Tank: Stimson Center Location: Washington Profile: Cerebral think tank “devoted to international peace and security” with a strong non-proliferation focus. The Libya of Col. Moammar Gadhafi had acquired a stockpile of 20,000 man-portable air defense systems (Manpads) before last year's revolution—the largest of any country that does not make such weapons. So far, U.S. and NATO experts working with Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) have recovered only 5,000 of them.
Lightning strikes are a constant threat to aircraft—manned and unmanned—in turbulent environments. Lord Corp. of Cary, N.C., has developed a curable reactive organic compound with conductive filler that is designed to self-assemble into a heterogeneous structure forming a continuous microscopic 3-D strike-protection layer of metal on a polymer-rich composite substrate. The material, which can be used on new structures or to repair damaged conductive pathways, is reportedly no more difficult to apply than an epoxy layer on a composite structure.
The U.S. Army is about to select improved camouflage for soldiers' uniforms. But according to one of the finalists, far more advanced camouflage, offering potential for concealment bordering on invisibility, is just around the corner.
The Air Force’s top officer says that the service’s mistake in selecting Sierra Nevada to build a small fleet of light attack aircraft for Afghanistan is a “profound disappointment.” The service announced it was terminating the $355 million contract to Sierra Nevada and restoring a proposal from Hawker Beechcraft “to the competitive range.” The Air Force disqualified Hawker Beechcraft from the competition in November and awarded the contract for an initial 20 Light Air Support aircraft to Sierra Nevada in December.
Rheinmetall and MBDA Deutschland are developing laser weapons for various applications. Both companies have demonstrated 10-kw lasers but recognize the need to increase power to at least 100 kw. The solution is the coupling of individual laser sources to achieve a level not possible with only one source.
The Pentagon and U.S. Navy are navigating a truer course for development of the Presidential VXX Helicopter, but hurdles still remain, a recent Government Accountability Office (GA) report says.
In one of 16 forts built in the 19th century to protect Paris sits a discreet intelligence service, whose task is not only to protect and advise the French defense establishment but also to protect the technological know-how of French defense companies. It recently unlatched its doors to let DTI have a look inside.
Elbit Systems has expanded its portfolio of UAS payloads with the recent launch of a hyperspectral offering for intelligence capabilities for the Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 UAS. From the company's Elop unit, the hyperspectral technology enables simultaneous imaging of the targeted region at hundreds of different wavelengths. The payload captures the spectral signature of the imaged materials, unique to every material in nature, like a fingerprint.
The Air Force chief of staff has put a rough estimate on the cost of the Next Generation Bomber – $550 million per copy for up to 100 aircraft. If the total program cost does equal about $55 billion, that would make the bomber a major acquisition program, though it would still be dwarfed by the cost of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon system, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. A recent Congressional Research Service report places the cost at $379.4 billion to develop and buy the aircraft.
On static display at February's Singapore air show were two U.S. fighters first developed under the Nixon administration. The only newer fighter was an F-35 mockup, which doesn't count. If you wanted anything newer, you looked for the Singapore air force's IAI-Elta Gulfstream airborne early warning aircraft or Elbit's Hermes 900 unmanned air vehicle, surrounded by sensor payloads covering the spectrum from visible light to VHF.
Wire strikes, which can down aircraft, are a constant threat to pilots, especially at night. Sandel Avionics of Vista, Calif., has developed a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) visual depiction and aural alert system called HeliTAWS ST3400H, designed to detect and warn helicopter pilots of impending threats from wires and transmission lines—as well as terrain—within a precalculated hazard proximity.
This month's Cutting Edge features six defense technology-related finalists from the second annual Suppliers' Innovation Challenge, a design competition run by Aviation Week. The winners (civil and military) will be announced later this month. For more information, go to AviationWeek.com
The issue of a 37-point agreement on security and defense on Feb. 17 confirmed that, despite public spats between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the U.K. and France have been quietly but surely moving to ever-closer defense and industrial ties. The two countries are more serious about cooperation in defense matters than they arguably have ever been before.
RADAR RECEIVERS: Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems of Goleta, Calif., has been awarded a $77,267,880 contract modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise an option to purchase 89 full rate production Lot 14 AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar warning receivers and nine countermeasure signal processor weapons replacement assemblies, the Pentagon announced Feb. 29. The AN/ALR-67(V)3 enhances pilot situational awareness by providing accurate identification, lethality, and azimuth displays of hostile and friendly emitters.
The U.K. Defense Ministry has launched the development of the Sea Ceptor ship-based short-range air defense system intended to equip the future Type 26 Global Combat Ship and also modernize the in-service Type 23 frigates. MBDA recently received a system-demonstration phase contract to work on the system, also called the Future Local Area Air Defense System. Sea Ceptor is being designed to destroy aircraft and supersonic anti-ship missiles, including saturation attacks. The Common Anti-Air Missile (CAMM) is to be the interceptor.
A ground-breaking deal between Britain's Defense Ministry and BAE Systems has provided the financial foundation for the company's new munitions factory. The £75 million ($120 million) plant is already producing a range of shell casings ahead of the final transfer in June of remaining staff and equipment from the 97-year-old factory at Birtley, 2 mi. away.
Equipping the armed forces of one country during wartime is extraordinarily expensive. Equipping two—as the U.S. has since 9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan—borders on the absurd. But that's exactly the world we've been living in over the past 10 years, and the bills are beginning to come due.
Maps are clearly a vital tool for any military commander, but the days when a two-dimensional, printed representation of an area will suffice have long since passed. Dynamic mapping of the battlespace is not new, but 21st century technologies are revolutionizing the collection, dissemination and analysis of tactical intelligence.
The U.S. Navy is considering a second round of concept studies for the planned Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) system, after slipping service entry by two years to 2020 as part of its fiscal 2013 budget request. A solicitation notice posted on Feb. 24 says Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) is “considering the release of a competitive broad area announcement [BAA] for additional studies within the next 30 days.”
Efforts to commercialize algae-derived renewable fuels are to receive a $14 million boost from the U.S. Energy Department, which aims to fund projects to improve the sustainability and accelerate the availability of algal-based biofuels. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is seeking proposals from small businesses, universities and national laboratories to modify existing facilities into long-term testbeds for new production processes to commercialize algal biofuels.
Hawker Beechcraft has welcomed the U.S. Air Force’s Feb. 28 decision to cancel Sierra Nevada Corp.’s $355 million contract to supply Embraer Super Tucanos for the Afghan air force, but whether the competition will be restaged remains unclear. Although Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) says the service has reinstated the company “to the competitive range” under the Light Air Support (LAS) procurement, the Air Force says no decision has been made on whether to restage the competition.
Congress doesn’t read its witnesses Miranda rights before they testify, but past Pentagon statements were certainly used against Air Force leaders during a Feb. 28 hearing. Given that the Air Force has rolled out a list of controversial cuts that gore oxen in congressional districts across the country for its fiscal 2013 budget request, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz had to expect some heat on Capitol Hill.
New Delhi – India has approved a proposal to acquire 18 new aircraft worth more than $1 billion for the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) currently being built for the navy. The permission to procure nine Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft and limited series production of another nine carrier-borne Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was granted by the Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by India Defense Minister A. K. Antony late last week, a senior defense official told Aviation Week.
