PARIS The European Defense Agency (EDA) will formally launch its helicopter training program next year. The effort is aimed at bolstering Europe’s helicopter capacity by aiding countries that cannot independently get personnel to required proficiency levels. The core of the effort involves two field exercises per year, with one concentrating on interoperability and optional tactics, and the other on individual training, according to the agency.
The new CEO of EADS North America is scouting for acquisition targets as part of a plan to grow the unit’s U.S. revenues eight-fold during the next decade. The European aerospace giant’s board has given a go-ahead to look at “a range of mid-cap market opportunities” across the defense, space and electronics sectors, CEO Sean O’Keefe told a roundtable of Aviation Week editors Nov. 23. He said he has the ability to close on a deal “pretty expeditiously.”
NEW DELHI The back-and-forth over the venue and schedule for India’s major land and naval systems symposium, Defexpo 2010, has been settled. Defexpo will be held according to its original schedule — from Feb. 15-18, 2010 here in New Delhi — but with one change. The show is being directly organized by the Indian Ministry Of Defense instead of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which has been organizing Defexpo since its inception.
Total military spending across Europe tumbled to $280 billion in 2009 from $295 billion the year before, and the fall is expected to continue through 2010, according to U.S. consultancy Forecast International. “The poorer dual EU-NATO members from Central and Eastern Europe are struggling between meeting defense investment pledges made to the alliance while also maintaining the fiscal responsibility necessary for accession into the eurozone,” Europe Military Markets Analyst Dan Darling says. “But instead such plans have fallen victim to economic realities.”
SPACE AVAILABLE: Iridium Communications says it should be financially feasible for its Iridium Next constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites to host observation and remote sensing payloads for government customers, in addition to their communications functions. Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia are competing for the contract to build the system. The spacecraft are to be launched from 2014-2016.
TRAINING WHEELS: Adding to its $3.2 billion in contracts to produce 6,219 MRAP All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV), Oshkosh Defense has received a $5.6 million firm fixed-price contract from the U.S. Army for 26 egress trainer cabin modules and spare parts. The Army has decided to do M-ATV training in the United States as opposed to doing it in theater, as originally planned. As part of this training, the service has recently mandated that all M-ATV crewmembers be trained in the proper skills required to safely and effectively egress the vehicle.
BEIJING Chinese fighter builder Avic Defense aims to build a large business jet as part of its strategy of exploiting military technology for its civilian sidelines. Avic Defense also will build up an aircraft maintenance operation catering for airline customers, company president Wang Yawei tells Aviation Week.
Astronomers plan to use data from NASA’s upcoming Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission for decades to come as a pointer to interesting objects in the sky for closer study. Set for launch into a 523-kilometer (325-mile) Sun-synchronous orbit as early as Dec. 7 on a Delta II rocket flying from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., WISE will use its 40-centimeter telescope to give astronomers an infrared sky map with unprecedented detail to cue the planned James Webb Space Telescope and other narrow-field infrared observatories. (See charts pp. 6-7.)
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 30 - Dec, 1 — Military Airlift & Rapid Reaction Operations 2009, Hilton Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany. For more information go to www.smi-online.co.uk Dec. 1-2 — Aerosolutions’ Business Convention for Aeronautics, Space and Defense, Palais de Congress, Bordeaux, France. For more information go to www.aerosolutions-bordeaux.com
LAYING ODDS: Look for a huge sigh of relief in Seattle and Chicago now that Paddy Power, which helpfully informs us it is Ireland’s largest bookmaker, is rating the Boeing 787 as the best bet to fly before the Airbus A400M. It puts the odds of the 787 flying first at 1-2; the 400M comes in at 6-4. The fact that the 787 is a passenger aircraft and the A400M a military transport makes no difference to the bookies. Paddy Power notes that all prices remain subject to fluctuation.
KOREAN AEGIS: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $41.1 million foreign military sales contract add-on for installation and test of the U.S. Navy/Lockheed Martin Aegis Combat System on a new South Korean destroyer. These requirements also include systems engineering, computer program development and ship integration to deliver a variant of the Aegis Baseline 7 Phase I computer program and equipment to support the construction of the second Korean ship in the KDX-III class. Work is expected to be completed by December 2010.
