After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles turned the tables on Russia's helicopter gunships and helped end the occupation. In the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, missile jammers have largely neutralized the threat. But still only a fraction of the aircraft that could find themselves in combat zones is protected by directional infrared countermeasures (Dircm) systems.
Despite a series of public setbacks in recent years, AgustaWestland is embarking on a new civil certification program for its AW101, a medium/heavy helicopter that has experienced more than its fair share of strife since its development in the 1980s.
Lockheed Martin is designing a fix to address cracks found in one of four primary wing carry-through bulkheads on an F-35B ground-test article that was undergoing durability tests for a second life of service beyond 8,000 flying hours.
The European Defense Agency (EDA) is preparing for a second series of manned test flights of a sense-and-avoid (S&A) system under development to allow unmanned aircraft to operate in unrestricted airspace. The system is being developed under the four-year Mid-air Collision Avoidance System (MidCAS) program, which ends in 2014, by a consortium of 13 companies from five European nations, including Saab, Alenia Aermacchi, EADS Cassidian, Indra, Selex and Thales.
While the uncertainty of two years of budget cuts and stop-gap spending bills may still not seem tangible to the public, “sequestration” is creating “chaos” for defense contractors.
Hobbled by the government's partial shutdown, the National Transportation Safety Board is standing down, except for the most pressing cases. “The agency can engage in those activities necessary to address imminent threats to safety of human life or for the protection of property,” the board said Oct. 10. Though it is clear investigators would be recalled for a major transportation disaster, how the NTSB is defining other “imminent threats” is murkier.
Among advanced developments hindered by the ongoing budget saga on Capitol Hill is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's proposed XS-1 experimental spaceplane. Darpa is polling industry for interest in developing a reusable hypersonic vehicle with expendable upper stages that can put as much as 5,000 lb. in space up to 10 times over 10 days. But Boeing, which has a lot of relevant technology in its X-37 spaceplane, isn't ready to commit. There is some uncertainty about what is and isn't going to be funded, Muilenburg says.
One way to try to escape cataclysmic budget uncertainty is to cover all the bases. Consider EADS's Lakota Light Utility Helicopter, one of the programs that fared poorly in President Barack Obama's long-term budget plans. The Army asked for just 10 this year and no more after that. But members of Congress appear to be persuaded by EADS's pitch of a low-cost, robust platform that delivers on time and is entrenched in the U.S. industrial base. The House's spending committee added funding to procure 31 Lakotas, and its Senate counterpart funded 20.
Five years ago, the U.S. rotorcraft industry was stagnant, fat and happy. It was building the same old helicopters for customers who did not think they needed anything better. Today, the industry is vibrant and developing new designs, but running the same risk of focusing on a single, dominant customer with a shaky record of making and sticking to procurement decisions.
With the technological developments of current and potential adversaries making it more difficult to gain access into certain maritime areas, the U.S. has to invest as much in tactics as it does in state-of-the art equipment and systems to implement air-sea-battle (ASB) concepts, military leaders say. Successful ASB does not require “totally technical” solutions alone, U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin Killea, director of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said Oct. 10 during a House Armed Services seapower subcommittee hearing on ASB.
LONDON — Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has begun development of an indigenous helicopter. Details of the work, which began Sept. 6, have only just emerged from Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM). The start of development follows the signing of an agreement with TAI at the end of June.
The Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology that represents the core of the transmitter-receiver (TR) modules underpinning recent radar development was key not only to winning the U.S. Navy’s Air And Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), but also to developing the Air Force’s upcoming Space Surveillance System, Raytheon officials say.
The U.S. government shutdown has claimed another victim — the christening of the DDG-1000 USS Zumwalt-class destroyer. “It is incredibly unfortunate that we are being forced to cancel the christening ceremony for this great warship,” says Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. “But the ongoing government shutdown prevents us from being able to honor Admiral Zumwalt’s memory with a ceremony befitting his and his family’s legacy of service to our nation and our navy.”
The European Defense Agency (EDA) is preparing for a second series of manned test flights of a sense-and-avoid (S&A) system under development to allow unmanned aircraft to operate in unrestricted airspace. The system is being developed under the four-year Mid-air Collision Avoidance System (MidCAS) program, which ends in 2014, by a consortium of 13 companies from five European nations, including Saab, Alenia Aermacchi, EADS Cassidian, Indra, Selex and Thales.
Two U.S. Army command systems and the Navy’s Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (Surtass) lead the list of a dozen budget lines in the services’ “Other procurement” accounts with outyear spending plans that are doubled or more compared to what the Pentagon had estimated just a year ago. (See charts pp. 6-10.) For example, the 2014 request for Surtass is $10 million, five times the estimate in the 2013 spending plan. The total for the fiscal years 2014-2017 is $31 million, three times the 2013 estimate.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Army, Navy Other Procurement: Outyear Funding Increases 2014-2017Compares Outyear Funding Estimates from Fiscal 2013 Request With Fiscal 2014 Request Then-year dollars in millions. Descending sort on Outyear %change. U.S.
LONDON — AgustaWestland has flown the first production AW189 helicopter in Italy. The eight-ton aircraft — ultimately destined for launch customer Bristow — took to the air at the company’s Vergiate facility on Oct. 10. The aircraft is still pending type certification, which is expected soon following what the company called a “milestone” AW189 board meeting held in Germany in late September.
The Afghan Air Force (AAF) has taken delivery of its first two C-130 Hercules aircraft as the fledgling air arm rebuilds its airlift capability. Afghanistan becomes the 70th country to operate the C-130 following the formal delivery of the two former U.S. Air Force aircraft on Oct. 9 at Kabul International Airport. The air arm is due to take delivery of another two C-130Hs in 2014.
The head of Boeing’s defense and space unit thinks the true negative effects of sequestration on the aerospace and defense industry have yet to be felt, and will only get worse over time.
