KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — State-owned defense company Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is about to pass some major milestones for its attack helicopter and primary trainer aircraft programs, which should make TAI a bigger industry player.
The U.S. Air Force is reviewing its plans for combat search and rescue to determine whether current fleet-sizing assumptions for the HH-60G and replacement Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) still reflect operational needs.
In a year when the defense industry has been preparing for steep cutbacks, lawmakers’ first crack at funding the Pentagon in fiscal 2013 should have industry officials smiling from ear to ear. The House Armed Services Committee is poised to add billions to President Barack Obama’s budget request in its version of the defense authorization bill to ensure that programs slated for cutbacks — everything from ships to submarines, missile defense systems, manned aircraft and UAVs — will continue.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Indonesia has ambitions to be a major defense exporter and will increasingly be working to secure partnerships that can help it achieve that goal. The government is formulating guidelines for international joint development of defense equipment including military aircraft, the country’s deputy defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, told Aviation Week at the Defense Services Asia (DSA) exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, earlier this month.
After reports about leaks and rust continuing to plague the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship project, lawmakers are moving to mandate that the Navy provide a “comprehensive briefing” on the program. The Project on Government Oversight last week released a report detailing corrosion and design flaws on both the General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin ships.
As tensions between Tehran, Washington and Tel Aviv continue to mount over Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons technologies, the U.S. has quietly begun a deployment of its premier stealthy fighter, the twin-engine F-22, to the United Arab Emirates. Multiple Lockheed Martin aircraft will operate out of Al Dhafra Air Base there, industry sources say. This is the same base from which U.S. U-2s and Global Hawk UAVs have been launched since shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The U.K. saw defense exports drop in 2011, but growth in security-related exports helped offset those declines to keep total exports on defense and security flat at £8 billion ($13 billion) year-on-year. The security business saw growth to £2.6 billion, up from £2 billion in 2010, with defense down £400 million to £5.4 billion. “The increase in the security sector reinforces a consistent picture of year-on-year growth,” Stephen Green, the minister for trade and investment, says in statement announcing the 2011 figures.
VOYAGER THRUST: An updated version of a thruster originally developed for NASA’s Voyager spacecraft missions in the 1970s has been adapted by Aerojet for future space exploration vehicles, including human-rated craft. The recently completed tests of the MR-104H monopropellant hydrazine thruster, conducted with Boeing and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, were focused on modifying the small engine with a modern, two-seat valve as well as evaluating an improved nozzle.
NEW DELHI — India launched into orbit its first indigenous reconnaissance satellite Risat-1 on April 26, thereby joining a select group of nations that have access to microwave radar imaging from orbit. The 1,858-kg (4,100-lb.) satellite was put into a polar circular orbit at an altitude of 480 km (300 mi.) and an orbital inclination of 97.552 deg. early in the day by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C19 (PSLV-C19) from Sriharikota spaceport in south India.
The rigorous electromagnetic interference testing standards of the U.S. Navy’s planned carrier-based unmanned combat air system indicate the service wants the aircraft to be capable of firing a permanently installed, rechargeable anti-electronics weapon.
The Swiss government plans to delay fielding the Gripen NG to enable closer cooperation with Sweden. Switzerland last year chose the Gripen NG for its F-5 Tiger replacement program, with the goal of fielding the first of 22 aircraft in 2015. The government now says it has agreed to slip the in-service date by two years to work more closely with Sweden on the aircraft’s development and production phase. The total program cost should not change, according to Swiss government officials.
Boeing is turning to the Mission Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to support the training for and early flight operations of the company’s seven-person CST-100 entrant in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development initiative.
NEW DELHI — Barely a week after India tested its long-range Agni-V missile, neighbor Pakistan successfully test-fired the Hatf-IV Shaheen-1A intermediate-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile. According to Pakistan’s military, the Hatf-IV Shaheen-1A — the most powerful missile in the country’s weapon stock — is capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads.
LOS ANGELES — Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) has confirmed its long-expected PW210 as the initial powerplant for Eurocopter’s next-generation X4 helicopter. The X4 is aimed at the AS365 Dauphin/EC155 replacement market in the medium twin, 9,000 lb. to 11,000 lb. category and is due to enter service in 2017. Eurocopter says this version, powered by the PW210, will be followed by a more advanced variant in 2020 that will be offered with the choice of Turbomeca’s upcoming TM800 turboshaft.
VIRTUALLY INFILTRATED: Since 2006, the number of cyber probes and incidents reported by federal agencies has increased by nearly 680%, congressional auditors said this week. Incidents include unauthorized access to systems, improper use of computing resources and the installation of malicious software, among others, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
In a long-running U.S. Army-Air Force airlift feud, Congress is finally asking both sides to show their cards. The Air Force is recommending mothballing newly manufactured C-27J airlifters that were initially requested by the Army as a replacement for the C-23 Sherpa to provide intratheater airlift. It’s a mission that never sat well with the Air Force, and was sidelined in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget request.
When designs for the U.S. Navy’s next generation of aircraft and airborne weapons programs are compared, a common element stands out—the search for more and better electronic warfare (EW) systems. But those goals are being complicated by what Navy planners worry is a diminution of the industrial base that can produce strike-fighter designs. By 2030, planners worry that there may be no competition. Boeing, for example, has already bought the last long-lead items for its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet production line.
Platinum and other valuables — including water — are driving space prospectors vying for the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize to design their vehicles to search the Moon’s surface for resources that could be sold in space or on Earth. Moon Express, a Lunar X Prize team spearheaded by Internet entrepreneurs Naveen Jain and Barney Pell, is working with NASA’s Ames Research Center on ways to seek and retrieve valuables like platinum, building on the California field center’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee).
A 30% increase in first-quarter revenues and a 58% jump in net income for Boeing is coming mainly from its commercial airplane programs, but Chief Executive Jim McNerney says the company’s Defense Space and Security (BDS) unit is holding up well because of foreign sales.
The question of whether the Defense Department’s wartime spending account is affected or immune from sequestration was raised during a House Budget Committee hearing April 25, with some Republican lawmakers saying the Obama administration should already know the answer. White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Controller Daniel Werfel said the effects of sequestration on the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account “warrant further examination.” OMB will have to make the same sort of determination for many Treasury Department accounts, he said.
