CARRIER OVERHAUL: The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) completed its Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) this week. The Roosevelt began its RCOH on Aug. 26, 2009. The ship returned to the fleet after four days of sea trials. More than 24 million man hours of work were conducted during the RCOH, including refueling the reactors, upgrading ship’s infrastructure and modernizing combat systems and air wing capabilities. The RCOH will enable the ship to carry out the remaining 23 years of its 50-year service life.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Boeing is projecting that production of the CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter will continue—and potentially increase—beyond 2020 as international sales build on another round of remanufacturing for the U.S. Army. Production of CH-47Fs for the Army is scheduled to end in 2019, but deliveries of the upgraded Block 2 aircraft are planned to begin in 2020. The Army is expected to upgrade all of its Chinooks to Block 2 standard to restore lift and range capability lost to weight growth.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has completed the first flight of the country’s first indigenously produced turboprop trainer. The Hurkus, named after celebrated Turkish aviator Vecihi Hurkus, took to the air from the TAI facility at Akinci airbase near Ankara on Aug. 29. The aircraft, in the hands of TAI test pilot Murat Özpala, made a 33-min. flight that saw the Hurkus climb to 9,500 ft. and conduct tests of the flight control surfaces.
Looking to reduce its $8 billion annual fuel bill, the U.S. Air Force is seeking ideas for coatings and surfaces that could reduce drag on its current aircraft fleet, and potentially also benefit commercial operators. The Air Force Research Laboratory has posted a request for information (RFI) on engineered surfaces and coatings that would promote and protect drag-reducing laminar on wings, tails, fuselages and nacelles on current and future aircraft.
While the U.S. mulls the future of its nuclear deterrent and the role its naval forces will play in that realm, the continued development of nuclear-armed submarines by India — and potentially additional countries on the other side of the globe — is threatening nuclear stability in the region, a U.S. Naval War College paper says.
NEW DELHI — India will induct its heaviest aircraft, the Boeing C-17, into military service next month, giving a major boost to the country’s airlift. The aircraft wil enter service with the Indian air force (IAF) on Sept. 12 at Hindon air base near New Delhi, a senior defense ministry official says. India signed a $4.1 billion foreign military sales contract with Boeing in 2011 to acquire 10 aircraft, making the country the largest C-17 export customer. The contract was finalized last June.
F-35 ENGINES: The U.S. Navy has awarded Pratt & Whitney a $69.6 million contract covering long-lead components, parts and materials for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s F135 engine. The contract is associated with low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot VIII, which includes 19 F135 Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) engines for the Air Force; six Short Take-off and Vertical Landing (Stovl) engines for the Marine Corps; and four Carrier Variant engines for the Navy.
MOSCOW — Newly deployed, very-high-frequency radars can counter most stealth technologies, according to engineers and executives of Russian radar specialist Nizhny-Novgorod Research Institute (NNIIRT). The company brought the newest configuration of its multi-band 55Zh6ME radar complex — designed to support the Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system — to the MAKS air show at Zhukovsky, outside Moscow. It also used the show to unveil the new 55Zh6UME, a single-unit, dual-band system designed for lower cost.
While some defense analysts have criticized the “small footprint” concept underlying the rebalancing of Pentagon forces to the Asia-Pacific, leaders from U.S. allies in the region seem to embrace the idea.
French defense electronics group Sagem and the Kamov Design Bureau have announced plans to develop an enhanced version of the Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter. Revealing the plans at the MAKS 2013 air show in Moscow on Aug. 28, the two companies said the work will “address a requirement expressed by several countries.”
Airbus and VSMPO-AVISMA, its major Russian titanium supplier, have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop new alloys and processes. The deal was signed at the Moscow air show (MAKS 2013). VSMPO-AVISMA has become one of Airbus’ most important suppliers of raw materials and semi-finished products since the 1990s. It currently provides 60% of the titanium needed by Airbus and its parent EADS. A broad framework contract between the companies was signed in 2009 and expires in 2020.
Russian Helicopters has achieved civil certification of its Kazan Ansat twin-engine medium helicopter. Kazan initially designed the Ansat with fly-by-wire controls, but the company struggled to have the aircraft certified for civil use, so instead it developed a new version with hydro-mechanical controls. The new version was awarded type certification from the Aviation Register of the Interstate Aviation Committee (AR IAC) at the MAKS air show near Moscow on Aug. 28.
The U.K. Defense Ministry has canceled a three-week-long training deployment of Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft to Cyprus because of sensitivities over the deteriorating situation in Syria.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Air Force Procurement Funding Shifts:2013 Plan for Fiscal 2014 Compared to Actual 2014 Request (Then-year dollars in millions) U.S.
When it came time to make the 2014 budget request, Pentagon planners made large cuts to major U.S. Air Force airlift programs compared to spending estimates in the 2013 budget plan. In the 2014 request, lines for the C-130J, MC-130J, C-17A and C-5 programs were all cut more than 40% when compared to the 2013 plan for the 2014 outyear. However, two modification lines for the C-130 airframe got big increases. (See charts pp. 6-11.)
LONDON — Switzerland’s purchase of 22 Saab Gripen fighter aircraft has moved a step closer, after the program was given a green light by ministers sitting on the country’s national security policy committee. Committee members voted in favor of the 3.1 billion Swiss franc ($3.3 billion) program with 14 votes to nine and two abstentions on Aug. 27.
LONDON — A German subsidiary of European missile manufacturer MBDA has successfully tested technology which could deliver a “dial-a-yield” capability to conventional weapons.
Looking to reduce its $8 billion annual fuel bill, the U.S. Air Force is seeking ideas for coatings and surfaces that could reduce drag on its current aircraft fleet, and potentially also benefit commercial operators. The Air Force Research Laboratory has posted a request for information (RFI) on engineered surfaces and coatings that would promote and protect drag-reducing laminar on wings, tails, fuselages and nacelles on current and future aircraft.
MOSCOW — The unique containerized version of Russia’s Novator Club missile system, integrated by the Agat company, is being developed for export with a new passive sensor. It is understood that Malaysia is the first export customer for the Club-K, which is built into modules that are outwardly indistinguishable from standard shipping containers, according to an Aug. 27 announcement at the MAKS air show at Zhukovsky, outside Moscow.
The unexpected appearance of a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft over Yemen’s capital of Sana’a starting Aug. 6 has focused new attention on the covert war against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that has been unfolding in the nation’s hinterlands for more than two years.
Seeking ideas from nature on how to make air vehicles more autonomous, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to establish a center of excellence for nature-inspired sciences. The center will investigate novel sensory systems such as smell, sound, magnetic and chemical sensing, and understand how to process their output and fuse the information to control air vehicles.
In an effort to demonstrate that unmanned aircraft can be integrated into civil airspace, NASA is planning a competition next year that will challenge contestants to complete a series of missions while ensuring their UAVs remain well clear of other aircraft and obey the same rules as other air traffic.
