Advancements in the Chinese air force, along with a proliferation of technologies that could be converted into electronic weapons, have analysts and officials warning that the U.S. may not be keeping pace.
After 13 years at war and an emergency doubling in the size of the U.S. Army's special mission intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleet, the service is finally pondering a reconciliation of its specialized air forces with an eye toward retaining less than half of the platforms operational today.
The political situation in Ukraine may force the U.S. to reconsider its airborne supply route into Afghanistan. Tensions on the Crimean peninsula have remained high since Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from government in February. Last week, Russia announced it was sending troops and attack helicopters for new exercises near the border with Ukraine. The U.S., meanwhile, is assisting NATO training efforts, deploying 12 F-16s and 300 personnel to Poland and six F-16s to Lithuania.
The Senate aviation subcommittee let the commercial sector air its desires last week about congressional action. For the most part, commercial representatives agree about what they want: maintain higher, earlier funding levels for the FAA's NextGen ATC modernization effort and keep pressure on the agency to provide results to industry. They also want Congress, the White House and even the American public to stop eyeing commercial aviation as an automated teller machine, or “piggybank,” and treat it more like a national asset.
One example of Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) push toward new international joint ventures is Custodio, a Singapore-based cybersecurity research and development company being established in collaboration with the nation's Economic Development Board and announced in February at the Singapore Airshow.
Temperatures soar to beyond 1,000C in the turbine sections of helicopter engines. This is hardly a hospitable environment for a condenser microphone. But Berlin-based German Aerospace Center (DLR) researchers, because they needed to take sound measurements in just such inhospitable places for experiments useful in the decades-long pursuit of quieter helicopters, have designed a special housing and coiled sound canal probe for the job.
Rafi Maor returned to Israel Aerospace Industries as chairman in November 2013. He had worked on the Lavi fighter program and led IAI's unmanned aircraft systems division before leaving the company for the information and telecom industries. Maor gave his first media interview to Senior International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman at last month's Singapore Airshow. AW&ST: What is your view of how big the civil unmanned air system market will be, and how soon it will start to take off?
Russia is taking lessons from NASA’s aeronautics and Europe’s Clean Sky programs in structuring its new civil aviation research effort, to begin in 2016. With $6 billion in government funding over 10 years to 2025, the National Aeronautical R&D Plan will be similar in scale to NASA’s aeronautics program, which runs at around $550 million a year. An overview of the plan was provided by Sergey Chernyshev, executive director of the TsAGI aero-hydrodynamic research institute, at the Greener Aviation 2014 conference in Brussels on Mar. 11.
THE PENTAGON — After a slight dip in the fiscal 2015 spending plan to about $2 billion, proposed U.S. Navy science and technology (S&T) funding holds steady through fiscal 2019, focusing on such programs as the Lockheed Martin F-35, Sikorsky CH-53K and railgun prototype. “In the R&D [research and development] account, science and technology funding declines 2% in FY ‘15 and then remains steady over the balance of the FYDP [Future Years Defense Program],” says Rear Adm. William Lescher, deputy assistant Navy secretary for budget.
NEW DELHI — Russian defense company Almaz-Antey hopes India will buy its Tor-M2KM to meet the country’s requirement for short-range air-defense missile systems. India recently floated a tender to buy 52 short-range air-defense systems to form two missile regiments in the army.
The U.S. Navy’s decision to stop buying MH-60 helicopters after fiscal 2015 – a year before it had planned – would breach a current multiyear contract agreement with Sikorsky.
Raytheon is preparing to submit a bid to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to build the first batch of SM-3 Block IIA ballistic missile interceptors while gearing up for the first flight test next year. The proposal will include the sale of 22 of the missiles, which are now being developed, says Mitch Stevison, SM-3 program director for the company. They would be purchased by MDA with research and development funding.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) and navy are worried that the decision to temporarily halt all dealings with engine maker Rolls-Royce may affect future operations and acquisitions of several aircraft. India on March 3 put all defense contracts with Rolls-Royce on hold following allegations that the British company paid bribes to win lucrative contracts to supply Hawk advanced trainer jet engines to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).
LONDON — The Czech government has approved a renewed lease agreement for its Saab JAS-39C Gripen combat aircraft fleet. The deal will be confirmed in the coming weeks. Prague’s leasing of 14 Gripens — 12 single-seat and two twin-seat aircraft — will be extended to 2027, with a possible option for two extra years until 2029. The deal between the Czech and Swedish governments will begin in late September 2015.
When it comes to a follow-on design for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, it may be easier to discuss what is not under consideration than what is. The Navy will consider modifications to existing designs, variants of other ship classes, foreign or domestic hulls, or something brand new, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations.
North Korea’s continued missile testing and its aggressive geopolitical posture in the Asia-Pacific region make the country a major force for the U.S. to be concerned with, a recent Pentagon report says. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains one of the United States’ most critical security challenges for many reasons,” says the report, “Military and Security Developments Involving the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea,” released earlier this month to Congress.
For years, patrol ships have been the forgotten stepchildren of the U.S. Navy. As noted naval historian, analyst and author Norman Polmar writes in his most recent edition of the Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet: “Historically, the Navy’s leadership has not supported the operation of these ships and on several occasions has attempted to discard the ships.”
A program to develop packages that can lie dormant on the ocean floor for years—then release unmanned vehicles on command—is moving toward a demonstration, with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to brief potential bidders on the next phases of its Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program in Washington on Mar. 24.
With its study of future air dominance systems set to produce prototyping recommendations later this year, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is seeking ideas for distributed battle management concepts. The broad agency announcement (BAA) is one of several expected to emerge from the air dominance study, led by Darpa but also involving the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. The study is seeking to identify what is needed to maintain U.S. air dominance beyond 2030.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. decision on whether to refuel or decommission the aircraft carrier CVN-73 USS George Washington promises to leave a mark on the fleet size, the U.S. Navy’s aircraft needs and the nation’s overall combat ship force.
LONDON — Airbus Defense and Space has rolled out a new version of the PZL 130 Orlik turboprop training aircraft. The Orlik Multi-Purpose Trainer (MPT) was rolled out from the company’s facility at Warsaw-Okecie Airport in Poland on March 7, and features a modernized glass cockpit and other systems to allow operators to carry out more basic tactical training and a lead-in to combat training. The aircraft is a variant of the Orlik TC II, which is already in service with the Polish air force as their basic training aircraft.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) will kick off the program to demonstrate the Tactical Boost/Glide (TBG) hypersonic weapon on March 26 with a briefing in Washington for potential proposers. TBG is one of two new high-speed strike weapon programs Darpa plans to pursue with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The other is the Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy plans to request EA-18G Growlers in the service’s unfunded priorities list to address future electronic attack (EA) needs for joint operations, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations. During a March 10 budget briefing, Greenert did not say how many additional aircraft would be included in the request, but a senior Navy official said the service would ask for 22 in the list it planned to send to the Defense Department later that day.
