BEIJING — South Korea will buy 40 Lockheed Martin F-35As to satisfy a fighter requirement initially set at 60 aircraft, its joint chiefs of staff announced on Nov. 22. A further 20 fighters, not necessarily F-35s, may be ordered later, subject to security and fiscal circumstances. The decision almost certainly puts an end to Boeing’s hopes of selling more F-15s to South Korea. The other competitor, the Eurofighter consortium, led by EADS in South Korea, seems to have a remote chance of filling the later order.
STAYING RELEVANT: Making sure a Pentagon, NASA or FAA program keeps on its budget and delivery schedule is just one thing managers will have to do to stay alive as U.S. budgets start to account for the 2011 Budget Control Act’s long-term spending reductions, according to participants at Aviation Week’s recent Aerospace and Defense Programs conference. According to several panel discussions, executives and analysts believe making sure a given program is relevant — but not redundant — to the customer agency’s de-scoped mission also will be increasingly important.
LONDON — Eurocopter’s Brazilian subsidiary Helibras has flown its first locally assembled EC725 Caracal. The helicopter, BRA17, believed to be destined for the Brazilian navy, took to the air at the company’s facility in Itajuba, Minas Gerais, on Nov. 21 and represents the beginning of the third stage of the H-XBR program, which will see 50 EC725s enter service with the Brazilian air force, navy and army, as the country modernizes its helicopter forces.
Frozen igniter fluid lines were to blame for the failure of an upper-stage restart during the first Falcon 9 v1.1 launch on Sept. 29. Officials at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), manufacturer of the rocket, did not detect the problem during ground tests because “ambient air kept the lines warm,” says Emily Shanklin, a spokeswoman for the company. It is unclear whether thermal testing was conducted. “We’ve added insulation and made sure that cold oxygen can’t impinge on the lines” in future missions, she says.
DUBAI — The consortium of European aerospace manufacturers building the Eurofighter Typhoon has started trials to integrate MBDA’s Storm Shadow cruise missile onto the combat aircraft. Flight trials with the weapon are due to begin soon using Alenia Aermacchi’s flight-test aircraft IPA2. Ground tests to ensure the 1,230-kg weapon fits onto the second inner-most under wing pylon have already been carried out, according to Eurofighter officials, speaking at the Dubai air show on Nov. 20.
A new White House space-transportation policy stresses public-private partnerships and “responsive” military space capabilities, and allows the commercial launch of foreign rockets from U.S. soil on a “case-by-case” basis. “The U.S. space transportation sector is undergoing a period of change as new actors and capabilities emerge and nontraditional public-private partnerships are established,” the eight-page document notes. “At the same time, the sector faces challenges, to include increased proliferation concerns and international competition.”
Researchers have adapted dolphin sonar—used with “bubble nets” to herd fish—to a new radar concept that eliminates clutter while searching for concealed explosives or surveillance equipment on land. Twin Inverted Pulse Radar (Twipr), developed in England at the University of Southampton, with input from University College London and Cobham Technical Services, zeros in on electronic circuitry. Prof.
Integrating interoperable open architectures (IOA) in new and existing platforms offers benefits across defense procurement. The time between identifying an operational requirement and getting it fielded would be minimized; subsystems could be integrated without bulking up platforms; and procurement costs could be cut, if only obsolete or superfluous components are removed and replace.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani cleverly opened a gap between the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, with a recent diplomatic charm offensive that seems intended to ease economic sanctions against Iran that were imposed as punishment for its ongoing nuclear program.
Few actions are more critical in combat than dropping mortar shells on target. U.S. Marine Corps mortar crews will soon have access to a portable sight that mounts to the upper barrel of a 60-mm mortar and substantially improves accuracy, especially at night. The lightweight device—it reportedly can be carried in a shirt pocket—which is still in the prototype stage, is called the Fire Control Unit (FCU). It was developed by the TechSolutions program of the U.S. Office of Naval Research, along with L-3 Insight Technologies.
Researchers in the Aerospace Medicine and Vestibular Research Laboratory of the Mayo Clinic have found an early way to detect hypoxia before dangerous and life-threatening symptoms appear. Symptoms have historically been the most reliable way of discovering hypoxia, which is, of course, oxygen deprivation in blood and tissues that affects pilots flying at high altitude (also deep-sea divers).
Despite repeated attempts to kill programs related to the acquisition and maintenance of U.S. aircraft carriers, the fleet continues to rule the seas and anchor naval strategy. But with sequestration, continuing resolutions and other budgetary concerns, carriers remain big financial targets. Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, the Navy's program executive officer for aircraft carriers, recently discussed the challenges of keeping CVN-78 Gerald Ford construction and other programs on track with Naval Editor Michael Fabey.
Three years of work in bomb-detection technology has paid off for the U.S. Office of Naval Research, which in 2010 funded a five-year, $7 million multi-university pro-gram to detect improvised explosive devices (IED) from safe distances. Researchers developed a system that uses a sonic beam from a phased acoustic array to identify IEDs and differentiate between those with low- and high-yield explosives. A paper delivered last month by Prof.
Amy Svitak (Beijing and Paris), David Hambling (London), David Eshel (Tel Aviv)
A growing number of satellite-based automatic identification systems (AIS) make it easier for maritime surveillance to tie ship-tracking data with high-resolution satellite imagery. Used with AIS, space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical remote-sensing platforms determine not only the presence of ships, but their identity, position, speed, heading, load, size and type.
As defense manufacturers become accustomed to the prospect of lower Pentagon budgets, there is growing concern over the health of the supply chain, particularly the lower tiers and specifically small companies that may be the sole source of critical parts or a unique technology.
A technology demonstrator for Piaggio's Hammerhead unmanned aerial vehicle has made its first short hop into the air, in Italy. The flight is the first major step in the development of a wholly European-developed medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV), which is now on a path to potentially enter service with the Italian air force in 2015.
A focus on realistic requirements has helped Swedish industry and government teams integrate weapons on the Gripen faster and at lower cost than similar efforts elsewhere.
Deliveries of three Pentagon-procured fixed-wing tactical transport aircraft to Yemen's capital of Sanaa in September, coupled with announcements of a newly tendered squadron of light observation planes, marked the culmination of the Obama administration's push to help the Yemeni air force take ownership of an Al Qaeda fight that has become synonymous with American unmanned aerial vehicle technology.
