Aerospace & Defense Roundup: Feb. 17

The Italian Army has selected the General Electric (GE) CT7 engine for its new Leonardo AW249/AH-249 attack helicopter. In an updated description of the New Exploration and Escort Helicopter (NEES) published on its website, the Italian Army says the rotorcraft will use the 2,500 shp CT7-8E6 version of the engine. Credit: Leonardo

Launch services provider Spaceflight Inc. has purchased NewSpace India Ltd.’s (NSIL) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to launch Spaceflight’s largest spacecraft to date at the end of February from Sriharikota, India. Spaceflight will be launching a 700-kg (1,500-lb.) satellite produced by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) that is 1.7 m in diameter and 2.6 m tall. The Earth observation spacecraft, called Amazonia-1, is the first to be completely designed, integrated, tested and operated in Brazil. It will be positioned in Sun-synchronous orbit, able to generate images of any part of the Earth every five days and will help spot changes in the planet such as the deforestation of the Amazon. Credit: Spaceflight Inc.

Proposed development of modular aircraft by British startup Aeralis has caught the eye of the UK Royal Air Force (RAF). The RAF’s Rapid Capability Office (RCO) has signed a contract with the startup to support and mature Aeralis’ design and development of a modular aircraft. The RCO will support the requirements and design review process to gain an understanding of how a modular aircraft could “support the RAF’s ambition to rationalize its future fleets,” Aeralis said. Credit: Aeralis

The U.S. Air Force has begun retiring the aging B-1B to make room for the new B-21 bomber. The service is authorized by Congress to retire 17 B-1Bs. The first B-1B departed Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota Feb. 17 for the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, known as the Boneyard, at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. The Air Force has not detailed the retirement rate for the remaining 16 aircraft Credit: U.S. Air Force

NASA is targeting Feb. 25 for a second attempt at a 485-sec., full-duration hot fire of the Space Launch System’s (SLS) four core-stage RS-25 liquid-hydrogen and oxygen-fueled rocket engines at Stennis Space Center. The hot fire will be a prelude to refurbishing and shipping the hardware to Kennedy Space Center for Artemis I, a multiweek unpiloted test flight of the SLS and Orion crew capsule around the Moon and back to Earth for recovery. Credit: NASA

The U.S. Air Force’s program to replace the Minuteman III nuclear ICBM, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), cleared its first major design review in November, prime contractor Northrop Grumman announced Feb. 16. The engineering and manufacturing development baseline review was a three-day virtual event, during which 100 people from Northrop and the Air Force assessed the current user requirements, data and configuration elements. The team is on schedule to meet the program’s next milestone, an integrated baseline review. Credit: USAF

The U.S. aerospace industry provided a foreign trade surplus of around $43 billion in 2020, the U.S. Commerce Department reported this month, a notable achievement amid the onset of COVID-19 but almost half the sector’s 2019 level. Commerce said aerospace achieved a balance, or exports over imports, worth $43.434 billion last year. However, according to a footnote, export statistics for certain commodity classifications related to the aircraft industry are subject to suppression and have been aggregated in a manner that prevents the disclosure of confidential information. As a result, so-called advanced technology product exports were overstated by $591 million in December 2020. Credit: U.S. Department of Commerce

Finland has launched a research project to reduce the cost of producing synthetic fuels, or e-fuels, using renewable electricity and sequestered carbon dioxide. The two-year e-fuel project involves fuel producer Neste, the VTT Technical Research Center and other Finnish partners. Credit: Neste

The U.S. Air Force’s requirements for replacing the Boeing E-4B fleet remain veiled in secrecy, but two small details announced since December point to an acquisition of used 747s. The Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) will be hosted on a “very large platform,” according to a notice published Feb. 17 by the program executive office (PEO) for Presidential and Executive Airlift. Credit: USAF

Renewable fuel producer Fulcrum BioEnergy has partnered with refinery operator Essar Oil (UK) to build a facility in northwest England to convert municipal solid waste into sustainable aviation fuel. The plant, for which £800 million ($1.1 billion) in investment is required, is planned to be operational by late 2025. Credit: Fulcrum BioEnergy

Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System.

Raytheon Technologies is registering concerns over Lockheed Martin’s proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJR) due to continuing consolidation in rocket and missile propulsion providers, the chief executive of Raytheon told an analysts conference Feb. 17. “We obviously have some concerns about that,” Raytheon Chairman, CEO and President Greg Hayes said. “They are a huge supplier to us. And if that merger actually happens, you don’t have an independent supplier in the solid rocket motor side. And also, I think it gives us pause as we think about the competitive landscape going forward. So, we’re going to make our concerns known to the Justice Department and the Department of Defense, and we’ll see how this whole thing plays out.” Credit: UTC

Intellectual property (IP) appears to be at the heart of new disagreements between France and Germany over the Future Combat Air System (FCAS/SCAF), defense analysts have suggested. Without a legal agreement, the next stage of the program—the so-called Phase 1B to fund the development of demonstrators for the new-generation fighter, advanced engines and unmanned platforms to support the manned fighter—could be “at stake,” Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations, has suggested. Credit: Institute of International and Strategic Relations

An uncrewed Russian Progress MS-16 resupply ship successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Feb. 17 at 1:27 a.m. EST, delivering 2.5 tons of various supplies. The live coverage from Roscosmos showed that ISS commander Sergey Ryzhikov had to switch over to the manual docking system called TORU (ТелеОператорный Режим Управления - Teleoperated Mode of Control) when the spacecraft unexpectedly rolled 30 deg. right, being just 20 m (65 ft.) from the Pirs docking compartment of the ISS Russian segment. Ryzhikov further manually managed the Progress MS-16 docking from a control panel inside the Russian Zvezda service module. Credit: Roscosmos

Turkey’s defense industry organization, SSB, has signed agreements with local industry to produce power systems for the country’s future indigenous combat aircraft, TF-X. Framework contracts for the development of the fighter’s auxiliary power unit (APU) and air turbine start system were signed with TRMotor on Feb. 12, SSB announced. Credit: JohnNewton8

U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is planning to host a flight demonstration this fiscal year for the highly debated Armed Overwatch program. The military envisions the new, nondevelopmental aircraft will fly reconnaissance missions and bomb adversaries in Africa, Lt. Gen. James Slife, Air Force Special Operations (AFSOC) chief, said Feb. 16 during a virtual Mitchell Institute event. Credit: U.S. Air Force

Iceland’s air navigation service provider (ANSP) Isavia ANS announced Feb. 17 that it has implemented satellite-based surveillance of aircraft in its airspace. Isavia ANS will use surveillance data provided by the Aireon space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system in 5.4 million km² (2.1 million mi.²) of controlled airspace, one of the largest deployments to date, Aireon said. Initial application of the tracking information is for all airspace south of 70° N latitude. Credit: UK NATS