The Senate on March 6 confirmed Kathryn Sullivan, an Earth scientist and oceanographer who was one of the first women chosen as a NASA astronaut, to be the next undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
An increase in funding of almost 5% is being sought for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) in Fiscal 2015 as several programs enter the hardware demonstration phase. The Pentagon is requesting $2.92 billion for Darpa in 2015, up from $2.78 billion in 2014—which was an increase of almost 8% over the $2.58 billion provided in 2013.
Airbus Helicopters has completed Afghanistan theater modifications to German army Tiger attack helicopters. The Afghanistan Stabilization German Army Rapid Deployment (Asgard) upgrade began in 2012 as the German army was preparing to send EC665 Tigers to Afghanistan to support coalition troops working in the country’s north.
As the U.S. Navy continues to rebalance its forces in the Asia-Pacific and the Republic of South Korea Navy (ROKN) builds up its forces, the two are strengthening their ties. “ROKN capabilities have increased significantly over the last five years,” says Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, commander, U.S. Battle Force 7th Fleet.
NASA’s fiscal 2015 budget request of $551 million for aeronautics is the first to be shaped by the agency’s new strategy for research, but represents a cut of 2.65% from the $566 million enacted for 2014. Of the funding sought, $214 million is for the new Advanced Air Vehicles program, which combines research conducted under the former subsonic and supersonic fixed-wing and rotary-wing programs.
DEFENSE ELECTRONICS: Forecast International’s latest defense electronics forecast predicts that the 500-plus leading programs reviewed in the study will be worth at least $137.418 billion from 2014-2023. “The big push remains on developing groundbreaking technologies, but due to tight budgets, this goal will be very hard to achieve,” writes Senior Analyst Richard Sterk.
THE PENTAGON — The Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget request includes about $40 billion for aircraft and related procurement, down from the $45.5 billion the Defense Department proposed in its fiscal 2014 plan. The largest discernible decrease is in combat aircraft. The fiscal 2015 request of about $13.8 billion is roughly $4 billion less than the fiscal 2014 request. One of the biggest reasons for the drop is the end of the F-18-related aircraft line for the U.S. Navy, which spent about $2 billion on Boeing EA-18G Growlers in fiscal 2014.
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THE PENTAGON — For the past two years, U.S. Navy officials have been touting the performance of their Sikorsky MH-60R, or Romeo, helicopters, expressing a desire to buy more. The proposed fiscal 2015 Pentagon spending plan would grand that wish, by providing about $1.1 billion for 29 aircraft. That compares to the $797.3 million the Navy requested to buy 19 helicopters in fiscal 2014. The larger Romeo buy underscores the greater investment the Navy and Pentagon want to make in helicopter and tiltrotor aircraft.
Japanese engineers have ground tested a turbojet in conditions equivalent to Mach 4, which they believe is the highest simulated speed at which a turbine engine has operated. The February round of tests was a step toward building an engine that, unlike ramjets, has the thrust and efficiency advantages of mechanical compression and the ability to propel an aircraft from takeoff to Mach 5.
NEW DELHI — Airbus Defense and Space sees an opportunity to promote C295 tactical airlifter sales to India through the Indian air force’s requirement for 56 transport aircraft to replace its aging fleet of Hawker Siddeley HS 748s. “The C295 is ideal for India, as it has the lowest-cost lifecycle of any aircraft in its category and is highly versatile, proven all around the world as a tough, reliable and high-performing workhorse,” Christian Scherer, head of marketing and sales at Airbus Defense and Space, told Aviation Week.
The government of Singapore has confirmed it has chosen the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) to replace its aging Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. Details of the decision emerged in a speech by Singapore’s defense minister, Ng Eng Hen, during a parliamentary committee of supply debate on March 6.
Norway and the U.K. have signed a concept agreement that will explore greater cooperation on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The accord – drawn up in London last September and signed in Oslo on March 4 – is exploring opportunities for closer engagement, particularly in the areas of pilot and technician training, possibly hinting at a joint training school for the JSF for U.K. and Norwegian personnel.
The board of aerospace and defense firm Finmeccanica has approved plans for a new organizational and operating model in a bid to return the company to profitability. The company, which is saddled with large debt and low credit ratings, says it is planning a wholesale change similar to the re-formation undertaken by EADS — which renamed itself as Airbus Group at the beginning of this year — and will focus its transformation efforts on the aerospace, defense and space sectors of the company, which will become core areas.
The introduction of the UH-72 Lakota into the U.S. Army’s flight training regime will smooth new pilot training to fly the AH-64 Apache and the UH-60 Black Hawk, senior service officials say. Speaking at Aviation Week’s Defense Technology and Requirements (DTAR) conference in Arlington, Va., Lt. Gen. William Phillips said the introduction of the twin-engine Lakota would help to reshape elements of the training regime at the Army’s training school in Fort Rucker, Ala.
A Boeing F/A-18C aircraft crashed March 1 on a training flight from the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center’s “Topgun” course at Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon, Nev., the U.S. Navy reported. The crash occurred at approximately 3 p.m. PST, on the Fallon Range Training Complex., roughly 70 mi. east of NAS Fallon, the Navy says. The pilot was killed.
As the U.S. Navy was rolling out its fiscal year 2015 spending proposal — including a $1.3 billion request for more work on the second next-generation Ford-class CVN-79 carrier John F. Kennedy — the service was awarding a contract for a like amount for work on the ship.
Launch schedule issues at Cape Canaveral, including launch of a classified U.S. government spacecraft known as Clio, may force NASA to delay its long-planned first flight of the Orion deep-space crew capsule from mid-September into October. The agency says Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin still could meet the earlier launch date, currently listed as Sept. 18.
The first of Australia’s two Canberra-class assault ships is running sea trials ahead of delivery due this year. Personnel from prime contractor BAE Systems and the Royal Australian Navy are checking the operation of the ship, to be commissioned as HMAS Canberra, on a trip from Melbourne to Sydney and back. The trial “includes both platform tests as well as testing the ship’s combat and communication systems,” says Bill Salter, the head of BAE’s maritime business in Australia.
TYPHOON ROLLOUT: Alenia Aermacchi has rolled out Italy’s first Tranche 3 Eurofighter Typhoon. The company is the second Eurofighter partner to produce a Tranche 3 following BAE Systems, which rolled out and flew its first Tranche 3 Typhoon in December. The single-seat Typhoon, the 64th aircraft for the Italian air force, was rolled out in late February, but the consortium announced the milestone on March 4. It is being prepared for engine tests at Alenia Aermacchi’s facility at Turin-Caselle and will be delivered in the first half of this year.
