The Defense Department says it plans to take steps to better employ the under-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) as the nation transitions from a wartime mind-set.
The U.S. Army has conducted a series of flights with a fly-by-wire helicopter testbed to demonstrate autonomous operation using a scanning laser radar (ladar) to detect and avoid terrain and obstacles. The flights demonstrated the helicopter’s ability to navigate and exit canyons, detect and avoid aircraft and wires, and select a safe landing area using a capability called terrain-aware autonomy.
Even as the U.S. Navy looks to mate its first full-fledged mission module payload with an operationally deployed Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) hull, the service is looking to develop an assortment of other packages to further enhance the ships’ capabilities. LCS is designed to deploy with replaceable modules tailored to specific missions that are meant to be switched out with relative ease as needed. The three main planned LCS mission modules cover countermine, antisubmarine and surface-warfare missions.
The U.S. Army’s aviation brigades are spared in the service’s initial force structure reductions of 80,000 soldiers. The reductions would allow the Army to meet the current national security strategy and do not account for across-the-board budget cuts, says Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno. “If full sequestration continues, we’ll have to take a look at aviation brigades,” Odierno says. “They’ll probably reduce.”
LONDON — The U.K. is claiming second place in the league of defense exporters after achieving £8.8 billion in exports in 2012. Figures released by U.K. Trade & Investment’s Defense and Security Organization (UKTI DSO) show that exports rose in 2012 by 62% from 2011. The agency says that the U.K. is maintaining its position as the second largest defense exporter after the U.S. Combined defense and security exports rose to £11.5 billion ($18 billion) in 2012, up from £8 billion in 2011.
NEW DELHI — India is expected to expedite the purchase of six additional C-130J airlifters and 15 Boeing Chinook CH-47F tandem-rotor helicopters, in the wake of flooding and landslides that have highlighted the need for such assets. “The ongoing rescue efforts in northern India, where at least 9,400 people remain stranded following floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains, have emphasized the need for more of such aircraft and heavy-lift helos,” an Indian air force official says.
FIGHT BREWING: Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), a leading minority member of the Armed Services and Budget committees, among others, is forecasting a Senate floor battle over whether President Barack Obama can or should be allowed to pursue his call for further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and negotiations with Russia. “We’ll have a dispute when we talk about Russia over the power of the president to reduce nuclear weapons,” he said June 20.
The second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-2) had to cut short a June 21 underway because of a “minor engineering disruption,” U.S. Navy officials say, but was able to get back to sea June 24. The disruption occurred very shortly after the USS Independence started to get under way in San Diego, officials say. The ship dropped anchor for a short period of time before returning to the naval base. “The ship had a seawater cooling casualty resulting in one of the two online diesel generators tripping,” Navy officials say.
NEW DELHI — India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has joined with French aerospace company Sagem to manufacture automatic flight-control systems and sensors. HAL entered into a contract with Sagem, a unit of the Safran Group, at the Paris air show. The pact involves technology transfer to set up the production facility for the systems and sensors at its Hyderabad division in southern India, a HAL spokesman says.
PARIS — Concerns over the intellectual property (IP) rights of its X3 high-speed technology helped to sway Eurocopter and EADS North America (EADS NA) to withdraw from the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role advanced-rotorcraft technology demonstration program.
The best way to make a big splash in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) naval arena is with small ships — fleets of them. AMI International, a consultancy covering the global naval market, says the regional appetite for patrol, maritime security and special operations missions ships “is one of the largest and rapidly expanding segments of the A-P naval market.”
The Defense Department says it plans to take steps to better employ the under-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) as the nation transitions from a wartime mind-set.
For the FAA and all of those interested in transportation policy and appropriations, this week is unusually important. The Transportation Department could see its presidential nominee, Anthony Foxx, voted on and confirmed by senators, while other Capitol Hill action will provide key insight into expected spending for fiscal 2014.
LE BOURGET — Eurocopter expects the three interim fixes that will return the grounded fleet of EC225 heavy helicopters back into operation to be certified in the coming days. The EADS-owned company hopes the package of fixes will allow the aircraft to return operations over hostile environments by mid-July. Eurocopter has already indicated to EC225 operators that the final definitive correction to the problem will be redesign of the bevel gear shaft, a critical component in the main gearbox that drives two lubrication pumps.
Two major U.S. assets considered key for the nation’s Asia-Pacific rebalancing need some tweaking, according to two recent government agency reports. The P-8A Poseidon has been identified as one of the most important aircraft for the U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy, but a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says more testing is needed for the program.
LE BOURGET — International Aero Engines (IAE) will begin building the first V2500-E5 test engine for Embraer’s KC-390 tanker/transport next week. The joint venture plans to deliver three flight-test engines to the Brazilian manufacturer this year, and three more in the first quarter of 2014, says IAE President Jon Beatty. The KC-390 is expected to fly in the second half of next year.
NO FAKES: The Pentagon is close to wrapping up a department-wide Counterfeit Prevention Policy to minimize the introduction of counterfeit parts into the defense supply chain, according to the White House’s new Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement. The Pentagon policy follows guidance the Defense Department issued due to a mandate in the fiscal 2012 defense authorization act.
