The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified the search-and-rescue (SAR) variant of the AW189 super-medium helicopter, just months before the aircraft is due to enter service with Bristow on a U.K. government contract.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has teamed with AgustaWestland in offering the AW101, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Sikorsky propose a variant of the H-60.
Littoral Combat Ship LCS 3 USS Fort Worth arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, earlier this month as part of a 16-month rotational deployment in support of rebalancing efforts for the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, marking the ship’s first tour to Southeast Asia.
The switch may not, however, change the direction of Australian defense policy, because Prime Minister Tony Abbott himself has been closely involved in determining it.
Concerned that tens of thousands Americans will receive small quadcopters as gifts this holiday season, the FAA and industry have teamed to produce educational materials in an attempt to prevent potential accidents in the air and on the ground.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 5-9 — AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition (SciTech 2015), “The World’s Largest Event for Aerospace Research, Development and Technology,” Kissimmee, Florida. For more information go to www.aiaa-scitech.org/
CAE announced C$115m in new defense business that includes C295 full-flight simulator for the Polish air force, continued maintenance and support for German Army Aviation School, training needs analysis study for the German-French Tiger Helicopter Technical School, and support for the New Zealand Defense Force’s SH-2G(I) Super Seasprite synthetic training devices. EMBRAER confirmed plan to make first flight of the KC-390 in the first weeks of 2015.
“As the centerpiece of a Hunter-Killer group joined by an Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG 51) and a Littoral Combat Ship, DDG 1000 will provide lethal sea control,” McFarland says in a recent blog.
Mars may have hosted a collection of small seas 3.9 billion years ago, according to an isotopic assessment of carbon and oxygen locked inside the oldest known Martian meteorite to have fallen to Earth.
NASA’s experiment with space laser communications from the International Space Station, initiated in mid-2014, so far shows promise as a technology that could replace the traditional use of radio waves for accelerated high data transmissions from deep space probes as well as Earth orbiting satellites.
As part of its AW149 offer, AgustaWestland has signed agreements with four Polish companies that it says are valued at around €800 million ($980 million).
Airbus, Bell and Sikorsky are interested in the program, apparently teamed with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, respectively.
The program, facilitated by the European Defense Agency (EDA), will now see the Netherlands, Norway and Poland begin negotiations to buy a pooled common fleet of A330 MRTTs to operate between them.
Raising the prospect of small unmanned aircraft zipping around inside buildings, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is to brief industry Jan. 6 on plans for the Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program.
The company demonstrated three different electronic warfare sensors on the U-2, switching each out in significantly less time than required when not using the open systems architecture approach.
When it comes to next year’s anticipated congressional budget battles, a key player has changed. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) will lead the Senate Budget Committee, replacing Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who had been the top Republican on the panel. Though Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the incoming majority leader, has officially denied encouraging the change in leadership, Enzi is seen as close to McConnell. McConnell has promised to return to the “regular order” of passing budget and spending bills on time.
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding a $498.1 million modification to a previously awarded contract to build a fourth Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) ship.
The lingering mystery over Martian methane and the possibility of a microbial origin persists, though with a new urgency based on ground-level measurements from NASA’s Curiosity rover.
