LONDON — The U.K.’s unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator Taranis has made its first test flights, according to documentation given to a government inquiry committee regarding the use of remotely piloted vehicles. In the public evidence, being heard by the Commons Select Committee and supplied by the U.K. Defense Ministry, ground tests of the UCAV commenced in 2010 and “flight trials took place in 2013.” No further detail is given about when or where the test flights may have taken place.
Northrop Grumman is not saying whether it will compete in the U.S. Air Force’s Long-Range Strike – Bomber program. Boeing and Lockheed Martin have announced that they will be teaming up to pursue the contract, with Boeing as prime and Lockheed as chief teammate.
The U.S. Navy is calling on industry to provide it with options on how to train helicopter pilots in the future. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) has put out a request for information on how it can supplement or replace its aging fleet of Bell TH-57 Sea Ranger single-engine training helicopters to support the helicopter flight training of Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and foreign student pilots.
XIAN, China — The proposed Sino-Russian Advanced Heavy Lifter (AHL) helicopter may be much larger than previously expected, some brief details revealed by Avicopter suggest. The helicopter is under study—as it has been since 2008—when the Russian and Chinese governments agreed to cooperate on its development. Gross weight will be 30-40 tons, says Avicopter, which had previously said it would weigh up to 30 tons.
For a second time in a week the U.S. Navy’s first-of-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) is in need of repairs. The USS Freedom was pierside in Singapore Oct. 24, making preparations to get underway when the crew found “seawater contamination in the starboard steerable waterjet hydraulic system,” says Lt. Cmdr. Clayton Doss.
SEQUESTRATION: There are no other outcomes under widespread, automatic budget authority reductions except for a smaller U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy, according to the top civilian and uniformed acquisition official of each armed service. The officials told the House Armed Services tactical air and land subcommittee that the consequences mean a less-capable and less-ready U.S. military.
LONDON — Eurocopter and UAV manufacturer AeroVironment have signed a cooperative agreement to develop new capabilities. Announcing the move at the Association of the U.S. Army event in Washington Oct. 23, the two companies said the agreement would allow them to explore expanding into new markets and developing new capabilities to meet future customer needs.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) completed the flight of its first upgraded Mirage 2000 at the Istres-Le Tubé air base in France early this month, according to a spokesman of manufacturer Dassault Aviation. Faced with a depleted tactical air capability and an inordinate delay in signing the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, the IAF is pushing to expedite the upgrading of its Mirage 2000s. The first upgraded Dassault Mirage 2000H is likely to be delivered in August or September 2014, says an IAF official.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has completed the first two endurance demonstration flights of the Improved Gray Eagle (IGE) unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Army, flying for 45.3 hr. compared with 25 hr. for the in-service Block 1 MQ-1C. IGE was developed with company funding to increase endurance and payload with minor modifications to the Gray Eagle. Following the second customer-funded demonstration flight, GA-ASI says, it will analyze the data and share it with the Army to “allow them to decide the follow-on activities for IGE.”
Five companies are designing long-endurance, ship-based surveillance and strike unmanned aircraft under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program. TERN is intended to demonstrate the capability to provide Predator-class medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned-aircraft capabilities from the flight decks of small ships, including the U.S. Navy’s LCS-2 Littoral Combat Ships and DDG-51 destroyers.
Commercial aftermarket growth continues to bolster United Technologies Corp.’s (UTC) business units, boosting the company’s overall commercial results and helping offset its struggling military business across the board, executives say. Pratt & Whitney’s large commercial spares revenues increased 22% in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the second straight increase after five quarters of decline. Legacy Pratt engine spares “are recovering” and the V2500 market is growing, helping offset weaker demand for PW2000 parts, says UTC CFO Greg Hayes.
The U.S. Navy and Congress could consider “cross-class” block-buy shipbuilding contracts for its attack submarine and Ohio-class replacement ballistic-missile submarine fleets in coming years to help the service meet its fleet size targets within funding restraints, says Ronald O’Rourke, naval specialist for the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Congress could also consider shifting other Pentagon resources to help fund Navy shipbuilding needs, O’Rourke testified Oct. 23 at a House Armed Services seapower subcommittee hearing.
Commercial aftermarket growth continues to bolster United Technologies Corp.’s (UTC) business units, boosting the company’s overall commercial results and helping offset its struggling military business across the board, executives say. Pratt & Whitney’s large commercial spares revenues increased 22% in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the second straight increase after five quarters of decline. Legacy Pratt engine spares “are recovering” and the V2500 market is growing, helping offset weaker demand for PW2000 parts, says UTC CFO Greg Hayes.
ASIA PACIFIC: Kim Beazley, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., says President Barack Obama’s absence from the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit (APEC) due to the U.S. government shutdown and debt-ceiling dispute with tea party legislators was noted by other countries. “The inability of the president to be present at the APEC summit meetings was very bad,” Beazley told a Foreign Policy Institute audience.
Raytheon has completed flight tests of a low-cost missile rapidly developed to shoot down mortars, rockets and unmanned aircraft, but has yet to find a home for the weapon. Developed under the U.S. Army’s Accelerated Improved Intercept Initiative (AI3) program, the missile scored 22 successes in 24 “system intercepts” during testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., Sept. 16-30, says Michael Means, senior business development manager for Raytheon Missile Systems.
NEW DELHI — India has issued a final notice to AgustaWestland as it moves to cancel the planned purchase of AW101 helicopters for VIP transport that has been tainted by a bribery scandal. “We have issued a final show cause notice to AgustaWestland on Oct. 21 asking why all or any action, including cancellation of the contract, should not be taken against them for violating the terms of the pre-integrity pact and the contract for the procurement of 12 AW101 helicopters,” a defense ministry official says.
Current and future military cargo trucks could be turned into individual autonomous ground vehicles that could be herded into driverless convoys under a program being developed by Lockheed Martin.
Shortcomings in air traffic control and flight procedures are among a string of causes which led to the loss of a Norwegian Hercules in Sweden in March 2012, accident investigators have reported. Four aircrew and one passenger died when the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) C-130J Hercules transport crashed into the Kebnekaise Massif, Sweden’s highest mountain, during the NATO Cold Response exercises on March 12 of last year. The aircraft — call sign Haze 01 — had been flying a sortie from Narvik/Evenes Airport in Norway to Kiruna airport, Sweden.
The U.S. Navy issued a stop-work order Oct. 23 on the contract it gave Raytheon earlier this month for the service’s Air & Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), in the wake of Lockheed Martin’s protest. Lockheed spokesman Keith Little said Oct. 22 that the contractor protested the AMDR contract “after careful consideration,” adding, “We submitted a technically compliant solution at a very affordable price. We do not believe the merits of our offering were properly considered during the evaluation process.”
FAA has given Applied Research Associates Inc.’s (ARA) Nighthawk IV micro-UAV a special airworthiness certificate, which will allow potential customers to apply for agency approval to operate the 2-lb. aicraft in the national airspace.
