SEOUL — BAE Systems has begun work on the upgrade program for South Korea’s Lockheed Martin F-16s in advance of a contract signing expected by the end of the year.
The U.K.’s MBDA is hoping that the accuracy of its Brimstone missiles will persuade the U.S. military to add a new weapon during a time when new programs are a tough sell. The U.K. has used the Brimstone in operations since 2007 and has fired the dual-mode precision strike weapon more than 300 times in Afghanistan and Libya with a 98% success rate. “The missile does not miss,” says spokesman Douglas Denneny.
South Korean aerospace and defense company LIG Nex1, preparing for the KF-X fighter program, is planning to build a demonstrator X-band radar with an active, electronically scanned array (AESA). The technology is also aimed at a future South Korean frigate program, an industry official says.
SEOUL — Commercial viability is increasingly dominating work on South Korea’s next helicopter, which, having begun as an military program, will now aim first to build a civil rotorcraft and then fashion a military version from it. A committee chaired by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin is due to meet in mid-November to decide whether to go ahead next year with full-scale development of the Light Civil Helicopter and Light Armed Helicopter (LCH-LAH) program.
MOSCOW — A Kamov Ka-52 two-seat attack helicopter crashed and burned after a hard landing at the Kamov test base in the southeast suburbs of Moscow Oct. 29. The Ka-52 test aircraft belonged to the Kamov design company, now a part of Russian Helicopters holding company.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has introduced some improvements to create a more cost-effective, realistic simulator to train sailors responsible for directing the movement of helicopters aboard ships. ONR developed upgrades to the Helicopter Control Officer Trainer (HCOT) being used by the officers and landing signalman enlisted (LSE) personnel at naval bases in San Diego and Norfolk, Va., where courses required by the chief of naval operations are taught.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have been awarded contracts for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Endurance program to develop technology for pod-mounted lasers to protect aircraft from electro-optical/infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has conducted a second demonstration of the Predator B unmanned aircraft system equipped with an electronic-attack pod. The Oct. 22 demo was conducted during the U.S. Marine Corps’ Weapons and Tactics Instructor course at MCAS Yuma, Ariz., and follows an April 12 demo at a similar event. In both demos, the company-owned Predator B carried a jamming pod equipped with a Northrop Grumman digital receiver/exciter controlled from the UAV’s ground station.
IAF CHIEF: Air Marshal Arup Raha will be the next chief of the Indian air force (IAF), succeeding Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne. Browne will retire Dec. 31 after a 41-year career. The new air chief has had the distinction of heading the IAF’s spearhead force, Western Air Command, and also Central Air Command. Raha was commissioned into the IAF on Dec. 14, 1974 as a combat pilot, flying MiG-21 and MiG-29 aircraft. During a career spanning nearly 39 years, Raha has held various command, staff and instructional appointments.
ASIA SPOTLIGHT: The U.S. House of Representative’s Armed Services Committee is beginning a four-month campaign to spotlight and discuss the Obama administration’s strategy pivot to the Asia Pacific, especially in light of so-called sequestration. Pushed by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), the campaign will include hearings, an “Asian ambassador roundtable” and other events like a kickoff discussion Oct. 29 at the American Enterprise Institute.
LONDON — The designer of the distinctive Edgley EA-7 Optica is looking for new investment to restart production of the lightweight observation aircraft. John Edgley, who designed the EA-7 in the 1970s, believes there is now a wider market for observation aircraft for security and utility operations, and claims that the Optica, with its unique, helicopter-like visibility around the cabin, could find a niche in operations for which helicopters would be too expensive.
LONDON — The Turkish government has signed a production deal with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for the next version of the Anka medium altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAV. According to a statement from Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) on Oct. 28, the SSM and TAI signed a deal for 10 platforms on Oct. 25. Ankara says the aircraft will be used for airborne intelligence, surveillance and target detection and the Turkish government will maximize use of domestic companies to support the program.
SEOUL and BEIJING — Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is pushing for South Korea to cut the technical challenges of its proposed KF-X fighter program, offering a single-engine concept that probably has a distant connection with the Lockheed Martin F-16. KAI’s KFX-E design should be cheaper to develop and build than the larger proposals put forward by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), the chief proponent of the KF-X.
The U.S. Navy, one of the most traditional organizations in the world, is leading a revolution in the way it is acquiring its ships and apparently undergoing a metamorphosis in the fleet mix it wants to build. By relying more on multiyear, block-buy contracts, the Navy is changing the way it — and other services — look at contracting for larger defense programs.
NEW DELHI — As India moves to cancel its scandal-tainted contract with AgustaWestland to supply AW101 helicopters, the company’s former rival in the tender, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., is advancing an alternative. “If we are called upon as a sequel to the process, we will be more than willing to come forward and address the requirements,” says Arvind Jeet Singh Walia, Sikorsky’s regional executive for India and South Asia. India signed the 35.46 billion rupee ($720 million) contract with AgustaWestland in February 2010 to buy 12 AW101 helicopters.
MOSCOW — The fifth prototype of the T-50 fifth-generation fighter made its first, 1-hr. flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Oct. 28, manufacturer Sukhoi reports. After the factory trials, the aircraft T-50-5 will join the other four prototypes in a flight-test program in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, according to Sukhoi. Two more aircraft are involved in the ground test — one is used as a ground rig, and another for static tests.
