Archive for April, 2008
Friday, April 25th, 2008
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has successfully re-boosted the International Space Station (ISS) to a higher altitude.
“The operation was performed with the same propulsion system used to manoeuvre the ATV itself. This ‘double use’ was taken into account from the outset of the project of the European Space Agency and incorporated in the design of the propulsion system, both in terms of the engines employed and the amount of fuel required,” explains Nicolas Chamussy, ATV Programme Manager at Astrium.
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Posted in International Aerospace News | No Comments »
Friday, April 25th, 2008
The United States says that it is deeply concerned by the shooting down of an unarmed Georgian UAV, by a presumably Russian MiG-29, over the Abkhazia region of Georgia on April 20. Such incidents escalate tensions, contradict the spirit of the UN Friends process, and risk destabilizing the entire Caucasus. We urge all parties to engage in serious discussions aimed at reaching a lasting political solution, including by engaging on the recent peace proposals made by the Government of Georgia.
We reiterate our unwavering support for Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity and are concerned by the presence of a MiG-29 aircraft in Georgian airspace without Georgian authorization, and by the use of weapons from this aircraft in shooting down an unarmed Georgian UAV. We support UNOMIG initiatives to enhance military transparency in the region, as well as its investigation of the shooting down of the Georgian UAV.
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Posted in Conflicts | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 25th, 2008
The launcher that will carry GIOVE-B into orbit has been moved from the final assembly building to the launch pad in preparation for liftoff on Sunday morning.
Shortly after sunrise this Tuesday morning in Baikonur, a Soyuz launcher with the GIOVE-B satellite in its fairing was carried onto its launch pad. Indeed, a small train was formed to cross the kilometre between the final assembly building and the launch zone: a locomotive pulling the rocket followed by the wagons needed to provide energy and air conditioning to the spacecraft.
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Posted in International Aerospace News | No Comments »
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Airbus forecasts that the Chinese Mainland will need some 2,800 new passenger aircraft and freighters from 2007 to 2026, with a total market value of US$ 329 billion. It represents 11.6 per cent of the world total demand for over 24,000 new aircraft in the next 20 years.
According to Airbus’ 2007-2008 Global Market Forecast (China) issued today, mainland China will need some 2,800 new passenger and freighter aircraft over the next 20 years, including more than 1,900 single aisle aircraft, nearly 700 twin-aisles and 190 very large aircraft (VLA). The number of VLAs, such as A380, needed on the Chinese mainland is forecast to be on rise as international traffic from and to China is to greatly increase and to be highly concentrated.
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Posted in International Aerospace News | No Comments »
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
The Boeing Company today delivered a detailed, 7,000-page proposal offering its advanced F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the Indian Air Force as part of India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition.
“Our proposal team worked diligently to fully understand and meet the requirements set out by the Indian Ministry of Defense (MOD). We are offering India the best-value, most advanced and proven multirole combat fighter in production today,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS).
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Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies, Indian Air Force News | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
French Prime Minister François Fillon has confirmed at a seminar in Rabat (18th April) that DCNS has finalised the contract for a multimission frigate for the Royal Moroccan Navy. This front-line multimission fighting ship will be based on the FREMM design and will offer advanced capabilities for anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine missions.
Innovative engineering solutions, reduced crewing and ease of maintenance were among the key discriminators enabling DCNS to meet the customer’s operational capability requirements.
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Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
The Signal Corps of the United Arab Emirates and Thales have signed a major contract for the development and supply of ZAGIL, a theatre wide deployable Tactical Internet system.
Thales has been selected after an international competition involving deep system analysis and intense field trials. ZAGIL, based on Thales Di@ne solution, combines all the specific military requirements such as mobility, security, hardening, with the latest multimedia information exchange capacities offered by modern IP technology.
The Deployable Tactical Internet ZAGIL is a Di@ne solution. Its network backbone relies on the TRC 4000 family of secure, tactical, high data rate microwave radios. The TRC 4000, already selected/used by French, British and Swiss Armed Forces, offers an excellent combination of range, bandwidth - 34 Mbps full duplex - and functionality to convey heavy IP traffic over encrypted transmission links.
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Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies, Military News - Asia | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Lockheed Martin has submitted a series of innovative proposals to the Department of Defense, of advanced state-of-the-art technologies in support of fielding rapid and responsive space systems for the warfighter.
The proposals were submitted to the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.in response to three Broad Agency Announcements (BAA) released in March that address a range of capabilities in the ORS mission area.These include responsive spacecraft bus and payloads technologies; a multi-mission low earth orbit modular space vehicle; and responsive launch, range and system architecture and modeling technologies. Lockheed Martin responded to each of these BAAs with innovation and end-to-end solutions.
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Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Minister of Defence responding to a question in Indian Parliament said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Review Committee constituted by the Government to suggest measure for improving the functioning of DRDO inter alia Ministry of Defence, and Services has submitted its report to the Government on 05th March 2008. It is under study of the Government.
There had been delays in some of the DRDO projects due to some genuine difficulties, like technical complexities, technological embargo/sanctions, non-availability of infrastructure within the country, extended and long lasting user trials, revision of systems specification during development phase, etc. Besides many constraints, DRDO had equipped Services with state-of-the-art technologies in the field of strategic systems, battle tanks, electronic warfare and communication systems, armour and armaments, life support systems, naval systems, missile systems, aerospace systems, etc.
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Posted in Defence Research and Development | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
“Spring Flag”, the most important annual exercise of the Italian Air Force, in 2008 was hosted by 9° Gruppo and XII Gruppo, with their Eurofighter Typhoons taking the lead in the Air Dominance role. Running from 04 – 16 April, the NATO-organised complex hypothetical scenario featured two combat forces in a “good versus bad” struggle to achieve their operational objectives.
All aircraft were fitted with flight recording instrumentation providing the Command and Control teams with real time data monitoring all manoeuvres carried out by each aircraft during the exercise. This information is then used by the exercise co-ordinators for the improvement of aircrew and ground crew training, as well as offering scope for developing the overall organisation of the exercise which, in reality, are the ultimate aims in this kind of operation.
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Posted in Military News - Europe | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
BAE Systems has been awarded a $6 million contract from the U.S. Army for a Foreign Military Sale of Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) destined for Jordan. This is the third order for Jordan in the last four years, bringing the total value to over $16 million.
The FMTV is available in 18 variants with payloads ranging from 2 to 16.5 metric tons. The FMTV features cargo hauling to include weapon systems, soldier transport, vehicle recovery, and more. The FMTV can also be equipped with armor to protect crew and up to a squad of soldiers in certain variants.
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Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies, Military News - Asia | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Today the Gripen Demonstrator (Demo) aircraft was ‘rolled-out’ in a ceremony. The Gripen Demonstrator programme is the pathfinder for new generation of technologies and capabilities for Gripen in future, well beyond 2040.
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Posted in Defence Research and Development | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Alliant Techsystems has received a nine million dollar contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze (HTVSF) under the Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program. The contract was awarded by the Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla. The JCTD program will
span 27 months and cover the design, testing, and demonstration of ATK’s HTVSF against specified Air Force requirements. If ATK is selected to complete all phases of the program, System Demonstration and Development (SDD), and full- rate production, the company believes the value of the program could exceed $250 million.
The HTVSF is a cockpit programmable system that will provide multi-delay arming and detonation, as well as a void sensing function, for the BLU-113 or BLU-109 weapon to penetrate and destroy
Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies, Military News - America | No Comments »
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