NEW DELHI — India has selected the Swiss Pilatus PC-7 aircraft as its beginning trainer for Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots. The Swiss aircraft, along with Grob’s G-120 TP, Embraer’s EMB-312 Super Tucano, Finmeccanica’s M-311, Hawker Beechcraft’s T-6C Texan-II and Korean Aerospace’s KT-1, participated in the flight trials last year. “Of the three short-listed firms from the U.S., Korea and Switzerland, the bid made by Pilatus has emerged the lowest,” says India’s chief of air staff, Air Marshal P.V. Naik.
NEW DELHI — India may ground the MiG-29KUB in the wake of the twin-seat carrier-based fighter crashing in Russia on June 23. “We have sought clarifications from [Russian Aircraft Corp.] as the aircraft was still with them and was being flown by their own pilots,” says India’s naval chief, Adm. Nirmal Verma. “At the moment, we have not received any feedback, but if there is a technical reason that demands grounding, we will do that.”
SWITCHBLADE: AeroVironment Inc. has completed additional customer demonstrations of its Switchblade miniature autonomous munition and expects to begin small-volume deliveries of pre-production units in its 2012 fiscal year, which began on May 1. Switchblade was one of two systems selected by the U.S. Air Force for demonstration under the Lethal Miniature Aerial Munitions System project. CEO Tim Conver says AeroVironment completed the second of two live demonstrations earlier this year.
MAST TRANSPLANT: The Norfolk Naval Shipyard this month removed the 89,000-lb. main mast from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) during the ship’s 13-month drydocking planned incremental availability. With removal of the old mast from the carrier, the shipyard’s Truman Project team is now focusing on making the replacement main mast, which will be 10 ft. higher and about 30,000 lb. heavier. The old mast was removed with a 450-ton Liebhern crane, similar to cranes used to build roller coasters.
LETHAL SHADOW: Obstacles to arming the U.S. Marine Corps’ AAI RQ-7 Shadow could soon be removed, and work to integrate miniature precision munitions onto the tactical unmanned aircraft could begin within the next six months. Because the Shadow is rail-launched, it falls under the international Missile Technology Control Regime, requiring treaty negotiations to allow it to be weaponized. Negotiations are nearing completion, the Marine Corps has revalidated its requirement, and rapid fielding of an armed Shadow is expected to go ahead, says Lt. Col. Andy Hamilton, U.S.
The U.S. Army is participating in a U.S. Navy analysis of alternatives (AOA) to determine whether both services’ requirements for vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft can be met by a joint program. The Army has provided an addendum to the Navy-led study “to see if the need is for two separate programs or a joint program,” says Tim Owings, acting program manager for Army UAVs.
BRANCHING OUT: Air Tractor is working with a yet-to-be-announced foreign customer on the first order for its 802U — the armed version of the company’s crop-dusting aircraft. Air Tractor is providing the platform and a U.S. company — also not identified — is handling integration of systems, including a Moog stores and management system, and a fuselage-mounted electro-optical and infrared camera with a laser illuminator/designator. The 802U can carry 8,000 lb. of payload, including rail-launched and ejected weapons as well as sensors.
The first Operationally Responsive Space (ORS-1) mission is in final preparation for a June 28 launch from Wallops Island, Va., only 30 months after the contract was signed.
AeroVironment says it has validated a fix for the cause of the April 1 crash of its Global Observer high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft, and could fly a second demonstrator this year if funding is secured. The company will not identify the cause of the failure, which occurred 18 hr. into a test flight at 30,000 ft. over Edwards AFB, Calif., because the U.S. Air Force accident investigation is still underway.
Three different indicators of long-term solar activity suggest Earth’s star may be entering a period of relative quiet that may last for decades, with implications for spacecraft and power grid operations, agriculture, weather and climate. Papers presented at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society this week in Las Cruces, N.M., report that sunspot activity and the precursors to it are waning to the extent that the next 11-year cycle may not happen or will be much less pronounced than past cycles.
