All Helicopters articles – Page 438
-
News
Nordic nations move ahead with agreement on joint helicopter buy
Stewart Penney/LONDON Defence ministers have agreed to proceed with the Nordic Standard Helicopter Programme (NSHP)to replace transport and naval helicopters in service in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden with a common type. A ministerial deal is expected to be signed in June and a request for quotations (RFQ) ...
-
News
SBIRS upheavals delay Australian access plans
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA Funding to provide Australian access to the US Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS)has been put on hold for up to three years following extensive restructuring of the surveillance programme. In February, the USAir Force terminated development contracts with Boeing and TRW for demonstration satellites to prove ...
-
News
V-22 delivery
Bell Boeing delivered the first production MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor transport to the US Marine Corps on 14 May. The first of 350 MV-22s for the USMC, 50 CV-22s for the US Air Force and 48 CV-22s for the US Navy, was handed over at Bell's Arlington, Texas, flight test centre. ...
-
News
IMI changes course on talks to secure a partner for Star-1
Israel Military Industries (IMI) and Boeing have terminated negotiations on the possible joint development of the Light Defender stand-off weapon. IMI has opened talks with another US company. The Israeli company is discussing development funding with its unnamed potential partner, which could lead to an operational weapon system based ...
-
News
Russian delays 'cost $1.2 billion'
Contingency planning for Russia's participation in the International Space Station (ISS) will add $1.2 billion to the project's cost, says the US General Accounting Office (GAO). Delays in completing the Russian Service Module for the ISS have contributed to a two-year hold-up in the programme. In addition, NASA concedes ...
-
News
Suite tests
Flight tests will begin this year of the ITT Industries ALQ-211 suite of integrated RF countermeasures (SIRFC). Two self-protection suites have been delivered to the US Army for ground tests. Operational test and evaluation and production will begin in 2000. The army is to fit SIRFC to Boeing AH-64D Longbow ...
-
News
Warning revolution
The UK Royal Navy is set to make a quantum leap in its airborne early warning capability Tim Ripley/BOSCOMBE DOWNThe UK's Royal Navy is on course to field a revolutionary airborne early warning (AEW) helicopter early in the next century. It will allow the RN to fight in the so-called ...
-
News
Rotary Rocket holds Virgin funding talks
Andrzej Jeziorski/PARIS California's Rotary Rocket is in talks with UK millionaire and Virgin founder Richard Branson on funding for its Roton re-usable launch vehicle (RLV) programme. Rotary Rocket chief executive Gary Hudson is understood to have met Branson to discuss the programme. The company needs about $150 million ...
-
News
Investigators probe causes of booster failures
Preliminary investigations have identified hardware problems and corrupted software as possible causes of the recent failures of the Boeing Delta III and Lockheed Martin Titan IVB/Centaur boosters. The second burn of the Boeing Delta III second stage lasted 1s, rather than the planned 2min 47s, stranding the Orion 3 ...
-
News
Australian defence budget gives priority to missiles
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA Australia's 1999 defence budget gives the go-ahead for the purchase of warstock quantities of advanced short range and medium range air to air missiles (ASRAAMs and AMRAAMs) for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ...
-
News
US Army nears decision on Apache requirement
The US Army hopes to decide towards year-end on the number of Boeing AH-64D Apache helicopters it plans to remanufacture, as well as the mix and quantity of Lockheed Martin Longbow fire control radars needed to equip the fleet. It originally planned to modernise 748 AH-64As and acquire enough ...
-
News
Spain opens C295 account
The Spanish Government has opened the orderbook for the CASA C295 military transport with a deal for nine aircraft. "We have started marketing the aircraft worldwide as a natural complement to the smaller CN235 and C212," says CASA. It adds that there are "excellent prospects" for sales of around 20 ...
-
News
USAF seeks to block Boeing/Elta AEW
The US Air Force has raised objections to Boeing and Elta teaming up to meet an Israeli air force requirement for advanced airborne warning and command aircraft. The pair will install an Elta Phalcon-based phased-array radar as the main sensor on a Boeing 767, or similar platform. Boeing was ...
-
News
India considers SAR pod for MiG-27 Floggers
The Indian air force is considering equipping its Mikoyan MiG-27 Floggers with an Elta synthetic aperture radar (SAR) pod, and with an electronic warfare suite also developed by the Israeli company. Elta, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), has signed major deals with India in recent months, ...
-
News
UK may shadow UAV trials for US Navy
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The UK may exercise a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate alongside US Navy vertical take-off and landing tactical unmanned air vehicle (VTUAV) sea trials. It is funding a study to define what is required for full function and control of VTUAV flight operations from warships. The ...
-
News
Embraer to roll out aircraft for Amazon surveillance
Paul Lewis/RIO DE JANEIRO Embraer is planning to roll out the first of five ERJ-145SA airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft later this month, along with the first ALX light attack version of the EMB-314 Super Tucano. The aircraft form two of the three airborne systems that make up ...
-
News
New Zealand F-16s to get strike capability
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRAThe Royal New Zealand Air Force is to upgrade the strike capabilities of its planned force of 28 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 15 fighters with pod-based ECM jamming and laser target designation systems. The office of New Zealand defence minister Max Bradford has confirmed that a range of ...
-
News
Pole position
Poland is the most strategically placed of the new NATO members Andrew Doyle/WARSAW Poland occupies the most strategically important geographical position of the three former Eastern Bloc countries recently admitted to NATO's ranks, buffering as it does northern Europe and the CIS countries of Belarus and Ukraine. In other ...
-
News
Tactical laser weapon could be available in two years
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Boeing believes that successful proof-of-concept testing could lead to US military testing of a helicopter-borne airborne tactical laser (ATL) within two years. The optimism is fuelled by preliminary testing of a new high-energy chemical laser designed specifically for directed-energy tactical weapons applications. The device is ...
-
News
Ahead of the game
The Czech air force has an ambitious re-equipment programme in mind Andrew Doyle/PRAGUEOf NATO's new East European members, the Czech Republic has the most advanced re-equipment programme. It will take delivery later this year of the first five of 72 indigenously developed Aero Vodochody L-159 light attack and reconnaissance aircraft. ...