RUSSIAN HELOS: The Afghan National Army Air Corps (Anaac) soon will be flying its four new Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters following their recent delivery from U.S. Naval Air Systems (Navair). The order for the aircraft was placed July 30. The Navy International Programs Office was a key partner in acquiring the Mi-17s for Anaac, according to Navair. The aircraft, each of which has less than 10 hours of flight time, will provide the Anaac with combat airlift, logistical and medical evacuation support.
LONDON British technology company Qinetiq is aiming for a 14-day duration flight next summer using the initial production standard of its Zephyr high-altitude long-endurance solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle. The structure for the latest version of the UAV, the Zephyr 7, has now been put together. Several design refinements have been introduced to increase efficiency, with the intent of allowing the air vehicle to maintain a higher cruise altitude at night.
WEAPONS HANDLING: By 2011, the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center will have a brand new, $19.1 million Weapons Armaments Packaging, Handling, Storage and Transportation (PHS&T) facility at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. Under BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) recommendations, the Navy is transferring PHS&T functions from Earle Naval Weapons Station to Picatinny as part of an integrated weapons and armament specialty site for guns and ammunition. The 46,100 square foot facility will have room for 65 engineers and scientists.
SHOW AND TELL: The U.S. Office of Naval Research plans to demonstrate a prototype autonomous collision avoidance system (ACAS) for the RQ-7B Shadow and MQ-8B Fire Scout to meet FAA demands for a sense-and-avoid system enabling the tactical unmanned aircraft to access civil airspace. The system must detect all cooperative and non-cooperative targets within 10-15 kilometers of the UAV, but cannot weigh more than 10-15 pounds or consume more than 300 watts average power.
BATTERY SWAP: The U.S. Navy expects its submarine fleet will enjoy extra months of submarine operational availability after the early completion of a battery installation aboard the USS Hampton. The Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) battery installation was completed in 103 days, a significant improvement over the previous best of 122 days aboard the USS Boise, according to the service.
NAVAL CONTROL: The U.S. Navy will eventually introduce its MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) aboard its entire fleet of Littoral Combat Ships. In the meantime, Fire Scout is being put through its paces aboard the USS McInerney. Recently, the Navy deployed Raytheon’s Tactical Control System aboard the ship to operate Fire Scout as it performs counternarcotics missions in Central America. Raytheon noted its system provides the government unlimited rights to develop UAV control across missions, applications and air vehicles.
The U.S. commercial space industry is now at a point in its development at which the computer and personal electronics industries were about 10 years ago, says Mark Sirangelo, chairman of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Ten years ago, a lack of broadband connectivity prevented consumer electronics companies from rolling out new products and services, but once broadband penetration reached about 30 percent in the U.S., markets for devices such as the Apple iPod took off, Sirangelo said.
BRAZILIAN BIOFUEL: Embraer and partners are planning a demonstration flight in early 2012 using a sugar-cane derived alternative fuel. The fuel, to be developed by Amyris, will be used on an Azul Linhas regional jet. Engine supplier General Electric also is part of the undertaking. The partners say the fuel has already been tested by the U.S. Air Force.
DEEP BLUE GREEN: Northrop Grumman officials announced last week that the U.S. Navy awarded it a $635 million cost plus fixed-fee/level-of-effort contract for engineering, design and modernization support for new construction, operational and decommissioning submarines through 2014. The company’s Shipbuilding sector in Newport News, Va., is the prime contractor for the work on both the Los Angeles-class and Seawolf-class submarines, which includes technical support, management of technical manuals and drawings, and design efforts to support modernization of the boats.
Engineers at Mission Control Centers Houston and Moscow are evaluating whether Russia’s new Poisk mini-module may have somehow triggered a false depressurization alarm that cost the 12 space travelers on the International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle Atlantis a little sleep Nov. 19.
BIG RIGS: A total of eight supercomputers housed at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s national labs have made the TOP500 list of most-powerful computer systems known in the world. Amongst three computers in the top 10 were Roadrunner (#2, Los Alamos National Laboratory); BlueGene/L (#7, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory); and Red Sky (#10, Sandia National Laboratories/National Renewable Energy Laboratory). The Dawn platform at Livermore ranked as the 11th fastest in the world.
