The Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace is considering adapting its miniature version of the supersonic BrahMos-M (Mini) to more platforms, and exporting it to friendly countries. The weight of other BrahMos missiles had blocked integration on other Indian air force (IAF) platforms, says Praveen Pathak, general manager for market promotion and export at BrahMos Aerospace. “That prompted us to develop the BrahMos-M.”
The Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global) is looking to “improve understanding of conditions in the Indian Ocean, including validating satellite data on salinity, or salt, levels,” ONR officials say. Confirming satellite findings with actual field-level research is an area scientists have deemed essential to improving the Navy’s oceanographic models, officials note.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) may be within months of getting its intermediate jet trainer (IJT), which has been in development since 1999. The Sitara is being developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) for the IAF and the Indian navy. “The much-delayed Sitara IJT is likely to be operational this year . . . All efforts are being made by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for achieving the final operational clearance by December 2014,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony says.
With the sting of recent reports blasting U.S. Navy surface ship maintenance programs still fresh, the service is fulfilling its stated commitment to make ship repair and improvements a priority. For example, the Navy allocated about $517.6 million in contracts and contract modifications to BAE Systems—mostly for such work on destroyers and cruisers—between January 2013 and January 2014, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of Pentagon contracting data.
The Asia-Pacific region is a critical area that could soon be hotly contested, with Russia, China and India vying for influence and others determined to protect their interests and maintain the maritime status quo. Many factors could upset the balance of power. China's ambitions in the Pacific possibly include establishment of sea-denial boundaries up to 2,700 km (1,678 mi.) from its coasts.
Northrop Grumman Laser Systems is licensing a celestial navigation subsystem, developed by Trex Enterprises Corp. of San Diego, for ground-targeting systems supplied to U.S. and allied forces. Neither company has disclosed details about the technology or products in which it might be used, but the Laser Systems business unit states that the Trex technology will increase the precision and accuracy of the laser-targeting hardware Northrop Grumman supplies for dismounted troops and vehicles. One possible application might be the Hand Held Precision Targeting Device (HHPTD).
Target-tracking systems rely on algorithms that plot the movement, speed and position of threats, while filtering background noise that obscures this data or produces false alarms. Algorithms have been formulated that address most tracking needs with varying degrees of success, but it appears that no single algorithm has thus far been able to meet every tracking need, especially when it comes to distinguishing one or more dynamic targets from background noise.
The continuing debate over the Air-Sea Battle (ASB) concept is complicated by the fact that it involves three separate strands of discussion. First, it is about the future shape, size and equipment of the U.S.'s armed forces and allies, as more than a decade of land warfare against irregular adversaries begins to wind down.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Research Laboratory of Electronics have developed a technology that permits a laser rangefinder to gauge depth by using 1/100th the light of a conventional lidar system and produce images with a scant 1/900th of the light. The rangefinder does this by detecting single reflected photons, rather than the many photons required by conventional lidar.
There's just no pleasing some people. But that can be good. Consider this: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) wants to make high-tech electronics disappear after use. In fact, it created a program for this last year called VAPR (Vanishing Programmable Resources). On Jan. 31, Darpa awarded IBM a $3.45 million contract to develop “transient electronics” as a deployable technology. The devices must perform like commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics, but, unlike COTS devices, cannot be constructed to last for years.
Qualification of Italy's new Black Shark Advanced (BSA) heavyweight torpedo took a big step forward on Jan. 28 when the weapon was launched for the first time by an Italian navy submarine in the Gulf of La Spezia (here the BSA is loaded onboard the Scire). Developed by WASS, a unit of Finmeccanica, the BSA incorporates technologies that will make it relevant on submarines or surface ships for 20 years. These include a lithium-polymer battery and multiple launch capabilities. The January test was by water-ram expulsion, which uses high water pressure to expel the torpedo.
Developing the C-130J as a private venture, Lockheed Martin had to use FAA certification to prove its airworthiness to prospective customers. The earlier C-130E had been certified and produced as the L-100 civil freighter, but when Lockheed began delivering C-130Js for military customers in 1999, it did not see a commercial market for the aircraft.
An irony is playing out here over the U.S. government's fiscal 2015 budget: Not since the last recession ended has there been such widespread acknowledgement in Washington of where federal spending is headed, thanks to the so-called Ryan-Murray budget deal in December and 2014 appropriations, which became law Jan. 17. But Congress increasingly will be unable to do anything about it as 2014 continues.
This year, a Boeing-led industry team plans to demonstrate a multi-platform, multi-spectral sensor fusion technique that would allow F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic-attack aircraft to detect, track, identify and strike hostile aircraft from long distances, with low or zero reliance on active radar. The idea is to make the Hornets less detectable and reduce or eliminate the impact of hostile jamming. The tests build on the results of an air-to-surface targeting demonstration last summer (AW&ST Aug. 26, 2013, p.
Operations in the last decade in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa have taught the Marine Corps that it needs more of its own “organic” electronic-warfare capability, and the service is crafting an ambitious plan to build a one-of-a-kind distributed network of systems for the future.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
An edge in developing and producing gallium-nitride (GaN) semiconductor material is behind Raytheon's hard-fought win of the U.S. Navy's Next-Generation Jammer contract and could set a benchmark for competitors seeking to take on the company in future sensor competitions, Raytheon officials say.
U.K. trials to develop a common architecture for aircraft defensive-aids systems could help to push down the cost of aircraft protection. Drawing lessons from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, commanders have realized they might not be able to rely on or have time to buy such equipment through the urgent operational requirement procurements system in the future. As a result, engineers from the U.K.'s Defense Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) have been working on a new model for delivering defensive aids to large fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.
In the skies over the Australian Outback, the U.K. is testing technologies it hopes will not only shape the future of the Royal Air Force but also help it retain key skills and grab a lead in defense exports. With the first flights of the £185 million ($300 million) BAE Systems Taranis unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) last August, the U.K. has become only the third sovereign state to develop the capability, after the U.S. and China. The Neuron UCAV demonstrator flown in France in 2012 is a joint international effort.
At first glance, not a great deal is remarkable about the black-and-white photograph (below) in which one can see the Queen Mary, portside at Long Beach, Calif. The luxury liner is clearly visible in the large-format image, with a degree of detail showing portholes, lifeboats, balconies and balustrades. Yet the image's exceptional qualities lie in where it was taken: from an aircraft flying at 40,000 ft., 72 nm away.
When it comes to the fiscal 2015 budget request from the Obama administration, if you like your current major aerospace and defense program, you can keep it—for now. With the politically charged nature of final 2014 appropriations and their late-cycle passage Jan. 17, and next month's release of the 2015 request and accompanying long-term budget blueprint, more than the usual high-level information is already known about the White House's formal request as far as 2018.
Three failures in a row often bode ill for a program's funding at the Pentagon. No so for missile defense. On the heels of last year's humiliating third failure of the U.S.'s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in what was billed as a fairly simple flight trial, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is doubling down. He plans to add more than $4.5 billion to the Missile Defense Agency's coffers, much of it for GMD, from fiscal 2015-19, says Riki Ellison, chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
