THAI SIERRAS: Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin on Aug. 8 declared the first delivery of the MH-60 to an international customer after the U.S. Navy flew two MH-60S helicopters from Owego, N.Y., to the Port of Baltimore ahead of their ocean voyage to Thailand. The contractors said the Thai navy has expressed interest in additional “Sierra” purchases. The U.S. foreign military sale includes pilot and maintainer training, spares and logistical support.
Aviation Week Webinar Materials Debate: The Future of Airframe Construction FREE WEBINAR! Wednesday, August 31, 2011 9:30 am - 10:30 am EDT (GMT- 4) The webinar will assess the current balance and co-existence of metals and composites, how this may change in the coming years, and what external factors may force the industry’s hand to select one material over another. Sign up now at www.aviationweek.com/events
The U.S. Navy has taken concrete steps to address the litany of surface-ship maintenance shortfalls explicitly detailed in a report last year, but service officials say they still have a long way to go to alter the decades-long course of poor decisions and neglect that crippled those vessels.
The cost of cybercrimes aimed at corporations has jumped by 56% over 2010, according to a new study by the Ponemon Institute. The study, which was sponsored by Hewlett Packard subsidiary ArcSight, surveyed 50 companies to assess their experiences with attacks on their networks and found that the median cost of cybercrimes was $5.9 million, most of which was attributable to hackers using more sophisticated techniques.
Four U.S. companies will spend up to $600,000 each to define demonstration missions that would validate the concept of storing cryogenic propellants in space to reduce the need for large launch vehicles for deep-space exploration. Touted as an alternative approach to space exploration by the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, orbiting fuel depots would be launched ahead of vehicles designed to escape Earth’s gravity and move on to the Moon and beyond.
Recently proposed legislation that imposes harsher penalties on those who counterfeit and sell military parts is a good first step, but the government also needs to change its purchasing methods to keep counterfeits out of the supply chain, says a board member from the Independent Distributors of Electronics Association.
At the same time the U.S. Navy was promoting — and investing in — the restoration of its DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fleet equipped with the Aegis shield as the backbone for international ballistic missile defense (BMD), the ships and radars were being neglected and run down, Navy officials assert. Now, though, Navy brass says it is starting to get back on course to maintain the ships and Aegis radar systems properly.
LONDON — In one of his first public outings since becoming Brazil’s defense minister, Celso Amorim has committed to sustaining the drive to modernize the country’s armed forces. But absent in his Aug. 8 comments were program details, and in particular any mention of the F-X2 fighter modernization program that industry officials fear has been losing steam in Brazil. Boeing, Dassault and Saab are each in the running for the project.
U.S. military and government officials are investing more in advanced computing technology – such as next-generation supercomputers and quantum computing – to better secure their cybernetworks and communications, according to Richard Hitt, president and CEO of Hypres, which has projects under way to develop its digital superconductor integrated circuit technology for such equipment.
PLUG, PLAY: NASA’s Ames Research Center and the Swedish National Space Board will work together over the coming year to develop a small spacecraft bus compatible with plug-and-play avionics pioneered in the Scandinavian nation. AAC Microtec will develop the platform using Ames’s experience in building small scientific satellites. Also contributing will be the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, with the aim of producing operationally responsive satellite technology. Testing at Ames is expected to begin in June, NASA says.
NEW DELHI — India is likely to complete construction of its first indigenous aircraft carrier, called the Air Defense Ship, by the end of this year, says Defense Minister A.K. Antony. “Regarding the Air Defense Ship being constructed at Cochin Shipyard Limited, 75% of hull work has been completed and [it] is expected to be launched in December 2011, after which further works will be undertaken prior to commissioning,” Antony says.
NASA will spend up to $10 million over the next two years to fly science and engineering payloads to the upper atmosphere and out to the edge of space on reusable commercial vehicles, some of which will also be carrying humans. Under indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts, seven U.S. companies will provide flight services to the agency’s Office of the Chief Technologist as it works to advance new space technologies for future exploration.
With an eye on future sales in the region, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) plans to establish a Dhruv helicopter maintenance center in South America. “HAL is in the process of setting up a regional maintenance center for Dhruv to cover after-sales service, technical and logistic support in the entire Latin American region,” M.M. Pallam Raju, deputy defense minister, told India’s parliament Aug. 8.
Engineers in Luxembourg and Japan are checking out two new direct-broadcast television satellites following their tandem launch Aug. 6 on an Ariane 5 from the European spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana. Astra 1N and BSAT-3c/JCSAT-11OR weighed a combined 8,240 kg (18,200 lb.) at liftoff. With satellite-dispensing hardware, the big European launcher hoisted a total of 9,095 kg in the 38-min. mission.
ARMY Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Fort Worth, was awarded a $54,490,905 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the production of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior control display system version cabin conversion. The work will be performed in Amarillo, Texas, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2012. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-11-C-0016).
EAGLE FUEL: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has received a $13.5 million U.S. Army contract to upgrade a Gray Eagle Block 0 unmanned aircraft with an alternate heavy-fuel engine. A 2.0-liter Lycoming engine will be flight tested in place of the 1.7-liter Centurion (formerly Thielert) turbo-diesel. Production-standard Block 1 Gray Eagles are already powered by a 2.0-liter Centurion, and the alternate heavy-fuel engine is a risk-reduction effort for the earlier Block 0 version. The contract includes 20 engines to upgrade all 11 Block 0 aircraft and provide spares.
ARMY Oshkosh Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., was awarded a $904,184,088 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure 6,963 Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles. The work will be performed in Oshkosh, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2013. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with three received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-D-0159). AIR FORCE
Innovators from U.S. industry, academia and NASA are planning to conduct one-year, $100,000 concept studies on advanced-technology ideas culled from “hundreds” of proposals the U.S. space agency received for a new version of the old NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). Among ideas to be studied will be interplanetary cubesats, microrobots powered by microbial fuel cells and “photonic muscles” activated by laser light to move spacecraft components.
BEIJING — The Japanese defense ministry does not yet know whether newly discovered structural faults will delay delivery of the first four Kawasaki Heavy Industries P-1 maritime patrol aircraft. Cracks and tears were found in several places on two P-1s after ground tests, a ministry spokesman says. Some were in the integral fuel tanks of the mainplane and others in the fuselage near the wing root. They are 15-20 cm (6-8 in.) long.
