Defence Helicopters news – Page 440
-
News
Technology transfer hits Boeing AEW bid
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA Boeing has been unable to give the required guarantee of technology releasability in its bid to supply Australia with airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. Boeing and Northrop Grumman, supplier of the MESA phased-array radar to be carried by the 737-based ...
-
News
Australia seeks a replacement for Rapier air defence missiles
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA The Australian Department of Defence is to release a request for proposals late this year for purchase of a ground-based air defence system to replace the Australian Army's ageing Rapier missile batteries. The project, Joint 117, won the Australian defence committee's go-ahead, including funding approval, ...
-
News
Aiming high
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Aero Vodochody is upgrading its trainers and light attack aircraft to attract Eastern and Western customers With a 35% shareholding by Boeing, the world's biggest aerospace company, Aero Vodochody is no longer a poor cousin in the trainer/light attack aircraft market. Today, all of its products are ...
-
News
Ariane launches the UK's military Skynet 4E with Arabsat 3A
The UK's Skynet 4E military communications satellite and the Arabsat 3A satellite were launched on board Ariane V116/44L from Kourou, French Guyana, on 26 February. Matra Marconi Space built the Skynet 4E, and the first of the new generation Arabsat 3A communications spacecraft was built by Aerospatiale's satellite division, ...
-
News
UTC goes back to core values with purchase of Sundstrand
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC United Technologies (UTC) has agreed to buy fellow US manufacturer Sundstrand for $4.3 billion in a move that reinforces UTC's commitment to the aerospace sector as a core business. Sundstrand will merge with UTC's Hamilton Standard subsidiary to form one of the world's leading suppliers ...
-
News
EC-funded tiltrotor hits setback
Eurocopter's hopes of establishing a pan-European consortium to pursue a European Commission-funded tiltrotor demonstrator has suffered a setback, with Agusta instead pressing for aid to develop a compound helicopter. "We're proposing that Agusta and Westland study something that does not exist now, such as a compound helicopter. Money ...
-
News
Dasa study finds An-70 could meet European airlifter requirement
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) has revealed details of its technical evaluation of the Antonov An-70 medium transport, which is being studied as an alternative to the Airbus Military Company's A400M (formerly Future Large Aircraft) by Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The manufacturer concluded it would be technically ...
-
News
Merlin heads for amphibious support role
GKN Westland has proposed an upgrade of the EH101 Merlin helicopter to carry higher weight, as part of a growth plan partly devised to meet the UK requirement for a Future Amphibious Support Helicopter (FASH) replacement for the Royal Navy Commando force's Sea King HC4. The FASH requirement is likely ...
-
News
JASSM prepared for initial flight testing
Ramon Lopez/ORLANDO Lockheed Martin officials are preparing for the first flight test of the stealthy Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM), planned for early March. The evaluation of the JASSM, which bears the US military designation AGM-158, will take place at an undisclosed US military test range, say project ...
-
News
Argos to test military systems
Tim Furniss/LONDON The US Air Force's latest satellite is a technology demonstrator for future space systems The US Air Force's Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (Argos), to be launched no earlier than 22 February, is a space version of the Swiss army knife. It carries an array ...
-
News
Teams firm in attack helicopter contest
The six bidders in the Australian AIR 87 attack helicopter are firming up their industrial partnerships as the Australian Army prepares to draw up a shortlist of contenders. According to Hervé Moray, leader of the Franco-German Eurocopter's Tiger helicopter proposal, a shortlist is expected at the end of March. This ...
-
News
LMATTS widens Australian links to meet airlifter requirement
Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport Systems (LMATTS) has signed a new manufacturing contract with Australia's Hawker de Havilland, in its bid to establish closer industrial links ahead of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)AIR 5190 Light Tactical Airlift Capability requirement decision. The contract is the latest move towards establishing an ...
-
News
RAAF reviews stand-off weapons
The Royal Australian Air Force is exploring the carriage of medium range stand-off missiles on board upgraded Boeing F/A-18 fighters as part of revised plans for developing its strike capability under the newly created Project Air 5418. The RAAF has also reiterated its desire for a family of missiles ...
-
News
News in Brief
Drone nav upgrade The DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Dornier CL289 reconnaissance drone is undergoing a navigation systems upgrade by the addition of a Global Positioning System satellite navigation system, plus improved hardware and software for the onboard control computer. The new CL289 has just completed a successful first test flight, according ...
-
News
UK E-3D 2000 upgrade to allow joint operations
The RAF wants better ESM for its E-3Ds The Royal Air Force is beginning an upgrade of the Boeing E-3D Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet, dubbed E-3D 2000. The initial element will take shape in April when the first of the RAF's seven E-3Ds ...
-
News
Lockheed chases F-16 orders
Paul Lewis/Fort Worth Lockheed Martin says it needs to secure further international sales of F-16s in addition to a planned US Air Force follow-on order, to bridge a shortfall in production beyond early 2001. The gap is set to widen as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continues ...
-
News
Boeing says no to St Louis F-22 line
Guy Norris/SEATTLE Boeing plans to test JSF avionics on a 737-200ADV testbed Boeing has opted to keep F-22 aft fuselage and wing assembly at Seattle rather than move it to St Louis, Missouri, to join the rest of its fighter family, pending the go-ahead of new production lots ...
-
News
US Coast Guard charts Deepwater course
RamonLopez/WASHINGTON DC The impending retirement of Sikorsky Jayhawks and other aircraft has sparked the competition The US Coast Guard (USCG) is looking for new hardware to maintain its core humanitarian, law enforcement and military missions into the 21st century, both in coastal/inland waterways, and for missions out ...
-
News
News in Brief
Mars Fleet - NASA has awarded commercial space exploration company SpaceDev of San Diego a research contract to study the possible use of small spacecraft in Mars orbit. These could provide communications and navigation services for unmanned Mars craft. The SpaceDev vehicle would use a common spacecraft bus with interchangeable ...
-
News
Time for tiltrotors
Paul Lewis/FORT WORTH The ideas behind tiltrotors are almost as old as helicopters, but now the concept is about to come of age The tiltrotor concept is not new, dating back almost as far as the first helicopter. The first helicopter-to-aeroplane mode conversion was made in 1958, by the ...