NEW DELHI — U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has extended a contract with India’s Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) after it recently delivered to the U.S. Navy the first EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft with a cockpit subassembly made by the Indian company. The subassembly provides cockpit floodlighting compatible with the aircraft’s Night Vision Imaging System (NVIS). Boeing had awarded BEL an initial contract in March 2011 for work on F/A-18E/F Super Hornet cockpit subassemblies.
COMING HOME: Preparations for the mid-to-early June landing of the U.S. Air Force’s second reusable X-37B space plane mission are under way at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the service says. The precise landing date and time depends on technical and weather considerations. “Space professionals from the 30th Space Wing will monitor the deorbit and landing of the Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission, called OTV-2,” the service said in an announcement. The spacecraft was launched on March 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral.
EMBRAER LEADERSHIP: Jose Antonio Filippo on June 4 will become Embraer’s CFO, filling a position vacated in April with the departure of Paulo Pinto Marques to a previous employer just months after taking the role. Filippo, who Embraer notes is an engineer by training, joins the manufacturer from Brazilian retailer Pao de Acucar where he was CFO. “Filippo is a great addition to our team. His expertise and experience will be of real value to the process of growth and development of the company,” says Embraer President and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado.
While the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) has taken much-needed steps to reduce costs, the Pentagon should do much more, says the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank. “In early 2012, DOD released new strategic guidance and a corresponding budget reflecting $487 billion in cuts over 10 years,” CNAS notes in its report, “Sustainable Pre-eminence Reforming the U.S. Military at a Time of Strategic Change,” released this week.
The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to stake its claim for protecting the nation’s interests in Arctic waters. The USCG is better positioned for the job than its U.S. Navy partners, says Vice Adm. John Currier, Coast Guard vice commandant.
The newly discovered Flame computer worm is quickly replacing 2010’s Stuxnet as the offensive cyber weapon of greatest notoriety, but digital combat veterans in the U.S. say it has been effective and undetected for two years or more because the Middle Eastern targets were well chosen and the type of exploitation was tailored for a foe without top-of-the-line cyber defenses.
The Pentagon is wrangling with the question of how to reconcile its diverse intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) forces as the U.S. prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan and focus on preparing for a high-end, near-peer threat in the Pacific region.
NEW DELHI — Russian firm United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has signed a contract with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to make 205 multi-role transport aircraft (MTA) in the 15-20 ton-class for both countries’ air forces as well as other potential customers. The companies have roped in another Russian firm — Multirole Transport Aircraft Ltd. (MTAL) — as the third partner in the joint venture.
NEW DELHI — Unlike its Agni-V ballistic missile, do not expect New Delhi to draw a lot of international attention to upcoming testing of its Nirbhay cruise missile, even as the weapon holds far more significance to the Indian weapons program than is widely appreciated. In August, the country is scheduled to conduct the first test of its little known Nirbhay (“fearless”), a subsonic weapon with a maximum range of 1,000 km. Designated secret, the weapon’s development has remained concealed ever since its existence was first revealed in 2006.
AIR LAUNCH: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Lockheed Martin a $6.2 million contract, and Northrop Grumman $2.3 million, for Phase 1 of the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (Alasa) program to launch a 100-lb. satellite into low Earth orbit from an aircraft for less than $1 million per launch, including range costs. Space Information Laboratories has received $1.9 million to develop enabling technology for a GPS tracking, autonomous flight termination and space-based range system to reduce launch costs.
UNMANNED EYES: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is seeking information on off-the-shelf synthetic-aperture radar/ground moving target indication payloads small enough to be integrated quickly into the Navy and Marine Corps’ Insitu RQ-21A Integrator small tactical unmanned aircraft system, as well as the AAI RQ-7B Shadow. Radar would allow the UAVs to search a wider area for vehicles and people and cue the electro-optical/infrared full-motion video sensors already carried. An airborne maritime search mode “is also a desired capability,” says the request for information.
FLYING AGAIN: Australia’s fleet of Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters has resumed regular training flights following the lifting of a May 16 grounding put in place after fumes were detected in the aircraft’s cockpit. The Army Operational Airworthiness Authority lifted the suspension May 28 after a detailed assessment and a recommendation from the Technical Airworthiness Authority. There are 22 Tigers in the Australian army’s Oakey and Darwin-based fleet. Three are completing a retrofit program and should return to the fleet later in the year.
The U.S. Navy’s decision to truncate its DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer fleet and curb radar tests and development on those ships is adding costs to the service’s next-generation aircraft carrier program, as defense analysts and others had warned.
The U.K. government has awarded an industrial team of Marshall Aerospace , Rolls-Royce , and Lockheed Martin a £350 million ($548 million) contract to support C-130Ks and C-130J airlifters until 2015.
NEW DELHI — Boeing is in negotiations to sell its Apache AH-64D multi-role combat helicopter to the Indian air force (IAF) and expects a final decision by the end of 2012, a senior Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS) official says. “We feel very positive about the deal … and we probably will get to a decision point by the end of the year,” Mark Kronenberg, vice president of international business development for BDS, tells Aviation Week. Financial details were not disclosed.
LONDON — China is progressing quickly in the field of unmanned underwater “gliders,” an area previously dominated by the U.S. “They’re putting a lot of money, a lot of engineers into this field,” says Lyle Goldstein, strategic researcher at the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute. “They’re energized because they know there’s a gap in underwater capability, and this is a chance to leapfrog ahead.”
As the U.S. searches for a way to further protect itself from the threat of foreign nuclear ballistic missile attack during times of budget austerity, some analysts and officials are suggesting a change in the degree or even basic philosophy of the nation’s nuclear protection strategy. Everything from the size of the country’s boomer submarine force to the three-legged nuclear protection triad is coming under scrutiny and attack.
