Thanks to early supervision and a tight working relationship between the U.S. Navy and contractor General Dynamics NASSCO, the service’s Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) vessel is set for manufacturing, the service says. “The Navy worked very closely with General Dynamics NASSCO to identify cost savings early in the MLP design work while pursuing a concurrent design and production engineering approach,” the Navy says in a recent blog.
No one ever accused South Korea's Agency for Defense Development of lacking ambition. But as it pushes ahead with its effort to indigenously develop a stealth fighter, the agency faces renewed accusations of a lack of realism, and it is simply being overlooked when it comes to funding.
As Tom Enders tells employees in a letter, he is convinced that the planned merger of EADS and BAE Systems offers a “singular chance.” But there is a problem: Investors are notably uninspired and European governments lukewarm. There is a real possibility that the deal may still fall through.
Using cockpit simulators for a Brazilian air force F-5 in Porto Alegre and an F/A-18E/F at its military aircraft headquarters in St. Louis, Boeing has demonstrated how it can link a network of simulators across distances as great as 5,000 mi. Boeing has been strengthening its manufacturing and technology ties with Brazil for several years in a number of areas, but nowhere more so than in its drive to demonstrate advanced systems capabilities and win the Brazilian air force's F-2X fighter competition.
Africa needs engineers as much as doctors to stop people dying needlessly, according to Ivor Ichikowitz, a South African industrialist and founder of aerospace and defence company, Paramount Group.
NEW DELHI — India successfully conducted a development test of its nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile on Sept. 19 from a military base in the eastern state of Odisha. The missile will be introduced into service next year after undertaking one more developmental trial, a defense ministry official says.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) aims to spend $37 billion over the next 10 years to step up its modernization program, according to a defense official. “We are on [a] path of modernizing our assets,” says Air Marshal R.K. Sharma, IAF’s deputy chief. “In the last five-year plan [2007-12], IAF procurements were around $27 billion. We envisage [purchasing] assets worth more than $37 billion over the next two plan periods [by 2022].”
If budget sequestration hits, the U.S. Defense Department will protect wartime funding first, driving higher cuts to the base budgets. And next, more than 2,000 account lines and their contracts will have to be scrutinized, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not something the Pentagon wants to do, the department comptroller and four generals told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Sept. 20. They want to avoid it, not plan for it.
With fuel consumption and thermal management concerns increasing as power demands on combat aircraft escalate, the Pentagon is seeking industry input on a national plan for research to address the energy, power and thermal needs of military platforms. A centerpiece of the Energy Optimized Aircraft (EOA) national plan will be the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology (Invent) program already under way to develop adaptive smart aircraft power systems.
The secret to making sure the U.S. Navy’s restarted VXX presidential helicopter replacement effort is not canceled like its previous iteration will be setting a ceiling on requirements early, says Scott Winship, vice president of advanced programs for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. Northrop is partnered with AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, to compete for the proposed Marine One presidential helicopter. The companies will offer a U.S.-built variant of AgustaWestland’s 101.
Rolls-Royce has begun testing a high pressure-ratio compressor for a future fuel-efficient engine for subsonic military transports, patrol aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. The announcement comes after news that Rolls has not been selected for the next phase of a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) program to demonstrate adaptive engines for post-2020 combat aircraft (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 18).
Lockheed Martin officials are creeping closer to a solution to problems with the tailhook design for the U.S. Navy F-35C. The original design failed to snag the arresting wire in early testing owing to two problems: the point of the hook was not sharp enough to scoop under the wire and securely grab it, and a dampener device was not sufficient to maintain a hold on the wire. Essentially, the hook was bouncing upon landing, reducing the likelihood of a successful arrested landing.
