Flight-simulator manufacturer CAE is to receive a C$250 million ($225 million) repayable investment from the Canadian government to support its Project Innovate program to develop new modeling and simulation technologies. Investment in the company’s research and development program, which will continue into 2020, is being made under the federal government’s Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative (SADI).
The U.K.’s Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. (HAV) has begun reassembling a large airship acquired from the U.S. Army, following cancellation of the Northrop Grumman-led Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program. Cardington-based HAV plans to use the 302-ft.-long HAV304 hybrid airship, which flew only once in August 2012 at Lakehurst, N.J., as a prototype and demonstrator for its planned Airlander 50 commercial heavy-lift airship. The first U.K. flight is expected by year’s end.
After a strong fourth quarter in which it shipped 40% of the aircraft it delivered last year, Embraer is forecasting a similar level of activity in 2014, but with a slight shift in the balance between commercial and business jets. The year-end rush allowed the Brazilian manufacturer to meet its financial targets for 2013, with its highest-ever quarterly revenues of $2.3 billion boosting net revenues for the year to $6.2 billion, up slightly over 2012.
1. Electronics for All Markets Company: Esterline CMC Electronics Services: Located in Montreal, Esterline CMC Electronics focuses equally on its business, commercial and military aviation markets, with a wide product line including FMS/GPS, enhanced vision system sensors, satellite communications antennas and cockpit systems integration. The company recently certified its CMA-9000 FMS for retrofit on the Airbus A310, offering operators a replacement for older FMS components with more limited memory capacity.
Amy Butler (Washington), Michael Bruno (Washington)
The Pentagon is trying to balance demands for restoring readiness and pushing for next-generation technologies in its fiscal 2015 budget request, despite congressional spending limits imposing a $45 billion cut to its expected plan.
Some aircraft are regarded as seminal, as having defined or shaped a market, as Boeing's 707 did for the jetliner and General Atomics' Predator has for unmanned aircraft. Such a status could be due the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max helicopter as soon as unmanned cargo delivery becomes routine.
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch two new, secretly developed satellites this year to spy on activities in the densely populated geosynchronous orbit belt, according to Gen. William Shelton, who leads Air Force Space Command. The spacecraft, classified until Shelton revealed their existence Feb. 21, were developed by the Air Force and Orbital Sciences Corp. under the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), service officials say.
Developed with a Cold War mind-set, communications for stealthy aircraft were largely intended to be limited. But that has become a hindrance to operating the F-22 and F-35 on the modern battlefield.
It may be decades away, but the U.S. Army is working to protect the plan to replace its massive fleet of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks from near-term budget cutting that could derail the program. While facing major reductions in force structure, the Army is spending money to develop the technology, define the requirements and decide what is affordable in a future rotorcraft.
Flying the Piaggio P180 Avanti twin-turboprop pusher from the front seat is a unique experience, but taking control of the same Avanti using a sidestick and a virtual windscreen from a side-facing seat in the rear of the cabin is a rare treat indeed.
NEW DELHI — Saddled with obsolete training aircraft, the Indian air force (IAF) has decided to snub the long-delayed, indigenous HJT-36 Sitara intermediate jet trainer (IJT) and purchase new trainers from abroad. The IAF has issued a request for information for a lightweight, single-engine, twin-seat trainer with a secondary light attack capability, an official at India’s ministry of defense says. “We have asked the vendors to provide cost details for the direct purchase of IJTs for batch sizes of 10, 20, 30 and 50 aircraft,” he says.
There is apparently a price to be paid for the width and volume provided by the even-numbered Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) variants built by Austal USA and General Dynamics—a very tight squeeze through the Panama Canal. (LCS-4 photo: Austal USA)
Award of a contract to develop a new cockpit for U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters could be imminent, with a Milestone B decision on launching the L Digital development program expected Feb. 28. Elbit Systems of America, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins are known bidders for the program, under which up to 763 UH-60Ls would be upgraded with a glass cockpit as similar as possible to that of the Army’s later UH-60M.
ROMEOS ARRIVE: The U.S. Navy officially delivered two MH-60Rs to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) recently. The helicopters are the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare operations, and the RAN will acquire a fleet of 24 Romeos. “We pack a punch now using the Hellfire missile that we’ve never had before,” says Cmdr. David Frost, who leads RAN’s squadron of Romeos. “It’s been a capability gap that we’re now going to be able to fill with this aircraft.
Major U.S. Navy ship and radar programs for ballistic missile defense (BMD) have recently made significant headway. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a contract to support the engineering and manufacturing development of the U.S. Navy’s next-generation integrated Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). The contract has a potential value of $250.1 million over 10 years if all options are exercised.
The next likely deputy U.S. defense secretary, Bob Work, agreed with senators Feb. 25 that the U.S. Air Force Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) represents a necessary capability.
As the U.S. Coast Guard finishes up rebuilding its surface fleet and taking care of major fixed-wing aircraft needs, the service will next need to worry about finding replacements for its aging helicopters, says Adm. Robert Papp, its commandant. The Coast Guard should be monitoring the efforts of the U.S. Air Force to secure another search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopter to see if a basic model of that aircraft can be acquired to meet Coast Guard needs, Papp said Feb. 26 after his annual state-of-the-Coast Guard address.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is about to begin a new series of flight trials involving the Thales Watchkeeper unmanned aerial system. Trials are moving from Aberporth in West Wales to the ministry’s test airfield at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, where the aircraft will be able to directly support army training over the Salisbury Plain Training Area.
F-35 activities planned to take place after the program’s development phase ends in 2016 could slip by up to six months, according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, program executive officer for the stealthy fighter. Work leading up to completion of development of the multinational, $398 billion program is largely on track, he told an audience hosted by Credit Suisse/McAleese & Associates Feb. 25. “I’m measuring the days I’m off in those milestones by days and weeks,” he said.
The U.S. Air Force has ruled that the first Falcon 9 v1.1 flight conducted last fall does count as one of three required for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to be certified to compete for boosting U.S national security payloads into orbit, as the upstart company works to take on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly.
The U.S. Air Force’s portion of an emerging Pentagon wish list of extra spending in fiscal 2015 and beyond is $41 billion, including $7 billion in the year starting Oct. 1, according to the armed service’s secretary. Deborah Lee James also told the Bloomberg Government conference on Feb. 26 that the budget request coming March 4 will call for 283 aircraft to be retired, including the A-10 close air support (CAS) fleet and U-2 high-flying reconnaissance system.
POSEIDON WORK: The U.S. Navy this month awarded Boeing a $2.1 billion modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise options for the procurement of 16 P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft full rate production Lot I aircraft and 16 Ancillary Mission Equipment kits for the U.S. Navy. Navy officials tout the P-8A Poseidons as a replacement to P-3C Orion aircraft, especially in the expansive Asia-Pacific. The Pentagon is now refocusing its forces on that region.
