LOS ANGELES — Boeing plans to open up the performance envelope of the Phantom Eye UAV following a successful first flight of the hydrogen-powered demonstrator at Edwards AFB, Calif., on June 1. The 150-ft.-span vehicle completed a 28-min. flight after lifting off at 6.22 a.m. PDT from the desert base using a specially designed launch cart. The aircraft climbed to 4,080 ft. and a speed of 62 kt. Boeing says that after returning to land, the vehicle “sustained some damage when the landing gear dug into the lakebed and broke.”
With billions being spent in pursuit of fuel savings, closer integration of engines and aircraft may hold the greatest untapped potential for improvement. But extracting synergies from the intermingling of propulsion and airframe design is demanding changes in the way the stove-piped aerospace industry operates.
MALMEN AIR BASE, Sweden — The Czech Republic is due to make decisions this year on two of the air force’s main equipment projects: how to extend the country’s fighter capacity and when to deploy its tactical airlifters. The Czechs currently operate 12 single-seat and two dual-seat Gripens under a lease deal that expires in 2015. The goal is to complete negotiations on preserving the nation’s fighter inventory.
The proliferation of mobile telephones on the modern battlefield is changing how electronic warfare planners think about how to confront the enemy. The ubiquity of the signals poses a massive challenge in terms of processing power and tracking potential threats. But military and industry officials point out that there are also important advantages to be gained by exploiting GSM-standard cellphone communications and other signals.
The top priority of France's newly elected president, Francois Hollande, is to slash government debt. Although this is no surprise, such a primary goal requires sacrifices as well as new priorities in an environment such as the current very challenging one: The economy is weak, growth is minimal, and the aerospace and defense industry's production costs are too high to efficiently sustain competition.
HOLD THE LINE: Boeing hopes it can secure enough orders to keep its C-17 production line going into 2016 and possibly 2017. So far, the company has secured only enough orders to keep the line going to third-quarter 2014, but it sees opportunities to sell more of the airlifters to international customers and keep the line open for 2-3 years beyond that, says Boeing Defense, Space & Security President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg at a media briefing in Singapore June 1.
After a long and unusually contentious debate in Congress, President Obama signed into law a bill to extend the Export-Import Bank's charter and provide $140 billion in lending authority by 2014. The debate this year turned into a tiff between aerospace giants Boeing and Delta Air Lines, with Delta expressing fear that Ex-Im financing of widebody jets undercuts its global competitiveness. And some Republicans and conservative interest groups called for an end to the bank and its corporate welfare.
The Italian air force will become the second international customer after the Royal Air Force to be able to arm and employ in hunter-killer missions its U.S.-provided Predator and Reaper UAVs. The White House is proposing the move to Congress, which has not rejected the request despite some members' concerns. Indeed, Italy had already ordered an unspecified quantity of Lockheed Martin Hellfire missiles last year, noting that the approval process would be concluded in due time. In turn, delivery of the missiles could start soon.
Bids have been submitted to build and operate the aircrew training system for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A tanker/transport, which is being competed separately from development and production of the KC-135 replacement. Boeing, CAE and Lockheed Martin all confirm they have submitted bids. FlightSafety International and L-3 Link Training & Simulation, which already operate other aircrew training systems (ATS) for the Air Force, also are expected to have bid.
The Eaton chief suspects that the introduction of new technologies that make aircraft cheaper to operate may have permanently shortened their economic lifecycles.
Japan's last attempt at developing a twin-engine transport helicopter flopped. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) built only seven MH2000s from 1998 to 2003.
The call for more U.S. Navy unmanned platforms across the spectrum of the service’s operations is starting to rise to a higher pitch, although Navy officials say such capability is still decades away. “[The] U.S. Navy should prioritize investment in cutting-edge technologies that offer new means of projecting naval power, such as stealthy, unmanned long-range strike platforms and autonomous undersea vehicles,” the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank says in a report released earlier this week.
U.S. lawmakers tend to treat the White House budget proposal as a suggestion, and then proceed to do what they want. But in the fiscal 2013 request, House appropriators changed Navy procurement lines disproportionately more than the other services.
Maps are clearly a vital tool for any military commander, but the days when a two-dimensional, printed representation of an area will suffice have long since passed. Dynamic mapping of the battlespace is not new, but 21st century technologies are revolutionizing the collection, dissemination and analysis of tactical intelligence.
The U.S. Congress is closer than ever before to reversing a 14-year-old law aimed at limiting dual-use satellite technology that the industry complains has put U.S. exports at a competitive disadvantage.
When the U.S. Air Force canceled a little-known airship program, veterans of aerospace development saw it as just another case of a service desperately seeking budget savings. But officials of the small contractor and some observers see something more disturbing—a prejudice against new ways of collecting intelligence and a pre-emptive strike to protect conventional programs.
Do not be surprised if Defense Secretary Leon Panetta secures a $1.4 billion deal to sell India 22 Boeing-made Apache Longbow attack helicopters during his trip there this week, say Center for Strategic & International Studies analysts.
Defense companies that primarily provide services rather than products will be among the first to be hit by reductions in military spending, Moody's Investor Services warns in its latest commentary. Beyond the next fiscal year, a decline in troop deployments overseas will lead to lower services outlays, Moody's says. And as contracts roll over and the Defense Department's heightened focus on procurement cost control takes hold, margins are likely to shrink.
Amid questions about America’s nuclear posture—particularly the role of the country’s ballistic missile submarine fleet—the U.S. Navy says it continues to prove the reliability of the Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missiles (FBMs) carried by the subs. The service conducted successful flights April 14 and 16 of four Trident II D5 FBMs built by Lockheed Martin. The Navy launched two unarmed missiles each day from the submerged submarine USS Maryland (SSBN-738) in the Atlantic Ocean.
During the past year, two large powered-lift models have been tested in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at NASA Ames Research Center in California, evaluating the low-speed benefits of blowing air over high-lift flaps for short takeoff and landing (STOL).
