LE BOURGET — With Boeing fighting to hang onto its $4.7 billion program to develop secure satellite terminals for the U.S. Air Force, Raytheon is wrapping up work on the initial stage of an alternative terminal development, and is gearing up to conduct an operational test of the system in October.
LE BOURGET — Alenia Aeronautica is preparing for the second phase of flight testing—including the integration of precision-guided munitions—on its palletized MC-27J gunship kit. The concept is driven, in part, by U.S. Air Force interest, though the Italian Air Force also has interest in a C-27J gunship version.
LE BOURGET — Raytheon is looking at ways to respond to an urgent U.S. Navy call for a new version of the AIM-9X Sidewinder with greatly increased range, Vice President for Air Warfare Systems Harry Schulte said at the Paris air show June 19. Although the Block II version of the missile is still in operational testing, the Navy wants to get the long-range Block III into developmental testing by 2018, according to budget documents. The Block III “overlaps the range capability” of the AIM-120 Amraam, Schulte says.
LE BOURGET — Diversification into business aviation and defense will let Embraer grow without forcing the company into direct competition with Airbus and Boeing, says President and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado. “The fact that defense can grow to be a solid business...and business aviation to be another important pillar is embedded in our decision not to try to engage in larger commercial aircraft,” he tells Aviation Week in an interview after the company launched its next-generation E-Jet E2.
LE BOURGET — The Italian ministry of defense and Alenia Aermacchi have agreed to jointly define the operational requirements for a jet-powered basic trainer aimed at pilfering market share from turboprop models such as the Beechcraft T-6, Pilatus PC-21 and Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano. The aircraft, called the M-345 High Efficiency Trainer, is the latest attempt by Alenia to find a market for its legacy, unsold M-211 single-engine jet trainer, which was derived from the decades-old SIAI-Marchetti S.211.
REAPER REALIGNMENT: The Pentagon may be scaling back its request for MQ-9 Reapers, but Congress is coming to the aid of the General Atomics UAV, citing industrial base concerns. In a report on a draft version of the House’s fiscal 2014 defense spending bill, appropriators contend that the Air Force is reducing the Reaper buy too quickly — from 48 to 24 in fiscal 2013 — and halving it again to 12 in 2014. If the language is adopted by the full Congress, it would direct the U.S. Air Force to buy eight additional Reapers next year.
AN RAF navigator has been awarded a top French medal for the second time in three years, for heroism under fire while protecting civilians from attack by Colonel Gaddaffi's forces in Libya.
LE BOURGET — The Lockheed Martin-led consortium developing the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is requesting approval from Italy, Germany and the United States—the program’s three partners—to expand the scope of the second and final flight test for the system. Originally, this trial was slated to pit Meads only against a theater ballistic missile (TBM) threat. Meads intercepted an air-breathing target during its first flight test late last year.
LE BOURGET — U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has signed on to market the Brazilian KC-390 aerial refueler and transport, made by Embraer, in selected areas, expanding on a technical agreement signed between the two in the spring of 2012. Boeing will lead sales, marketing, training and sustainment of the KC-390 in the U.S., United Kingdom and two unnamed Middle East countries.
LE BOURGET — Making its world debut at the Paris air show is the Iomax Archangel, an armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft based on a Thrush 710P agricultural aircraft. Iomax is a closely held and secretive company, founded by CEO Ron Howard, a former aviator with the U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Air Regiment, and it previously supplied electronic equipment to private and government clients, Howard said earlier this year in a magazine interview.
LE BOURGET — Alenia Aermacchi and ATK have completed a series of trials involving the roll-on/roll-off palletized gun system envisaged for the MC-27J Spartan gunship. The trials, at Eglin AFB, Fla., saw the aircraft undertake a series of ground and flight trials to prove the installation of the ATK-built GAU-23 30mm cannon in a side-firing configuration from the paratroop door in the rear cabin of the aircraft.
While the U.S. Navy trumpets the money-saving benefits of the multiyear block-buy deals the service made with the contractor teams that are building the two different versions of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a recent draft U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights potential savings of downselecting to only one LCS class.
