TAMPA, Fla. — The U.S. Intelligence Community has “reached a consensus” on a recommendation to lift a restriction that forbids U.S. commercial satellite imagery manufacturers from releasing imagery with resolution of less than 0.5 meters. The proposal “bodes well for industry,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told an audience at the 10th annual Geoint conference here. Clapper says the intelligence community has forwarded the recommendations to an interagency group for review.
Aviation Week readers have been given an exclusive first look at the formation flight of the NEUROn unmanned combat air vehicle with a Rafale fighter and a Falcon 7X business jet, filmed and photographed by two chase planes.
Cubic Defense Systemshas been awarded a contract valued at more than $5 million from the U.S. Air Force to supply its P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS) to the Moroccan Air Force.
Australia is likely to commit to buying 58 more Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings this month, setting aside the alternative of consolidating its combat aircraft squadrons on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The decision will increase the country’s total commitment to 72 F-35s and expand the Royal Australian Air Force’s fast-jet fleet, counting a separate order for 12 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft as additional to, not part of, the fighter force renewal.
Record-high operating profit margins being reported by U.S. defense prime contractors could be sustained for another year, perhaps even three, but later this decade and into next, margins may come under pressure. Of course, this has to be considered on a company-by-company basis, but there are some broader changes to consider
The U.S. Navy is preparing to conduct a new round of sea trials this summer with its X-47B stealthy aircraft to prove the unmanned system can clear the busy aircraft carrier deck in 90 sec. or less, just like its piloted counterparts. This would allow for a more seamless flow of manned and unmanned launches and recoveries on deck, a key step toward earning unmanned aircraft a coveted parking space on American carriers in 2020.
I n Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, there’s a scene where one of Mendy Melendez’s boys follows Philip Marlowe out of a bar. There might have been trouble, Marlowe says, “if this enormous man hadn’t got out of an enormous car” and thrown the kid one-handed against the wall. “What was that?” Marlowe asks the bruised gangster. “Big Willie Magoon. A policeman. He thinks he’s tough.”
Mubadala Development Company, Tawazun Holding and Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) expressing their intent to explore the synergy opportunities that could be created by the unification of their defence services businesses.
The identity of what appears to be a blended wing-body aircraft type photographed over Amarillo, Texas, on March 10 remains uncertain, with the U.S. Air Force declining any comment on the aircraft.
BEIJING — South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will ask Lockheed Martin to invest up to 20% in the development of the proposed indigenous KF-X fighter, local media report. DAPA, which approved purchase of the Lockheed Martin F-35 on March 23, will begin negotiations next week with the U.S. Air Force on prices of the aircraft, to be supplied under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process, and with the manufacturer on offsets.
No matter the audience, U.S. Navy officials are making one thing clear: there is nothing more important to them than securing the nation’s program to build submarines to replace the SSBN Ohio-class fleet of nuclear-armed submarines. “The Ohio-class replacement is our priority,” says Sean Stackley, Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition. “We are doing everything we can to protect the funding.”
SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile’s armed forces are looking at a requirement for around 11 small transport aircraft, potentially kicking off yet another dual between the Alenia Aermacchi C-27J and the Airbus Defense & Space C295. The army here is looking for roughly three aircraft, with the air force considering as many as eight, industry officials say.
While the U.S. Navy plans to put a higher percentage of its ships in the Pacific as part of the Pentagon’s rebalancing of forces to the region, financial constraints are cutting into the actual number of ships being sent, causing concern among Senate Armed Services Committee members. The rebalance called for the percentage of ships to increase to about 60% from about half of the overall fleet, notes Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla). But thanks to sequestration and related cuts, there are fewer ships available. “It’s 60 percent of a smaller number,” he says.
LONDON — Spain has opened the doors to a new UAV flight-test center, near Villacarrillo in the province of Andalucía. The €4.5 million ($6.2 million) Atlas (Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced Unmanned Systems) complex, formally opened on March 21, features an airfield and 1,000 sq. km (386 sq. mi.) of airspace, which officials say are ideally suited for the testing of light remotely piloted air systems.
European missile manufacturer MBDA has been awarded £500 million ($830 million) Anglo-French contract, to demonstrate and manufacture a new-generation, helicopter-borne anti-ship missile. The weapon—known as the Future Anti-Ship Guided Weapon (Heavy) or FASGW(H) in the U.K., and the Anti-Navire Léger (ANL) in France—will equip the Royal Navy’s new AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat naval helicopters, as well as the Airbus Helicopters AS565 Panthers and NHIndustries NH90s of the French navy.
There is “very little risk” to delivering the software capabilities required for initial operational capability (IOC) of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Lockheed Martin F-35B in 2015, Joint Strike Fighter, program head Lt. Gen. Christopher Bodgan told a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 26. Bogdan said he is more concerned about the ability to modify all of the Marine Corps’ aircraft “to the production-representative configuration needed to go to war. That will be more of a problem in 2015.”
China’s ongoing efforts toward territorial grabs in the Asia-Pacific region continue to worry U.S. military officials and defense analysts. “I would have never anticipated that there would be the kind of tensions in the vast South China Sea over territorial rights and fishing rights, or in the East China Sea,” Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee earlier this month.
SANTIAGO, Chile — Despite mandatory funding cuts, the U.S. Air Force is trying to maintain strong ties with its counterparts in Chile. Sequestration in Washington, however, has put a strain on the number of exercises the American services can conduct with partners in the region. U.S. forces have had to cut roughly 200 activities with partners in the region because of the spending cuts, says Maj. Gen. Mark Nowland, chief of staff for U.S. Southern Command. This command has authority over U.S. activities in Central and South America.
Airbus Defense is working to increase its industrial ties to the local aerospace industry here with the signing of a cooperative agreement with a Chilean company to support aircraft in the area, including the C212 and C101.
NEW DELHI — India imports nearly three times as many arms as China and Pakistan, a Swedish-based research institute says, firming up its position as the world’s leading buyer of military weapons. India increased its arms imports by 111% over the past five years and now accounts for 14% of the world’s weapons imports, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) says. The second-highest importers, China and Pakistan, each account for 5% of international defense imports.
Proposals are being sought for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) program to demonstrate a rocket-launched hypersonic weapon capable of flying more than 1,000 mi. in 10 min. TBG is one of two new high-speed strike weapon efforts Darpa is launching with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The other is the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program.
Marking its 2-millionth unmanned-aircraft flight hour, the U.S. Army is turning its attention to how the operation of its current UAS fleet needs to evolve. “We are post-development on all of our systems, and in production and fielding,” says Col. Timothy Baxter, project manager for unmanned aircraft systems. “The platforms we have are the platforms we will have for the foreseeable future,” he says.
