PARIS — A team of French aerospace manufacturers may have to renegotiate details of an €800 million ($1.08 billion) contract awarded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year to build and launch a pair of high-resolution Earth observation satellites, after the companies failed to meet a Jan. 29 deadline for obtaining U.S. export licenses for some components that will be used to build them.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is planning to make things much harder for teams that will compete in the finals of its disaster-response Robotics Challenge, now being planned to take place in the next 12-18 months. Teams competing in the Darpa Robotics Challenge (DRC) trials in December did better than expected, so the agency plans to raise the bar for the finals, requiring more robust performance from the robots in more difficult conditions. A $2 million prize is at stake.
NEW DEHLI — With an inordinate delay in the purchase of Dassault Rafale fighters and the development of its fifth-generation fighter, the Indian air force (IAF) is looking at boosting production of the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) to plug the gap of retiring aircraft.
U.S. Air Force contracting officers failed to properly validate costs when buying about $1.6 billion worth of spare parts for F119 engines for F-22 Raptors, a recent Inspector General (IG) report says. The Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, awarded a $215.8 million cost-plus-fee service contract on Feb. 19, 2008, to Pratt and Whitney to establish a sole-source, 10-year, performance-based logistics business arrangement for sustainment of fielded F119 engines, the IG notes in its report.
BUDGET PREVIEW: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to preview the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget request on Feb. 24, a week before the official release of the Obama administration’s budget plan to Congress, Reuters reports. Hagel is expected to use the announcement to outline the Defense Department’s priorities and challenges in budgeting for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, sources told the news agency.
BEIJING — The rover of China’s Chang’e 3 lunar mission is showing signs of life after almost being declared dead. Jade Rabbit, as the rover is known, is again receiving signals from the Earth, Chinese media report.
Boeing says it optimistic about finalizing deals with the Indian government for the sale of AH-64 Apache attack and CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters this year. Leanne Caret, vice president of vertical lift at Boeing Defense, told Aviation Week’s ShowNews that the company was working through the terms and conditions set by the Indian ministry of defense and had managed to hold the same contract prices on both aircraft for the last four years.
NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft, already the longest-working spacecraft ever dispatched to the red planet, is maneuvering to take on a new task: global observations of seasonal variations in fog, clouds and surface frost in the thin atmosphere after sunrise. What’s more, the solar-powered spacecraft, launched in April 2001 as a $297 million, three-year mission, is forecast to function for another decade or so serving as a communications relay for other Mars spacecraft, just as it did for the Curiosity rover’s dramatic August 2012 landing.
Rafael is extending its Litening family of targeting pods for air forces looking to upgrade existing platforms. Litening 4, the latest variant of the pod, has gone through major enhancements in sensors, resolution, image processing and algorithmic processing capabilities. “Litening has transformed from a targeting pod into a much broader sensor pack that extends the aircraft and pilot’s capabilities, far beyond target acquisition,” says Yuval Miller, manager of Rafael’s Air and C4ISR division.
The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) has called a temporary halt to operations of its Airbus A330 Voyager refueling tankers after an inflight incident caused injuries to passengers onboard. Internet reports state that one of the RAF’s Voyager tankers, provided by the privately owned AirTanker consortium, rapidly lost altitude over Turkey while en route to Afghanistan supporting the U.K. Afghan air bridge on Feb. 9. The aircraft had 189 passengers and nine crew onboard. The rapid descent caused minor injuries to several passengers.
Electronic warfare and cyber, shipbuilding led by submarines, unmanned vehicles and long-range strike capabilities — all with a focus on the Asia-Pacific — are some of the military technologies the Pentagon will prioritize, according to a prepared speech Feb. 11 by its temporary No. 2 official.
U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) is looking for “the next big thing,” the “game-changer” weapons system, which like the UAV today will become the indispensable tool of military victory tomorrow, according to a leading Pentagon official.
As the demand and costs for specialty metals used in high-end military manufacturing drops, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) is outlining possible changes lawmakers can make in current statutes requiring the use of domestic sources for those materials.
On the heels of last year’s humiliating third failure of the premier U.S. missile defense system during what was billed as a fairly simple flight trial, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is doubling down on the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program by adding more than $4.5 billion to the Missile Defense Agency’s coffers from fiscal 2015-2019, according to Riki Ellison, chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
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SINGAPORE — Saab is hoping the critical seaways that link Asia’s trading partners will prove to be lucrative hunting grounds for its Saab 340 Maritime Security Aircraft (MSA). The company has bought its demonstrator aircraft to Singapore to show the aircraft’s capabilities to potential customers, using the country’s busy shipping lanes to provide targets for the miscellany of sensors onboard.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a €60 million ($82 million) contract to Ariane 5 prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space to continue definition and feasibility studies this year for Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 launcher. The Phase B1 studies will “pinpoint the detailed architecture developed so far and consolidate the launcher’s main characteristics,” the company—formerly EADS-Astrium—said in a Feb. 12 news release. The results of these studies will be unveiled in November during an ESA System Requirements Review (SRR) of the Ariane 6.
OPT-IN: In the continued absence of legislation that would require private companies to adhere to cyber security standards, the White House has launched a cybersecurity framework — a roadmap for private companies to better protect their critical infrastructure on their own. The framework is a kind of collection of global standards and guidelines that can help reduce the risks to cybersecurity. “While I believe today’s framework marks a turning point, it’s clear that much more work needs to be done to enhance our cybersecurity,” President Barak Obama said.
Problems flagged by the Pentagon’s chief tester that could hamper the ability of the KC-46 tanker to protect itself on missions have been addressed, according to U.S. Air Force officials. Raytheon’s AN/ALR-69 radar warning receiver is slated for use on the KC-46, which is being developed under a $4.9 billion contract with Boeing.
HOUSTON — The first of Planet Labs’ 28-strong fleet of Earth observing CubeSats leaped into orbit from the International Space Station’s spring-loaded deployer mechanism early Feb. 11. The first four of the San Francisco-based Planet Labs’ Dove Sats emerged from the launcher outside the orbiting science laboratory’s Japanese Kibo module in pairs at 3:32 a.m. and 7:41 a.m. EST.
SINGAPORE — Incongruously wearing a civil aircraft registration, the obviously military Super Heron HF unmanned air vehicle (UAV) comes to Changi bedecked with sensors for a wide variety of surveillance missions and surrounded by the flags of some of the 20 or so countries that use the basic Heron system. Occupying pride of place in the static display, outside the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) chalet (CD03), the HF will be unveiled today.
What was once a program to demonstrate a flying jeep has a new direction and a new name. Formerly called Transformer, the U.S. Defense Advanced Project Agency’s rechristened Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded Systems (ARES) program will now demonstrate a modular, unmanned vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) delivery system.
