The British Defense Ministry is aiming to demonstrate target updating and redirection of an air-to-surface missile in flight, providing the ability to engage a moving target in a cluttered environment. Test shots will be carried out in 2011, with the trials feeding into the ministry’s future air-to-surface weapons program, the support of network-enabled weapons, and time-sensitive targeting needs.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is set to receive 30 Enstrom 480B training helicopters by 2014, with the first aircraft to be provided this year for evaluation tests. Michigan-based Enstrom Helicopter also is in final negotiations on a contract to supply 16 of the single-turbine 480Bs to the Royal Thai Army for rotary-wing training.
The German air force damaged a Heron-1 unmanned aircraft operating in Afghanistan on Mar. 17, at the end of the UAV’s first operational mission from Mazar-e-Sharif. The reconnaissance aircraft had landed and was returning to its parking spot when it collided with a parked aircraft. Both aircraft were damaged, and one person was slightly injured. German military officials are now investigating.
I’ve watched and advised two administrations and I’ve come to three conclusions—three principles—about the proper use of modern military forces. The first is that military power should not —maybe cannot—be the last resort of the state. Military forces are some of the most flexible and adaptable tools to policymakers. We can, merely by our presence, help alter certain behavior. Before a shot is even fired, we can bolster a diplomatic argument, support a friend or deter an enemy. We can assist rapidly in disaster-relief efforts.
The Pentagon and intelligence agencies are at loggerheads about the rules that will control the unleashing of cyber-counterattack, a mission that could, with more investment, be conducted from aircraft against targets a half-world away. But before airborne cyber-attack becomes a tactical weapon, resolution must be reached on the relationship between warfighters and intelligence and the authority to decide what is a valid target and what is not.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has released to Congress a National Broadband Plan intended to ensure that every part of the nation can have access to affordable, robust Internet service. The plan, ordered from the FCC in February 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, proposes to ensure 100-Mbps. service to 100 million households that lack access to the Internet and 1-Gbps. service to every community in the U.S. through local schools, hospitals or other public institutions. Other proposals would make 500 MHz.
Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines last week put the first of four new Airbus A320s slated for delivery this year into daily service between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Washington. The 178-seat A320s will enable the carrier to offer new service and increase frequencies to certain destinations. On May 1, Spirit plans to offer new service between Atlanta and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and on May 20 between Detroit and Atlantic City, N.J.
Unlike Pierre Sparaco, I think criticism of the Airbus Military A400M airlifter by the French government oversight office is right on (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 54). In the formative years of this program, France and Germany were seeking a replacement for their Transall C160s, and Britain for its C-130 Hercules. The former is a 47-metric-ton aircraft, while the Herc grosses 70 metric tons. The “replacement” was allowed to grow into a 136-metric-ton monster!
The Obama administration is amplifying its effort to sell the change in direction it hopes to implement for NASA, even as opponents begin to cast about for an alternative. President Barack Obama will travel to Kennedy Space Center next month to make a personal, public pitch for the new U.S. space policy still being hammered out behind closed doors at agency headquarters here. Obama’s appearance at a to-be-determined location near KSC will mark the start of serious government debate on the future direction of the U.S. space program that could last all year.
Commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye has selected Lockheed Martin to build its next-generation GeoEye-2 Earth-imaging satellite in support of the company’s bid for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s EnhancedView program. General Dynamics’ space sector, which was bought this month by Orbital Sciences, produced the GeoEye-1 spacecraft. Like GeoEye-1, the new GeoEye-2 spacecraft will feature an ITT electro-optical camera capable of 0.25-meter ground resolution for U.S. government customers. GeoEye has already spent about $70 million developing the camera.
The convulsed, multiyear saga of the U.S. Air Force’s attempt to field a modern fleet of refueling tankers seems to have come full circle. It started in 2002 with Boeing winning an agreement to lease aircraft to the Air Force without having to compete for business valued at billions of dollars, then losing the contract, followed by a competition in which a team of Northrop Grumman and rival Airbus’s parent EADS won it—only to lose it following Boeing’s successful protest.
Airbus’s decision to boost narrow-body production signals the beginning of the end of the commercial air transport downturn, but company officials and industry analysts warn there will be a lag before order activity rebounds significantly.
