NASA is considering a prize challenge to accelerate the integration of unmanned aircraft into civil airspace. Two competitions of increasing complexity would be run in late 2013 and 2014 with a combined prize purse of $1.5 million. Under its Centennial Challenges program, NASA has previously staged competitions designed to engage the public in advancing technology for space elevators, electric aircraft, lunar landers and regolith excavation.
KUALA LUMPUR — Australia’s navy, which has 24 Sikorsky MH-60R anti-submarine warfare helicopters on order, will start sending crews to the U.S. in January for training on the new type. Cmdr. Grant O’Loughlan, commander of the squadron that will operate the helicopter, says the navy is buying two full-flight mission simulators, but it will take time before the service is ready to start conducting its own MH-60R training courses.
After publicly pledging to bring back the F-22 Raptor, and then having campaign surrogates adjust his message in favor of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is now keeping “any and all options on the table” when it comes to the Air Force’s future fleet of tactical fighters.
The U.S. Navy continues to expand the mission envelope for its destroyer and cruiser fleets, proving in a recent exercise the vessels can handle evacuation operations normally done by much bigger ships. Guided-missile cruiser CG-64USS Gettysburg took part in a simulated, non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) Oct. 8 off the coast of Scotland. The exercise included evacuating 11 Royal Navy midshipmen posing as citizens in simulated danger from Mallaig, Scotland, to the Gettysburg on two rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs).
Textron has taken a $14 million third-quarter charge to cover increased costs on starting up unmanned aircraft fee-for-service operations for the U.S. Defense Department. In April, Textron company AAI Corp. won a contract to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services for U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) using the Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft system.
A research advisory group is cautioning the FAA “to avoid the temptation to compromise safety” as the agency attempts to meet a congressionally mandated 2015 deadline to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system (NAS). The observation highlights what appears to be growing frustration with the FAA over a range of research and organizational issues as the mandate nears.
Poland has recently announced plans to replace some of its Soviet-built fighter aircraft with armed UAVs. “By 2018, we should have three squadrons [of armed UAVs],” says Waldemar Skrzypczak, Poland’s vice minister of defense. He adds that the country’s armed forces might purchase up to 30 combat UAVs.
A research advisory group is cautioning the FAA “to avoid the temptation to compromise safety” as the agency attempts to meet a congressionally mandated 2015 deadline to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system (NAS). The observation highlights what appears to be growing frustration with the FAA over a range of research and organizational issues as the mandate nears.
Given a second chance to compete for a U.S. Air Force air defense radar program, Northrop Grumman is proposing a system based on an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) mobile radar under development for the U.S. Marine Corps. The company re-entered the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) competition in August, when the Air Force awarded contracts each worth around $35 million to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.
CYBER BILL: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has pledged to bring up cybersecurity legislation that was previously blocked by Republicans during Congress’s lame-duck session. The question remains, however, whether the bill has any better chance of passing than it did when blocked this summer by Senate Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Bill co-sponsor Sen.
Neither of the two men running for Virginia’s open U.S. Senate seat this November — Republican George Allen and rival Democrat Tim Kaine — can match the military experience of their predecessors. The state has been represented by former Navy secretaries since 1979 and is one of the nation’s most defense-rich states. Prime contractors in Virginia earned more than $54.85 billion in 2011, according to the Center for Security Policy’s study of defense contracting dollars, making oversight of the federal defense procurement process a key issue for the job.
Guatemala’s congress has approved the purchase of six Embraer A-29 Super Tucano light-attack aircraft for counter-narcotics missions, funded by a $170 million loan from banks in Argentina and Brazil. According to local reports, the deal will include the aircraft, a tactical command and control center and radars, including three supplied by Argentina, for a project to build a system to monitor and protect the Mayan biosphere.
NETANYA, Israel — As Israel prepares for advanced network war, it is readily apparent that cyber situational awareness systems — supported by event-management capabilities since digital warfare can never be a fully automatic process — has become a key part of the country’s defense. Capabilities being commercialized by Elbit Systems’ land and C4I solutions branch provide a number of clues about how cyber defenses are being developed here.
The U.S. unmanned aviation system (UAS) commercial market could be boosted as the Afghanistan war cools and new federal mandates spur business interest in the platforms, according to a leading aviation law firm. “Today, over 300 businesses produce over a 1,000 different unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) ranging in size from a medium-sized passenger jet to a small winged insect,” notes a paper released this month by Michael Goldman of the firm Silverberg, Goldman and Bikoff. “They are mostly banned in U.S.
An information technology trade group foresees Pentagon spending declining about 3% in inflation-adjusted dollars during the next decade. TechAmerica Foundation’s latest annual forecast, highlighted in an Oct. 16 Washington briefing, sees base spending following a gradual downward slope from $525 billion in fiscal 2013 to $506 billion in fiscal 2023, as measured in constant 2013 dollars. Current projections from Pentagon planners and the White House Office of Management and Budget project a slight upward slope to $553 billion in the same period.
The increase in Chinese defense spending dwarfs the growth in military investment across the rest of Asia, growing by 13.4% between 2000 and 2011, according to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report examined the five Asian nations that spend most heavily on defense: China, South Korea, Japan, India and Taiwan. South Korea ranked second, posting growth of 4.8%. Chinese defense spending could be even higher, the report notes, because of the country’s secrecy regarding defense.
The U.S. Navy is kicking off a program to recapitalize the Northrop Grumman C-2A Greyhound carrier onboard delivery (COD) fleet that will pit a remanufactured C-2 against the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, with no other obvious candidates. Modernizing the Greyhound would allow the Navy to converge its small C-2A and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning fleets for significant operating and support cost savings while leaving the COD mission essentially unchanged.
Teams led by Aurora Flight Sciences and Lockheed Martin plan to demonstrate in 2014 that an untrained marine can use a smartphone application to call up an unmanned resupply helicopter, which will pick out a landing site, negotiate obstacles and threats, land to be unloaded and then take off—all autonomously. The 2014 fly-off between the two teams is the first of series of increasingly challenging annual flight demonstrations planned under the U.S. Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility Systems (Aacus) program.
U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, (FA8615-13-C-6048) is being awarded a $94,700,000 firm-fixed-price contract for retrofit of 12 F-16 C/D Block 60 multi-role fighter aircraft. The location of the performance is Fort Worth, Texas. Work is expected to be completed by May 16, 2016. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WWMK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Contract involves Foreign Military Sales for the government of Oman. U.S. Navy
NAGOYA, Japan — Tight budgets and the rejection of obvious replacements are likely to push Japan to operate its 201 F-15J and F-15JD Eagle fighters for 30 more years, with major upgrades likely necessary.
