Aviation Week's 2012 Workforce Study data come from respondents that collectively employ 80% of the A&D industry's workforce of 624,000. Newcomers to this year's study include Alenia Aermacchi North America and Acutec Precision Machining.
The U.S. Air Force should consider stealing a page or two from the Navy and Army playbook for managing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) programs, a National Research Council (NRC) panel says. Both the Army and Navy follow procedures that foster strong ISR program management, according to the report, “Capability Planning and Analysis to Optimize Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Investments,” released earlier this month.
Pennsylvania State University is to lead fabrication of the ground combat vehicle planned to be produced through a series of crowd-sourced design challenges under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) program. Penn State has received a $47.5 million contract to develop an Instant Foundry Adaptive Through Bits (iFAB) that can be automatically configured to manufacture the Fast, Adaptable Next Generation (FANG) ground vehicle resulting from Darpa’s competitions.
In a clever parry, Airbus is preparing to establish A320-series final assembly facilities in the U.S., right in Boeing's backyard. On first glance, it looks like a daring tactic designed to further strengthen the company's global image and boost its long-term goal to become the leading player in the air transport market. But several question marks hover over this decision.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has awarded SRCTec a contract, potentially worth almost $100 million, to supply systems to detect slow- and low-flying ultralight aircraft used to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery Ultra Light Aircraft Detection (ULAD) contract includes options for up to 50 systems for deployment along the southern border. The request for proposals (RFP) called for the first test article to be delivered to the CBP’s Tucson, Ariz., sector within 120 days of contract award.
Most aerospace technologies cannot hope to match the rate of progress enshrined in Moore's Law—the observation that microchip performance doubles every 18-24 months. But in small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), where payload size, weight and power are critical, rapid progress in communication, sensor and even power electronics is paying speedier dividends.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is exploring whether a short-range missile defense target, designed to be one-third the price of using Patriot missiles in such a role, can feasibly be added to its arsenal to reduce the cost of flight testing. The Economical Target makes use of surplus rocket motors, coupled with a rudimentary rocket body to effectively form a sounding rocket suitable for some missile defense tests, says Thomas Webber, acting director for rapid transition at Army Strategic Command.
A forthcoming U.S. Missile Defense Agency flight trial will be the first of its kind to test a layered defense pitting multiple air- and missile-defense systems against both ballistic missiles and air-breathing targets at once. But, hurdles remain toward achieving a truly integrated defense against air and ballistic missile threats to allied interests at home and abroad. FTI-01 is a major graduation exercise slated for this fall, and designed to position three of the Pentagon's missile-defense systems against five targets launched nearly simultaneously.
Add the Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter to the list of 50-year-olds still going strong. It has become the company's longest continuously produced aircraft since the first H-47 was delivered to the U.S. Army on Aug. 16, 1962. Boeing is nearing completion of a $130 million renovation of its Chinook facility in Ridley, Pa., near Philadelphia, for producing the latest model, the CH-47F. Thus far, more than 1,200 Chinooks have been produced for 18 operators, with more than 800 in service for combat, cargo and humanitarian relief missions.
Two demonstration Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites, built by Northrop Grumman, captured these infrared images of a ballistic missile intercept from their low Earth orbit. In 2009, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) lofted the two STSS satellites, developed under the then-Space-Based Infrared System-low program, to explore whether orbiting spacecraft could be used to track warheads in mid-flight.
The aeronautics and defense (A&D) business of Paris-based Air Liquide started in the 1980s as little more than a liquid-oxygen tank supplier for fighters and freighters. But over the past decade, the French industrial gas giant's A&D unit has profited from growth in the commercial airline market and has insinuated itself into some of the world's most high-profile defense programs, despite declining budgets in Europe and the U.S.
Israel's aerial refueling requirements are moving to the forefront as the country mulls possible air strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, and although a U.S. offer of surplus KC-135s would help, it is not a long-term solution. The ingress and egress routes to distant Iranian targets present planners with enormous challenges, including several midair refuelings under hazardous conditions, tasking every single asset that the Israeli air force (IAF) can put in the sky. Keeping fuel-guzzling jets flying to their targets and back would depend on tankers.
RUSSIANS COMING: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is asking the nation’s top naval officer for more information about reported patrols by a Russian nuclear attack submarine in the Gulf of Mexico that had not previously been detected. The ship-killing Akula-class submarine can come equipped with torpedoes and cruise missiles and is among the quietest in the Russian fleet. “This submarine activity reportedly occurred in June and July, simultaneously with incursions by Russian strategic bombers into restricted U.S. airspace,” Cornyn says in an Aug. 17 letter to Adm.
NEW DELHI — India’s air force has received the first of three Embraer 145 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft from Brazil’s Embraer Defense and Security. The delivery follows the successful completion of ground and flight tests which met the operational targets of Embraer and the Center for Airborne Systems (CABS) of India’s Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO).
U.S. Navy emails and other documents suggest that officials muzzled bad test results for the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) variant, the USS Freedom, at a crucial time in the program’s development, when the service was considering which seaframe to pick for the $30 billion-plus fleet.