AILING EAGLE: Turbulence over the mountains of Afghanistan caused problems with the turbocharger on the Theilert diesel-cycle engine powering the U.S. Army’s General Atomics MQ-1C Grey Eagle unmanned aircraft. The turbocharger was surging, causing it to rattle and wearing out the bearings. The problem, not seen during testing in the U.S., was identified and fixed within 10 weeks, says Kevin Messer, Army Grey Eagle product manager.
BEIJING — Almost all of Australia’s people and defense industries are on the southeastern fringe of the continent. But valuable and vulnerable natural resources are in the north and west, much closer to Asia. Where should the country put the weight of its defense forces? Until now, the answer for the air force and navy has been “mostly in the southeast.” The government, no longer sure that is the right answer, launched a review of military basing on June 22.
The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday imposed sanctions against Iran Air after designating the carrier a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction for providing material support and services to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the country’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). Iran Air Cargo and Iran Air Tours, both of which are units of Iran Air, also were designated for sanctions.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, assailed earlier this month by the agency’s inspector general for unresolved technical issues and cost overruns, arrived at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Wednesday, a key milestone toward making its November launch window. In a report released June 8, NASA Inspector General Paul Martin expressed concerns that Mars Science Lab managers might be pressured to descope the mission to avoid missing this year’s launch window, which would result in a two-year launch delay to 2013.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The shuttle Atlantis astronauts donned their pressurized flight suits and climbed aboard the orbiter on Thursday to participate in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT), one of the final milestones in advance of launch. The STS-135 mission, a 12-day cargo run to the International Space Station, remains targeted for liftoff at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8. The flight is the last in NASA’s 30-year-old space shuttle program.
PROGRESS DOCKS: Russia’s Progress 43 cargo capsule docked with the International Space Station on June 23, delivering nearly three tons of fuel, food, clothing, water, spare parts and other equipment. The automated linkup with the station’s aft segment docking port occurred at 12:37 p.m. EDT as the two spacecraft sailed over eastern Kazakhstan. The Russian freighter, which occupies the port vacated on June 20 by the European Space Agency’s ATV-2 Johannes Kepler, will shoulder the station’s propulsion needs — orbit adjustment and attitude control — through late August.
The Pentagon’s acquisition chief is highly critical of House-passed legislation that would allow General Electric and Rolls-Royce to continue working on the F136 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter if the companies funded the effort on their own.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller, 4th, plans to subpoena documents related to NASA’s plans for a heavy-lift space launch system (SLS) and other activities if the agency does not produce them by the close of business on June 27. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the ranking Republican on the authorization panel that oversees NASA, alerted Administrator Charles Bolden in a letter dated June 22 and released June 23.
The Obama administration is warning that House defense spending language for fiscal 2012 could, if enacted, delay or derail several military space and satellite programs. According to the White House statement of administration policy over H.R. 2219, issued June 23, programs that could be affected include the Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS), the Deep Space Climate Observatory (Dscovr) Spacecraft and the Assured Satcom Services in Single Theater (Assist).
Leading Pentagon Guided Missile Contractors In 2010 Leading Pentagon Guided Missile Contractors In 2010 No. Contractor Number Of Contracts Or Modifications Total Obligated For Transactions Average Amount Per Transaction 1 Raytheon
Cyber-operations are quickly becoming a formidable element in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and may soon be the dominant tool for maintaining international situational awareness of adversaries and potential foes. Already, cyber-intrusions are conducted against the U.S. with such persistence that they have a name — advanced persistent threat (APT).
LE BOURGET — The core A400M-buying countries have agreed to work together when it comes to in-service support for the airlifter. The agreement between France, Germany, Spain, the U.K. and Belgium was inked at the Paris air show. The French defense procurement agency, DGA, notes that Turkey also is expected to join. Luxembourg, the seventh member and buyer of a single aircraft, likely will be covered through its close A400M relationship with Belgium.
Robot’s XM1216 Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) has become the first robotic system to receive a Conditional Material Release from the U.S. Army, meaning that it is “suitable to meet operational performance requirements, and supportable within the environment it is intended to operate,” according to the service’s Ground Combat Systems Office.
