LONDON — British army officials say confidence in the Thales Watchkeeper unmanned aerial system (UAS) is rising and it could be ready to enter service in the spring. Currently running three years behind schedule, the certification and introduction into service of the Watchkeeper has been slowed due to concerns raised by the U.K.’s newly established safety body, the Military Aviation Authority (MAA). Watchkeeper is the first UAS to be examined by the agency.
Test ranges — from a mockup city for disaster-response training to the coasts and waters of the Gulf of Mexico — are key reasons the FAA chose Texas as the location for one of six test sites for research to integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into civil airspace. The Lone Star UAS Center (LSUASC), operated by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC), plans to offer test ranges providing different geographies, temperatures, altitudes and environments from maritime to urban, says Luis Cifuentes, vice president for research and commercialization.
EUTELSAT 9B: International Launch Services (ILS) will launch Eutelsat 9B for Eutelsat Communications in 2015 on a Proton rocket, the Reston, Va., company said Jan. 15. Space Systems of Airbus Defense and Space will build the 5,300-kg (11,700-lb.) Ku-band satellite, which will be positioned at 9 deg. E. Long. to deliver service via 66 transponders.
CHEATING CHARGES: One week after a leadership visit to a Wyoming Air Force base that houses intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the Pentagon is having more trouble with its ICBM force. Several dozen ICBM officers are alleged to have cheated on their proficiency tests, the Pentagon revealed Jan. 15. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James briefed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on the allegations. The charges come on the heels of a new series of embarrassments for the U.S. nuclear force.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is making 14 different design changes costing an estimated $40 million on its LHA-6 amphibious ship, the USS America, to accommodate heat and downwash from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, says ship program official Capt. Chris Mercer. At the same time, Mercer says, the Navy has modified the flight decks for its LH(R) amphibious ships to accommodate some of the stresses created by V-22 Osprey takeoffs and landings, and the service has also restricted operations on Wasp-class ships for the Bell-Boeing tiltrotors.
Disproportionate budget cuts to research and development, driven by sequestration, threaten to turn the U.S. Defense Department into a “hollow force” as China and Russia continue to modernize their armed forces, says the Pentagon’s top acquisition chief.
NEW DELHI — India hopes to launch Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar exploration mission, with an indigenous rover and lander, aboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) by 2017. The mission will be a totally Indian program, without any participation from frequent industrial partner Russia. “This time it will be an indigenous launch ... which intends to demonstrate our capability to soft-land on the lunar surface,” says K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The pantheon of captains of the U.S. defense industry is losing another prominent figure, with Bill Swanson, Raytheon’s CEO and chairman, slated to hand over the chief executive’s office to current COO Tom Kennedy on March 31. The Waltham, Mass., defense prime announced the move Jan. 15, saying Swanson advised Raytheon’s board of his intention to step down as CEO last March following his 65th birthday that February. He will remain chairman at least while the company transitions to Kennedy’s leadership.
As the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s crewmembers wind down after their first Western Pacific deployment, the ship is continuing to battle misconceptions that it spends most of the time broken down at pier side, U.S. Navy officials say. While the ship’s deployment was marred by problems related to power generators, coolers and other systems, those kinds of problems are to be expected during a major overseas deployment for a ship at this stage, officials say.
Controllers at the European Space Agency’s facility in Darmstadt, Germany, nudged the $1.3 billion Gaia spacecraft into its operational orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point on Jan. 14, setting the mission up to produce a 3D star map of the galaxy with unprecedented precision. The final trajectory adjustment required only a brief burn of the spacecraft’s thrusters, following an almost 2-hr. firing last week to set up the orbit around the imaginary point 1.5 million km from Earth on the side opposite the Sun.
Proper “interface management” of the U.S. Navy’s air and missile defense radar (AMDR) with the existing combat system will be vital to AMDR’s success, says Bill Bray, the Navy’s program executive officer and director of integrated warfare systems. “We had a good idea of what we thought the interface was,” he said Jan. 14 during a Naval Sea Systems Command briefing at the 2014 annual Surface Navy Association Symposium. “It’s going to have to be a continued focus.” He adds, “We really have to look at that integration piece.”
Leading appropriators in the U.S. Congress have opted to use a budget scalpel to meet lower spending caps in their $1.01 trillion fiscal 2014 omnibus measure, rather than wielding the equivalent of a butcher knife and cutting whole defense capabilities.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Lockheed Martin is looking to significantly cut the time it takes to modernize U.S. Navy ships for the most recent Aegis Combat System-related updates, says Jim Sheridan, the director of Lockheed’s Aegis U.S. Navy programs.
The U.S. Navy is considering Hellfire missiles to complete the surface warfare mission module package for its Littoral Combat Ships, says Capt. John Ailes, program manager for the LCS mission module integration effort. Ailes, recently selected to become a rear admiral, says that while the program of record still calls for the LCS fleet to use the Griffin IIB missile, the Hellfires are being tested and evaluated for the role.
NOAA BOOST: The fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill being considered this week in Congress would, if enacted, provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with $1.89 billion for continued development of its satellite systems, $207 million more than last fiscal year.
2014 NOW HERE!!! Stop Guessing What the Future Holds With Aviation Week’s Military Fleet & MRO Forecast. This 10 year, year-over-year forecast provides an in-depth understanding of what’s to come so you can locate new business opportunities. To schedule a personal demo, call 866.857.0148 or +1.515.237.3682
Funding for U.S. civil space and aeronautics work would bounce back by almost $800 million above the levels set by sequestration in 2013 under the omnibus appropriations bill working its way through Congress via a bipartisan budget agreement, allowing NASA to maintain its ongoing activities without an apparent need for major changes.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Army is hoping to retire 898 old Bell Kiowa and TH-67 helicopters in favor of shifting newer Sikorsky Black Hawks, Boeing Apaches and Airbus Helicopter Lakotas into a variety of missions. The measure, likely to be included in the fiscal 2015 budget request going to Capitol Hill next month, was devised to reduce the cost of Army aviation with a minimal effect on mission capability, says Maj. Gen. Kevin Mangum, commanding general of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Ft. Rucker, Ala.
ALT FUELS: U.S. alternative fuel research will continue to have a bright future under the fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill being considered this week in Congress. The giant bill, providing spending for the whole government through Sept. 30, includes language supporting the development of alternative fuels, according to aides for Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), a leading Democrat in the upper chamber and a key budget negotiator across Capitol Hill.
A biofuel supply sufficient to meet up to 1% of aviation’s fuel needs could be available “instantly,” and at a price competitive with petroleum jet fuel, if green diesel is approved for use in aircraft, Boeing says. The company is working with partners to gain approval by the end of 2014.
NASA PROTEST: Wyle Laboratories has prevailed in a bid dispute with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) over a potential $1.76 billion NASA award for medical, biomedical and health services supporting human spaceflight programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained, or supported, Wyle’s protest in a Dec. 27, 2013, decision, published Jan. 13. Since NASA announced the contract opportunity in July 2012, SAIC split into two companies — one retaining the SAIC name and another called Leidos.