NEW HORIZONS: U.S. National Guard leaders are about to brief state-level adjutants general on a strategic realignment in the guard’s unifying bureau near Washington that aims to raise its national-level staff’s strategic-planning capability, according to Army Gen. Frank Grass, National Guard Bureau chief and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move comes as the dual-purpose Guard races to catch up to the active armed services in planning force structure, command and control, and capabilities regarding large-scale events, like natural disasters.
PARIS — The U.S. Marine Corps is aggressively trying to lower the high estimated cost-per-flying-hour (CPFH) of the F-35B and the aircraft’s 50-year sustainment price. And in advance of operational capability (IOC) set for December 2015, the service is also using the system’s advanced simulators to develop tactics for capabilities not yet fielded owing to the sophistication of the F-35 simulators already in the field.
LE BOURGET — The newly formed Aerojet Rocketdyne is crafting a plan with the Russian Kuznetsov Design Bureau to restart production of the NK-33 rocket engine to assuage concerns from NASA that enough propulsion systems will be available for missions planned to resupply the International Space Station.
LE BOURGET — The Piaggio-Selex HammerHead unmanned air system unveiled at the Paris air show June 18 is the Italian air force’s choice to meet its requirement for a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS, and the service plans to buy 10 of the systems, confirms Lt. Gen. Claudio Debertolis, Italy’s secretary general of defense and national armaments director. He said the HammerHead will be capable of carrying weapons, but the weapon payload will be limited to 500 kg (1,100 lb.) so that the system is not covered by the Missile Technology Control Regime.
Airbus Military has placed a third work package with South Africa's Denel Aerostructures (DAe) for the manufacture of structural components for the A400M military transport programme.
CYBER COMMAND: The U.S. Air Force intends to fully support requested forces to the joint Cyber Command, which in the last few months has issued its force model to the armed services, but the Air Force also must re-examine its training and organizing related personnel, according to the Air Force chief of staff. Gen. Mark Welsh told an Air Force Association breakfast symposium June 17 that roughly 95% of service personnel assigned to “cyber” are really more like communications specialists. “They are people who stand up architectures, they manage infrastructure.
LE BOURGET — The last few attempts to display the Airbus Military A400M in Parior at Farnborough have been thwarted by engine problems with the Europrop International (EPI) TP400 turboprop. But with just a few weeks to go before the official handover of the first example to the French air force, officials from Airbus Military and EPI are looking forward to finally being able to put the aircraft through its paces in front of a Paris crowd.
UAV HANDSHAKE: EADS Cassidian, Dassault Aviation and Finmeccanica finally buried the hatchet and announced they are ready to cooperate on a European medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAV program. For years, EADS and Dassault have each worked on their own MALE projects, with neither getting very far. In a joint statement issued June 16, the three European companies say: “Such a joint program would support the capability needs of European armed forces while optimizing the difficult budgetary situation through pooling of research and development funding.”
LE BOURGET — The Swedish air force is writing requirements to replace its aging fleet of Lockheed C-130H Hercules and Saab 105 jet trainers. Though it has firmed up its plans for the development of a new generation of Saab JAS 39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft, the air arm’s fleet of C-130s are among the oldest of their type operating in Europe, while the Saab 105s, known as Sk60s, need replacing by 2020 to be ready to support future generations of Gripen pilots.
TEL AVIV — Israel Aerospace Industries soon will deliver its UAS Mission Trainer (UMT) to the Israeli Air Force (IAF), an operator of the IAI-made Heron UAS. IAI has already delivered various UMT versions to foreign customers. The system is not limited to supporting IAI systems; it can be configured to include any type of UAS and payload, and is based on international standards (such as HLA and Stanag 4586). “The system will become an important asset in the UAS squadron,” says Shaul Shahar, general manager of Malat Division.
LE BOURGET — Sikorsky says it has cleared many of the hurdles facing a deal to build more than 100 Black Hawk utility helicopters in Turkey. Sikorsky was selected by the Turkish government as the preferred bidder for the Turkish Utility Helicopter Program (TUHP) back in 2011. The company beat off competition from AgustaWestland to win the lucrative deal to produce 109 S-70T Black Hawks for the Turkish armed forces. But contractual issues between the company and Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) have delayed the signing of a contract.
ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded a $244,863,014 modification (P00077), to a previously awarded, firm-fixed-price, multiyear contract (W58RGZ-12-C-0008) for the procurement of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters. Fiscal 2013 procurement funds are being obligated on this award. The Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity. NAVY
