NEW DELHI — Indo-Russian consortium BrahMos Aerospace has plans to develop a Mach 7 hypersonic missile, the BrahMos 2. “We have established a lead in supersonic missiles,” says Praveen Pathak, general manager for market promotion and export at BrahMos Aerospace. “Hypersonic vehicles with multi-use will reduce the cost [of] putting payload in orbit. It could deliver the payload at multiple points and it can come back.”
SpeedNews Events! Registration Open SpeedNews 4th Annual Aerospace Raw Materials & Manufacturers Supply Chain Conference March 3, 2014 Beverly Hills, California SpeedNews 28th Annual Commercial Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference March 3-5, 2014 Beverly Hills, California
INTEL AUDIT: A new congressional audit of the Intelligence Community’s (IC) annual inventory of core contractors has found results there to be inconsistent and possibly inaccurate. “In the wake of Edward Snowden’s damaging leaks of classified information, the intelligence community must demonstrate that it can rigorously vet, hire, manage, and oversee the contractor workforce it relies upon to help perform its mission,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
LONDON — Missile manufacturer MBDA says a recovery program to put its Brimstone 2 missile program back on track has improved the weapon’s maturity and performance. Brimstone 2 is being developed by MBDA under the Team Complex Weapons initiative to meet the U.K.’s Selected Precision Effects at Range (Spear) Capability 2 requirement for a direct-fire, air-to-ground missile for eventual use on the Eurofighter Typhoon.
SINGAPORE — Airbus Defense and Space says it is involved in two advanced sales campaigns for its A400M airlifter. Speaking at the recent Singapore air show—where the company was debuting its new identity, having absorbed both Cassidian and Astrium into Airbus Military at the beginning of 2014—Commercial Director Christian Scherer said that the company was involved in “at least two advanced campaigns around the world,” for the new airlifter, and was confident that one contract could be secured this year.
The U.S. is pressing Persian Gulf allies to adopt a regional missile defense architecture, including the acquisition of U.S. systems, the State Department’s No. 2 official reiterated Feb. 19.
UAV AUDIT: U.S. congressional auditors are due to deliver a report to lawmakers recommending changes to how the U.S. Air Force manages and promotes UAV pilots. The report was spurred in 2012 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), whose state is home to major Air Force UAV operations, and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). It was triggered by congressional concerns that unmanned aircraft pilots were experiencing second-class status compared with the armed services’ traditional manned aircraft pilots.
Small vessels that represent a crime or piracy threat in global waters also present a potential means to smuggle weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the U.S., according to a National Research Council (NRC) report.
LONDON — U.S. heavy-lift helicopter operator Columbia Helicopters is buying three ex-U.S. Army Boeing CH-47D Chinooks to bolster its fleet of the tandem-rotor helicopter. The purchase represents the first time a commercial operator has purchased former Army Chinooks for commercial use. The aircraft will be refurbished at the company’s maintenance facility at Portland, Ore., before beginning operations, although Columbia says no specific projects or contracts have been identified for the new Chinooks.
Anticipating the long-awaited release of the U.S. Navy’s draft request for proposals for a new carrier-borne unmanned air system (UAS), one influential congressman is going on record to support a set of demanding requirements. This could, perhaps, counter a push by some Pentagon leaders, including Adm. James Winnefeld, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is said to be supporting requirements that are less rigorous in the area of survivability than those backed by officials in the Navy’s aviation community.
TEL AVIV — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) a is expanding its cyber activities internationally, with the establishment of a cybersecurity research and development center in Singapore.
India’s military procurement plans are likely to be hampered by a minimal raise in budget allocation for acquisition in the next financial year. Though India has proposed increasing its defense spending by 10% to 2.24 trillion rupees ($36.2 billion) in its 2014-15 fiscal year, which begins April 1, the capital allocation earmarked to buy new arms and weapons systems has been increased by only a paltry 3.2%, or 28.47 billion rupees, to 895.87 billion rupees. The remaining 1.34 trillion rupees will go toward payment of salaries and other expenses.
LONDON — The French defense ministry has taken delivery of its first upgraded E-3F Sentry airborne early warning aircraft to be modified by Boeing and Air France Industries. The aircraft was handed over to the French defense procurement agency DGA, which will carry out ground and flight tests at Avord air base before handing the aircraft back to the French air force later this year, Boeing announced Feb. 17.
U.S. Army contracting officers made questionable contract changes for work involving the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV), a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
Satellite observations of unique, finger-like dark features on steep slopes of the mid-southern latitudes of Mars hint at dense briny water flows during the summer season, according to findings from 11 researchers associated with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey missions.
HOUSTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully completed its first NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station early Feb. 18, as the Dulles, Va.-based company’s “Orb-1” Cygnus capsule was unberthed from the U.S. segment Harmony module and released with Canada’s robot arm at 6:41 a.m. EST. The resupply craft is scheduled for a destructive re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 1:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 19.
The U.S. Navy has further bolstered its Asia-Pacific profile by moving another submarine — the SSN-754 USS Topeka Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine — to the region. The Navy detailed its plans this month to change the homeport for the submarine, now completing its Engineered Overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Portsmouth, N.H., to Naval Base Guam. Topeka will move to Guam as part of the U.S. Navy’s long-range plan to put the most advanced and capable units forward in the region, the Navy says.
Three prominent Republican congressmen are imploring Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to continue funding the U.S. Air Force’s U-2 spy aircraft as he puts the finishing touches on a fiscal 2015-19 budget plan likely to gut the program. Hagel’s staff is considering abandoning support for the Lockheed Martin aircraft and capitulating to pressure from other lawmakers to funnel its money toward continued operation of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS).
NEW DELHI — India’s first manned space flight program has received a major boost with a higher budgetary allocation and development of a crew module structural assembly. The federal interim budget, announced on Feb. 17, increased the allocation for the human space flight program from 92 million rupees ($1.5 million) to 170 million rupees. The increase comes days after state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) handed over the crew module to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Despite a need for ship modifications and other programmatic hiccups, the U.S. Marine Corps still plans to be operating Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35B models off amphibious ships within about three years, says Marine Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, director of Navy expeditionary warfare. Marines will be at the forefront of operating JSFs off Navy vessels, Walsh said at a recent U.S. Navy Amphibious Warship Forum sponsored by the Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition. “We will be flying F-35s on a big-deck amphib,” he said Feb. 11.
