Crash shows helicopter’s strong point; U.K. government backing inflates hybrid airship; unmanned aircraft to help manage crises; UAS tolerates crashes, wins prize; two biofuels from one algae.
DEFENSE Northrop Grumman has scrapped plans to offer BAE Systems’ Hawk for the $1 billion U.S. Air Force T-38 replacement program, opting instead for a clean-sheet trainer. Subsidiary Scaled Composites is to fly a prototype by year-end. A competition is expected to begin in fiscal 2016, and Boeing also plans a clean-sheet design (page 58) .
The Pentagon’s $585 billion request for fiscal 2016 may far outpace spending by other countries, but if current budget caps force a reduction, lawmakers are looking for ways to help balance the books. Five high-profile defense analysts from Washington think tanks offered suggestions to the House Armed Services Committee Feb. 11. Some echoed the Pentagon’s recommendations to cut bases, personnel and compensation. But many of those ideas have been rejected by Congress year after year, and in that light, Rep.
How lower-cost unmanned vehicles can help high-end manned platforms survive in hostile airspace is a focus of new programs in the Pentagon research agency’s budget request.
After nearly three decades, India is sending its indigenous lightweight fighter aircraft to its air force, although full operational capability and a naval version are still in the works.
While India’s government complains that Dassault will not provide quality guarantees for Rafale fighters built in India, France says that the original request for proposals did not call for one.
An official Chinese report outlines the efforts that Avic’s factories and research institutes are putting into advanced manufacturing technology, from friction-stir welding to resin-transfer infusion.
The system is competing to meet the requirements of Crowsnest, a British Royal Navy program to provide an organic AEW capability on the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
“It has been communicated at the highest levels that India and Russia need to have something to show for the program this year,” says an Indian defense ministry official. But crucial issues remain to be resolved.
With FAA approval to use unmanned aircraft for aerial photography and a deal with Planet Labs to buy satellite imagery, Woolpert plans to bring the two together to enable new geospatial information services.
India now allows foreign companies to own 49% of joint ventures, but without the ability to control more decisions, global investors are finding other ways to enter the market there.
India’s private defense contractors are jumping into the space that the government has opened for them. Many have experience, but not always enough. And the biggest projects look too risky for them.
