LONDON — The German government has made the unusual decision to publish data relating to UAV losses. The data, published on June 27, relates to losses of German UAVs from the hand-launched EMT Aladin up to the Northrop Grumman Euro Hawk, of which Germany has one aircraft, following the cancellation of the program by the government in May due to concerns over the costs of certifying it to fly in civil airspace.
FRENCH REAPER: The U.S. has offered to sell France 16 MQ-9 Reaper UAVs along with ground control stations, parts and logistics support worth an estimated $1.5 billion, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The agency notified Congress of the potential sale of the General Atomics-made UAVs June 27, saying the sale would “enhance the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance of the French military in support of national, NATO, United Nation-mandated and other coalition operations.”
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 15 - 17 — 49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, San Jose, Calif. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=16854 July 16 - 17 — RotorTech Asia Pacific 2013 Conference and Exhibition, "Embrasing Asia's Growing Helicopter Market," Singapore. For more information go to www.cdmc.org.cn/2013/rap/
The U.S. Navy says the Jan. 17 grounding of the ex-USS Guardian minesweeper in Philippine waters was a “tragic mishap” in a recent report that cites failures of ship leadership and crew leading up to the accident. “USS Guardian leadership and watch teams failed to adhere to prudent, safe, and sound navigation principles which would have alerted them to approaching dangers with sufficient time to take mitigating action,” Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, writes in the report.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Deloitte LLP will pursue a long-running collaboration to advance safety and risk management practices for the oil and gas industry under a June 27 strategic agreement. The effort, in part, will focus on low-probability, high-consequence events that can occur in remote and harsh environments, like those faced by U.S. astronauts currently on the International Space Station and prospective missions of deep-space exploration.
There is little doubt what is behind the U.S. military’s rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. “The Asia-Pacific is important to us because of our treaties,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations, said last month during the International Maritime and Defense Exhibition (Imdex) Asia 2013. “It is important to our past and to our future.”
While the Pentagon has made strides in improving its past-performance assessments of contractors, the department still has a problem getting the work done on time, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “DOD (Defense Department) faces challenges completing assessments on time,” GAO says, noting in its June 27 report that more than half the assessments continue to be late.
NEW DELHI — India has plans to loft two new satellites over the next two years to boost its communications capability and augment current services. A proposal for the development and launch of GSAT-15 and-16 was approved at a June 28 meeting of the federal cabinet, says India’s finance minister, P. Chidambaram. GSAT-15 is expected to be built within the next 18 months, and GSAT-16 in the next 24 months.
SAN FRANCISCO — NASA reports “a great insertion orbit” for its newest orbiting telescope for studying the Sun’s dynamic temperature bands, which was drop-launched from a former airliner off the central California coast at 7:28 p.m. PDT June 27.
PARIS — Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy will lead development of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) new Euclid cosmology satellite under a contract valued at €322.5 million ($420 million), the company announced June 27. Scheduled to launch in 2020 atop a European variant of Russia’s Soyuz, Euclid will explore dark energy and dark matter using a payload module to be built by EADS Astrium of Toulouse that includes a silicon-carbide telescope for infrared measurements and a 1.2-meter-dia. mirror to observe distant galaxies.
The U.S. military is close to finalizing a new set of rules of engagement (RoE) for cyberwarfare, and for responses to attacks it will likely reflect the homeland defense regime set up after 9/11, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We now have a playbook for cyber,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told a Brookings Institution audience here June 27. “And we have forces allocated to the mission.”
As the U.S. Marine Corps starts to withdraw from Afghanistan, there is a greater emphasis on getting its equipment out of the country and back to the U.S. than there was during the withdrawal from Iraq. When leaving Iraq, Marines were shifting much of their equipment and gear to repurpose in Afghanistan. But now sequestration is making the service concentrate more on getting its goods back home for repairs and upgrades, says Gen. James Amos, Corps commandant.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force is working with BAE Systems to increase the service intervals on its Eurofighter Typhoons. BAE says the changes, which will see Typhoons serviced every 500 flight hours rather than the current 400 hr., will make the aircraft more available for frontline operations. It will also save around £100 million ($153 million) once all the aircraft have entered operation.
CAS GAP: The Senate Armed Services Committee wants the U.S. Air Force and Army to report whether the planned retirement of 1970s-era A-10s and the introduction of so-called fifth-generation F-22s and F-35s actually leaves a gap in close-air support (CAS) for troops.
With what is traditionally a first “piece” for a new airplane, Boeing’s workers loaded the wing spar for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A tanker into jigs at its widebody headquarters in Everett, Wash., on June 26, marking the start of major assembly work that should lead to a first flight a year from now.
For the U.S. Coast Guard, it is the beginning of the end — and not in a good way — as the service eyes a massive proposed cut to its long-struggling recapitalization efforts.
The medium Earth orbit constellation designed to bring broadband satellite service to the “other 3 billion” (O3b) customers in the developing world is taking shape above the equator with the June 25 launch of the first four spacecraft on an Arianespace Soyuz flying from the Guiana Space Center on the north coast of South America. Another set of four satellites is scheduled for launch later this year, and the third and final group of four is set to go up in the first half of next year.
Canada’s armed forces have taken delivery of the first of 15 new Boeing CH-147F Chinook transport helicopters. The first aircraft was handed over on June 27 and will eventually go on to join a new unit, 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, based at Petawawa, Ontario. The aircraft were purchased under the Canadian forces’ CDN$5 billion ($4.8 billion) Medium-to-Heavy Lift Helicopter Project, for a highly modified version of the CH-47F Chinook capable of operating in the challenging environment of Canada.
The U.S. Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper received some hefty cuts from the Senate 2014 defense policy bill, but the defense-wide program for the UAV got a $25 million boost to a $3 million total request. Overall, the mark from the Senate Armed Services committee, approved June 21 and reported this week, barely changed the request: less than 1% was cut from the procurement base budget; less than half a percent added to the research budget. Only 85 lines were changed, from the more than 1,600 lines in the Defense Department’s investment accounts.
