Sikorsky says its contender for the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement, the S-76 Raider, will have a $15 million flyaway cost, compared with an estimated $12 million for an off-the-shelf helicopter. The bold statement is being made to counter claims that the all-new Raider is unaffordable. “There are too many misperceptions out there. It’s time to put in print that this is a $15 million aircraft,” says Steve Engebretson, the company’s AAS program director.
The Pentagon recently signed off on plans to spend more than $1 billion on new equipment for the Afghan air force. The shopping list includes a mix of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, including additional Cessna C-208s, which the air force uses for cargo and personnel transport, and more MD 530F helicopters. While some purchases were expected based on long-standing plans, a major change is the addition of four Lockheed Martin C-130 aircraft to replace a fleet of Alenia Aeronautica G.222 transports that proved burdensome to maintain.
Since shedding Soviet-style communism in 1990 and adopting parliamentary government and a market economy, Mongolia has become the most democratic of the Central Asian republics. Moreover, it sits atop the world's largest coal reserve as well as mountains of gold, copper, uranium and rare minerals. In 2012, the landlocked nation posted 13% economic growth. Everything should be coming up roses.
Northrop Grumman is preparing to demonstrate its proposed replacement for the U.S. Air Force’s transportable air defense radars, drawing heavily on a mobile system already under development for the U.S. Marine Corps. Northrop, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were awarded competitive contracts in August 2012 as a precursor to engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) of the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DLRR).
Despite the financial and legal issues that have recently afflicted its parent, Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland is pushing ahead with development and flight-testing of three new rotary-wing aircraft at the same time.
A new type of solid-state laser being developed for U.S. Air Force aircraft will soon be tested as a possible naval weapon that could be used against enemy ships. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Office of Naval Research plan to demonstrate the High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (Hellads) to engage surface ships, according to a contract announcement. The test, which will take place by the end of 2014, requires buying another Hellads system from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, since the current laser is for testing with USAF.
ABU DHABI — The first batch of KAI Surion utility helicopters has joined the Republic of Korea army for trials. According to KAI officials at the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi, four of the 8.7-ton aircraft, which are also known as the Korean Utility Helicopter (KUH), were delivered to the Korean army in November and are currently undergoing army flight trials in preparation for the beginning of operations later this year.
President Obama's crusade to increase a small sliver of taxes on the nation's wealthiest has long capitalized on a convenient symbol of privilege: the corporate jet. Those talking points are landing like stray arrows on the makers of business jets, and manufacturers are fuming.
During tension between China and Japan over conflicting claims to the Senkaku/Daiyoutai Islands in January (see page DT15), images emerged on the Internet confirming the existence of China's YJ-12 supersonic antiship ramjet missile. Asian sources report that China has deployed the YJ-12. Images show that the missile is a larger development of the YJ-91, a Chinese version of the Russian Zvezda Kh-31 ramjet-powered antiship/radar missile. Chinese sources estimate the YJ-12 has a speed of Mach 2-4 and range of 250-400 km (155-248 mi.).
Internal bleeding from abdominal wounds is a time-sensitive injury on the battlefield. With no medical techniques to stop it, getting the wounded to surgical care rapidly is necessary to save their lives. Medics, however, may soon have a way of stabilizing internal bleeding for several hours. Arsenal Medical Inc. of Watertown, Mass., has developed a two-component polyurethane foam system that shows promise in controlling severe hemorrhaging, and the U.S.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force’s KC-46 development contract with Boeing can survive sequestration at least for fiscal 2013, but its expected effects, combined with operating under a continuing resolution, will drive the service to break the fixed-price deal as soon as the fall.
Vice Adm. (ret.) Yedidia Yaari President and CEO, Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd., Haifa, Israel Birthplace: Kibbutz Merhavia, Israel, 1947 Education: B.A., Middle East History, Haifa University; M.P.A., Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Advanced Naval Command Course, U.S. Naval War College.
The White House is adopting a tough public relations campaign against China and other online hackers believed to be carrying out what has been described as the greatest theft of intellectual property in history. On Feb.
Finmeccanica has named Daniele Romiti the new head of AgustaWestland following bribery allegations surrounding the sale of 12 helicopters to India in 2010. Romiti, who is currently the helicopter company’s chief operating officer, was named to the post on Feb. 21 as part of a wide-ranging reorganization. Romiti succeeds Bruno Spagnolini, who was placed under house arrest earlier this month. Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi was also arrested. He was the head of AgustaWestland at the time the alleged corruption took place.
At the Aero India exposition this month, Israeli companies Elbit Systems and Windward Ltd. displayed for the first time an integrated maritime patrol platform for India. The platform comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Elbit, the new Maritime Hermes 900, equipped with Marint, a satellite-based maritime analytics system from Windward. The platform is intended to perform 24/7 monitoring of India's large maritime environment, including littoral waters and economic exclusion zones.
More than two decades have passed since the last commercial helicopter was built in the U.K., but civil rotorcraft production could be on the verge of a comeback. While the last flirtations with the commercial sector—in the 1980s by what was then Westland were not especially successful—AgustaWestland, the helicopter manufacturing arm of Italy's Finmeccanica, believes it is time for its Yeovil-based U.K. subsidiary to reembrace the commercial world.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force could have to trim as many as three F-35As from its fiscal 2013 purchasing plans if sequestration takes effect March 1, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. This would affect deliveries for low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 5, a contract only finalized late in 2012 after a year of tough negotiations between the Pentagon and prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The $3.8 billion contract includes 32 U.S. aircraft, of which 22 are F-35As designed for the Air Force.
The unique design of Piaggio Aero's P.180 Avanti business turboprop has always turned heads. With its unusual blend of three-surface configuration and pusher propellers, the aircraft is well-known for its performance and Italian flair. But the type has never sold as well as competitors such as Beechcraft's King Air. So now Piaggio is exploring new markets for the Avanti, hoping that its latest development can secure a niche that has until now been dominated by products from Israel and the U.S.
Although U.S. and Afghan soldiers have become skilled at recognizing signs of improvised explosive devices (IED), the Pentagon is seeking technologies that detect IEDs before they threaten troops and vehicles. One recent development is Scissor-G (Shadow-Class Infrared Spectral Sensor-Ground), which picks up irregularities and other indicators of IEDs from a safe distance. Scissor-G is a product of the U.S. Army's Communications, Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (Cerdec).
Beechcraft and BAE Systems have undertaken the first flight of a specially modified BAe 146 transport aircraft for the U.K. Royal Air Force. The U.K. Defense Ministry purchased two ex-TNT Airlines BAe 146-200QTs in early 2012 as part of an urgent operational requirement to support and boost passenger and cargo transport capability in Afghanistan. The aircraft were delivered to BAE and Beechcraft Global Customer Support under a £15.5 million ($24.3 million) deal.
Research at Georgia Tech indicates that programming military robots for deceitful behavior against enemies is a way of protecting them along with materiel they might be guarding. In a program funded by the Office of Naval Research, Ronald Arkin led a team at Georgia Tech that applied this tactic in programming a robot. Arkin read studies showing how deceitful behavior aids animal survival and wondered if it could help robots thwart an enemy, robotic or human. Biologists, for example, found that a squirrel stores acorns in hiding places and routinely checks the stashes.
