LONDON—The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) has begun using its Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint intelligence-gathering aircraft operationally for the first time. While visiting forward-deployed personnel in Cyprus, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon confirmed the U.K.’s single aircraft was being used to support Operation Shader, the U.K.’s humanitarian mission in Iraq.
HOUSTON—Spacewalking cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed the Peruvian CubeSat Chasqui-1 as they embarked on a 6 1/2-hr. spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS), an extra-vehicular excursion devoted primarily to the installation and retrieval of external materials exposure experiments.
BEIJING — South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-Koo has authorized construction of the country’s long-delayed second assault ship, now scheduled to enter service in 2020. The design will be improved from that of South Korea’s first such ship, Dokdo, which displaces 19,300 metric tons when fully loaded. “The basic configuration will be similar to Dokdo’s, with more up-to-date equipment,” a spokesman for the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said after Kim made the decision to build the ship.
U.S. Navy engineers recently completed the installation of the first Central Atmosphere Monitoring System (CAMS) IIA on an in-service submarine—the SSN 752 USS Pasadena. The system ensures the cleansed air used in the submarine while submerged remains safe for the crew to breathe.
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army have demonstrated the autonomous deployment of an unmanned ground vehicle by an unmanned aircraft. The test, at Fort Benning in Georgia, involved the Lockheed/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopter airlifting Lockheed’s Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) vehicle into position to conduct an autonomous resupply and reconnaissance mission.
Aerojet Rocketdyne will demonstrate the fabrication of large-scale, metal rocket-engine parts through the use of laser-melting additive manufacturing (AM), under a Defense Production Act from Wright-Patterson AFB announced Aug. 18.
The California legislature has passed a last-minute measure to equally offer a tax incentive package to both contracting teams vying for the next-generation U.S. Air Force bomber program, overturning an earlier law that gave a $420 million discount to the Boeing/Lockheed Martin team alone.
As NASA prepares to announce the company or companies that will take crews to the International Space Station in the next round of its commercial crew vehicle development effort, planning is well underway for the flight tests that will certify the commercial vehicles for operational missions.
HAWKS WANTED: Japan will buy three Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks in its fiscal 2015 budget, the Mainichi newspaper reports. The unmanned surveillance aircraft will be operated by a tri-service joint unit at the Misawa airbase in northern Japan, with the aim of entry-into-service after five years, Mainichi says, perhaps referring to full operational capability. Estimated costs including ground equipment are about 100 billion yen ($980 million). Two U.S. RQ-4s were temporarily deployed to Misawa in May 2014.
Northrop Grumman has won a contract to upgrade 700-900 U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters, beating out teams including Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins. The upgrade with give the older UH-60Ls a glass cockpit with electronic displays replicating those of the in-production UH-60M. Upgraded Black Hawks will be designated UH-60Vs.
LONDON — Seven U.K.-based helicopter operators have been invited to tender to provide VIP transport helicopter services to the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF). AgustaWestland, British International Helicopter Services, Castle Air, Cobham, Gama Aviation, Qinetiq and Sloane Helicopters were invited in July to tender by the U.K. defense ministry for the five-year-long Rotary Wing Command Service Air Transport contract.
During flight test “Juliet” earlier this month, the U.S. Navy’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) successfully intercepted a subsonic, low-altitude target at White Sands Missile Range. Juliet is one of 10 follow-on operational test and evaluation (FOT&E) events planned for the SM-6’s missile performance and demonstration.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to acquire an IBM TrueNorth neurosynaptic processor, the most powerful brain-inspired microchip yet developed. The lab plans to use the chip for machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural network and other research. Unveiled Aug. 7 and developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), TrueNorth has a brain-inspired computing architecture powered by 1 million electronic “neurons” and 256 million electronic “synapses” between the neurons.
BEIJING – Australia will buy two more Airbus A330 tankers and one or two more Boeing C-17 Globemaster airlifters, local media report, quoting Defense Minister David Johnston. “When you get good service from a platform it prompts you to say, why don’t you get some more?” Johnston said in reference to the tanker-derivative of the A330 airliner. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has five of the aircraft, which retain the airliner’s main-deck seating and belly cargo holds.
HOUSTON – Orbital Sciences’ second Cygnus resupply capsule departed the International Space Station (ISS) early Aug. 15, following a 30-day stay that began with the delivery of nearly 3,300 lb. of crew supplies and research equipment.
LONDON – South African defense firm Paramount Group’s first aircraft, the Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (Ahrlac), has made its first flight. The first prototype of the turboprop-powered twin-boom aircraft flew from Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria on Aug. 13.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) aug. 22-24 — 254th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Bangaglore, India. For more information go to www.isam.in aug. 25 — 4th International Technical Specialists’ Meeting on Vertical Lift Aircraft RDT&E Patuxent River, Maryland. For more information go to www.vtol.org/pax
LOS ANGELES – Bolstered by positive results from initial “soft landing” tests of Falcon 9 first stages in the Atlantic Ocean and evaluations of its vertical landing F9R reusable demonstrator in Texas, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) says it is on track for a dry landing attempt by year’s end that may occur on a barge anchored off the Florida coast.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has further widened the market for its Surion utility helicopter, gaining a South Korea defense ministry contract to develop a medical evacuation (medevac) version of the aircraft. Development is due to be completed by 2016, with the aircraft going into service in 2018, KAI says. Parliament last year authorized the acquisition of eight medical evacuation helicopters; the army reportedly has a requirement for about 20. But KAI does not yet have a production contract.
FLOCK OF BIRDS: Euroconsult forecasts a $248 billion market for the manufacture and launch of 1,155 satellites over the next decade, with the growth driven by new governments and non-geostationary commercial satellite systems. According to the consultancy’s report, “115 satellites will be launched on average yearly over the next decade (2014-2023).
LONDON – Two Italian air force instructors have completed their training on the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 in the first step to introducing the aircraft into service. The two pilots from the 61st Wing completed their training with Alenia Aermacchi instructors at Lecce-Galatina airbase in the south of the country, home to the Italian air force’s training wing.
LONDON – AirTanker, the consortium charged with the operation of the U.K. Royal Air Force’s (RAF) aerial tanker force, has taken delivery of its 10th aircraft.
NEW DELHI—India is working to develop higher-capability communication satellites to meet the country’s growing requirements, a senior space scientist says. The country’s space agency is in the process of “developing various technologies and finding a suitable foreign industrial alliance to acquire the latest satellite platforms and payload technologies to upgrade its current satellite platforms,” Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.
