With this month’s Bold Alligator event—the East Coast’s largest joint and multinational amphibious assault exercise in the past 10 years—the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps brass hopes to tax their commanders to the limit and develop long-lasting tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for using equipment and units.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) is studying present and future requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles in its fleet. “We are ready to induct more drones in view of their capability to perform specific tasks on the borders,” says IAF training command chief Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja. “We can have more of them if the government sanctions additional funds, as there is a cost factor to it.” Acquisition of the latest combat aircraft and warfare systems, including drones and missiles, is a continuous process.
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) has a full list of work to be completed before its first attempt to send a Dragon capsule to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station, and probably will not meet the March 20 target date set for the mission. Michael Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager, says it will be “challenging” to meet the March 20 date.
Washington, D.C. March 7, 2012 The Aviation Week Laureate Awards recognize individuals and teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation and vision that inspire others to strive for significant broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace. Join us at this black tie dinner and celebrate the best of the industry’s best!
NASA’s new technology-development organization is seeking proposals for low-cost, short-development, flight-test projects that will demonstrate communications and proxiimty operations with satellites weighing less than 400 lb., and for propulsion systems for cubesats.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) feb. 14 - 16 — Singapore Airshow, Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore. For more information go to www.singaporeairshow.com/default.aspx feb. 14 - 16 — Aviation Week Events, Defense Technology & Affordability Requirements Conference, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report highlights the high-wire act the U.S. Navy will need to perform to balance its shipbuilding needs with the fleet reductions slated for the upcoming fiscal 2013 budget request that supports a new national security strategy. Congress will have a lot to mull over with the budget request, according to the report, “Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress,” which was released in January before the Pentagon budget pre-briefings.
CLARION CALL: The entire, sprawling U.S. intelligence community’s leadership agrees that the U.S. “is in a type of cyber Cold War, losing some $300 billion annually to cyber-based corporate espionage, and sustaining daily intrusions against public systems controlling everything from major defense weapons systems and public air traffic to electricity and banking,” said a group of high-ranking defense officials last week that included Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., CIA Director David Petraeus and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
LONDON — NATO defense ministers have given the go-ahead to the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program to acquire five Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. A contract is still being prepared with the U.S. and European industrial team in charge of supplying the unmanned aircraft and ground support infrastructure. NATO “found a practical funding solution” to go ahead with AGS, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at the conclusion of a meeting of NATO ministers Feb. 3. Libya “showed how important such a capability is,” he adds.
Medical researchers at the NASA-funded National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have identified a promising possible alternative to surgery in the treatment of kidney stones developed by astronauts on deep-space missions, or terrestrial humans plagued by the painful ailment. The new technology combines a ultrasound technique that detects obstructive stones called “twinkling artifact” with a treatment that uses a focused ultrasound wave energy to push the obstructions to the kidney’s exit.
Lawmakers are getting behind an emerging market in civilian UAVs, setting in motion rules that would speed up the process of allowing law enforcement agencies and first responders to use pint-sized unmanned aircraft.
Washington, D.C. March 7, 2012 The Aviation Week Laureate Awards recognize individuals and teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation and vision that inspire others to strive for significant broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace. Join us at this black tie dinner and celebrate the best of the industry’s best!
Washington, D.C. March 7, 2012 The Aviation Week Laureate Awards recognize individuals and teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation and vision that inspire others to strive for significant broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace. Join us at this black tie dinner and celebrate the best of the industry’s best!
General aviation groups are urging U.S. regulators to withdraw LightSquared’s conditional waiver for a broadband wireless network, saying the GPS system must be protected from all sources of interference. Their comments are in response to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) request for input on LightSquared’s December petition for a ruling that commercial GPS receivers are not entitled to protection from interference caused by a broadband wireless network operating within technical parameters set by the government.
NEED BRAC: Lawmakers are cringing at the idea, but the Pentagon remains adamant that to best deal with the budget cuts that Washington enacted into law last August, the military must be free to pursue another round of base realignment and closure (BRAC). The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, says a BRAC is already needed just to deal with the first part of the Budget Control Act’s cuts, not to mention if the full, $1 trillion effect of so-called “sequestration” is triggered. “By the way, I didn’t pass the Budget Control Act,” Dempsey says.
As of the end of January, the K-MAX unmanned helicopter had delivered over 100,000 lb. of cargo on more than 50 resupply missions in Afghanistan, according to numbers provided by Lockheed Martin, which produces the K-MAX along with Kaman Aerospace. The U.S. Marine Corps flew its first-ever unmanned cargo resupply mission in Afghanistan on Dec. 17, sending the K-MAX on a mission to supply Marines stationed at a small combat outpost with 3,500 lb. of food and equipment.
HOUSTON — NASA is equipping itself with a flexible strategy to push the development of cross-cutting technologies identified by a National Research Council panel as essential to the space agency’s strategic pursuits, including deep-space human exploration, according to the agency’s chief technologist. The strategy will allow NASA to adjust to the budget pressures Congress is likely to face as it considers the 2013 budget that President Barack Obama unveils on Feb. 13, according to Mason Peck, who took over the two-year-old chief technology post in January.
Claims by Hawker Beechcraft that the U.S. Air Force’s choice of Embraer’s AT-29 Super Tucano over its AT-6 to equip the Afghan air force is “fundamentally flawed” and will cost U.S. jobs are being dismissed as misinformation by winning bidder Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC). The normally closed-mouthed SNC has issued a public rebuttal of the claims as Hawker Beechcraft’s (HBC) lawsuit challenging the Air Force’s decision works its way through federal court, accusing its rival of using delaying tactics.
LONDON — OHB Systems has reinforced its position as the dominant satellite industrial player in the Galileo system, securing a deal to build eight more of the precision navigation and timing satellites after having already beaten out Astrium once for the initial batch of 14 spacecraft.
The U.S. Air Force is proposing to cut 123 fighters and 133 airlifters as it manages spending reductions triggered by a flattening defense budget and declining operational demands. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, at an Air Force Association event in Washington on Feb. 2, previewed more details of the USAF portion of the fiscal 2013 budget request that comes out Feb. 13.
