NEW DELHI — India has activated the atomic reactor on board its first indigenous nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, the INS Arihant, enabling it to undergo sea trials. A defense ministry official says the 83 megawatt pressurized water reactor on Arihant has been started. “Now the submarine will undergo extensive sea trials before being made operational,” the official says. INS Arihant has been undergoing trials at the Indian navy’s submarine base in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, in southern India.
LACKING MOTIVATION: Analyst Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners doubts that recent U.S. embassy closings and the disclosure of an al Qaeda plot in Yemen will be enough to compel Capitol Hill lawmakers to find a political solution to sequestration. “We don’t see the latest threat as catalytic,” Callan says. “Terrorist actions and threats have become part of the security landscape.” As proof, he noted that defense company stocks did not see perceptible changes after the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S.
PALM BEACH, Fla. — As with UAV programs, unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) require a strong foundation of modeling and testing to make them operate safely and efficiently. The maritime environment offers some benefits and presents some challenges for monitoring unmanned systems. For example, unlike UAV testing in the continental U.S., which has sparked some controversy and often requires special FAA permits and approvals, coastal U.S. UUV testing is much more flexible.
NAVY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded a $92,278,416 modification (P00025) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, option-filled, foreign military sales (FMS) contract (W58RGZ-09-C-0147) for the procurement of Block III AH-64D helicopters and associated support. This FMS contract is in support of Taiwan. The cumulative total face value of this contract is $716,740,952. Fiscal 2009 procurement funds are being obligated on this award. The Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
NEW DELHI — India’s 45,000-ton Vikrant aircraft carrier was floated out of its building bay at the state-owned Cochin shipyard in the southern state of Kerala Aug. 12, marking the end of the initial phase of construction on India’s first homegrown carrier.
Rockwell Collins’ largest acquisition to date—purchasing communications and systems engineering provider, Arinc, for $1.39 billion from the Carlyle Group—will give the avionics maker its own end-to-end communications link between the ground and the flight deck, a connection that is fundamental to the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy says it will no longer advertise certain variants of its Spacebus 4000 communications satellite as free of components and materials controlled by the U.S. Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Lockheed Martin is working on upgrades for its Marlin autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) that could make it a candidate for future long-endurance unmanned undersea missions the U.S. Navy has in mind for its planned large-diameter unmanned undersea vehicle (LDUUV) program.
Using the Kaman K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter, Lockheed Martin has completed another round of demonstrations of technologies for autonomous resupply, including obstacle avoidance and dynamic replanning. The K-Max is being used as the testbed for the Autonomous Technologies for Unmanned Air Systems (ATUAS) joint capability technology demonstration. The initial demo, in April 2012, involved a ground beacon allowing loads to be delivered to within 3 meters.
The U.S. Army is preparing to send its first deployment of Boeing AH-64E Apaches to Afghanistan 2014. The first of two units thus far to form for the new model attack helicopter — the 1-229th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB) based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington — will deploy to Afghanistan in the summer of 2014, says Col. Jeff Hager, U.S. Army project manager for the Apache program.
MOSCOW — Russian Helicopters has unveiled a training version of Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter, dubbed Mi-28UB, which made its first demo flight at the Rostvertol flight test center in Rostov-on-Don Aug. 9. At the end of August, the Mi-28UB (Uchebno-Boevoy, Training and Combat) will be displayed at MAKS 2013 air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
The U.S. Navy’s submarine force and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Corona Division have developed a new, patent-pending tool to maintain its fiber-optic systems. This tool lets the Navy compare fiber-optic power test meters throughout their entire range of output against a known standard, allowing the fleet to perform reliable and accurate measurements without have to outsource the work.
NEW DELHI — The U.S. Department of Defense has notified the U.S. Congress of a possible sale of 145 M777 155-mm towed howitzers to India. The estimated cost of the deal is $885 million, which also includes providing associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says.
Boeing's presence at the 2013 Dubai Airshow will showcase the company's industry partnerships in the Middle East and highlight its defence and commercial products and services designed to meet Middle East requirements.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has launched a tender to provide a search-and-rescue helicopter capability for its remote Falkland Islands outpost. The 10-year contract, worth between £100-150 million ($160-230 million), would also potentially provide what the ministry calls “support helicopter services” for the U.K. garrison stationed on the islands since the end of the Falklands War in 1982.
Boeing controllers in California are operating the newest Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-6) military communications satellite following its launch on a Delta IV Aug. 7.
The future of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) naval ship composites yard in Gulfport, Miss., is now in limbo with the U.S. Navy’s decision to use a steel deckhouse for the next Zumwalt destroyer. At the same time, HII is considering commercial shipbuilding work to keep open its Avondale yard in Louisiana, but only with the right partner to mitigate risks.
LONDON — Eurocopter’s Brazilian subsidiary Helibras has received permission to produce the Eurocopter EC225 helicopter domestically. Currently the EC225 is only built in France, but production of the EC225 in Brazil would pave the way for EC225s to support Brazil’s rapidly expanding oil and gas industry.
While leading U.S. Navy shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries CEO Michael Petters warns against cutting the national aircraft carrier force, he says it would be better to do so by building new advanced carriers like the CVN-78 Ford Class while foregoing midlife refuelings of existing ships and retiring those vessels. “This is a debate that’s always going on,” Petters told Wall Street investment analysts during an Aug. 7 conference call to discuss quarterly financial results.
The United Nations has tapped Selex ES to fly its Falco UAV to support peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under a three-year, €10 million ($13 million) contract. The aircraft will be provided by Selex ES in the coming weeks, according to U.N. officials. The aircraft will be operated by Selex contractors under the control and security of the U.N., with all data from the platform provided exclusively to the peacekeeping mission. The contract has an option to be extended another three years.
