PARIS — The Iraqi air force has accepted back into service the first upgraded Mi-17 helicopters after they completed an upgrade program to modernize the missile warning and internal communications subsystems. The Mi-17s currently are the backbone of the Iraqi air force’s rotorcraft force.
About 600 U.S. troops based at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras are “essentially holding fast,” a Pentagon spokesman says, following a military coup that removed the Central American nation’s president from office.
TO THE MOON: Northrop Grumman recently demonstrated rocket engine technology that the company says may enable the return of American astronauts to the moon. Working with NASA on the TR202 lunar descent engine, Northrop Grumman reported demonstrating stable combustion over a broad throttling range utilizing high-performance pintle injector technology. The Lunar Model Descent Engine, used on each Apollo descent, relied on Northrop Grumman’s heritage pintle injector technology.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has placed a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite into orbit as a spare that is likely to come into service next year serving the Western Hemisphere. Controllers reported early June 28 from NASA’s Diego Garcia atoll ground station in the Indian Ocean that GOES-O, built by Boeing based on its 601 platform, was sending strong signals after its launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the evening of June 27.
Hispasat has placed a 48 million euro ($68 million) order with OHB System for a new multimedia spacecraft that will be the first application for the European Space Agency’s Small GEO program, intended to help European manufacturers compete with the likes of U.S. small telecom satellite specialist Orbital Sciences Corp. The satellite, Hispasat AG1, will use OHB’s Luxor bus that was designed under the program, along with an advanced communications payload from Thales Alenia Space Spain.
Russian fighter manufacturer Sukhoi plans a decade-long production overlap of its latest Flanker model with its fifth-generation fighter program for the Russian air force, apparently further undermining MiG’s ambitions for a next-generation fighter. Sukhoi management now says production of the Su-35 (Su-27 SM2) will run in parallel with that of the fifth-generation project, known as PAK FA, for around 10 years. This may well see the Su-35 remain in production until the middle of the 2020s, with the type becoming the long-term complement to the PAK FA.
With its star battlefield aircraft — the MV-22 Osprey — under fire in Washington for cost and performance issues, the U.S. Marine Corps counterattacked June 29 with an announcement that highlights the versatility of the tiltrotor. The Marines said they used two MV-22B Ospreys for a ship-to-shore emergency medical evacuation (medevac) of a sailor, marking the first time the aircraft had been used to conduct such a mission from the sea.
POSITIONING: Engineers are debating whether the capability of China’s Beidou (Compass) satellite navigation system will force changes in Europe’s Galileo satellites, which are expected to be contracted by year’s end. Some industry sources say the high power levels of the Beidou spacecraft will require a design change; others argue that compatibility can be reached by tweaking the ground segment or through other means. A compatibility agreement similar to one for Galileo and GPS is expected soon.
HELPING HAND: Relief to the industrial base is expected in the fiscal 2009 omnibus reprogramming now being put together at the Pentagon, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says. He says he is particularly concerned about the lack of funding for protected communications and low-observable technology integration. He also expressed concern about the solid rocket fuel industrial base, which is suffering from uncertainty over NASA’s future plans and the demise of the Pentagon’s Kinetic Energy Interceptor program.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 16 — AVIATION WEEK Management Forums, Demonstrating & Quantifying the Value of Business Aviation. For more information go to http://www.aviationweek.com/events Aug. 5 - 6 — AVIATION WEEK Management Forums, RNP & NextGen, Sheraton Grand Hotel, DFW Airport. For more information go to http://www.aviationweek.com/events
PHONY WAR: The next British Army chief of the general staff has not been shy about expressing his views on the debate that will inform an all but guaranteed strategic defense review. Gen. David Richards argues that “non-state opponents should be our principal defense and security focus,” though he does recognize “we cannot dismiss the possibility of state on state warfare either.” Richards argues there is a lucky coincidence in the kind of capability that will be required to deal with both non-state and state conflicts.
The Army’s $160 billion Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization program might be “reorganizing under a new name and program structure,” as program spokesman Paul Mehney puts it, but that doesn’t mean that large parts of the program are changing in any significant way.
AUSSIE R&D: The Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization has unveiled seven research efforts under the Capability & Technology Demonstrator (CTD) Program, including a Blue Gem wrist-mounted computer that monitors a diver’s vital signs from the surface to enhance safety during operations.
NEW DELHI India’s urgent requirement for 155mm ultra-light howitzers has become jammed in controversy, forcing the Indian army’s artillery modernization plans to be put on hold until it is decided whether or when the request for proposals (RFP) will be reissued. The ministry of defense and Indian army offered no comment.
RED SHARK: South Korea next year will begin deploying its Red Shark anti-submarine missile, development of which is now complete after an apparent schedule slippage of three years. The rocket, also called the Korean Anti-Submarine Missile and equivalent to the Lockheed Martin RUM-139 VLA, has been in development for nine years, according to the Agency for Defense Development. The vertically launched weapon delivers the Blue Shark light torpedo over a range of 20 kilometers (12.5 miles).
RUNWAY CLOSED: There continues to be some disquiet — at least among British politicians — over the Royal Air Force consolidating its transport and tanker capability at RAF Brize Norton. A recent incident involving a Tristar aircraft that suffered an undercarriage problem on the runway, resulting in another aircraft having to divert, was raised in Parliament last week. The Tristar was towed off the runway.
KOUROU DELAYS: European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says development snags with the Zefiro 9 third stage solid rocket motor and building delays at the new launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana will push back the first flight of Europe’s new Vega light launcher several months. The exact date for the launch, which had been planned for the beginning of 2010, will be set at year’s end.
SMALL EXPLORERS: NASA has named two candidate $105-million missions for its Small Explorer Mission series that have a launch window of 2012-15. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is to build the payload and NASA Ames Research Center to conduct systems engineering and mission operations for the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph satellite, which will study the flow of energy and plasma between the solar surface and solar corona.
