Fly-by-wire controls are commonplace in fixed-wing aircraft, but a rarity in rotorcraft. Cost is usually cited as the reason for not using FBW, despite its performance advantages, but now Kazan Helicopters is removing fly-by-wire from its light twin-turbine Ansat because of safety concerns.
Delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program may not have produced big sales for interim aircraft, but could provide a boost for electronic warfare suppliers as militaries endeavor to keep existing hardware operationally relevant.
VIDEO RADAR: A synthetic-aperture radar small enough to fit inside an electro-optical/infrared sensor ball and which can provide high-resolution video in all weather – that’s the goal of a new U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program. The Video Synthetic-Aperture Radar (ViSAR) program plans to develop an extremely high-frequency radar that will allow a gunship to target moving people and vehicles through clouds and other obscurants that degrade infrared.
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) is following in the footsteps of his father, Bud, as a champion of transportation funding. In many ways, the younger Shuster is dealing with a far different Congress—one stuffed with members who lack legislative experience and were elected as agents of change.
Amy Butler (Langley AFB, Va.), Robert Wall (Langley AFB, Va.)
Collection of intelligence in Afghanistan has not been a trivial problem, with the need to track individuals in mountains and detect small improvised explosive devices, but it pales in comparison to the challenges involved in taking on a well-equipped, highly sophisticated adversary.
The U.S. Army plans to award Boeing a contract to support development of a package of upgrades to its CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The CH-47 Block II Aircraft Component Improvement Program (ACIP) will integrate three separate developments : the Advanced Concept Rotor Blade (ACRB), active parallel actuator system and improved-performance (IP) engine.
LONDON – Higher-than-expected costs of converting its aircraft carriers to use F-35Cs has forced the U.K. to return to buying the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing version. The U.K. abandoned the F-35B during the 2010 Strategic Defense & Security Review, arguing the catapult-launch and arrestor gear F-35C was a better fit.
AVX Aircraft is to study fuel-efficiency improvements for the U.S. Army’s Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout helicopter under a contract awarded via the Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC). The study’s starting point is the Fort Worth-based company’s proposal to upgrade the OH-58D with coaxial rotors and dual ducted-fan propulsors to meet the Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement.
ROME – The Australian government has opted to buy 10 Alenia Aermacchi C-27Js to meet its tactical transport needs. The aircraft is to replace the Caribou, retired in 2009. The first C-27J is due in Australia in 2015, followed in late 2016 by its initial operating capability. The aircraft will be based at RAAF Richmond.
Los Angeles – U.S. and Australian researchers say a rocket-boosted, hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet was successfully operated for around 12 sec. while accelerating from Mach 6.5 to Mach 8 during a test from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.
The House Armed Services Committee has approved a defense policy bill to authorize $554 billion in Pentagon spending during fiscal 2013 and that keeps in place a requirement for the Pentagon to start work on a new East Coast missile defense site. The bill, which authorizes $88 billion in war funding, also approved an amendment that will follow the House Appropriations Committee in putting a halt on the Air Force’s plan to scale back the Air National Guard with regard to C-130s.
ROME – The Italian air force is developing an EC-27 JEDI electronic attack aircraft. The system is effectively a smaller version of the U.S. EC-130H Compass Call that the U.S. Air Force operates. The system is based on commercial off-the-shelf equipment and is set up as a roll-on/roll-off capability, says Italian air force Col. Giuseppe Sgamba, the commander of the Italian air force electronic warfare center.
ROME – Saab is about to embark on flight testing of the BOH pod, a new self-protection system for fighters and light-attack aircraft. The system is the latest iteration of the BOL and BOZ dispense system family. The BOH is integrated in a Sidewinder-sized pod and would be mounted on a weapons station capable of firing the dogfight missile or AIM-120 Amraam missile.
APACHE CONTRACT: The U.S. Army has awarded Morganti HAC, J.V., of Danbury, Conn., a $54,696,965 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for the construction of facilities and infrastructure to support the procurement of Apache AH-64D helicopters, the Defense Department announced May 10. The work will be performed in Kattamia Air Base, Egypt, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 22, 2012. There were 23 bids solicited, with six received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Winchester, Va., is the contracting activity.
Boeing is looking ahead to a 2013 critical design review of the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A refueler after wrapping up a monthlong preliminary design review (PDR) in April. The PDR, which took place March 21-April 27, validated that Boeing ’s design “meets system requirements [and] establishes the basis for proceeding with the detailed design,” according to an Air Force statement.
Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) and the Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC)/Embraer team competing once again for a contract to supply light-attack aircraft to Afghanistan may both have reasons for concern with the U.S. Air Force’s revised request for proposals. An amended RFP for the Light Air Support (LAS) program was issued on May 4 after the Air Force decided to restage the competition following its decision to terminate the $355 million contract awarded to SNC in December to supply 20 Embraer AT-29 Super Tucanos.
The House Armed Services Committee fended off an amendment that could have withheld half of procurement funding for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in fiscal 2013 if it does not deliver to Congress the date the program is to reach an initial operating capability (IOC). Instead, the defense authorization bill being considered by the House will require the Defense Department to provide the IOC date without a penalty.
A follow-up high-tech development program has caught the eye of a leading lawmaker on defense issues eager to ensure that the Pentagon does not resurrect an alternative engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Last year, General Electric finally ceded an epic battle to try to make an engine for the program, leaving the engine made by Pratt & Whitney, whose parent company United Technologies is based in Connecticut, as the last engine standing.
Click here to view the pdf 2013 Defense Authorization Bill, Chairman's Mark: Changes from Request($ in millions) 2013 Defense Authorization Bill, Chairman's Mark: Changes from Request ($ in millions) Service Budget Acct:Line
Military unmanned aerial vehicles are coming to the U.S. National Airspace System, and lawmakers from the House of Representatives want to know how the Defense Department (DOD) plans to keep up training until new safety regulations allow routine access.
Military unmanned aerial vehicles are coming to the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), and House lawmakers want to know how the Defense Department plans to keep up training until new safety regulations allow routine access.
The U.S. Navy is switching its focus on directed-energy weapons from the megawatt-class free-electron laser to less-powerful solid-state lasers, announcing plans to develop and demonstrate a prototype weapon aboard a Navy ship against aerial and small-boat targets. “We believe it’s time to move forward with solid-state lasers and shift the focus from limited demonstrations to weapon prototype development and related technology advancement,” say Peter Morrison, Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) program officer.
There are many indicators of House authorizers’ generous wishes for Pentagon spending in fiscal 2013, but the best might be this: $1.7 billion for 11 programs for which the Obama administration did not seek a penny.
ROME – The Italian military is taking another look at how to address its future airborne signals intelligence needs, although a tight budget environment makes it uncertain when a new platform will be fielded. The military is exploring its operational needs and future requirements through the use of an airborne sensor laboratory, says a senior Italian air force officer at the Association of Old Crows/Shephard Electronic Warfare Europe conference.
