Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

LOCKHEED MARTIN has a $89.3m U.S. Navy contract for the system development and demonstration (SDD) Phase I Increment 2 for first aircraft arrival and initial ops in support of Israel’s F-35A under Foreign Military Sales program. Work to be complete in March 2020. AIRBUS HELICOPTERS has contract from OCCAR to define architecture for Mk. 3 mid-life upgrade of EC665 Tiger helicopter.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 31-Sept. 2—AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition (Space 2015), Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, California. For more information go to www.aiaa-space.org

U.S. lawmakers will spend their fall wrapped up in negotiations aimed at stalling development of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Iran’s neighbor to the southeast, Pakistan, may have the fastest-growing nuclear weapons stockpile in the world. Within the next decade, Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal may be the world’s third largest behind the U.S. and Russia and nearly twice the size of its rival India’s, according to a report from the Stimson Center and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

By Mark Carreau
NASA has picked a Kuiper Belt Object object designated MU69 for a high-speed pass by New Horizons in January 2019.

By Guy Norris
SpaceX says it remains at least “a couple of months” away from returning to flight following the Falcon 9 launch failure on a resupply mission to the International Space Station on June 28, partially because the company’s accident investigation has taken longer than expected.
Space

By Graham Warwick
The hard-fought competition pitted the Pentagon’s two suppliers of directed infrared countermeasures systems against each other to win the only major new program for laser jammers to protect U.S. military helicopters, tiltrotors and small fixed-wing aircraft.

The crew of the aircraft carrier CVN 69 USS Dwight D. Eisenhower – known as the “Ike” – returned to sea earlier this month following a 23-month period in dry-dock at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY), U.S. Navy officials say.

With the United Nations COP21 climate change forum just a few months away, France and Gabon are discussing expanded space cooperation in the area of Earth observation.

As the U.S. and Chinese navies continue to successfully conduct joint drills at sea using Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations (CNO), says he sees CUES expanding even more globally.

BOEING signed agreement with Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI) and Alsalam Aircraft Co. to create the Saudi Rotorcraft Support Center in

Congress’ failure to renew the Export-Import Bank is hurting Boeing — and now its workers. ABS Holdings terminated a contract for an all-electric

By Tony Osborne
LONDON – AgustaWestland has been awarded civil certification for its 8.3 metric-ton AW189 super-medium helicopter from Russia. The August approvals

/site-files/aviationweek.com/files/uploads/2015/08/asd_08_28_2015_cht1.pdf

An eight-rotor remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) that crashed while providing coverage of the International Cricket Council World Cup Final in Melbourne, Victoria, this spring may have been overcome by radio frequency interference from broadcast telecommunications facilities, mobile broadcast vehicles and cell phones from the more than 93,000 attendees of the event.

By Tony Osborne
Ireland is planning to replace its pair of CASA-built CN235 Persuader maritime patrol aircraft in 2019 with a “larger, more capable aircraft,” a white paper on the country’s defense says.

Work still remains to declare the new MUOS payload – designed to provide 3G “smart phone-like” capabilities to users around the globe – operational on the $8.2 billion system.

NASA has picked a third cubesat proposal for a piggyback ride to lunar orbit with the first flight of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), testing whether the growing capabilities being developed for the tiny spacecraft can serve its space-science needs.

The full-duration test in the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi completed work to characterize the reusable engine’s performance at the higher thrust levels, higher inlet pressures and lower temperatures the flight engines will experience in the first SLS mission.

By Tony Osborne
The pilot of a Bombardier Dash-8 regional airliner has described a near miss with a UAV while on approach to London’s City Airport as “possibly catastrophic.”

The U.S. Navy awarded Boeing a $1.5 billion contract for 13 new P-8A Poseidon aircraft, which has become the poster aircraft for the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, especially in recent clashes with China in the South China Sea.

By Mark Carreau
Long-duration International Space Station crewmembers Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko joined their soon-to-depart commander, Gennady Padalka, aboard the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft early Aug. 28 for a brief flight to exchange parking spots on the orbiting science laboratory.

By Bradley Perrett
Shipbuilder Japan Marine United has floated Japan’s fourth helicopter carrier out of the construction dock, with entry into service due in 2017.

The Department of Defense (DOD) is not effectively using portfolio management to optimize its weapon system investments, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says in a recent report, citing shipbuilding funding as an example.

By Tony Osborne
Contractors study options to reduce operational cost of fifth-generation fighter fleets.

Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) approved Milestone B earlier this month for the Advance Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Robotic System (Aeodrs) Tactical Operations variant, Increment 2.