After Lockheed Martin completes flights of the flying-wing X-56A for the U.S. Air Force, NASA plans to use the experimental unmanned aircraft to develop active control systems for slender, flexible wings on future, highly efficient transport aircraft. Transfer of the aircraft from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is expected around the end of the year, with NASA flights planned to begin by the end of 2013, following development of a new research flight-control system, says NASA Dryden Flight Research Center engineer Starr Ginn.
The U.S. defense turn to Asia and the air campaign last year in Libya have European militaries pondering how to ensure they have an independent deep-strike capability. But addressing the multifaceted requirements will not be cheap, and the recognition that something needs to be done comes as no country is looking to spend more on defense.
It is time for another trip back to the future, according to the only airship company in the U.S. But the competition to fulfill a persistent surveillance role is likely to be just as stiff as it was in the past. This next step is being taken by Airship Ventures, which operates Eureka, a 246-ft.-long Zeppelin NT semi-rigid airship, from historic Moffett Field. This an airfield south of San Francisco from which the U.S. Navy briefly sent dirigibles and blimps on patrols of the California coastline in the mid-1930s.
Lockheed Martin is preparing for the first flight test of a low-cost interceptor designed to counter rocket, artillery and mortar threats. The control test vehicle flight, planned for May, is to be followed in late summer by the first intercept test. The vertical-launched missile is being developed under the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) science and technology program.
One might expect the job of securing the skies over this summer's Olympics in London to force British air defenses to adopt new or unusual capabilities. But as the recent Taurus Mountain 2 preparatory exercise demonstrated, the task offers U.K. forces a chance to return to core, pre-9/11 competencies after years of using their aircraft in nontraditional roles over Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
As China starts to put together a modern, integrated air force, which could reach 1,000 fighters by 2020, it is developing the components of a future force of stealthier combat aircraft, new bombers and unmanned, hypersonic and possibly space-based combat platforms. These could emerge as soon as the early 2020s.
Robert J. Stevens, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, went to Capitol Hill on March 14 with a message for lawmakers: You're making my life hell. At issue are automatic cuts to U.S. defense spending scheduled to take effect next January. If Congress and the Obama administration cannot reach a budget compromise by then, military budgets will be hit with a $53 billion cut in 2013 and another $450 billion in reductions during the next nine years.
Innovation and ingenuity in aerospace can take many forms. In the defense sector, it is often borne out of necessity—a need to find a target, to attack it or to reach it more quickly, for example.
U.S. Air Force planners expect commercial communications satellites to have an ever-larger role in the operation of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) as war-on-terror funding dwindles and the U.S. military’s focus shifts to other theaters, including Africa, Latin America and the U.S. border regions.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) put two of the U.S. Navy department’s biggest programs — the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Ford CVN-78 aircraft carrier — in the crosshairs March 15 during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Navy’s fiscal 2013 budget request.
BARCELONA, Spain — The German defense ministry is considering an upgrade of the Taurus cruise missile currently operational on its Tornado fighter. A key element of the upgrade would be a data link to allow the missile to provide battle damage information, and possibly inflight retargeting, also providing an anti-ship capability to the weapon. The full scope of the upgrade package has not been set, however.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Launch of the next hypersonic flight experiment under a U.S.-Australian joint program has been scheduled for May 1, from Kauai, Hawaii, carrying a supersonic-combustion ramjet payload to Mach 8.5 on a two-stage sounding rocket. Stakes are high following the failure of the second X-51A scramjet engine demonstrator flight in June 2011. The hydrocarbon-fueled, free-flying X-51 is expected to fly again in the summer, but the hypersonics research community needs a success.
LONDON — European engine makers MTU and Avio have followed the lead of aircraft makers EADS Cassidian and Alenia Aermacchi in teaming up for potential cooperation in the field of medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) engines.
U.S. Navy aircraft took the biggest hit among naval procurement and maintenance accounts in the Pentagon’s proposed fiscal 2013 budget request, continuing a trend that developed in the latter half of the previous decade. The Pentagon cut about $14.6 billion from its fiscal 2013 request for Navy aircraft procurement compared to the proposed budget from the previous year. At the same time, the current proposal cuts about $3 billion from aviation operations and maintenance compared to fiscal 2012.
BARCELONA, Spain — Italy is exploring upgrades to its MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missile, in part reflecting lessons learned from last year’s NATO-led air war over Libya, where the Italian air force first used the weapon. Some of the upgrades are in line with what France and the U.K. are doing. The two partners behind the original development of the cruise missile also have committed to jointly explore upgrade options.
BARCELONA, Spain — Sagem expects to complete development of the laser-guided version of the AASM (Armement Air-Sol Modulaire) powered bomb this year. The laser guidance kit augments the inertial navigation system guidance with GPS updates. It is the third member of the AASM (or Hammer) weapon family, along with the INS/GPS system fielded first and the version augmented with an infrared seeker used operationally last year in Libya as well.
EXIT SIGN: The Canadian government has not ruled out the idea of pulling out of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, Associate Defense Minister Julian Fantino said March 13, according to Reuters. “We have not as yet discounted the possibility of backing out of the program. None of the partners have,” Fantino told the House of Commons defense committee.
BARCELONA, Spain — Astrium is trying to drum up European interest in its geostationary Earth-observation (EO) satellite concept, including a recent briefing to the European Defense Agency (EDA) to garner funding support.
While the U.S. Navy has made strides in addressing congressional concerns about its small-boat procurement and maintenance, the service still can make improvements, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “The Navy has noted that successful execution of its maritime strategy requires the acquisition of not only surface combatants, but also small boats,” GAO notes in its March report. “The Navy reported that it received about $135 million in fiscal year 2010-2012 base procurement funding for small boats.”
The prospect of deep reductions to next year’s defense budget is already having a “chilling effect” on industry, and Congress should not wait until after the elections to deal with the deficit, the president of the nation’s largest defense company told a Capitol Hill audience March 14.
INDIAN AFFAIRS: EADS Cassidian has appointed Peter Gutsmiedl as the first chief executive officer of its India operations. Gutsmiedl, who will be based in Bengaluru, will lead the next phase of Cassidian’s engagement with India, a company release said March 14. Before assuming the new position, Gutsmiedl served in various senior and board-level roles at Cassidian, which is the security and defense company of EADS.
Under pressure from Gulf Coast state politicians, U.S. Air Force leadership confirmed they are reconsidering their plan to move C-130s to Montana from Texas. And the Air Force plans to wrap up its acquisition strategy for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program this spring, in a way that allows for increased competition. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz offered these updates to the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee during a March 14 hearing.
