Dassault Aviation says all major systems on the Neuron unmanned combat vehicle project have completed design reviews and interface design is coming to an end, paving the way for detailed systems and airframe work to begin. Ruag completed a pair of wind tunnel tests for ground effect and leading edge bird strike last year, allowing the final shape of the vehicle to be frozen. In October, Dassault’s Ave-C UAV, whose general design is similar to Neuron, demonstrated thrust vectoring yaw control, after earlier testing automatic takeoff and landing capability.
A Gripen NG has completed the aircraft’s first supersonic flight without the use of afterburner. The milestone last week was achieved while flying over the Baltic Sea at 28,000 ft. The Gripen reached Mach 1.2.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), David Eshel (Tel Aviv)
One of the major changes between the 2006 Lebanon and 2009 Gaza military campaigns is that the Israeli defense ministry has been much more successful in manipulating the information war, say U.S. intelligence officials who are comparing analyses of both conflicts.
6815 Château de Betzdorf Luxembourg Tel. (352) 710-7251; Fax (352) 710-7252-27 www.ses-global.com SES Global comprises SES Americom, SES Astra, SES New Skies Satellites, Ciel, QuetzSat, Star One, SES Sirius AB, AsiaSat, Netsystem, Satlynx, Accelon and ND Satcom. Their combined fleet is as follows: AMC-1 Broadcasting, business services, cable programming, mobile communications. Orbital location is 103° W. Carries 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. 2011 EOL.
The U.S. Navy has tested Raytheon’s new Standard Missile-2 target detecting device. The missile was a Block IIIB variant, and the detector registered its lowest altitude intercept. The shot was from a guided missile destroyer during combat system ship qualification trials. Block III, IIIA and IIIB missiles engaged multiple targets. The anti-air warfare system has a range of 90 naut. mi.
Air Force Gulfstream IV (4) Lockheed C-130H (8) Saab JAS 39A (70) Saab JAS 39B (14) Saab JAS 39C (45) Saab JAS 39D (13) Saab SF.340B (9) Saab SH 37 (2) Saab SK 60A (45) Saab SK 60B (17) Saab SK 60C (19) Coast Guard CASA C-212-200 (2) De Havilland Canada DHC-8-300Q (1) Military Helicopter Wing Agusta A109LUH (8) CASA C-212 (1) Eurocopter AS332M (10)
Air Force Aermacchi MB.339 (6) Aero Vodochody L-39 (21) AgustaWestland AW139 (1) Boeing 737-700BBJ (1) Cessna Citation II (1) Dassault-Breguet/Dornier Alphajet E (14) Dornier Air Beetle (40) Dornier Do 128-6 (8) Dornier Do 228-201 (2) Dornier Do 228-212 (3) Eurocopter AS332 (4) Gulfstream V (1) Lockheed C-130H (5) Lockheed C-130H-30 (2) Mil Mi-171Sh (4) Mil Mi-34 (8) Mil Mi-35 (5)
Air Force Beech E90 (1) Bell Helicopter Textron UH-1H (8) Boeing 707-321B (1) British Aerospace HS. 125-400 (1) CASA C-212-200 (4) CASA C-212-400 (1) Cessna 185 (1) Cessna 210 (1) Cessna 402B (2) Cessna 402C (1) Cessna U206C (3) De Havilland Canada DHC-6-200 (1) Embraer EMB-312 (3) Enaer T-35 (5) Helicopteros do Brasil SA HB 350B (3) Neiva T-25 (6) North American AT-6G (2)
Wellesley House North 2nd Floor 90 Pitts Bay Road Pembroke, HM 08, Bermuda Tel. (441) 294-1650; Fax (441) 292-8300 www.intelsat.com Galaxy 3C Broadcasting, business services, cable programming, direct-to-home TV broadcasting, Internet access, mobile communications, telecommunications, VSAT networks. Orbital location is 95° W geosynchronous. Carries 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. Covers North America. 2017 EOL.
The French air force has conducted a new series of flight trials of Sagem’s SIDM UAV to prepare the medium-altitude long-endurance aircraft for operation. The latest trials, on Jan. 15-16, were intended to review missions the SIDM could perform in an overseas theater. The Sagem UAV is expected to be deployed to Afghanistan this year as part of a reinforcement of France’s operational capability there.
In Michael Goldberg’s Viewpoint article “How To Ease Engineering Gap” (AW&ST Nov. 17, 2008, p. 62), he advises to lower the number of hours spent on the design task, which is certainly a worthy goal. In the next sentence or two, he counsels “reducing engineering rework, especially downstream in the development cycle.”
Defense Force Bell Helicopter Textron 47G (1) CASA C-212-300 (2) Cessna 182Q (1) Police Bell Helicopter Textron 412 (3) Dornier Do 27A (1) MBB BO 105 (1)
Air Force Aero Vodochody L-39 (4) Mikoyan MiG-25 (1) Mil Mi-2 (9) Mil Mi-8 (11) Mil Mi-9 (2) Mil Mi-24K (2) Mil Mi-24P (8) Mil Mi-24R (2) Sukhoi Su-25 (5) Sukhoi Su-25K (9) Sukhoi Su-25UBK (1) Yakovlev Yak-52 (16)
Air Force AgustaWestland Merlin HC3 (22) BAE Systems 146 CC.Mk 2 (2) BAE Systems Harrier GR7 (37) BAE Systems Harrier GR9 (26) BAE Systems Nimrod MR2 (15) BAE Systems Nimrod R1 (3) Bell Helicopter Textron 412 (14) Bell Helicopter Textron 412EP (2) Boeing Helicopter Chinook HC2 (32) Boeing Helicopter Chinook HC3 (8) Boeing C-17A (6) Boeing E-3D (6) Bombardier Sentinel R1 (1) British Aerospace HS. 125-1 (5)
10802 Parkridge Blvd. Reston, VA 20191-4334, USA Tel. (703) 390-2700; Fax (703) 390-2770 www.msvlp.com MSAT-1 Mobile communications. Orbital location is 106.5° W geosynchronous. Carries one Ku-band and two L-band transponders. Launched 1996. MSAT-2 Mobile communications. Orbital location is 101° W geosynchronous. Carries one Ku-band and two L-band transponders. Boeing 601 model. Launched 1995.
