The proliferation of mobile telephones on the modern battlefield is changing how electronic warfare planners think about how to confront the enemy. The ubiquity of the signals poses a massive challenge in terms of processing power and tracking potential threats. But military and industry officials point out that there are also important advantages to be gained by exploiting GSM-standard cellphone communications and other signals.
After a long and unusually contentious debate in Congress, President Obama signed into law a bill to extend the Export-Import Bank's charter and provide $140 billion in lending authority by 2014. The debate this year turned into a tiff between aerospace giants Boeing and Delta Air Lines, with Delta expressing fear that Ex-Im financing of widebody jets undercuts its global competitiveness. And some Republicans and conservative interest groups called for an end to the bank and its corporate welfare.
The Eaton chief suspects that the introduction of new technologies that make aircraft cheaper to operate may have permanently shortened their economic lifecycles.
Defense companies that primarily provide services rather than products will be among the first to be hit by reductions in military spending, Moody's Investor Services warns in its latest commentary. Beyond the next fiscal year, a decline in troop deployments overseas will lead to lower services outlays, Moody's says. And as contracts roll over and the Defense Department's heightened focus on procurement cost control takes hold, margins are likely to shrink.
Six months from a potential blunt cut to federal spending and government is continuing to warn, industry is starting to act, and lawmakers are looking for an escape hatch. If Congress does not approve $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction or reverse a law passed last year, the entire federal government will suffer an across-the-board budget cut of the same amount. And half of that will be targeted at the Pentagon.
Momentum is growing behind the desire for a step-change in rotary-wing performance. More speed is most often mentioned by customers and manufacturers, but range and payload limitations are also seen as holding back rotorcraft from wider use.
As Tom Enders assumes the role of chief executive of EADS, he finds himself at the helm of an enterprise much changed from five years ago, when he and his predecessor, Louis Gallois, last shared responsibility for running the company. To his credit, Enders agreed to step down to lead Airbus and help simplify the corporate structure. The internecine warfare between French and German factions has eased. Even the A380 appears to be on a solid footing.
European attack-helicopter makers have not been blessed with large export deals in recent years, but manufacturers are hoping upgrades maturing now will attract new buyers. Key development milestones are approaching for both the Eurocopter Tiger and AgustaWestland T-129, the latest variant of the AW129 being developed for Turkey. Although Italy funded the AW129's original development, the major capability upgrades of the T-129 would not have been fielded solely for Rome.
With billions being spent in pursuit of fuel savings, closer integration of engines and aircraft may hold the greatest untapped potential for improvement. But extracting synergies from the intermingling of propulsion and airframe design is demanding changes in the way the stove-piped aerospace industry operates.
The top priority of France's newly elected president, Francois Hollande, is to slash government debt. Although this is no surprise, such a primary goal requires sacrifices as well as new priorities in an environment such as the current very challenging one: The economy is weak, growth is minimal, and the aerospace and defense industry's production costs are too high to efficiently sustain competition.
The Italian air force will become the second international customer after the Royal Air Force to be able to arm and employ in hunter-killer missions its U.S.-provided Predator and Reaper UAVs. The White House is proposing the move to Congress, which has not rejected the request despite some members' concerns. Indeed, Italy had already ordered an unspecified quantity of Lockheed Martin Hellfire missiles last year, noting that the approval process would be concluded in due time. In turn, delivery of the missiles could start soon.
Japan's last attempt at developing a twin-engine transport helicopter flopped. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) built only seven MH2000s from 1998 to 2003.
When the U.S. Air Force canceled a little-known airship program, veterans of aerospace development saw it as just another case of a service desperately seeking budget savings. But officials of the small contractor and some observers see something more disturbing—a prejudice against new ways of collecting intelligence and a pre-emptive strike to protect conventional programs.
During the past year, two large powered-lift models have been tested in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at NASA Ames Research Center in California, evaluating the low-speed benefits of blowing air over high-lift flaps for short takeoff and landing (STOL).
The newly discovered Flame computer virus—designed for spying and not for destruction—is quickly replacing 2010's Stuxnet as the offensive cyberweapon of greatest notoriety. But U.S. veterans of digital combat say it has been effective and gone undetected for two years or more because its targets in the Middle East were well chosen and the type of exploitation was tailored for a foe without top-of-the-line defenses in the realm of cyber.
Any military conflict between Beijing and Washington would be decided by space and cyber supremacy. And if that fight is confined to a short period, perhaps a few weeks, during which China has a technical advantage, it could be the victor, say that nation's defense analysts and scholars.
MALMEN AIR BASE, Sweden — India will build a stealthier version of its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), but in the near term it is getting ready to build the Mk. 2 version of the aircraft, with the goal of reaching operational clearance in 2016.
The U.S. Air Force may have stopped work on its Blue Devil 2 surveillance airship, but the U.S. Army says Northrop Grumman is making progress in assembling its hybrid-airship Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV). Without giving a date for the first flight, originally expected in mid-2011, Army Space & Missile Defense Command (SMDC) says “the team is assembling the airship and integrating motors and electronics onto and into the vehicle.
Click here to view the pdf 2013 Markup: House Appropriators Add Money For Advanced Video Sensors 2013 Markup: House Appropriators Add Money For Advanced Video Sensors Description Request HASC HAC
REORG PLAN: Hawker Beechcraft is facing a June 30 deadline to file its reorganization plan and disclosure statement, and is expected to confirm its reorganization by November. The Wichita airframer is hoping to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of the year under new ownership through a restructuring plan that would eliminate $2.5 billion of the company’s debt and $125 million in annual interest expenses. Last year the company lost the U.S.
