On April 22, a barrage of Hellfire missiles killed a senior Al Qaeda commander and two operatives along the border of Marib and Al Jawf provinces in northern Yemen. It is believed to be among the first of many strikes executed since Washington authorized the targeting of militants based on “signature” patterns of behavior, such as transporting weapons or gathering at known militant compounds. Under previous policy, the identity of a militant in the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had to be established before placing him on a kill list.
Last month, the U.S. chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, wrote that his Navy should support the U.S. Air Force's plan to develop a new bomber. This followed the endorsement by his opposite number, USAF Gen. Norton Schwartz, of the Navy's plan for more nuclear attack submarines. In other news, the Pentagon turned bright orange, floated in the air and started drifting with the breeze in the direction of Tyson's Corner, Va.
The Pentagon could release performance specifications as soon as this summer for a new vertical-lift aircraft that will be developed in the Joint Multirole (JMR) program. The program, led by the Army, is a consortium of all the services and industry, and has received input from sources such as U.S. Special Operations Command, NASA and the defense secretary. Two demonstrators have been developed and initial wind tunnel tests and other studies completed. Army Maj. Gen.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) was seeking a partner for its project to find a faster, cheaper way to design and build military ground vehicles when the Pentagon dropped a bomb on the Marine Corps last year.
Just as the U.S. Navy is preparing for production of improved Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), members of Congress are again taking aim at the program. The impetus for the renewed congressional attacks on the LCS program can be found in a recent spate of troubling press and watchdog group reports, including a recent guided tour by Aviation Week of USS Freedom (LCS-1) while it was in drydock that revealed far more severe problems than had been previously acknowledged publicly by the Navy or prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
Shifting winds pose a hazard to soldiers and first responders who confront toxic threats, whether chemical, nuclear or smoke and fumes. Software in development by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) predicts the flow of plumes based on weather and terrain over areas of varying size to increase the safe deployment of personnel. Called L-REAC (Local-Rapid Evaluation of Atmospheric Conditions), the program models such factors as wind, air pressure, temperature and humidity, terrain data and building dimensions.
The Pentagon is set to expand a pilot program that shares information about cyberthreats among agencies and private companies. The defense industrial base Cyber Security/Information Assurance Program involves companies providing information to the Defense Department about cybersecurity incidents, such as an attempted hack or a computer virus, and the Pentagon providing companies with unclassified and classified cybersecurity information. The pilot program, which has been going on for four years, currently involves 36 companies.
A flawless radome is vital to the integrity of aircraft communications. If the assembly, usually fabricated of polymer composite several centimeters (1 cm is 0.4 in.) thick, retains defects such as air bubbles, water droplets or contaminants during manufacture, cracks may develop that degrade moisture resistance, affecting signal integrity. At last month's Control exposition in Stuttgart, Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques of Kaiserslauten, Germany, displayed a prototype testing system that detects such flaws.
Shifting winds pose a hazard to soldiers and first responders who confront toxic threats, whether chemical, nuclear or smoke and fumes. Software in development by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) predicts the flow of plumes based on weather and terrain over areas of varying size to increase the safe deployment of personnel. Called L-REAC (Local-Rapid Evaluation of Atmospheric Conditions), the program models such factors as wind, air pressure, temperature and humidity, terrain data and building dimensions.
The Pentagon could release performance specifications as soon as this summer for a new vertical-lift aircraft that will be developed in the Joint Multirole (JMR) program. The program, led by the Army, is a consortium of all the services and industry, and has received input from sources such as U.S. Special Operations Command, NASA and the defense secretary. Two demonstrators have been developed and initial wind tunnel tests and other studies completed. Army Maj. Gen.
UAVs do not fly in commercial airspace or over populated areas for good reasons: They have no sense-and-avoidance systems to prevent mid-air collisions, and there is no way to make safe emergency landings a regular event. “In most cases they just drop,” says Luis Alvarez of the Australian Research Center for Aerospace Automation. Researchers there and at partner Queensland University of Technology are developing onboard systems to address these problems.
The roar of jets being launched from aircraft carriers may be iconic, but the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) is looking for ways of reducing the noise generated by tactical aircraft, to protect the hearing of sailors involved with flight-deck operations. ONR's ongoing Jet Noise Reduction project, jointly funded by NASA, recently awarded more than $4 million in grants to six universities and two companies for development of noise-reduction technologies, as well as measurement and prediction tools and noise-source models.
If special operations are the “point of the spear” in war, combat engineers are the ridges of the blade, eliminating hazards and obstacles for advancing infantry. The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) combat engineering corps has added a number of technologies to facilitate this mission. Among those recently revealed by the IDF is a Puma armored personnel carrier (APC) that has been modified for mine-clearing operations. The Puma (see photo), which uses the chassis of a British Centurion tank, carries 20 missiles armed with thermobaric (i.e., fuel-air) explosives.
LONDON — Ultra Electronics has resumed its process of making niche acquisitions with the purchase of satellite communications terminal provider Giga Communications. The price of the deal, £12.4 million ($19.3 million), could rise by another £24.6 million depending on earnings delivered in the next two years. Ultra expects the deal to start adding to its bottom line this year.
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.
