As the operational tempo of the V-22 Osprey picks up around the world, co-manufacturer Boeing is proposing the aircraft be used as an airborne intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance (ISR) platform, equipped with the company’s Tactical Organic Sensor System (TOSS). TOSS is a palletized Thales Cereberus radar, three of which have been installed on U.K. Royal Navy Sea Kings deployed to Iraq. “We don’t have anything like this in the U.S. inventory right now,” said Norb Josten, Boeing’s senior manager of V-22 business development.
NUCLEAR NAYSAY: U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Kevin Chilton is adamant on one point concerning the U.S. Air Force’s Long-Range Strike (LRS) program. “When you start talking about unmanned nuclear [capable] bombers, I’m not there,” he says. Advocates of unmanned aircraft have long argued that the LRS would benefit from the persistence offered by remote piloting, which can triple the amount of time an aircraft is on station compared to manned aircraft.
LONDON — Saudi Arabia faces deferring in-country Eurofighter Typhoon final assembly or having to delay in-service targets for the fighter. The Saudi regime, the British government and BAE Systems are discussing alternatives to the original plan as a result of the effect of repeated holdups by Saudi Arabia regarding the choice of a build site. These options include reassigning back to the U.K. some of the aircraft originally slated for final assembly in Saudi Arabia.
PARIS — Eutelsat has signed up Multichoice Africa, a leading multichannel pay TV operator serving sub-Saharan Africa, to use 20 Ku-band transponders on its W7 satellite. The lease agreement — one of Eutelsat’s largest ever — will last for the life of the spacecraft, which was launched to 36 deg. E. Long in November alongside W4. Multichoice already serves more than 800,000 homes via 14 transponders on W4 and an older satellite, Sesat 1. The deal follows a 14-transponder lease on W7 with Intersputnik concluded earlier this month.
Despite U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’s recent assertion that President Obama’s 2010 budget “gives us the funds we need to do the job,” the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has told Congress that ship purchases under the budget “would not be large enough to replace all of the Navy’s current ships as they reach the end of their service lives.”
RAMP UP: The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) decision to buy 25 PC-21 trainers is alleviating work force pressures at Pilatus and allowing the Swiss-based aircraft maker to resume normal working hours. Moreover, CEO Oscar Schwenk has signaled that he is expecting an increase in global demand for business aircraft this year. As a result, PC-12NG production will gradually be increased, he said. The company had asked workers to reduce hours owing to a downturn in the business aviation sector last year and a lack of new orders for the PC-21.
Elbit Systems wants to completely take over Azimuth Technologies. The Israeli defense contractor in November 2008 took a 19 percent stake in the company, and on Jan. 24 spent about $46.5 million to buy the remaining stake. The purchase price may be adjusted depending on potential dividend payouts by Azimuth. The deal is only the latest in a string of acquisitions of technology companies Elbit has made both in Israel and outside. Anti-trust authorities in Israel still need to approve the transaction.
AFGHAN PRIORITIES: Coalition partners will meet this week in London “to focus the international community on a clear set of priorities” for Afghanistan. A stated intent of the conference, to be held Jan. 28, is to match the increase in military commitments with a coherent political strategy. The conference is being hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
SPACE SILENCE: Don’t look for full details on U.S. space policy in the Fiscal 2011 budget request due out Feb. 1. An eerie silence remains over the broad budget outlook, including big picture items like the funding trend for human spaceflight and the fate of the Ares I crew launch vehicle. That is leading to speculation in some quarters that those decisions haven’t been made, and that the budget will offer only a to-be-determined starting point for debate on the human spaceflight options developed over the summer by the Augustine panel.
Impending stringent requirements for U.S. cluster munitions could render their use impractical, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
TESTING MUOS: Environmental testing of the first Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite is set for this quarter, following prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s mating of the satellite’s Boeing-built ultra-high frequency communications systems module with the spacecraft’s propulsion core at Lockheed’s Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. MUOS is a U.S. Navy program. The Sunnyvale facility has three MUOS spacecraft in construction and holds a long-lead procurement contract for a fourth. The Navy has options for a fifth. MUOS has suffered a one-year schedule slip.
JASSM PROGRESS: The U.S. Air Force is finalizing details of Lot 8 production of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) with Lockheed Martin, according to a senior Air Force official. This is progress for the stealthy cruise missile program; production was put on hold after a series of errant tests. However, after a batch of positive test results, the service recently got the nod from Pentagon leadership to restart the manufacturing line (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 15, 2009).
LONDON The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has approved several upgrades to Diamond Airborne Sensing’s DA42 surveillance platform, including a nose pod that will permit the use of heavier cameras. The new nose pod allows operators to use the Microsoft UltraCamX large-format aerial camera weighing 188 pounds, Diamond says, whereas before users were limited to a 144-pound camera in the nose and a 177-pound camera in the belly pod.
Although the U.S. won’t be able to meet the Congressionally mandated goal of locating and cataloging most near-Earth objects 140 meters across or larger by 2020, it could come close to that deadline if a new space-based observatory is dedicated to the task in concert with a suitable ground-based telescope, according to a National Academies panel.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 25 - 26 — International Quality Productivity Center’s Air Tankers and Aerial Refueling Conference, Le Meridien Piccadilly, London. For more information go to www.vtol.org
The stars are aligning for a pickup in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the aerospace and defense (A&D) sector. After a two-year slump, investment bankers are expecting better times in 2010, though the cumulative value of A&D deals is likely to remain well below the 2007 peak of $33 billion.
DYNAMIC COMPONENTS: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.’s new Precision Components Technology Center will produce major dynamic components of the CH-53K helicopter such as rotating and stationary swashplates, main and tail rotor hubs and main rotor sleeves. The technical complexity and large size of the heavy-lift aircraft present what Sikorsky calls “unique production challenges.” Forgings to be machined at the center of the CH-53K are twice the size of the largest forging produced at Sikorsky’s facility.
SOYUZ SHUFFLE: International Space Station crew members are getting ready for the arrival of the space shuttle Endeavour next month with a new pressurized node and their long-anticipated cupola. Expedition 22 flight engineer T.J. Creamer and Expedition commander Jeff Williams were to use the station’s robotic arm over the weekend to move a pressurized mating adaptor from the Unity node’s port side to the top of the Harmony node to make room for the new Tranquility node, which will carry the seven-window cupola.
The Pentagon will provide RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aircraft to Pakistan to aid the country’s fight against the Taliban and other insurgents. The commitment to provide 12 Shadows to Pakistan was made as part of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s visit to the region. Speaking to reporters during the trip, Gates said that “we are trying to do everything we can to assist Pakistan in the fight in the west.” The U.S. defense secretary took pains in public comments to paint the two countries as partners in confronting Taliban challenges.
LONDON — A400M Partner nations and industry will meet again Jan. 26 as the two sides continue to try to thrash out a revised funding deal for the delayed military airlifter. Talks were held in Berlin last week to try to resolve the cash impasse as to how the multibillion euro cost overrun on the Airbus Military A400M program will be handled. Airbus parent EADS is refusing to pick up all of the tab, while the partner nations’ public mantra has been to continue to support the program — though “not at any cost.”
PARIS — French aerospace contractors are developing an automated high-pressure forming technique they hope will make lightweight composites competitive with metals for small-sized aircraft and missile parts.
