The A400M's fly-by-wire system is based on the three-axis digital flight controls developed by Airbus for the A380, but modified to increase maneuverability and agility. The maximum bank angle is 120 deg. and load factor 3g. Software provides flightpath stability, plus high- and low-speed flight-envelope and overstress protection.
Over the last two decades, Turkey has modernized its air force with “off-the-shelf” combat aircraft and weaponry, but it has been sorely limited in what it could procure.
In what could be the biggest shake-up of U.S.-funded science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) promotional efforts since the dawn of the space age, the Pentagon, NASA and Department of Homeland Security are set to lose many of their STEM programs.
Producing up to 11,065 shp, at an 860-rpm propeller speed for takeoff, the TP400-D6 is the most powerful turboprop to enter production in the West. The engine is built by Europrop International, a consortium comprising Rolls-Royce in the U.K., Snecma in France, MTU Aero Engines in Germany and Industria de Turbopropulores in Spain.
Turkey wants to shape itself into a major aerospace and defense exporter in the coming years. Last year, the country's A&D sector exported $1.28 billion worth of armored vehicles, small patrol boats, electronic warfare and air defense systems. While this represents a small fraction of Turkey's exports each year, its growth is no small part of the government's strategy to become of the world's largest exporters as well as one of the 10 strongest economic world powers by 2023.
Budget constraints are affecting all of Europe, resulting in severe procurement cuts, minimal research and development spending, and an absence of new programs necessary to lay the groundwork for the future. Moreover, leading European countries, which maintain a sizable defense industry, are still striving to reach a consensus on unified operational requirements. Many still dwell in the past, according a higher priority to sovereignty despite the European Union's mission to establish a 27-nation common destiny.
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.
MOSCOW — The Russian defense ministry has ordered 15 Antonov An-148 regional jets to be assembled under license in Russia at a Voronezh-based VASO facility. Although the deal was signed in May, the announcement was made June 6 during the VASO annual shareholders meeting. The first aircraft is expected to be delivered to the military this year, according to a representative of the VASO parent company, United Aircraft Corporation. The rest of the batch will be shipped at a rate of three to four aircraft per year through 2017.
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.
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.
