LONDON — The U.K. Defense Ministry is starting to consider the use of small unmanned aircraft to improve situational awareness in urban and other difficult settings. To help gain more information about what micro and nano unmanned air systems (UAS) can deliver, the Defense Ministry is looking to launch several small-scale research efforts lasting several months. The concept studies could trigger larger programs down the road.
All flight and ground operations for the Joint Strike Fighter force have been suspended after the secondary power system of F-35A AF-4, a U.S. Air Force-variant test aircraft, failed on Aug. 2 at Edwards AFB, Calif., during a ground maintenance engine run. In a statement, the JSF Program Office says, “The engine was immediately shut down and the jet was secured. No injuries to the pilot or ground crew occurred.”
An unmanned surface vessel (USV) confronted a simulated maritime intruder, blocked the vessel, trained lasers on it and escorted it out of a restricted area — all autonomously — during U.S. Navy tests in July. In another test the same month, the USV completed mine countermeasure mission tests during a demonstration sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The Navy brass has shown significant interest lately in developing USV and other unmanned technology for vessels that operate on or below the surface of the water.
SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Air Force is considering plans to build a dual-role, large-scale demonstrator to prove technology for the Reusable Booster System (RBS) space launcher as well as providing a “flying wind tunnel” for hypersonic engines.
Embraer’s digital flight-control system for the KC-390 tanker/transport will draw on its selected suppliers’ experience with fly-by-wire systems for large aircraft, including the Airbus A380. The Brazilian manufacturer has selected BAE Systems to supply the flight-control computers and Goodrich Corp. to develop the primary flight-control actuators and electronics for the KC-390, which is scheduled to fly in 2014.
A planned July 2013 launch of the nearly $1 billion Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core spacecraft could slip six months due to a variety of technical issues plaguing the international weather- and climate-monitoring project, a senior NASA official says. A joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), GPM is a global rainfall-monitoring project designed to provide detailed, frequent measurements of precipitation to improve weather and climate predictions.
SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Air Force plans to evaluate the feasibility of an alcohol-to-jet pathway that would enable cellulosic feedstocks such as municipal waste and agricultural and forestry residues to be converted into jet fuel.
A Pentagon review of the defense supply chain is under way in an effort to find the weak points where funding needs to be applied to prevent the loss of critical capabilities. The “sector-by-sector, tier-by-tier” (S2T2) assessment is an effort to map the anatomy of the supply chain and increase understanding of sub-tier connections between programs so the Defense Department can improve its supply-chain management.
SAN DIEGO — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is completing ground tests of the Triclops, an MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft equipped with three independently controlled full-motion video sensors. First flight is expected shortly, says Don Cattell, the company’s director of Army programs. Triclops is planned to participate in the U.S. Army’s Manned-Unmanned System Integration Capability (Music) exercise at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, in September.
HOUSTON — Cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev were forced to abandon the top objective of their scheduled 6-hr. Aug. 3 spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) – the transfer of a cargo boom that was to set the stage for the arrival of a Multipurpose Laboratory Module next year.
SPECIAL DESIGNATION: The Republican congressmen representing Florida’s Space Coast are seeking a so-called HUBZone designation for the traditional home of U.S. civil spaceflight. The designation as a “historically underutilized business zone” under the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 would “help promote economic development and growth by providing access to more federal contracting opportunities,” according to Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.). She says neighboring Rep.
While many inside and outside the U.S. Navy have been focused on the service’s plans for building new ships and submarines in the coming decades, there have been a few in Congress and analyst circles who have chosen to spotlight another issue that is likely have to a far-reaching financial impact on Navy ship-fleet plans: fleet readiness.
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon and U.S. Navy would do well to worry about the implications of its 30-year shipbuilding plan now, instead of thinking of its fleet strategy as a concern decades down the road. That is especially true for the Navy’s fleets of attack submarines, cruisers and destroyers, which face considerable shortfalls in coming years unless the service tweaks its plan or changes the scope of the vessels’ missions.
SAN DIEGO – Former U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center (SMC) Commander Gen. Tom Sheridan warns that new investment is needed now to guarantee U.S. military access to space later this decade and beyond.
Washington – Now that Congress has passed a deal to raise the debt ceiling, some lawmakers are plotting how best to contain the damage to the defense budget.
NEW DELHI – A MiG-21 Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jet crashed Tuesday in the western state of Rajasthan, killing the pilot, a senior IAF official says. The crash happened at mid-afternoon at Nal air base, about 15 km from the city of Bikaner, the official says. “The aircraft was returning from a routine training mission and crashed during the landing phase, tragically killing the pilot,” an IAF press release says. Defense spokesman S.D. Goswami says the pilot ejected, but later died from his injuries.
Amid speculation that the U.S. Navy would delay delivery or construction of the Gerald R. Ford next-generation aircraft carrier (CVN 78), the service has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) a $504 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification to continue engineering work associated with the building of the ship. The late July contract modification is one of the clearest signs that the Navy and Pentagon plan to stay on course with the ship’s timeline.
A new U.S. State Department report says that since 2003, the U.S. government — led by State with help from the Pentagon — has found and destroyed more than 32,500 “excess, loosely secured, illicitly held, or otherwise at-risk” man-portable air defense systems (manpads) in more than 30 countries.
Aerospace & Defense Programs October 24-26, 2011 Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, Phoenix, AZ Strategic Performance, Innovation and Sourcing will focus on government customers — from the initiation of development throughout delivery of product. A&D Programs will bring together these professionals who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to interact and discuss common challenges and issues they face on a daily basis.
