In a rerun of the 2010 elections, voters in the Netherlands could go to the polls in September with parliament having voted to withdraw from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and the future of the country’s participation depending on which party wins the most seats. The opposition Labor Party (PvDA) plans to submit a proposal to end Dutch participation in the program to the lower house before the election. PvDA has only 30 of the 150 seats in the assembly, but is aligned with other anti-F-35 parties that together control 78 seats.
FRANKFURT — The Airbus A400M military transport will not fly at the 2012 Farnborough air show in the U.K., Airbus Military confirmed July 5. The company says the decision is based on “engine issues that happened last week which need further investigation.” It did not elaborate. The A400M also did not participate in the flying display at last year’s Paris air show; engine troubles were the cause back then, too. Airbus is sending the first production standard aircraft, MSN6, to Farnborough. It will be on static display.
Even as the battle over government funding for biofuels continues in Congress, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and the Navy have announced the availability of $30 million to match private investments in commercial-scale production of biofuels. The $30 million is the first tranche of funding under a memorandum of understanding announced last August to invest up to $510 million over three years to help develop a commercial biofuels industry.
A group of seven senators is asking 15 major defense contractors to describe the effects of potential steep reductions to the military’s budget. Those reductions were approved last August by Congress when it passed the Budget Control Act. The law stipulates that lawmakers must agree to $1.2 trillion in federal deficit reduction.
Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 42 deployed with four Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft aboard frigate FFG-42 USS Klakring June 29 in support of operations off the Horn of Africa, the U.S. Navy reports. The Navy says its goal is to fly up to 12 hr. a day and significantly increase real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) support to combatant commanders.
While Hawker Beechcraft’s (HBC) preliminary reorganization plan filed June 30 details an exchange under which HBC’s creditors would take ownership of the company, executives told employees July 2 they are keeping all options open, including a potential sale.
Major weapons systems largely survived a Pentagon request to shift about $8 billion in military spending, according to a defense analyst. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Congress about the late-June “omnibus reprogramming” request during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee last month. Panetta explained that the logistics of moving fuel into Afghanistan since Pakistan has shut down supply lines and the overall increase in fuel were adding billions to the Pentagon’s bills this year.
Anticipating regulations clearing the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in U.S. airspace, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is hoping to set a baseline of standards with the release of an “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations Industry Code of Conduct.” FAA is under congressional mandate to create a plan that would integrate UAS into national airspace by Sept. 30, 2015. The deadline is one of a series regarding UAS that FAA must meet for the gradual integration of the systems.
As FAA continues to sort out rules for operating UAVs within the U.S., members of Congress are already moving to block the use of weaponized UAVs here. Spurred by reports about local police departments seeking weaponized UAVs, lawmakers of both parties are responding to concerns from their constituents to prevent the possibility that a U.S. citizen could be gunned down from the air.
Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce sees ISR data from unmanned aircraft as a significant driver of demand for the company’s upcoming Global Xpress Ka-band satellite service.
Boeing is restructuring the A160T Hummingbird unmanned helicopter program after experiencing “technical challenges,” including a voluntary grounding in place since a crash on April 17. Following the crash, the U.S. Army canceled plans to deploy three A160s to Afghanistan carrying the BAE Systems Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (Argus-IS).
GUARD CHIEF: President Barack Obama has nominated U.S. Army National Guard Lt. Gen. Frank Grass to be the next chief of the National Guard Bureau. If approved by the Senate, Grass will be the first Guard chief to serve a full term as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Grass currently serves as the deputy commander of Northern Command. He is nominated to succeed Gen. Craig McKinley of the Air Guard, who is retiring.
While many defense analysts have been downplaying the interest of the Pentagon and U.S. Navy in Arctic operations — saying the Coast Guard appears to be becoming the dominant U.S. player in the region — the chief of naval operations (CNO) says the service has been focusing on those waters for some time. “We’re working with the Canadians and with the Norwegian navy,” U.S. CNO Jonathan Greenert says. “We’ve been doing a series of exercises in the Arctic. So the concept of operations we’ve been developing for a number of years. Five, six years now.”
The Space Propulsion Group carried out a successful 11-sec. test firing of a developmental, 22-in. flight-class hybrid solid rocket motor fueled by paraffin and liquid oxygen
The U.S. Air Force has completed the first flight of an aircraft using alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) biofuel. The Fairchild A-10 completed the test flight from Eglin AFB, Fla., on June 28 “without any issues,” according to the service. The Air Force has approved fleet-wide certification of ATJ fuel, following previous efforts involving synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) fuel produced from coal and natural gas and hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel derived from vegetable oils and animal fats.
On the site it had planned to assemble A330-based tankers for the U.S. Air Force, Airbus hopes to make its A320 family more competitive in the world’s biggest replacement market for single-aisle transports.
The threat of a biological catastrophe remains a concern for the U.S., and industry is not properly “incentivized” to tackle the problem, says the former vice chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Like cyber attacks, “bio is a 21st century threat and has an attribute of anonymity that other things like nuclear weapons did not have in the 20th century,” retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright recently told a small group of reporters.
As the U.S. Navy tries to get its fleet shipshape following years of neglect, the service has found a way to train its sailors to do a better job by learning the ropes on their own vessels and equipment. “Rear Adm. Dave Thomas, commander, Naval Surface Force, Atlantic (CNSL) and his team have established several waterfront initiatives over the past two years to deliver maintenance training directly to our sailors on the deckplates,” Adm. J.C. Harvey Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, says in a recent blog.
A student team from the University of Texas’ Austin campus succeeded in spoofing the GPS on an unmanned air vehicle at a range of 1 km and causing it to change position during a demonstration at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.
