To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) OcT. 12 - 13 — Aviation Week 5th Edition, Lean Six Sigma for MRO Forum - Americas, Crowne Plaza San Francisco International Airport Hotel, San Francisco, Calif. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
LONDON — As Norway sets a slightly increased level of defense spending for 2012, it also is allocating the first tranche of funding to finance an initial batch of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to be used for training. Norway expects to see defense spending increase 1.3 billion Norwegian kroner ($224 million) over 2011 levels, with the top line reaching 40.6 billion kroner ($7 billion).
NEW DELHI — On Oct. 7, an Indian air force (IAF) MiG-21 combat aircraft went down, marking the sixth crash of the fighter for the IAF this year. The aircraft crashed in India’s western state of Rajasthan during a routine sortie around 11.30 a.m. local time while the pilot was preparing to land, a defense ministry spokesman says. The pilot ejected to safety. The IAF first purchased MiG-21s in 1961 and has operated more than 400 of the aircraft. More than 100 of the fighters were lost in crashes from 1993-2002.
HOUSTON — NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) A and B spacecraft are on course to maneuver into lunar orbit on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, following initial course-correction maneuvers carried out over the past week, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports. The identical Grail spacecraft began their $496 million, nine-month mission to probe the Moon’s internal structure on Sept. 10, with a launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives put together a list of recommendations for protecting the nation’s computer systems that range from common-sense tips on good “hygiene” to providing incentives for businesses to improve their cyber-defenses.
NEW DELHI — India is set to ramp up its fighter and transport bases near the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir to augment its military strength along its borders with neighboring countries such as Pakistan and China. The Indian air force (IAF) plans to transform Nyoma — located in eastern Ladakh within 25 km.(16 mi.) of the Sino-Indian border — into a fighter base and augment Kargil base in Indian-administered Kashmir to enable operations by fighter jets and heavy transports, according to Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne.
SHIP TO SHORE: Both F-35Bs slated for service in shipboard trials onboard the U.S. Navy’s USS Wasp are operating on the amphibious ship. They are expected to test integration between the ship and the stealthy, single-engine fighter. Testing is slated for 2-3 weeks and preliminary results should be ready at the end of the month, barring unexpected discoveries. Meanwhile, the F-35As at Eglin AFB, Fla., are expected to get the nod within a month to begin flight operations with unmonitored aircraft there; this is the site of the international F-35 schoolhouse.
As U.S. interest wanes in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon also is starting to wean itself from fuel expenses—and the Defense Department is going to turn a keener eye on the petroleum contracts it does award, thanks to the findings of two recent Pentagon Inspector General investigations.
PARIS — Eutelsat’s W3C telecommunications satellite was launched atop a Chinese Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Centre Oct. 7, the first Western-owned commercial communications satellite to be lofted from the communist country since a crackdown on exports of U.S.-made satellite technology to Beijing in the 1990s.
TEL AVIV — While Alenia Aermacchi and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) vie for Israel’s advanced trainer, a growing spat among the competitors and their national backers is beginning to mar what was widely seen as a rehearsal for the larger U.S. Air Force T-X competition. South Korea is threatening to suspend all defense contracts with Israel, claiming that the highly contested tender for Israel’s advanced trainer was already decided in favor of Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 Master over KAI’s T-50 Golden Eagle.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Engineers at Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) are “very close” to finishing their analysis of the orbital and radio-interference implications of their company’s plans to piggyback two Orbcomm data-relay satellites on the upcoming Falcon 9/Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — China plans to attempt a remotely controlled docking in November between its new Tiangong-1 space lab and the unpiloted Shenzhou-8 crew vehicle, followed by two manned missions to the miniature space station next year.
Democratic lawmakers are trying to block the Obama administration’s proposal to sell a $53 million package of weapons to Bahrain. On Sept. 14, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency told Congress that Bahrain’s government was looking for equipment including 44 armored Humvees, more than 200 missiles, including bunker busters, and other gear. Congress has 30 days from the date of notification to object.
NEW DELHI — Impressed by early deliveries and the aircraft’s performance in recent operations, the Indian air force (IAF) is actively considering a proposal to acquire more than the 12 Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules tactical special mission aircraft already expected.
CYBER ACCUMULATION: Figuring out a company’s or agency’s vulnerability to cyberattack is more than just tallying weak points in one’s network, a new report from federal researchers says. Defenders also have to see how the vulnerabilities can be pieced together for an even greater threat. “To more accurately assess the security of enterprise systems, one must understand how vulnerabilities can be combined and exploited to stage an attack,” say authors Anoop Singhal and Ximming Ou at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
HOUSTON — NASA will make an $80 million, two-instrument contribution to the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, as well as provide launch services for the planned 2017 liftoff, the agency announced Oct. 6. The seven-year mission will circle about 21 million mi. from the Sun’s surface, gathering information on space weather that can affect terrestrial telecommunications and electrical power distribution during periods of high solar activity.
Amid congressional calls to cut U.S. forces in Europe as a way to reduce the deficit, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe is reluctant to make value judgments about the process. But Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling is clear about one thing — the requirements for his forces have not lessened. “Actually, it’s increased,” the three-star general said during an Oct. 6 speech on Capitol Hill. Over the last nine years, U.S. forces in Europe have been scaled back from 870 installations to about 22. But the demands, he says, are ever-changing.
STATE DEFENSE: The top five U.S. state recipients of federal defense contracts to firms in 2010 were Virginia, California, Texas, Maryland and Florida, according to a new report from Ball State University. Indiana, where the university is based, ranked 23rd. The university found that in 2010 about 9,400 defense-related contracts worth about $4 billion across Indiana supported more than 21,000 jobs.
The Arctic experienced an unprecedented depletion of high-altitude ozone during the 2011 winter and spring — similar to that measured annually over the Antarctic since the mid-1980s — because of a prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere, according to a NASA-led study based on satellite measurements. The findings, gathered by scientists from nine countries, were published Oct. 2 in the online version of the journal Nature.
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K-MAX ON: The U.S. Navy Department said Oct. 5 it plans to deploy the Navy and Marine Corps’ first-ever cargo unmanned aircraft system to Afghanistan next month — as was expected. The decision allows Lockheed Martin and Kaman’s K-Max unmanned helicopter to try a six-month deployment to augment Marine ground and air logistics operations in theater. Most associated personnel will operate the two unmanned rotorcraft from a central main operating base. Air vehicle operators will reside at smaller forward operating bases, where the cargo will be delivered.
The U.S. Navy has anchored more securely its so-called Phased Adaptive Approach to European ballistic missile defense (BMD) thanks to this week’s international agreement to base Aegis-equipped ships at Rota, Spain, about 60 mi. northwest of Gibraltar. The agreement between the U.S. and Spain comes about five months after the U.S. deployed the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterery as the first U.S. Navy ship with the enhanced Aegis system in the Mediterranean as part of Phased Adaptive Approach.
