The next generation of combat helmet design, from webbing to lining to shape, will draw on an unprecedented well of sensor data mapping the physics and mechanics of blast and blunt trauma injuries.
Resistance from senior noteholders could scuttle a deal by EchoStar to acquire troubled Satellite Mexicanos. Echostar agreed on Feb. 26 to acquire Satmex in cooperation with MVS Comunicaciones, a large Mexican media group, for up to $374 million in cash. MVS is Echostar’s partner in Dish Mexico, a joint venture set up in 2008 to serve the local market.
With two flight tests under its belt — one against two targets roughly an hour apart — the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is eyeing another Airborne Laser (ABL) flight trial this spring. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner could not confirm more details on the goal of the test. However, one official close to the program said one aim is to increase the distance of the sole 747-400F-based laser from its target, meaning the next trial could be that opportunity.
LIGHT POWER: Aurora Flight Sciences has completed a test wing section built on company funds to support its bid for Phase 2 of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vulture program to demonstrate technology for a five-year-endurance solar-powered stratospheric unmanned aircraft. With a span of 22 feet and chord of 15 feet, the test wing is made from advanced composites and lightweight plastics, and the upper surface is covered with solar cells.
Japan will keep building the world’s largest and most sophisticated diesel-electric submarines at a rate of about one per year until at least 2015. Studies for a follow-on design have been under way since 2005 for a notional fiscal year 2016 submarine to be completed in 2021. If the 40-year trend of increasing boat size continues, the Fiscal 2016 submarine could be as large as 3,150 tons standard and 4,550 tons submerged.
OTTAWA, Canada — The U.S. chief of naval operations is stressing the need for the Navy to work with regional allies to protect the global commons from both state and nonstate actors who seek to disrupt maritime trade and lines of communication, as well as sea-based mining and drilling. The comments reflect the growing attention worldwide being paid to maritime security and the Arctic, in particular, as climate change, globalism and constrained national budgets are combining to demand more international cooperation on the oceans.
LONDON — “At best confused and unhelpful and at worst deliberately obstructive” is the acerbic conclusion of the U.K.’s Defense Committee with regard to evidence provided by the U.K. Defense Ministry concerning a multibillion dollar funding gap. In unusually direct language, the Parliament’s Defense Committee assails the ministry over what its considers a failure to come clean about the extent of the funding mess in its long-term spending plans, and a future equipment program that it cannot deliver.
Lockheed Martin workers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans expect to finish the last of 134 space shuttle external tanks by the end of June before shutting down the production line for the huge aluminum-lithium structures. They have already resettled the tank — designated ET-138 — back in the horizontal position after hoisting it upright to splice the liquid oxygen/intertank section to the 96.7-foot liquid oxygen tank that rides at the bottom of the tank portion of the shuttle stack.
Founded by the designer of the long-endurance Aerosonde and ScanEagle UAVs, Aerovel has introduced the Flexrotor — a UAV with 40 hours-plus endurance that takes off and lands vertically. Aerovel was started by Tad McGeer, who says he was “pushed out” of Aerosonde maker Insitu in late 2005 and formed Aerovel in 2006 to develop the Flexrotor, which is designed to tackle one of the disadvantages of the ScanEagle — the size of its launch and recovery equipment.
LONDON — Inspections of the U.K.’s Merlin and Apache helicopter engines are being stepped up following an incident that resulted in damage to two powerplants while they were being run on the ground. Deployed on combat operations in Afghanistan, the AgustaWestland Merlin anti-submarine warfare and support helicopter and the WAH-64 attack helicopter use the Rolls-Royce Turbomecca RTM322 turboshaft engine.
PARIS — France has agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations for the sale of four Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia. The move, announced March 1 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a state visit by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, confirmed statements made on Feb. 8 by Jacques de Lajugie, director of international development at French armaments agency DGA. They did not divulge details of the sale, its value or the length of time expected to conclude talks. Each ship is estimated to cost around 500 million euros ($675 million).
Newly published findings from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) on India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter suggest there are at least 600 million metric tons of water ice preserved in the permanent darkness at the bottom of an array of small craters at the moon’s North Pole. Data from the U.S.-supplied Mini-SAR instrument on the Indian orbiter, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, add to the growing body of evidence that the long-theorized ice exists at both lunar poles.
LONDON — Two Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoons on quick reaction alert were scrambled March 2 to intercept an American Airlines Boeing 767-300 en route to London Heathrow Airport after a passenger attempted to gain access to the cockpit. “Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire were called to assist an American Airlines flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to London Heathrow following reports of an incident onboard involving a disruptive passenger,” a British Defense Ministry official said.
LAUNCH AWARD: Arianespace has been selected to launch OverHorizon-1, a 3.2 metric ton Ku-band spacecraft intended to provide two-way broadband communications for vehicles on the move. Owned by OverHorizon, a startup based in Sweden and Cyprus, OHO-1 is to be orbited in mid-2012 atop an Ariane 5 booster. The spacecraft, equipped with a regenerative broadband communications payload, will be supplied by Thales Alenia Space using a Star 2.3 bus from Orbital Sciences Corp. It was the fourth order of 2010 for Arianespace.
GETAFE, Spain — EADS is awaiting final word from the European Aviation Safety Agency that its first A330 tanker has received civil type certification, as the manufacturer moves ahead with military certification of the tanker/transport elements of the aircraft.
The U.S. Army delivered on its promise to release the request for proposals (RFP) for a new Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) before the end of February, unveiling the first phase on Feb. 25. Now, more details are emerging over the prominent successor to part of the erstwhile Future Combat Systems.
NEW DELHI — India’s Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) has chosen Israel’s Orbit Technology Group as a vendor for the Audio Management Solution over IP (AMSIP) program. AMSIP is a VoIP interface designed for use with all Orbit’s digital audio management products. The system enables the use of TDM and IP-based end devices by airborne and shipborne crews.
The Pakistani air force will be able to attack targets at night with precision weapons beginning this summer with the introduction of modern, Block 52 F-16C/Ds. Moreover, it is looking at a short-term upgrade to its older, in-service Block 15 F-16A/Bs to support combat operations in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says a major cost overrun in the tri-service, nine-nation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is probable, and under the Nunn-McCurdy statute it would trigger an extensive, mandatory review of alternatives. But the outcome of this review appears to already be determined. “Really there are no good alternatives to F-35 at this point,” Donley told reporters during a March 2 Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington. “This is a program to which we are deeply committed.”
PARIS — Initial calibrated images from Europe’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) probe suggest the mission, intended to advance scientists’ understanding of the global water cycle, will meet specifications with margin to spare.
The Pentagon underestimated titanium-related costs for major aircraft programs, adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the bottom line for those expenses, according to a recently released Defense Department Inspector General (IG) report.
