Lmams follows the successful deployment of a small number of AeroVironment Switchblade unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in Afghanistan since 2012. The operational concept is similar.
Transparent displays are used in platforms from aircraft heads-up and helmet-mounted displays to automotive windshields, motorcycle helmet visors and eyeglasses. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say each system has limitations, mostly in viewing angles. A team led by MIT Profs.
Michael Fabey (Washington), Francis Tusa (London), Richard Fisher (London)
Ballistic missiles have often been a threat with a bigger bark than bite, mostly due to poor accuracy that renders them militarily ineffective unless armed with mass-destruction warheads. But, as reported last month (AW&ST Feb. 17, p. DT3), Israeli missile-defense expert Uzi Rubin expects a rapid proliferation of higher-precision weapons before 2020.
The British Army is evaluating a method of assuring that adequate fuel is available to aircraft during overseas operations near water. The technique involves the use of a towed flexible barge (TFB)—an established platform—to offload fuel from tankers, which is then transported to shore through waters too shallow for a vessel to enter. In trials last month in Cyprus, a team from 516 Royal Engineers conducted operations with a 69-meter (226-ft.) rubber tube.
U.S. Defense Department leaders think special operations forces (SOF) are uniquely suited for the most likely missions of the future—counter-terrorism and crisis response.
As if there aren't enough concerns about computer security, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics in Germany say laptops and other mobile devices are susceptible to hacking through the high-frequency audio signals they emit. According to an Inside Science report, an experiment by Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz demonstrated that data on air-gapped computers—those not connected to the Internet—could be stolen or corrupted by “covert acoustical networking,” a concept some experts had dismissed.
Smartphones are convenient, but hardly secure. Hence, the need for U.S. defense and security personnel to have one with protected communication. Enter Boeing Black, a modular device that guards data, resists hacking and encrypts conversations. The phone's ultimate protection is a self-destruct mechanism triggered by tampering. Boeing doesn't disclose what this involves, but it's probably a technique for erasing data or destroying circuitry. The company isn't releasing much about the smartphone.
The U.S. Air Force's second training base for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has received its first F-35A of 144 to come. The single-engine, stealthy aircraft (on top) arrived at Luke AFB, Ariz., March 10, escorted by two F-16s. Initial training is being conducted at Eglin AFB, Fla. Sixteen of the JSFs are slated to be delivered to Luke's 56th Fighter Wing by the end of the year. Luke will serve as a main base for training international F-35 pilots.
With contracts awarded for designs of initial supersonic X-plane concepts, NASA's High Speed Project is working on a new set of foundational technologies, instrumentation and test techniques that will prepare the way for its development later this decade. “The High Speed Project feels the next major step is to build a flight demonstrator, and we're trying to do everything we can to be prepared for when the time comes,” says Tom Jones, High Speed Project deputy project manager at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif.
In the last decade, Congress has moved increasingly toward the use of multi-year contracts to save on big-ticket defense programs. But the Pentagon's current long-term budget plans call for stopping the purchase of Sikorsky MH-60 helicopters one year before its current fixed-price, multi-year agreement expires. That prompts the contractor to raise the specter of the decision reversing the trend in multi-year contracting.
With the Indian government and AgustaWestland on the verge of what could be lengthy litigation over the cancellation of a deal for 12 AW101 VVIP helicopters, the Indian air force (IAF) has decided to fast-track a back-up, with time running out for its shaky fleet of Soviet-era Mi-8 executive transport rotorcraft. India's defense ministry has formally initiated paperwork and discussions that will potentially lead to a fresh competition. Until then, however, the air force must have helicopters to ferry government leaders and visiting dignitaries.
The first of two MC-235 gunships, modified from Airbus Military CN235 transports by Alliant Techsystems (ATK). and Jordan's King Abdullah Design & Development Bureau (KADDB), has completed its U.S. testing, including gun firing, and will be delivered to Jordan this month, according to ATK. The second is due to follow in April, and the aircraft will enter service following missile-firing tests and crew training.
Advancements in the Chinese air force, along with a proliferation of technologies that could be converted into electronic weapons, have analysts and officials warning that the U.S. may not be keeping pace.
After 13 years at war and an emergency doubling in the size of the U.S. Army's special mission intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleet, the service is finally pondering a reconciliation of its specialized air forces with an eye toward retaining less than half of the platforms operational today.
The political situation in Ukraine may force the U.S. to reconsider its airborne supply route into Afghanistan. Tensions on the Crimean peninsula have remained high since Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from government in February. Last week, Russia announced it was sending troops and attack helicopters for new exercises near the border with Ukraine. The U.S., meanwhile, is assisting NATO training efforts, deploying 12 F-16s and 300 personnel to Poland and six F-16s to Lithuania.
The Senate aviation subcommittee let the commercial sector air its desires last week about congressional action. For the most part, commercial representatives agree about what they want: maintain higher, earlier funding levels for the FAA's NextGen ATC modernization effort and keep pressure on the agency to provide results to industry. They also want Congress, the White House and even the American public to stop eyeing commercial aviation as an automated teller machine, or “piggybank,” and treat it more like a national asset.
One example of Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) push toward new international joint ventures is Custodio, a Singapore-based cybersecurity research and development company being established in collaboration with the nation's Economic Development Board and announced in February at the Singapore Airshow.
Temperatures soar to beyond 1,000C in the turbine sections of helicopter engines. This is hardly a hospitable environment for a condenser microphone. But Berlin-based German Aerospace Center (DLR) researchers, because they needed to take sound measurements in just such inhospitable places for experiments useful in the decades-long pursuit of quieter helicopters, have designed a special housing and coiled sound canal probe for the job.
Rafi Maor returned to Israel Aerospace Industries as chairman in November 2013. He had worked on the Lavi fighter program and led IAI's unmanned aircraft systems division before leaving the company for the information and telecom industries. Maor gave his first media interview to Senior International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman at last month's Singapore Airshow. AW&ST: What is your view of how big the civil unmanned air system market will be, and how soon it will start to take off?
Russia is taking lessons from NASA’s aeronautics and Europe’s Clean Sky programs in structuring its new civil aviation research effort, to begin in 2016. With $6 billion in government funding over 10 years to 2025, the National Aeronautical R&D Plan will be similar in scale to NASA’s aeronautics program, which runs at around $550 million a year. An overview of the plan was provided by Sergey Chernyshev, executive director of the TsAGI aero-hydrodynamic research institute, at the Greener Aviation 2014 conference in Brussels on Mar. 11.
