PARIS — Fearful about the prospect of job losses, one of Airbus’s primary labor groups in France is urging governments to sustain the A400M military airlifter program. The labor group Force Ouvriere warns of “catastrophic consequences” if the program were terminated. It notes that 8,000 people are already working on the project, and the long-term jobs at risk could number 40,000 over the life of the program.
The first CH-47D — newly modified with a laser defense system — has been saved during an attack by multiple infrared-guided missiles, U.S. Army officials say. “We had a success in a complex situation where a Chinook was engaged by multiple IR manpads [infrared man-portable anti-aircraft missiles] ,” says U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ray Pickering, product manager for infrared countermeasures (IRCM).
AUTO ID: The U.S. Coast Guard and Northrop Grumman have completed the critical design review of the core data exchange capability, which will serve as the foundation for a nationwide Automatic Identification System (AIS). The milestone demonstrates that design maturity has reached the point where it can proceed to full-scale fabrication, assembly, integration and test, according to officials and executives.
DESIGN REVIEW: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp announced that a recent Integration Design Review of its heavy-lift helicopter, the CH-53K, has paved the way for a Critical Design Review in 2010. In November, Sikorsky hosted a two-day meeting with members of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Technical Review Board and the NAVAIR/Sikorsky CH-53K team.
The European Commission (EC) is opting to dual-source the construction and launch of its Galileo satellite navigation satellites, and to acquire the spacecraft in competitive batches, as is done with the U.S. Global Positioning System. The Commission selected a team led by OHB System of Germany to build a first batch of 14 full-operating-capability (FOC) satellites for the system, which will allow Europe to provide global high-precision, guaranteed-performance timing and position location services to complement those supplied by GPS.
ENGAGE!: The short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B engaged its lift system in flight for the first time on Jan. 7 during a test sortie from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Test pilot Graham Tomlinson engaged the shaft-driven lift fan at 5,000 feet and 210 knots, slowed to 180 knots, then accelerated to 210 knots and converted back to conventional-flight mode. The Stovl propulsion system was engaged for 14 minutes. On subsequent flights the aircraft will fly progressively slower, hover and eventually land vertically.
The United Arab Emirates has been exploring commercial financing options for its substantial military outlays, with Waha Capital saying it has now closed a $1.8 billion debt deal to cover the purchase of C-17 transports and A330-200 multi-role tanker/transports. The Dubai-based financing institution says the capital will cover all six C-17s the UAE signed for this week (Aerospace DAILY, Jan., 7) as well as three A330 tankers.
Controllers at California Institute of Technology are calibrating NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft, after commanding its telescope cover to open and using it to capture a first-light image of about 3,000 stars in the constellation Carina. “Right now we are busy matching the rate of the scan mirror to the rate of the spacecraft, so we will capture sharp pictures as our telescope sweeps across the sky,” stated William Irace of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the mission project manager, in releasing the first-light image.
OmniGlobe Networks, a Montreal-based provider of very small aperture terminals and voice over Internet protocol services, says it is in advanced discussions with several suppliers to buy, launch and operate a Ka-band satellite to serve remote and rural areas in Canada. The satellite, Canuk-1, is to be launched in the third quarter of 2013. OmniGlobe declines to say how much it plans to spend on the satellite, which will be medium-sized.
LONDON, PARIS — A British conservative government would revisit Royal Air Force (RAF) transport and fast jet aircraft basing plans — and intended closures — including a move to consolidate all U.K. fixed-wing airlift at one hub.
MOSCOW — Russian defense spending for 2010 is 1.25 trillion rubles ($43 billion), 3.4 percent more than 2009. The budget share going to defense in 2010 is 12.7 percent, up marginally from 12.2 percent the year before.
Japan is risking a rapid loss of fighter engineering skills, an official review of the industry warns, while urging the government to avoid fully importing combat aircraft. Estimates of future engineering effort starkly illustrate an unspoken argument for Japan to buy and develop advanced versions of the Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F-15 or Boeing F/A-18E/F to fill its requirement for 50 fighters.
GO FASTER: Piasecki Aircraft is to receive $8.9 million in congressionally directed funding to complete modification and conduct high-speed flight testing of its X-49A SpeedHawk compound helicopter. The X-49 is a prototype SH-60F Seahawk fitted with Piasecki’s vectored-thrust ducted propeller and a wing. Modifications for high-speed flight include adding a supplemental powerplant, fairing the rotor and retracting the gear. Piasecki is aiming to exceed 200 knots, having reached almost 180 knots in the first phase of flying.
PARIS — Arianespace head Jean-Yves Le Gall expects 2010 to be another busy year for the Paris-based launch provider, but warns that market conditions will “again be challenging.”
Crews moved the space shuttle Endeavour from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to Launch Complex 39A on Jan. 6 in preparation for next month’s STS-130 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The six-hour trip for the shuttle stack — orbiter, external tank and two solid-rocket boosters — started at 4:13 a.m. EST. Endeavour is scheduled to lift off at 4:39 a.m. EST Feb. 7 for a 13-day orbital sortie to the ISS.
The U.S. Army has seen 400 percent growth in UAV flight hours in the past decade, according to Lt. Gen. J.D. Thurman, the Army’s deputy chief of staff, who anticipates that number, and the number of unmanned platforms flying, to continue to increase. In a bid to give all of its brigade combat teams access to unmanned capabilities, the Army has made an unprecedented move. By Fiscal 2011, a combat aviation brigade (CAB) will receive Sky Warrior Extended Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) UAVs. Currently, all UAVs resides within dedicated units.
The U.S. Navy needs to do a better job managing its process for rapidly fielding materiel solutions to meet urgent needs in support of the operations in Southwest Asia and to ensure the safety of naval forces, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says. While the Navy had adequate procedures for identifying and validating urgent capability needs and was following these procedures, it still lacked internal controls in key areas, the IG says in its recent report.
AESA ACCORD: Selex Galileo and Brazil’s Atmos Sistemas have signed a memorandum of understanding covering potential collaboration on active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar technology. Selex Galileo’s Raven ES-05 AESA is on offer as part of the Saab Gripen NG package proposed for the Brazilian air force fighter competition. Besides potential collaboration on the Raven, Selex Galileo and Atmos Sistemas also are examining working together on other areas of AESA application.
DOD Presolicitations DOD Presolicitations Date of Posting Response Date Opportunity Segment Procurement Office Solicitation Code Contact E-Mail 31-Dec-09 07-Jan-10 US flag OSV to support navy testing Transportation, travel, & relocation services
CASE CLOSED: Claims that “new evidence” has come to light justifying the reopening of an inquiry into the 1994 fatal crash of a British Chinook heavy lift helicopter are being dismissed by the British Defense Ministry. The ministry says that internal documents seen by the BBC were available to the inquiry team and as such are “not new evidence.” The documents, according to the BBC, identified a number of concerns related to software reliability in the full authority digital engine control system.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing says the Jan. 6 confirmation of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) long-anticipated order for six C-17s, rather than four as previously disclosed, boosts hopes it will sustain the threatened airlifter program through 2012.
The U.S. Army hopes to complete the first phase of an analysis of alternatives (AOA) for its aerial scouting needs by April, according to Maj. Gen. James Barclay, chief of Army aviation. The service’s plans to move forward with a replacement for its aging Kiowa Warrior helicopter fleet have been on hold since the cancellation of Bell Helicopter Textron’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program in October 2008. The Army launched an AOA to determine its next platform and in the meantime began extensive modifications and upgrades on all of its Kiowas.
