot fire of the capsule’s orbital maneuvering/attitude control engines.
AEHF SCRUB: The U.S. Air Force scrubbed an attempt to launch the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-2) secure communications satellite on May 3 due to a lack of helium flow from ground support equipment into the Interstage Adapter compartment on the Atlas V rocket. Launch provider United Launch Alliance and the Air Force plan another attempt to lift off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., on May 4 during a two-hour window that opens at 2:42 p.m. EDT.
The Airbus Military A400M has cleared an important certification milestone even as developers are exploring vibration believed to be linked to the transport’s engine.
NASA will contract with Boeing for an interim cryogenic propulsion stage to power at least the first two flights of its planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
LONDON — BAE Systems is turning to its civil airborne electronics business to provide growth as it wrestles with falling defense spending in key markets. The company is hoping to take advantage of the increase in commercial aircraft sales, CEO Ian King says. The hybrid vehicle business and expanding government cybersecurity activities into the commercial domain are other areas of interest.
PROTECTING EUROPE: A cost estimate of the Obama administration’s phased adaptive approach (PAA) to missile defense was due in March but is not likely to be sent to Congress as required until the summer, according to Madelyn Creedon, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for global security affairs. Typically, program cost estimates developed by the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation involve individual programs.
