Latest Defence Helicopters news – Page 139
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News
Swedish military retires last Super Puma
The Swedish armed forces marked the retirement of the nation's last Airbus Helicopters AS332 Super Puma on 14 October, with the locally-designated HKP10 leaving use after 27 years of service. A retirement ceremony was held at the F21 air base in Luleå: the same location that the helicopter had entered ...
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News
PICTURES: KAL-ASD to test unmanned MD500
KAL-ASD has revealed an unmanned variant of the MD Helicopters MD500 attack helicopter that it has developed with assistance from Boeing.
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Opinion
OPINION: Can US Army afford its helicopter vision?
When the US Army exited the Vietnam War, there was a vision for its aviation branch. A breakthrough, high-speed helicopter – Lockheed’s AH-56 Cheyenne – was already cancelled, but the seeds of a comprehensive modernisation strategy had already taken root. Within a decade, it fielded the Sikorsky UH-60 and Boeing ...
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News
Antonov selects P&WC engines for An-132 transport
Antonov has selected a Pratt & Whitney Canada tubroprop engine to power a demonstrator version of the An-132 transport currently in development for Saudi Arabia.
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News
Lockheed touts ABC laser turret as testbed completes 60 flights
Lockheed Martin claims to have overcome a major obstacle to shooting high-power laser weapons from high-speed aircraft, saying it has successfully completed 60 Aero-adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control (ABC) laser turret flight tests over the past year.
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News
F-35 ejection seat fix expected by 2016 amid safety concerns
The US Air Force is demanding a long-term fix to the Martin Baker US16E (MK16) ejection seat for the Lockheed Martin F-35, after recent tests discovered “unacceptable risk of neck injury” for light-weight pilots during parachute deployment at low speeds.
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News
AgustaWestland makes fresh push to safeguard UK site
AgustaWestland has reiterated its belief that a new military helicopter can be designed and built at its Yeovil, UK facility – but only with the backing of the country's government.
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News
Royal Navy receives first updated Merlin HC3
The Royal Navy has taken delivery of its first AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin HC3 helicopter with an initial package of upgrades to support maritime operations.
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News
Lockheed F-35 heads to the polls in Canada
As Canada heads to the polls on Monday, Lockheed Martin F-35 backers will be quietly hoping for a conservative win after Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau came out against the troubled fighter programme while on the hustings, in favour of more spending on ships.
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News
K-Max carries out US federal government firefighting tests
Lockheed Martin and Kaman have demonstrated to US federal government departments the firefighting capabilities of the unmanned K-Max helicopter.
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News
CEO Garrison leaving Bell for non-aerospace company
Bell Helicopter chief executive John Garrison is leaving the company to take over the top leadership post at a non-aerospace company, parent Textron announced on 15 October.
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News
Boeing’s MOP bomb approaching second phase of redesign
Boeing can expected a sole-source contract for redesign, qualification and testing of the US Air Force’s largest non-nuclear penetrating bomb, the 13.6t GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).
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News
Saudis seek nine more Sikorsky Black Hawks
Saudi Arabia could purchase up to nine Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk combat helicopters under a $495 million foreign military sale package approved by the US State Department this week.
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News
Lockheed secures split-buy of -ER and baseline JASSM missiles
Lockheed Martin’s JASSM cruise missile programme has locked in a contract for 280 more missiles, with an even split of baseline and extended-range variants.
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News
General Atomics confirms first Improved Gray Eagle purchase
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has confirmed the US Army’s purchase of 19 “Improved Gray Eagle” UAVs following the service’s disclosure this week that its MQ-1C procurement has been “amended” to the extended-range version.
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News
Boeing to fly new CH-47 Chinook ‘Block II’ rotor blade in 2016
Boeing’s development of an advanced blade for the tandem-rotor CH-47 Chinook is moving ahead, with the first blade “about to finish this week” ahead of flight trials in 2016.
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News
BAE secures US Army Apache as APKWS laser-guided rocket customer
The US Army has ordered its first batch of 70mm laser-guided rockets from BAE Systems for its Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow “for immediate deployment” following the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System’s qualification on the helicopter gunship last year.
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News
US Navy orders super-sensor for RQ-21 UAS
Logos Technologies will develop a highly advanced sensor suite for the Boeing Insitu RQ-21 Blackjack unmanned air system under an $18.2 million contract awarded by the US Office of Naval Research.
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News
Boeing, Lockheed unveil competing UAV-killing concepts
With reports that Islamic State (IS) militants have begun operating commercially-produced unmanned air vehicles to support their activities in the Middle East, Boeing and Lockheed Martin are pursuing two very different approaches to knocking unmanned aircraft out of the sky.
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News
US Army wants more Gray Eagle weapon options
The US Army is interested in new weapons options besides the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missile for its General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1C, and the service has asked industry to offer smaller, cheaper and more specialised alternatives as it considers a future requirement.