Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall’s review of the much-delayed U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) system is now slated for early October after having been shifted numerous times. The program has drawn scrutiny for its requirements prioritized around continuous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and limited strike capabilities to the fleet. Some believe the Navy should focus more on penetrating—or stealthy—strike.
A classified U.S. government mission dubbed CLIO reached its target orbit Sept. 16 in a mission from Cape Canaveral that forced a delay of the first flight test of NASA’s planned Orion crew exploration vehicle. Liftoff of the Atlas V 401 from Space Launch Complex 41 came at 8:10 p.m. EDT. United Launch Alliance says the spacecraft—reportedly built by Lockheed Martin on an A2100 bus for an undisclosed federal agency—achieved “accurate delivery” to orbit.
The airport in Midland, Texas, is likely to become the first facility serving both scheduled airline flights and commercial human spaceflight under an FAA spaceport license announced Sept. 17. XCOR Aerospace plans to use the facility as the initial runway launch and landing site for its two-seat Lynx suborbital rocketplane. The license type is the first for a commercial-service airport.
Aerospace and defense analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services do not expect the recent announcement of increased U.S. military efforts to defeat the Islamic State to result in a spike in demand for defense contractors during the next 6-12 months. Still, those moves—combined with others involved with other geopolitical crises—likely will influence the debate about defense spending levels and “could effectively raise the floor” for U.S. defense budgets in fiscal 2016 and beyond.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut its overall grade on U.S.-based Sequa’s debt a notch to “B-,” citing deteriorating profitability and “several” quarters of weakness in the commercial aerospace aftermarket. But S&P said the debt’s outlook was stable, as credit metrics should start to improve in 2015 based on increasing revenue from improving contracts with OEMs. Sales for Chromalloy, the company's largest segment, fell 13%.
A version of this article appears in the September 8 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. Helicopter operator Bristow has accepted the first of 11 Sikorsky S-92 helicopters to be used on an 11-year U.K. government search-and-rescue contract. The Long SAR contract will begin in April 2015 and will see Bristow operate 22 helicopters, 11 S-92s and 11 AgustaWestland AW189s from 10 bases at civilian airports and airfields. They will replace the Sea King helicopters flown by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
