In December 2011, Iran proudly displayed on state television a stealthy U.S. unmanned aircraft it claimed it had downed while conducting reconnaissance overflights. The trophy was a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, an aircraft publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Air Force two years earlier. The Pentagon played down the embarrassing loss. One reason may now be clear.
An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M/Briz M rocket successfully orbited the first of four new all-Ka-band satellites Dec. 9 for London-based fleet operator Inmarsat, delivering the Boeing-built spacecraft to supersynchronous transfer orbit during a 15-hr. and 31-min. mission.
Scientists have found new evidence that ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves are a force behind the long-mysterious acceleration of highly energetic plasma particles within the Earth’s Van Allen Belts to near-speed-of-light velocities. The findings come from data gathered by NASA’s twin Van Allen Probes.
NEW DELHI — India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is due to achieve the second milestone in its two-step initial operational clearance (designated IOC-II) on Dec. 20, three decades after the development of the aircraft began to replace the aging MiG-21s in the Indian air force (IAF).
DEFENDING IRAQ: Iraq’s defense and security spending is estimated to grow at a rate of 8.68% over the next five years and reach $26 billion annually by 2018, according to a new report from Strategic Defense Intelligence. The Iraqi government spent $17.1 billion in 2013 on defense equipment and training. “National security has become a core issue for the Iraqi government, and in the past five years the country’s defense expenditure registered a growth rate of 15.56%,” the group says.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — F/A-18 E/F manufacturer Boeing has until roughly March to decide whether to put its own funding toward continuing production of the Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft without further U.S. Navy orders, says Mike Gibbons, the company’s Super Hornet vice president. The last Super Hornet/Growlers on order are expected to roll off the production line in 2016; the supply chain has a roughly two-year cycle.
The Romanian air force (RoAF) is testing a firefighting system developed for the C-27J Spartan tactical airlifter. The system, called Caylym Guardian, loads the back of the aircraft with up to six cardboard containers containing 1,000 liters of water or fire retardant that is dropped onto forest fires. The system has been being tested by the RoAF and manufacturer Alenia Aermacchi in a Romanian mountain range. “The system allows for a quick, accurate and innovative way to fight bushfires,” said Alenia Aermacchi.
LONDON — The French army will replace its Milan anti-tank missile with a new weapon developed by MBDA. The MMP (Missile Moyenne Portée) will be used by the French army from 2017 following the signing of a development and production contract from the DGA, the French defense procurement agency, announced Dec. 3. The deal, signed as part of the defense ministry’s military planning act, includes the development of the system, 400 launchers and 2,850 missiles. Around 175 launchers and 450 missiles will be delivered between 2014-2019.
The Pentagon’s acquisition czar has a growing chart in his office of defense programs and their current and past managers, and it is just one of the subtle, albeit significant, personnel-oriented changes being pursued in what is dawning as a new era of acquisition reform. It is not quite Santa’s list of who is naughty or nice, but for the U.S. defense and space sector, it is close.
TEL AVIV — The Israeli Air Force (IAF) is conducting a first-of-its-kind multinational exercise at the southern training base of Ouvda that kicked off last week, where 60 aircraft from four nations are taking part in realistic air combat training, practicing how air forces from different nations can cooperate in a coalition under one command.
KEPLER REVIVAL: NASA has given the green light to continued work on a plan to extend its crippled Kepler Space Telescope mission by using an orbital maneuver to compensate for the loss of two of the spacecraft’s four gyro-like reaction wheels. “To be clear, this is not a decision to continue operating the Kepler spacecraft or to conduct a two-wheel extended mission,” Paul Hertz, head of NASA’s astrophysics division, said last week.
U.S. partners and allies in the Asia-Pacific region are set to invest heavily in shipbuilding defense programs over the next 10 years, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics, an online market analysis toolkit for global defense programs.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 501 successfully launched the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office’s classified NROL-39 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 11:13 p.m. Pacific Time on Dec. 5.
Boeing and Saab have signed an agreement to jointly develop and build an all-new aircraft for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X trainer competition. Boeing will be the prime contractor, but both companies will invest in the new aircraft, which appears certain to be the only all-new candidate. Discussions between the two companies were reported in September but have been under way for “much longer,” a Saab source says.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Dec. 9 - 12 — Special Operations Summit, Tampa, Fla. For more information go to www.idga.org/events.cfm?filter=1005/ Jan. 13 - 17, 2014 — 10th AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Specialist Conference, Gaylord National , National Harbor, Maryland. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=18410
Prototyping is still a vital tool for U.S. Air Force and Pentagon programs, but officials worry that its benefits may be misunderstood and downplayed, according to a recent prototypes workshop draft report released by the National Research Council (NRC). “Prototyping has historically been of great benefit to the Air Force and Department of Defense (DOD) in terms of risk reduction and concept demonstration prior to system development, both during austere budget environments and at other times,” the NRC report says.
LONDON — Airbus Military is close to finalizing the flight control laws to support air-to-air refueling on the Airbus A400M Atlas airlifter. Company test pilots in late November completed the first “wet” air-to-air refueling of an A400M from a French air force C-160 Transall in a set of sorties designed to verify the newly written flight control laws, known to the company as “Delta Six Romeo - Papa.” Until then, the aircraft had only conducted “dry” contacts from U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers VC10s and A330-200 Multi-Role Tanker Transports.
March 6, 2014 National Buidling Museum - Washington, DC Join Us! Aviation Week's 57th annual Laureate Awards will recognize individuals/teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation, vision or any combination of these attributes that inspire others to strive for significant, broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace.
A large, classified unmanned aircraft developed by Northrop Grumman is now flying—and it demonstrates a major advance in combining stealth and aerodynamic efficiency. Defense and intelligence officials say the secret unmanned aerial system (UAS), designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, is scheduled to enter production for the U.S. Air Force and could be operational by 2015.
