NEW DELHI — Fresh troubles are delaying India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft program, with final operational clearance slipping by over a year to December 2014.
YAK ORDER: The Russian defense ministry has ordered 55 Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced jet trainers from the Irkut Corp. The deliveries should start in 2012 and last through 2015. “The Yak-130 procurement by the air force will bring the pilots’ training to the required level and prepare them to operate the new-generation combat aircraft,” says defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) DEC. 14 - 15 — Electronic Warfare Conference, Sheraton National Hotel, Arlington, Va. For more information call (310) 322-8110 or go to www.ttcus.com JAN. 9 - 12, 2012 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics 51th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, Tenn. For more information call (703) 264-7622 or go to www.aoaa.org/events
Even if the Pentagon is staring nearly $1 trillion in budget cuts in the face, the defense secretary should continue to accelerate production of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an Oklahoma senator argues.
HOUSTON — NASA’s marathon New Horizons mission to distant Pluto and the Kuiper Belt earlier this month became the closest spacecraft ever to pass the famed dwarf planet. The $700 million mission to characterize the surface and atmosphere of Pluto with a flyby was launched on Jan. 19, 2006. After a July 14, 2015 flyby, New Horizons is expected to speed into the comet-filled Kuiper Belt for additional encounters with the icy, rocky rubble left over from the formation of the Solar System.
NEW DELHI — India’s state-run military airframer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and British engine maker Rolls-Royce have rolled out plans to build a joint manufacturing facility in southern India to produce civil aircraft engine components and subsystems. “The production facility will produce components, for the technologically advanced Trent family of civil aero engines, as well as for a number of marine and energy gas turbines,” HAL said in a statement today. Production is projected to start next year.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia’s air force has made it clear publicly that it prefers the Alenia C-27J over the Airbus Military C295. The chief of the Australian air force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown, says a letter of request (LOR) has been issued for the C-27J, but no such request has been issued for the C295. All that has been issued for the C295 is a request for information in regard to pricing, he says.
HOUSTON — NASA’s curation of rare and scientifically valuable Moon rocks, meteorites, comet and interstellar dust samples is in need of sweeping reforms, according to a Dec. 8 audit by the agency’s inspector general. The audit of the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at Johnson Space Center uncovered faulty record keeping, lapses by outside researchers in returning irreplaceable astromaterials out on loan and other control issues. One scientist managed to hold a loaned lunar sample for 35 years without carrying out a single study.
PARIS — EADS-Astrium will serve as prime contractor for a gap-filling environmental monitoring satellite under a €45 million ($60 million) contract awarded by the European Space Agency (ESA), the company’s U.K. satellite manufacturing division announced Dec. 8. Dubbed the Sentinel-5 Precursor, the 7-year mission to monitor pollution in the Earth’s atmosphere comprises the 2015 launch of a single satellite designed to maintain a steady stream of science data before Europe’s Sentinel-5 instrument becomes operational near the end of the decade.
With a week before a continuing resolution funding the Defense Department expires, lawmakers are hoping to reach an agreement to move nine different spending bills together. “We need to act quickly to keep the government operating,” says Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, during a meeting kicking off the process of reconciling the House and Senate versions of all of the bills.
Iran is circulating a video of the crashed RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aircraft that shows, as Tehran claimed, a largely intact aircraft with damage only to the underside. However, the video also shows that the aircraft has suffered no fire or weapons damage from missiles or anti-aircraft artillery.
PARIS — French electronics giant Thales Group announced a deal Dec. 7 to acquire tactical satellite communications terminal maker Tampa Microwave, a privately held U.S. company that will operate as a subsidiary of Clarksburg, Md.-based Thales Communications, a Thales USA company. The acquisition is expected to give Thales Communications the ability to support growing demand by the U.S. Defense Department for wideband voice, video and data technology at the tactical level.
After conducting a series of intensive reviews, the Pentagon expects to send a revised number to Congress on the cost of ownership for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter early next year, says Vice Adm. David Venlet, the government’s JSF program executive.
PARIS — Science chiefs from the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have begun laying the ground work to redesign a two-pronged robotic Mars mission to accommodate greater participation by Russia. The ExoMars mission was upended earlier this year by uncertainty surrounding NASA’s ability to fund the joint campaign.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia’s air force appears dead set on getting its Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF), and is reluctant to entertain the idea of adding more Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. When asked if there may be an opportunity to sell more Super Hornets to Australia, the chief of the Australian air force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown, says “there’s always an opportunity.” But he is also focused on ensuring the JSF procurement is a success.
ARMY LAYOFFS: The U.S. Army has announced which of its commands will be hit by its previously announced goal of cutting 8,700 civilian positions by Sept. 30, 2012. On Dec.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia needs to examine upgrading its air bases in the northern part of the country, now that it is clear they will also be used by the U.S. military, says the chief of the Australian air force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown.
The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee are following up on an internal Pentagon memo, asking Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to delve more deeply into concerns raised about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s training program. In an Oct. 21 memo, the Pentagon’s top testing official, Michael Gilmore, laid out a number of safety concerns about beginning training flights at Eglin AFB, Fla., saying that starting to train on the conventional-takeoff-and-landing version of the aircraft before it is mature increases the possibility of “a serious mishap.”
PARIS — Franco-Italian Thales Alenia Space signed an agreement with China Great Wall Industry Corp. Dec. 5 to launch the Turkmenistan government’s first telecommunications satellite. The agreement follows a November meeting at which Thales Alenia Space and the Turkmenistan Ministry of Communications signed a contract for the design, manufacture and on-orbit delivery of the spacecraft.
Global spending on cybersecurity programs amounted to about $60 billion in 2011, and is expected to grow about 10% every year over the next three to five years, according to a new analysis published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report identifies the U.S. as the largest market, accounting for more than half of total spending, followed by Japan, then the U.K.
The recent successful submarine operations of U.S. Navy SSN attack boats and SSGN guided-missile vessels showcase the need to maintain and augment the strike potential for the subs, as well as the value of performing or supporting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
