NEW DELHI — The jointly developed Indian/Israeli Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LR-SAM) was test fired in Israel within the last two weeks, according to local news reports. Known as Barak-2, the system is due for a second test later this year.
PARIS — The French defense ministry is going to have to find up to €5 billion ($6 billion) in cost savings and non-budget revenues to keep its multi-year spending plan from unraveling.
Slowed by funding issues, development of an advanced networking waveform is to be completed under a new contract that also will look at enhancing the system for use in denied airspace. Despite showing promise, Rockwell Collins’ Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) waveform was put on the back burner in 2008 after the U.S. Air Force selected the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) for the F-22 and B-2.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian Air Force (IAF) will form the first squadron of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas in Bengaluru next year before it is moved to Sulur, IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal P.K. Barbora tells AVIATION WEEK. Sulur is located near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
PARIS — According to Saab executives, the decision to go ahead with the Gripen Next Generation (NG) fighter has already been made by the Swedish government. If Saab wins one or more of the upcoming fighter competitions — with Brazil and Switzerland among those closest to a decision date — it will affect the timing of Sweden’s own deployment of the Gripen NG, already identified by the Swedish military as the JAS 39E/F. But the decision to acquire the fighter is a done deal, according to the head of Gripen marketing and campaigns, Hans Rosen.
NEW DELHI — India will start field development trials with Boeing’s C-17 heavy-lift transport in two weeks, according to Tommy Dunehew, vice president for global mobility systems at Boeing Defense, Space & Security (DSS). “We have submitted the offset proposal and the draft letter of acceptance from the U.S. is expected to come this summer,” an official said.
NEW CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin has reached a new three-year agreement with members of the Federated Independent Texas Union (FITU), covering about 270 workers who perform manufacturing planning, tool design and tool manufacturing planning in the Fort Worth, Texas, facility that houses production of the F-35, F-16, major portions of the F-22 and other aircraft programs. The contract became effective at midnight on June 13. About 4,500 of the 14,400 workers at the Fort Worth plant are represented by unions.
PARIS — EADS has formally unveiled the EC645 helicopter, the military derivative of the EC145 it will market globally and in parallel with the AAS-72X the company plans to bid for the U.S. Army Armed Aerial Scout program. The EC645 is aimed at sales to non-U.S. customers. To that end, it will have a non-U.S. weapons suite, unlike the AAS-72X, company officials say. The EC645 was unveiled on June 14 at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris.
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LONDON — The U.K. will not “salami-slice” as it tries to bring its defense spending plans in line with difficult budget realities, Defense Minister Liam Fox says. In his first major speech on the issue since taking office, Fox blames the previous government for mismanaging defense spending “to such an extent that the future program is entirely unaffordable, especially if we try to do what we need to do in the future while simultaneously doing everything in the way we do it today.”
TOKYO — The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft successfully capped off its 6 billion km. trip by releasing its asteroid sample capsule for a successful re-entry and retrieval in Australia on June 13. The process went so well that Project Manager Junichiro Kawaguchi expressed disappointment at having to cancel his prescheduled trip to Australia, saying there was nothing else he could do at the landing site within the Woomera Prohibited Area.
NIGHT VISION: ITT announced at the Eurosatory exposition in Paris June 14 it has received a $53 million order from the U.K. Ministry of Defense for head-mounted night-vision systems (HMNVS), the largest order of its kind. Deliveries of the HMNVS will take place over the next five fiscal years. The systems are a variant of the AN/PVS-14 in use by the U.S. military. The lightweight, single-battery monocular goggle apparatus is equipped with ITT’s Gen 3 Pinnacle night-vision technology.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) June 15 - 17 — 2010 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, “Accelerating the Force.” Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, Fla. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/0890 june 17 - 18 — Shephard Group’s Royal Air Force Power Conference, Victoria Park Plaza, London. For more information go to www.shephard.co.uk/events/52/raf-air-power-official-conference-2010-/
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is girding for a second major hurdle this summer in its quest to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS), following the successful debut flight of its Falcon 9 rocket.
PAYING ATTENTION: The implications of the successful Falcon 9 debut launch are not being lost on overseas space agencies. European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says there are lessons to be learned, even though he notes there’s a big difference between the U.S. and European contexts. Lessons are unlikely to concern the financing model used for Falcon 9. “I’m not sure European governments could sustain a privately financed launch vehicle on their own,” Dordain says.
There’s no joy in the U.S. space industry this summer, as the Obama administration and Congress skirmish over the proposal to kill NASA’s Constellation Program and follow the space shuttle with a fleet of commercial “space taxis” to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
Malmen Air Base, Sweden — Swedish Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors is urging Europeans to consider whether strategic airlift cooperation could be extended into the tactical arena. “Could we use the Strategic Airlift Capability [SAC] model for tactical transport in Europe?” he asks. Sweden is now mulling what to do with its Lockheed Martin C-130s. It had intended to put its aircraft through an avionics modernization program, but several issues with this U.S. effort forced Stockholm to examine other options for upgrading its tactical airlifters.
