The U.S. Coast Guard received approval this week to move forward on the production and eventual deployment of up to 30 fast response cutters (FRC) after the cutter-class vessels completed their initial operational test and evaluation phase this past month. Coast Guard officials say this means the service may continue to acquire the FRC as the budget allows and that the equipment and shore side infrastructure is in place to support new cutters as they are commissioned.
Most large weapons and systems contractors for the Pentagon should be relatively unaffected by a looming federal government shutdown that would start Oct. 1, especially if it is short-term, according to a press briefing by the defense comptroller. But roughly half of the Defense Department’s civilian workforce, or fewer than 400,000 non-uniformed employees, may face unpaid furloughs, and it will be up to Congress whether to ever pay them for the unplanned time off.
MD Helicopters is making performance enhancements to its MD540F as it prepares to move toward certification in 2015. The new aircraft, an updated and modernized variant of the MD500 family, will get a new anti-torque system. Engineers are studying a number of options including a four-bladed tail rotor to improve the aircraft’s performance in conjunction with the new Rolls-Royce M250-C47E turboshaft, which the company announced it had selected for the MD540F during Heli-Expo 2013 in Las Vegas.
I began my career in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry as an export sales manager for a European missile manufacturer (now MBDA). It was a somewhat unusual career move for a business school graduate with no engineering background. Today, even fewer graduates have A&D high on their lists when they look for jobs as sales or marketing managers. This is, after all, an industry built by engineers, and its reputation is based primarily on products and the technological innovations that underpin them.
Eurocopter has decided to assemble AS350 Ecureuil light helicopters in the U.S. to shore up its production capacity in Columbus, Miss., but the move is riling French unions.
Sikorsky has begun assembly of the first of two S-97 Raider prototypes after delivery by Aurora Flight Sciences of the all-composite fuselage for the first of the high-speed, coaxial-rotor, light tactical helicopters. Assembly is underway in West Palm Beach, Fla. The first of the industry-funded Raiders is scheduled to fly at the end of 2014. The structure comprises a single integrated nose, cabin and tail cone. Sikorsky is aiming Raider at the U.S. Army's Armed Aerial Scout requirement.
A series of U.S.-India military sales agreements worth billions of dollars are nearing completion, on the heels of a meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A $1.2 billion deal to buy six Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft (see photo) for the Indian air force (IAF), to bring its fleet to 12, has been inching forward all year. The Indian Defense Acquisition Council issued final clearance for the sale this month and the contract is expected to be signed by year-end.
Electric propulsion is already here, albeit on a small scale, and now NASA is looking ahead to the technology that would be required to power a regional aircraft in 10-20 years or a narrowbody airliner in 30-40 years. But the agency intends to start small, with tests to first understand, then model the behavior and efficiency of electric propulsion system components. These will feed into ground, and potentially flight, tests of a distributed propulsion system that would be closely integrated with the airframe.
Defense analysts continue to raise concerns that the U.S. Pacific pivot could lead to a possible confrontation with China in the region, and a recent think tank report says the two global giants need to take pains to avoid military tensions. “Military competition between the United States and China can have no positive outcome for either country,” says the report, “China-US Cooperation: Key to the Global Future,” released recently by the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
Milestone decisions needed to move procurement programs forward are either on hold or slipping due to uncertainty about the fiscal 2014 budget and beyond and the Pentagon is establishing cost caps for new efforts, according to Richard Lombardi, the deputy assistant secretary of acquisition integration for the service. The establishment of cost caps is a new effort in line with the Pentagon’s Better Buying Power 2 procurement guidelines. Thus, caps have not yet been established for any Air Force programs.
Officials from Norway’s Andøya Rocket Range have suspended until further notice all launches using the S-30 booster following the failure of the Brazilian-made first stage during the Australian Scramspace hypersonic flight experiment last week.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Army Aircraft Procurement: Outyear Funding Shifts, 2014-2017Compares Outyear Funding Estimates from Fiscal 2013 Request With Fiscal 2014 Request Then-year dollars in millions. Descending sort on Outyear % Change. U.S.
The first pair of Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft destined for the Afghan air force (AAF) has passed through the U.K. on their delivery flight. The two former U.S. Air Force C-130s diverted into RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, after one suffered a technical problem on its flight eastbound on Sept. 24. They departed the U.K. on Sept. 26. The C-130Hs are the first two of four Hercules eventually destined for the fledgling air arm. The aircraft are due to be handed over to the AAF in early October. The second pair of C-130s is due to be delivered in 2014.
The importance of rare earth materials for military use and the increasing scarcity of such materials could prompt Congress to get the Pentagon to develop a more aggressive plan for safeguarding those materials, a recent Congressional Service Report (CRS) says.
While the MH-60 helicopter mishap in the Red Sea on Sept. 22 represented the second Seahawk variant Class-A mishap in the current fiscal year, the total of five such mishaps for all manned Navy operations has put the service on pace for its best year thus far for the rate of major incidents and accidents.
