ARLINGTON, Va. — A program developed for the U.S. Navy with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) support that integrates full motion video (FMV) with data intelligence feeds should be ready for full fleet exercises in summer 2014, says an executive for KAB Laboratories, the company developing the technology.
Airbus Military is to test a C295 medium transport aircraft fitted with an aerial firefighting system. The company confirmed to that it plans to modify the prototype C295 for trials due to take place in late September. The aircraft will use a tank system fitted in the main cargo hold dropping the water through openings cut into the belly of the aircraft.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The best way to access the darkest depths of the oceans may be from above. At least that is the thinking behind the station-keeping low-visibility glider (SK-Glider) being developed with U.S. Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding by the LBI company of Groton, Conn. The SK-Glider can be deployed from standard launch tubes from P-3 and P-8 aircraft and transit a long distance to provide persistent surveillance in denied or hostile areas, the company says.
The Pentagon may be trying to clip the U.S. Army’s purchase of 30 additional Light Utility Helicopters, but Congress is poised to help the EADS North America program. In its draft of a fiscal 2014 policy bill, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) recommends adding $135.1 million to the president’s requested funding level- — a 196.3% boost. The proposed funding increase makes the Mississippi-manufactured UH-72A Lakota one of the big winners in the mark-up. (See charts pp. 6-9.)
LONDON — The first Bell-Boeing CV-22 Ospreys to be assigned to a squadron based outside the United States will be delivered to the U.K. later this month.
Saab is pulling its JAS 39E Gripen out of Canada’s fighter competition, having “decided not to take part,” according to a company official. The next-generation Gripen was among candidates to replace the Lockheed Martin F-35 as Canada’s future fighter. “Our conclusion is that the conditions were not yet ripe for us to act,” Saab spokeswoman Karin Walka said June 5. “We feel that we have a good dialogue with Canada in both this matter as well as in others.”
SINGAPORE — New Zealand continues to face a tight fiscal budget, but is progressing with its plan to get new primary trainer aircraft for its air force, and to replace its Lockheed Martin P-3Ks and C-130Hs next decade.
EADS North America has withdrawn its proposal for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role (JMR) advanced-rotorcraft technology demonstration, to focus company resources on its offering for the service’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement. CEO Sean O’Keefe informed Assistant Secretary of the Army Heidi Shyu of the decision in a letter sent May 29, just a day or two before the Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate invited at least some of the JMR bidders to enter negotiations to build and fly demonstrators in 2017.
Bell Helicopter has joined the companies selected for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role advanced rotorcraft technology demonstration (JMR TD). A Sikorsky/Boeing team has previously confirmed it has been selected to negotiate a cost-sharing agreement to build and fly a JMR demonstrator in 2017. Industry sources say AVX Aircraft also has been selected to negotiate an agreement, but the small, Fort Worth-based company declines to comment.
Engineers are preparing to flight test a new night-vision camera by month’s end that is designed to address shortcomings of the original F-35 helmet system that prevented pilots from conducing nighttime aerial refueling and vertical landings in the developmental, stealthy fighter.
USAF STRUCTURE: The first public hearing of the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force saw a strong presentation by reserve and Air National Guard advocates for better favoring of their wings of the total U.S. Air Force. Representatives from associations advocating for reserve officers, adjutant generals and the National Guard, testified that the Pentagon could save about $2.6 billion for every 10,000 airmen billets shifted out of the active force. The commission’s June 4 public hearing followed a closed-door session the day before with top U.S.
NASA has awarded $38 million in contracts to four companies to address “system technology gaps that are exposed by the operational challenges” of the next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen).
It is still far too early to tell, but at least one Capitol Hill advocate for American manufacturing is forecasting near-term congressional action that could restrict China’s access to the U.S. marketplace, particularly federal-related acquisitions. If so, such moves could affect several western companies, which have reached out to China as both a commercial provider and marketplace over the last two decades.
NASA has awarded $38 million in contracts to four companies to address “system technology gaps that are exposed by the operational challenges” of the next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen).
TEL AVIV — Seeing future Syrian S-300 surface-to-air missiles as a threat to its own airspace, Israel has pledged to take preventative action. Fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles or through covert sabotage on assembly points could disable “S-300 missiles and similar weapons before becoming operational,” says retired army general and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror to European diplomats.
Sequestration has failed to curb the U.S. Navy’s desire to bolster its Aegis-equipped destroyer fleet — the service awarded contract deals this week worth about $6.2 billion for new destroyers that will equipped with the combat system and able to perform ballistic missile defense (BMD) missions. The Navy awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) a $3.3 billion fixed-price-incentive firm target (FPIF) contract for the design and construction of five DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class ships, one each in fiscal 2013-2017.
ARLINGTON, Va. — After more than a decade of proving its modeling and simulation worth for the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite constellation, Los Angeles-based Scalable Network Technologies is looking to expand its Modeling and Evaluation Environment (M2E2) into other military applications.
ARLINGTON, Va. — A California-based company is developing a modeling system that it says will help the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and other services in their “war against rust and rot” being waged to save aircraft, ships and other equipment. San Marcos-based GCAS is developing the Accelerated Corrosion Expert Simulator (ACES), a simulation and modeling analysis system for predicting aircraft and ground vehicle structure degradation due to corrosion.
SINGAPORE — Canada’s requirements for search-and-rescue (SAR) aircraft and naval helicopters have been dogged by delays, but the country’s defense minister appears confident that progress is about to be made.
