China specialists contend that conflict with the U.S. is inevitable and that space- and cyber-supremacy, at least for limited periods, will be deciding factors in a confrontation if a Chinese attack is unexpected, short in duration and quick in resolution.
LOST OSPREY: The investigation of the April 11 crash of a U.S. Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey in Morocco is still under way, “but we know an awful lot” thanks to the tiltrotor’s crash-survivable memory units, says Capt. Greg Masiello, V-22 joint program manager. “We are confident we know where this may go, and do not anticipate any changes to the V-22 as a result.” The two pilots were killed and two crew chiefs injured when the MV-22B from Marine Corps squadron VMM-61 crashed during a military exercise with Moroccan forces. A U.S.
F-22A costs have more than doubled and fielding has been delayed, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says, because each increment was managed under the same program, instead of as separate acquisitions that require their own justifications and milestones.
The U.S. Army is standing up an acquisition team to begin planning a program to replace its Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility and Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from 2030 onward. Development of an initial capabilities document (ICD) for a medium rotorcraft to be produced under the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative — the first step in defining a new program — is being staffed, says Lt. Col. David Bristol, acquisition lead for the FVL medium.
NEW DELHI — India is expediting the purchase of 384 light helicopters to replace the current fleet of Cheetah and Chetak aircraft in the Indian army and air force. The Eurocopter AS 350 Fennec and Russian Kamov 226 Sergei are in the running for the requirement, a program expected to be worth more than $1.5 billion.
LONDON — Australia is delaying by two years the purchase of the bulk of its first tranche of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, deferring around A$1.6 billion in spending.
GENOA — Finmeccanica is showing the first positive signs from its ongoing restructuring, although its first-quarter 2012 results still lag behind the same period in 2011. Nonetheless, the results were generally above what the defense giant had been planning for, which allows Finmeccanica to confirm its full-year 2012 projections.
FORT WORTH — The U.S. Navy has completed an analysis of alternatives (AoA) for a new logistics aircraft, with the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor a leading candidate to replace the Grumman C-2 Greyhound now used for carrier onboard delivery (COD). The AoA conclusions have not yet been signed off on by Navy leadership, but “the V-22 is a pretty fair competitor,” says Marine Corps Col. Greg Masiello, Osprey program manager, speaking at the American Helicopter Society International’s Forum 68 in Fort Worth.
The U.S. Navy will conduct its own analysis of the capabilities required of a successor to Sikorsky MH-60R/S Seahawk shipborne helicopters while trying to stay engaged with the Army-led Future Vertical Lift (FVL) effort to develop a new medium utility rotorcraft to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk on which they are based. “Our main concern is operating in a maritime environment, which is not as much of a focus for the Army,” says Rear Adm. Paul Grosklags, Navy program executive officer for air anti-submarine warfare, assault and special missions.
Engineers on Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew vehicle project are turning their attention to a forward heat shield jettison test and a hot fire of the capsule’s orbital maneuvering/attitude control engines.
AEHF SCRUB: The U.S. Air Force scrubbed an attempt to launch the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-2) secure communications satellite on May 3 due to a lack of helium flow from ground support equipment into the Interstage Adapter compartment on the Atlas V rocket. Launch provider United Launch Alliance and the Air Force plan another attempt to lift off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., on May 4 during a two-hour window that opens at 2:42 p.m. EDT.
The Airbus Military A400M has cleared an important certification milestone even as developers are exploring vibration believed to be linked to the transport’s engine.
NASA will contract with Boeing for an interim cryogenic propulsion stage to power at least the first two flights of its planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
LONDON — BAE Systems is turning to its civil airborne electronics business to provide growth as it wrestles with falling defense spending in key markets. The company is hoping to take advantage of the increase in commercial aircraft sales, CEO Ian King says. The hybrid vehicle business and expanding government cybersecurity activities into the commercial domain are other areas of interest.
PROTECTING EUROPE: A cost estimate of the Obama administration’s phased adaptive approach (PAA) to missile defense was due in March but is not likely to be sent to Congress as required until the summer, according to Madelyn Creedon, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for global security affairs. Typically, program cost estimates developed by the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation involve individual programs.
The updated version of the Spawar Acquisition Integrated Logistics Online Repository (Sailor) 2.1 is impressing U.S. Navy brass. The U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s (Spawar) Sailor program features a self-help website for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems that provides the fleet with the capability to complete training, troubleshoot software and equipment, and receive technical documentation and support online.
LANGLEY AFB, Va. — U.S. Air Force officials are narrowing their focus on new combinations of factors as they explore oxygen deprivation issues that have claimed the life of one F-22 Raptor pilot and have plagued the fleet for more than a year. The officials remain frustrated, however, that a “smoking gun” for the cause of pilot hypoxia is still elusive despite an extraordinary effort by the service to enlist help from scientists, doctors and fighter experts.
NEW DELHI — An Indian government panel is highlighting the lack of attack helicopters in the Indian army, contending that the country’s security is at risk. According to the report from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense, the army’s aviation unit faces a severe shortage, with a requirement of 18 Cheetah helos, one Chetak, 76 Advanced Light Helicopters and 60 ALHs with weapon systems.
A bid by SpaceX to carry out the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is unlikely to lift off May 7, the latest target launch date, according to the company. “SpaceX is continuing to work through the software assurance process with NASA,” according to a May 2 update from company spokeswoman Kirsten Brost Grantham. Earlier, the company slipped a planned April 30 liftoff to allow more time to work software flight-control issues for the planned 18-day test mission.
PHILADEPHIA and ABU DHABI — Bell-Boeing is nearing closure of its first foreign deal with the United Arab Emirates for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor after years of often turbulent development and marketing work to garner sales outside the U.S.
