The U.S. Army has conducted a series of flights with a fly-by-wire helicopter testbed to demonstrate autonomous operation using a scanning laser radar (ladar) to detect and avoid terrain and obstacles. The flights demonstrated the helicopter’s ability to navigate and exit canyons, detect and avoid aircraft and wires, and select a safe landing area using a capability called terrain-aware autonomy.
Even as the U.S. Navy looks to mate its first full-fledged mission module payload with an operationally deployed Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) hull, the service is looking to develop an assortment of other packages to further enhance the ships’ capabilities. LCS is designed to deploy with replaceable modules tailored to specific missions that are meant to be switched out with relative ease as needed. The three main planned LCS mission modules cover countermine, antisubmarine and surface-warfare missions.
The U.S. Army’s aviation brigades are spared in the service’s initial force structure reductions of 80,000 soldiers. The reductions would allow the Army to meet the current national security strategy and do not account for across-the-board budget cuts, says Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno. “If full sequestration continues, we’ll have to take a look at aviation brigades,” Odierno says. “They’ll probably reduce.”
Conducting an amphibious exercise is hard enough. Landing an MV-22 Osprey on a Japanese ship during such a drill can be a logistical nightmare. As the U.S. Marine Corps tested its amphibious chops earlier this month during exercise Dawn Blitz off the California coast, U.S. sailors aboard the LHA-4 USS Boxer trained their Japanese counterparts on heat shields used by ships for MV-22 landings to carry off such an operation.
NEW DELHI — An Indian air force (IAF) helicopter on a rescue mission in the hilly terrain of the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand state in northern India crashed on June 25, killing at least eight people. The newly acquired Mi-17 V5 helicopter was one of 45 aircraft pressed into service by the IAF to evacuate victims of the flash flood, which has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 50,000.
PARIS — French defense procurement agency DGA is seeding innovative dual-use technologies through a fast-track financing mechanism aimed at supporting small- and medium-sized businesses in France.
LONDON — The U.K. is claiming second place in the league of defense exporters after achieving £8.8 billion in exports in 2012. Figures released by U.K. Trade & Investment’s Defense and Security Organization (UKTI DSO) show that exports rose in 2012 by 62% from 2011. The agency says that the U.K. is maintaining its position as the second largest defense exporter after the U.S. Combined defense and security exports rose to £11.5 billion ($18 billion) in 2012, up from £8 billion in 2011.
NEW DELHI — India is expected to expedite the purchase of six additional C-130J airlifters and 15 Boeing Chinook CH-47F tandem-rotor helicopters, in the wake of flooding and landslides that have highlighted the need for such assets. “The ongoing rescue efforts in northern India, where at least 9,400 people remain stranded following floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains, have emphasized the need for more of such aircraft and heavy-lift helos,” an Indian air force official says.
FIGHT BREWING: Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), a leading minority member of the Armed Services and Budget committees, among others, is forecasting a Senate floor battle over whether President Barack Obama can or should be allowed to pursue his call for further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and negotiations with Russia. “We’ll have a dispute when we talk about Russia over the power of the president to reduce nuclear weapons,” he said June 20.
The second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-2) had to cut short a June 21 underway because of a “minor engineering disruption,” U.S. Navy officials say, but was able to get back to sea June 24. The disruption occurred very shortly after the USS Independence started to get under way in San Diego, officials say. The ship dropped anchor for a short period of time before returning to the naval base. “The ship had a seawater cooling casualty resulting in one of the two online diesel generators tripping,” Navy officials say.
NEW DELHI — India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has joined with French aerospace company Sagem to manufacture automatic flight-control systems and sensors. HAL entered into a contract with Sagem, a unit of the Safran Group, at the Paris air show. The pact involves technology transfer to set up the production facility for the systems and sensors at its Hyderabad division in southern India, a HAL spokesman says.
PARIS — Concerns over the intellectual property (IP) rights of its X3 high-speed technology helped to sway Eurocopter and EADS North America (EADS NA) to withdraw from the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role advanced-rotorcraft technology demonstration program.
The best way to make a big splash in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) naval arena is with small ships — fleets of them. AMI International, a consultancy covering the global naval market, says the regional appetite for patrol, maritime security and special operations missions ships “is one of the largest and rapidly expanding segments of the A-P naval market.”
The Defense Department says it plans to take steps to better employ the under-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) as the nation transitions from a wartime mind-set.
For the FAA and all of those interested in transportation policy and appropriations, this week is unusually important. The Transportation Department could see its presidential nominee, Anthony Foxx, voted on and confirmed by senators, while other Capitol Hill action will provide key insight into expected spending for fiscal 2014.
PARIS — The “War on Cost” is a priority at Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, made more difficult as U.S. military budget constraints stretch out the delivery schedule for the F-35 Lightning II fighter and its PW F135 powerplant. “We face stronger headwinds,” says P&W Military Engines president Bennett Croswell. “But we continue to make progress.”
