The first prototype of TAI-modernized T38 jet trainer aircraft has been delivered to the Turkish Air Force (TurAF) following a special handover ceremony at TAI's facilities.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Eurofighter consortium is working to improve the Typhoon’s naval combat capabilities by incorporating anti-ship missiles, including the Boeing Harpoon. This aircraft was designed for air defense and ground attack, rather than as a naval fighter, but the consortium is in the competition to sell fighters to Malaysia, which has said it needs a version with an anti-ship capability. Malaysia’s new fighters are to be stationed at Kuantan AFB overlooking the South China Sea, an area where there are territorial disputes with China.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) is talking to operators of the Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper about options to extend the medium-altitude unmanned aircraft’s loiter time. The company is proposing two field-installable kits. Option 1 adds two fuel pods under the existing 66-ft.-span wing, on the inboard pylons, and extends endurance to 37 hr. from 27 hr. for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
The U.S. Navy is laying the groundwork for joint-service, international alternatives for both large, manned aircraft and smaller unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) designs.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Saab soon will display its Saab 340 Maritime Security Aircraft (MSA), a new variant that aims to create a market for second-hand Saab 340Bs.
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — During this quarter, the first DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer should start look even more like the new U.S. Navy warship it is planned to be, as contractors prepare to marry the vessel’s composite hangar with its hull.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The industrial cooperation package that manufacturers can offer Malaysia appears to be the key to winning government support in the country, which has a competition under way for the purchase of 18 fighters.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Boeing’s UAV subsidiary Insitu has secured a contract to supply its ScanEagle UAV to Malaysia, for help in monitoring territory off the north coast of the state of Sabah. Malaysian company Unmanned Systems Technology (UST), a subsidiary of Malaysian composites parts manufacturer CTRM, has a government contract to provide UAV surveillance covering sections of land and sea in and around Sabah. At the Defense Services Asia (DSA) exhibition in Kuala Lumpur this week, UST signed a contract with Insitu.
BEIJING — South Korea has announced the deployment of two types of surface-to-surface weapons, one a cruise missile and the other ballistic. The Tomahawk-like cruise missile, which must be the previously reported Hyunmu 3C, has world-class precision, good enough to fly through a window, says Maj. Gen. Shin Won-sik, director general of planning at the defense ministry, who did not name either weapon. Its range is 1,500 km (930 mi.), he says.
KUALA LUMPUR — Eurocopter aims to deliver the first of 12 EC-725 tactical transport helicopters ordered by the Malaysian air force by the end of the year. Training starts in July, Eurocopter Malaysia President Pierre Rossignol tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of the Defense Services Asia exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. He also says an EC-225/725 training simulator will be coming to Malaysia and will be stationed here.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 23 - 25 — Aviation Week NextGen Ahead Air Transportation Modernization Conference, Washington Marriott at Metro Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
It’s time for the U.S. to start funding and fielding directed-energy weapons such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwave, a new study argues, and not just because they are cheaper than one-shot kinetic weapons. The cost per shot for interceptor missiles is not only expensive—at least $9 million each—it puts U.S. forces on the bad side of what is called the “cost-imposition curve,” says Mark Gunzinger, author of “Changing the Game: The Promise of Directed-Energy Weapons,” the latest report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is offering two field-retrofittable options to extend the loiter time of its Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude unmanned aircraft. As the results of an internally funded endurance enhancement study, Option 1 calls for adding two fuel pods to the existing 66-ft.-span wing, increasing endurance to 37 from 27 hr. ; Option 2 sees the wing replaced with an 88-ft.-span unit and adds the two underwing fuel pods, increasing endurance to 42 hr.
Robert Wall (Santiago, Chile), Michael Mecham (Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil)
As Western aerospace and defense (A&D) companies flood into Latin America to establish ties to help them win military business, local firms have to decide what long-term gains they might garner from the arrangements. For Embraer—the region's industrial heavyweight—the goal is clear. It is interested in gaining access to new markets and securing development work that can boost its industrial capacities. This is especially true in Brazil's biggest defense project involving foreign suppliers, the F-X2 fighter program.
Robert Wall (Santiago, Chile), Michael Mecham (Santiago, Chile)
When Eurocopter inaugurates its new final assembly line in Brazil at its Helibras facility, it will signify how much Western aerospace companies are banking on the Latin market's potential.
Brazil is unusual among top-rated emerging markets because it can support manufacturing, services and natural resource development simultaneously. This is due, in part, to its low external and public debt, low unemployment, an enviable 90% literacy rate, expanding capital markets and declining poverty. And to top it off, the country is self-sufficient in water, food and energy. Brazil recently passed the U.K. to become the world's sixth-largest economy. By 2040, Goldman Sachs expects it to be fourth behind China, the U.S. and India.
Brazil's new entrants in aviation design and manufacturing are specializing in niche markets for domestic consumption and are receiving support from industry, academia and government agencies.
Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Unfortunately, there are too many followers in today's defense industry.
For a self-professed naval power, the U.K. has seen surprisingly large gaps develop in its maritime surveillance capability in recent years, a trend the Defense Ministry is setting out to reverse.
Argentina's modest aerospace ambitions have centered on FAdeA (Fabrica Argentina de Aviones), its main aircraft manufacturer, but have been on the brink of extinction for some time. The country is hoping that FAdeA's nationalization in 2010 will breathe new life into the business and put it on a sustainable footing. Many of Latin America's arms makers were built as national prestige projects during eras of military leadership, and they have seen sharp declines in recent years as democracy has broadened.
