The F-16 Falcon’s 2010 availability is coming under more scrutiny as the U.S. Air Force has unveiled stress tests to study the aircraft’s availability while the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Strike Fighter slips, service leaders testified on Capitol Hill. The aircraft’s availability is 67%, a panel of leading generals testified at an April 13 hearing of the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee. Falcons are known to develop bulkhead cracks, particularly near landing gear, but the service does not anticipate a significant fleet-upgrade effort, they say.
Startup company AVX Aircraft is proposing to upgrade the Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior with coaxial rotors and ducted fans to meet the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement. Hoping to persuade the Army to fund a demonstrator, the company is making its debut and unveiling its concept at this week’s Army Aviation Association of America convention in its hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. Founded in 2005, AVX is made up mainly of former Bell Helicopter engineers and managers.
Activity on Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk program is accelerating as several versions of the high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft approach critical milestones this year. The first Euro Hawk signals-intelligence version of the Block 20 Global Hawk for the German air force has begun taxi tests at Palmdale, Calif., and is expected to fly in May and ferry to EADS’s Manching, Germany plant in November for payload integration and testing.
SCIENCE HAWK: NASA’s first science flight using a former U.S. Air Force Northrop Grumman Global Hawk UAV was completed over the Pacific Ocean on April 7. The flight was the first of five scheduled for this month’s Global Hawk Pacific mission to study atmospheric science over the Pacific and Arctic oceans. During the 14-hr. flight, the UAV reached an altitude of 60,900 ft. and flew about 4,500 nm. along a flight path that took it to just south of Alaska’s Kodiak Island.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The first Russian cargo to fly from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station is being prepared for launch aboard space shuttle Atlantis’s final planned flight, STS-132, targeted for liftoff on May 14.
HOUSTON — Spacewalking astronauts from the shuttle Discovery finished plumbing a newly installed coolant tank outside the International Space Station (ISS) April 13, but a stuck nitrogen valve prevented NASA’s Mission Control from reactivating the replenished thermal control system. Control center engineers were assessing options for a future spacewalk to replace the nitrogen tank assembly with the balky internal valve as well as their preference for a ground command strategy.
Discovery astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson plan to finish the installation of a new ammonia coolant tank as their first task early April 13, when they venture outside the International Space Station for their third mission spacewalk. The connection of four ammonia and nitrogen lines was deferred during their 7.5-hour space walk on April 11, when the two men struggled to align four bolts securing the 1,700-lb. tank to the station’s right side truss.
Defense contractor DynCorp International announced that it is being acquired by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, in a $1.5 billion deal that includes assumption of DynCorp’s debt. The two companies announced the deal April 12. Per the tentative agreement, Cerberus will pay DynCorp shareholders $17.55 per share, a 50% premium over the company’s April 9 closing share price of $11.75. DynCorp’s share prices have been recovering from a low of $10.50 in mid-February. The company’s stock price peaked last year at $21.43 in August.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted with Eurockot for the launch of two Earth observation missions — Swarm, a constellation of three satellites to be launched in mid-2012 to study the Earth’s magnetic field, and another mission to be named later. Both will be orbited from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia using the Astrium-Khrunichev venture’s Rockot launch vehicle.
LONDON — The ruling Labour Government is committing to the U.K.’s future aircraft carrier program as the heart of a “strong navy” in its election manifesto. Britons go to the polls May 6. While the party is also signed up to hold a Strategic Defense Review if re-elected — as will the conservatives if they take office — the Labour statement on the carrier program would make any change of heart at least highly embarrassing. The party states in its 2010 Manifesto: “We are committed to a strong navy based on the new aircraft carriers.”
India successfully test fired the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile from a vertical launcher on the moving warship INS Ranvir off the Orissa coast on April 11. The launcher is designed to fit under the warship’s deck, protecting it from atmospheric conditions and imparting stealth. It also allows the missile to be turned to cover 360 deg. The missile performed supersonic maneuvers and homed on to the decommissioned target ship INS Meen.
Next-generation aircraft and sensors are being planned that combine surveillance, intelligence gathering, tactical cyber and other electronic attack and directed energy. For example, a burst of high-power microwaves could leave a person unharmed but kill his mobile phone.
LEAD PLEASE: Ahead of President Barack Obama’s highly anticipated Kennedy Space Center speech this week, Aerospace Industries Association chief executive Marion Blakey has petitioned the White House for a detailed plan and unflagging commitment for U.S. space activity. “We require a roadmap for the future, with milestones along the way and a sense of urgency that space exploration is important to our country and proclaims in clear terms that this is who we are as Americans,” Blakey said.
PARIS — Arianespace and its Ariane 5 partners have decided to conduct a quality audit and set up a special task force to determine the underlying reasons for an anomaly that occurred during an April 9 countdown and propose corrective action. The anomaly, in the launch vehicle pressurization system, caused the launch of the German military telecom satellite Comsat Bw-2 and SES’s Astra 3B to be postponed for the second time in as many weeks. An earlier delay on March 26 was caused by an anomaly with an unidentified subsystem.
ARMY L-3 Fuzing and Ordnance Systems, Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded on March 31 a $24,069,912 firm-fixed-price contract for M762A1. The work is to be performed in Cincinnati, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2013. Bids were solicited on the World Wide Web with one bid received. Army Contracting Command, Joint Munitions and Lethality Contracting Center, CCJM-CA, Picattinny Arsenal, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-09-C-0050).
LONDON — BAE Systems ranked first in arms sales, leading the way ahead of Lockheed Martin and displacing Boeing, which dropped to number three in the latest ranking produced by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The SIPRI data reflects 2008 sales. It is the first time a non-U.S. company leads the pack. According to SIPRI analyst Susan Jackson, the situation “really shows the increasing internationalization of the arms industry and the attractiveness of the U.S. market.”
E-Green Technologies is nearing completion of a 235-ft.-long helium airship intended for communications, surveillance and other missions as the U.S. Air Force canvasses industry on the feasibility of an even larger medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) airship. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has issued a request for information on airship concepts able to carry a 2,500-4,500-lb. payload to 20,000-25,000 ft. altitude, with a maximum speed up to 80 kt. and a loiter speed of around 35 kt.
As it rolls out its first production MQM-171A BroadSword tactical-class UAV target, Griffon Aerospace reports increasing interest in the low-cost air vehicle for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Madison, Ala.-based Griffon is producing an initial 20 BroadSwords, plus launchers and control stations, for the U.S. Army’s simulation, training and instrumentation program office under a contract awarded in August 2009.
ROMANIAN TRANSPORT: The first two Romanian air force C-27J tactical transports are now at Bucharest, where they will be based. The aircraft are the initial tranche of seven aircraft Romania ordered in 2007 to replace Soviet-era airlifters. The C-27J is assigned to the 90th Transport air base at Bucharest-Otopeni Airport, according to aircraft maker Alenia Aeronautica. The manufacturer notes that even though advanced training is unfolding for crew and maintenance personnel, actual operations are starting right away.
LCH FLIES: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.’s first Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) technology demonstrator made its first flight on March 29. The 20-minute flight provided the pilots an opportunity to carry out low-speed, low-altitude checks.
