The U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Aug. 14 is scheduled to consider a claim by Pilatus Aircraft that it is owed at least $1 million in royalty money by Hawker Beechcraft for the production of the Pilatus-designed airframe used for the T-6/AT-6 military trainer.
SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — Embraer is positioning itself to secure the lion’s share of the billions in defense deals that Brazil has looming on the horizon, which could put it on the path to becoming one of the world’s top defense firms. Contracts up for grabs include Sisfron, a $6 billion integrated border monitoring system that Brazil’s army is implementing to protect the country’s land borders. Brazil has borders with 10 different countries totaling nearly 17,000 km (10,600 mi.).
NRO RETRY: The U.S. Air Force is eyeing Sept. 6 for the rescheduled launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite, NROL-36. Originally targeted for an Aug. 2 liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the flight had to be postponed while engineers worked through a range instrumentation issue. The fixes for the range issues should be tested and certified by the end of this month, according to Atlas V rocket maker United Launch Alliance.
AIR FORCE BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems, Nashua, N.H., is being awarded a $25,000,000 multiple award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for sustainment of Viper memory loader verifier and enhanced diagnostic aid support equipment. The location of the performance is BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems, Nashua, N.H., and at the BAE Electronics Facility, Fort Worth. The work is to be completed by Aug. 6, 2016. The 748 SCMG/PKBB is the contracting activity (FA8251-12-D-0003). NAVY
TEL AVIV — Israeli intelligence sources told local media here over the weekend that highly lethal Russian weapons have appeared in the latest Syrian fighting in Aleppo. Analysts believe that these were recently delivered from Russia.
TEL AVIV — Sources in Israel’s defense establishment say that the German Bundeswehr is close to choosing Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) Heron TP UAV over General Atomics’ Predator B, with formal negotiations on the buy to take place soon. The need for a large aircraft with flexible potential is considered an urgent requirement for the Bundeswehr contingency plans. The Bundeswehr forces deployed in Afghanistan already are making use of the smaller IAI Heron-1 UAV, following a successful cooperation between IAI and the Germany’s Rheinmetall Defence.
T-50 AESA: Russian fighter producer Sukhoi has begun flight tests of a T-50 prototype equipped with active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The AESA, developed by Tikhomirov NIIP, is installed on the third prototype of the so-called fifth-generation fighter. This aircraft made its first flight on Nov. 22, 2011, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia’s Far East, then it flew to Zhukovsky, near Moscow, where the radar installation took place.
The U.S. Air Force may have canceled its persistent-surveillance airship, but the U.S. Army has kept the faith, and Northrop Grumman’s Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) made its delayed first flight this week.
The U.S. Naval Surface Warfare (NSWC) Dahlgren Division is becoming a major center for chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) warfare agent detection work. The Navy has transferred all CBR detection services from Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, located in Indiana, to Dahlgren, Va., which provides technical, engineering, test, evaluation, maintenance and logistics support to the fleet after installing the CBR detection systems.
The U.S. Marine Corps is looking for unmanned systems to provide more help in lightening the loads Marines need to carry, and reducing their exposure to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Marines tested several different unmanned technologies in late July and earlier this month at Fort Pickett, Va., for counter-IED and logistical operations. Two of the featured technologies for the tests are the Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate (GUSS) and the seven-ton Cargo Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV).
NEW DELHI — India has released a global tender for roughly 60 utility helicopters to replace the Indian navy’s vintage Chetak helos. “A request for proposals [RFP] has been issued for buying mainly twin-engine helos. The deal is approximately worth $900 million,” a defense ministry official says. The official says Sikorsky, Eurocopter, Kamov and AgustaWestland are among the likely respondents.
The U.S. Navy has made strides in making its surface fleet ship-shape, but there is still plenty of work to be done, says Adm. J.C. Harvey Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Of particular concern, Harvey says, is the condition of ships and equipment needed for the Navy’s ballistic missile defense (BMD) missions, but the Navy still faces challenges in restoring most of the surface fleet to required condition.
The Joint Strike Fighter program achieved a milestone Aug. 8 when a short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) F-35 was the first of the developmental, stealthy fighters to release a weapon during a test over the Atlantic Ocean. The inert, 1,000-lb. Joint Direct Attack Munition also was the first airborne weapon separation from the F-35 internal weapon bay. The event kicks off a lengthy weapons-testing campaign for the F-35.