Although it suffered a record $712-million loss in 2009, Hawker Beechcraft is now better positioned to weather economic storms, says Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture. “Last year, we took $200 million out of our manufacturing costs,” Boisture says. “We wrote down hundreds of millions in obsolete stock, aluminum” and unusable parts. He says demand is strong for his company’s new AT-6 light-attack variant of its T-6 Texan II trainer and MC-12 surveillance aircraft.
There was a brief show of bipartisan unity earlier this year on Capitol Hill, but it was hardly uplifting. Democrats and Republicans joined forces in the Senate to shoot down a bill that would have created a task force to draw up options for reducing the federal budget deficit. The proposal would have put lawmakers on the spot by requiring them to vote for both spending cuts and tax increases. A few days later, President Barack Obama unveiled a Fiscal 2011 budget request that envisions another $1.3 trillion in red ink, raising the federal debt above $15 trillion.
The Indian government has finalized the contract with AgustaWestland to buy 12 AW101 helicopters for government VIP transport. The helicopters, being bought under a contract valued at $760 million that includes support, will be operated by the Indian air force. Deliveries of the Yeovil, England-built rotorcraft are expected between 2012-15. India is buying the helos to replace its Mil Mi-8s. The modernization program gained a sense of urgency following the Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008 and last year’s crash of an Mi-8.
In a decade at the helm of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall has consolidated the Paris-based company’s hold on the commercial launch sector, bringing it back from a catastrophic Ariane 5 ECA inaugural launch failure in December 2002 and instituting a policy of incremental performance improvements, minimum design changes and strict adherence to quality and reliability objectives that has helped it maintain a commanding market share.
BAE Systems has reduced its stake in Saab. BAE pared its holding to 10.25%, half its previous total by selling more than 11 million Saab “B” shares to Investor AB, the Swedish investment group that is already a major Saab shareholder. BAE signals it will sell the rest “in due course.”
Marzel Neckien, president of W Machine Works, San Fernando, Calif., has been appointed chairman of the Supplier Advisory Council , which is the Irvine, Calif.-based Supplier Excellence Alliance’s aerospace and defense supplier leadership panel. New council members are: Douglas C. Greene, president of Hixson Metal Finishing, Newport Beach, Calif.; Kenny Heifner, vice president of SMS Technologies of San Diego; Tim Holland, CEO of the Graco Supply Co. of Fort Worth; Joe Yockey, owner/principal of Joined Alloys of Phoenix; Patrick H.
Lawmakers are struggling to defuse the bomb dropped by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) and Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), now officially described as the incoming defense appropriations subcommittee chairman, prohibiting congressional spending earmarks geared for corporations and other for-profit entities and requiring audits to enforce the rule. “This new oversight measure is to ensure that earmarks go to their intended purposes and to prevent for-profits from masquerading as non-profits,” the lawmakers say.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. (ret.) Peter M. Dawkins, who is founder and principal of ShiningStar Capital, has joined the board of directors of Iridium Communications Inc. , Bethesda, Md.
The last of Afghan aircrew and flight engineers (below) to undergo training at the U.K. Defense Ministry’s Boscombe Down flight test center in southern England will be heading home. The program—known as Project Curium—will end this month with 27 Afghan personnel having undergone the training (AW&ST Mar. 8, p. 33). The curriculum for pilots consists of two flying periods interspersed with ground school. Basic flying is performed on the Gazelle; advanced training takes place on Mi-17s.
Europe’s efforts to stabilize the Airbus Military A400M development and production program are far from finalized even though industry and the seven countries backing the program have agreed on a new financing scheme to cover several billion euros in cost overruns. There are still many difficult issues to be resolved, including exactly how many airlifters each country is buying, how to allocate €1.5 billion ($2 billion) in export levy facilities, and how to determine legal liabilities between the prime contractor and its suppliers.
Hawaiian Airlines, looking for long-range fleet expansion, last week added a firm order for one Airbus A330-200 to its existing order for six of the aircraft type as well as six A350-800s. The carrier also leases three A330s. The A330-200s, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines, are scheduled to be delivered this year. The aircraft will seat 294 passengers in a two-class configuration.
