FRENCH UAVs: Two small, hand-launched unmanned aerial vehicles have been delivered to French special operations forces as a result of a quick-turn procurement effort, according to the French defense armaments agency DGA. The Elbit Systems Skylark 1s were ordered in October and augment the fleet already in service with the French military since 2008. The AeroVironment Wasp contract was signed in November. The system is the first to be used for operational trials to validate such micro-UAVs, DGA says. The system already is in use with U.S.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has issued its first finished report in the battle between the U.S. and Europe over subsidies being granted to Airbus and Boeing, giving both sides enough to declare they are prevailing in a long-running legal battle that is far from over.
Northrop Grumman has licensed Australian composites technology company Quickstep to make parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35, taking a step toward issuing a contract for the supplier to build the components. Quickstep, which has developed a non-autoclave process for curing composites, will receive technical information for making the parts.
GREEN HOG: On March 25, an A-10 will make the first flight under the U.S. Air Force’s program to certify a blend of plant-derived biofuel and conventional jet fuel for use across its fleet. The flight from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will use hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel produced from camelina oil. Certification test flights with the F-15, F-22 and C-17 will follow in the summer.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is halting its work with Coleman Aerospace, owned by L-3 Communications, due to quality control problems in preparing targets for the agency’s flight test program, according to a missile defense program source. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, MDA’s director, informed Coleman he would halt business shortly after the company supplied a faulty C-17-launched target for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) flight test in December 2009. The test was aborted after the target encountered problems.
TRAINING DEAL: Canada has awarded CAE a C$250 million ($245 million) contract to provide the aircrew training system for its new Boeing CH-147F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The Canadian company will deliver a weapon system trainer, two tactical flight training devices, a gunnery trainer and other desktop and laptop devices early in 2014. The contract includes 20 years of in-service support. In February 2009, CAE was awarded a C$345 million contract to provide the training system for Canada’s new Lockheed Martin C-130J transports.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is asking Congress to be patient as his agency grinds out the details of the turnabout space program embodied in the Fiscal 2011 White House budget request, telling a House Appropriations subcommittee March 23 that some more programmatic information will be released soon.
LONDON — British defense and engineering services company Babcock International has agreed to purchase VT Group in a cash and shares deal valued at £1.32 billion ($2.1 billion). VT initially rejected Babcock’s overtures, forcing it to increase its offer over nearly two months of talks. Babcock’s first offer was rejected by VT as not reflecting its value.
Triumph Group has struck a deal to buy Vought Aircraft Industries from private equity giant Carlyle Group in a $1.44 billion deal that analysts say could mark the start of a revival of aerospace mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Triumph announced March 23 that it will pay $525 million in cash and 7.5 million shares of stock to acquire Vought, which supplies aerostructures and wing components for aircraft such as the Boeing 747-8, 777, Airbus A330, A340 and Boeing C-17.
The U.S.-Australian HiFire Hypersonic demonstrator has completed a second flight test. The five-year, $56 million Hypersonic International Flight Research Experiment (HiFire) effort is led by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO). Aimed at exploring fundamental hypersonic characteristics, the goal is to test technologies that will pave the way for future air-breathing strike weapons, reconnaissance and responsive strike vehicles.
LONDON — The British government’s finance department — known as the Treasury — is complicit in the Defense Ministry’s failure to control the costs of its future equipment plan, according to a parliamentary committee.
The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says he continues to be disappointed by a lack of performance by contractors developing and fielding missile defense systems and he is proposing that some industry leaders be fired to foster a more productive culture among companies involved in the program.
A commercial Proton orbited the heaviest satellite ever to fly on the Russian launch vehicle March 21, placing the 6.3-metric-ton EchoStar XIV Ku-band satellite in its geosynchronous transfer orbit for the DISH Network. The launch vehicle’s Breeze M upper stage released the spacecraft after a nine-hour, 10-minute mission. Liftoff from Pad 39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan came at 2:27 p.m. EDT. The launch was the second arranged this year by International Launch Services, and the fourth Proton launch of the year.
AIR FORCE Boeing, Long Beach, Calif., was awarded a $272,581,553 contract which will exercise FY10 third quarter option contract line items for the C17 Globemaster III sustainment partnership contract. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 330 ASW, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8614-04-C-2004, P00525). ARMY
The end appears to be nearing for Brazil’s FX-2 fighter competition. During an interview with Brazilian television that aired a few weeks ago, (but which only now has been transcribed by the ministry), Defense Minister Nelson Jobim predicted the process will wrap up late this month or in early April. Jobim highlighted technology transfer and price among the big considerations in the competition. The battle pits the Boeing F/A-18E/F, the Dassault Rafale, and Saab Gripen against each other.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $41,898,184 contract which will provide for the purchase and contractor logistic support of sniper advanced targeting pods to support a foreign military sale customer, Saudi Arabia. At this time, $20,949,092 has been obligated. 448 PKHCB, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8522-10-C-0003). NAVY
NO GO: United Aircraft Corp. on March 22 called U.S. news media reports of a potential bid by the Russian company in the USAF KC-X program, or any relationship with a California lawyer asserting as much, to be “inaccurate,” according to a statement on its web site. “UAC is not planning to take part in the tanker tender or set up a joint venture,” the company said. The lawyer, John Kirkland, apparently informed several newspapers late last week that he was working on behalf of UAC in regard to a KC-X bid based on the Il-96 airlifter.
NEW DELHI — India plans to test numerous missiles this year, including the Agni, Advanced Air Defense (AAD), Prithvi Air Defense (PAD) anti-ballistic missile and the indigenously developed Shaurya missile, Aviation Week has learned. These follow a successful March 22 test of the Brahmos missile from a vertical launcher fitted on the moving warship INS Ranvir off the Orissa coast in Eastern India.
LONDON — The British Defense Ministry signed a letter of offer and acceptance with Washington March 19 covering the acquisition of three RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft to replace its Nimrod R1s.
Scaled Composites has begun captive-carry flight testing of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) beneath the wing of the White Knight Two (WK2) launch aircraft with a flight out of Mojave, Calif., on March 22.
A key U.S. hypersonic wind tunnel is back online following a major refurbishment, and its first occupant is a model of vehicle that is about to make its first flight — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s HTV-2 hypersonic glider, the last vestige of its once-ambitious Falcon program.
LONDON — The U.K. Defense Ministry has picked General Dynamics UK to meet its Future Rapid Effect System Specialist Vehicle (FRES SV) requirement for the British Army — a decision that is a body blow to BAE Systems.
