LONDON — MBDA and Lockheed Martin have conducted an exploratory test of a MBDA-built missile from a Lockheed Martin-made vertical launcher. The trial, conducted in Bedford, U.K., on Sept. 10, tested the ability to eject MBDA’s Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM) — also known as Sea Ceptor — from Lockheed Martin’s Mk. 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) and the Extensible Launching System (ExLS). The test used MBDA’s soft vertical launch technology to eject the CAMM from its canister and position the missile for main motor ignition.
U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team (Ledet) 101 recently embarked with sailors on the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate FFG-51 USS Gary for training and anti-drug smuggling operations off the California coast.
HELO SAFETY: The Transport Committee of the U.K. Parliament has announced it will hold an inquiry into helicopter safety following the crash of a Super Puma into the North Sea on Aug. 23 that killed four oil workers. Committee chair Louise Ellman said: “We have heard worrying evidence that the workforce has lost confidence in the helicopters, which they have no choice but to use.
Avicopter has joined the trend for developing high-speed helicopters. The Chinese manufacturer is building a technology demonstrator with a compound configuration that combines coaxial rigid rotors and nose-mounted, counter-rotating propellers.
Avicopter is in a hurry. It is racing against the clock to prepare a set of competitive products for an expected boom in Chinese civil helicopter demand by 2018. Having developed just one small civil helicopter substantially on its own, the rotary-wing subsidiary of Avic is rushing to design two additional projects: a second all-new type and an upgrade of the Eurocopter Dauphin so extensive as to be barely recognizable.
Aeros plans free-flights of its Dragon Dream rigid-hull hybrid airship after completing the first outdoor tethered evaluation of the subscale demonstrator on Sept. 7. This followed the award of an FAA experimental certificate allowing company-funded research and development flights. Previous testing of the 266-ft.-long vehicle under the Defense Department-funded Project Pelican was conducted inside the airship hangar at Tustin, Calif., and included a demonstration of Aeros's “control of static heaviness” variable-buoyancy system.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the defense sector has been at a standstill in 2013 in the over-$100 million category. There have been several noteworthy commercial acquisitions announced by companies with defense operations: Rockwell Collins said last month it is buying Arinc from Carlyle, and Alliant Techsystems is purchasing Caliber Co. from Norwest Equity Partners and Bushnell from MidOcean Partners. But heading into September, the number of defense deals with prices in excess of $100 million is easy to add up: zero.
When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) launched its Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm) program in 2009, the threat to U.S. Navy warships from China's ballistic and supersonic anti-ship missiles looked serious. It still does, but now that the stealthy Lrasm has begun flight tests, mixed messages from the Pentagon have led Congress to cut back on funding for procurement.
Recent ship trials for the fourth Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-4), the Coronado, indicate major progress being made with the Independence-class LCS variants, U.S. Navy officials say. “Coronado’s acceptance trials showed significant improvement in the LCS shipbuilding process, when compared to the results of the USS Independence [LCS-2] acceptance trials,” says Rear Adm. Jim Murdoch, LCS program executive officer.
LONDON — Thales U.K. says it is hopeful that its Watchkeeper UAV system will be certified by the end of the year. The process of certification by the U.K. Military Aviation Authority has slowed the UAV’s entry into service with the British army. The aircraft should have been operational some three years ago, but the complexity of certifying what is the first UAV to be certified by the MAA has affected its introduction into service.
While the need for submarines and related forces is on the rise, U.S. Navy officials say they are facing a shortfall of such forces that needs to be addressed now by Congress. “As the threat grows from advances in sensors and weapons such as cruise missiles, anti-ship ballistic missiles and integrated air defense systems, more pressure will be placed on undersea forces,” Undersea Warfare Director Rear Adm. Richard Breckenridge said Sept. 12 in spoken and written testimony during a House Armed Services Committee seapower subcommittee hearing.
NEW DELHI — India’s longest-range, nuclear-weapons-capable Agni-V ballistic missile is scheduled to be tested for a second time on Sept. 15. The missile, designed to hit targets at distances of up to 5,000 km (3,100 mi.), will be test-fired from Wheeler Island off the eastern coast of Odisha. Agni-V was first test-fired in April 2012, with the guidance systems — one of the most critical elements in determining the efficiency of a missile — working as expected.
A top executive at Saab sought to deflect speculation Sept. 12 that its Gripen fighter would be offered for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X future trainer requirement.
LONDON — Following in the footsteps of their land-based brethren, U.K. maritime force planners are mulling how to apply architectures to ship design and construction. The U.K. has a new standard for all land vehicle purchases stipulating that new vehicles must seamlessly integrate subsystems that troops control from a standardized flat-screen crew station. The now-mandatory Generic Vehicle Architecture has cut costs, boosted innovation from smaller companies and helped land forces respond more quickly to shifting threats.
LONDON — The head of the U.K. Royal Air Force says a requirement for a new maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) could re-emerge. Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford, who took over the post as Chief of the Air Staff in July, told delegates at the Defense Services Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition on Sept. 11 that the air force had to “tidy up one or two loose ends that we left out of the last SDSR [Strategic Defense and Security Review] in terms of where we wish to go as a nation, with the likes of our maritime patrol capability.”
