Back to news

September 11, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Meggitt expands involvement in KFX programme

Jon Grevatt, Bangkok - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly

UK company Meggitt has increased its involvement on the South Korean programme to develop the KFX multirole fighter aircraft through a new supply contract announced on 10 September.

In a press release, Meggitt said it will develop an engine vibration monitoring unit (EVMU) for KFX prototypes currently under construction by prime contractor Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).

Chris Allen, president of Meggitt Sensing Systems, said, “This contract builds on the development work we have been undertaking with KAI on innovative technology for the KFX. We look forward to continuing our partnership and developing and delivering state of the art prototypes.”

The newly announced contract is one of several that Meggitt has secured on the KFX development programme.

https://www.janes.com/article/82887/meggitt-expands-involvement-in-kfx-programme

On the same subject

  • Cyber Security Today, April 8, 2024 – Crooks are hijacking Facebook pages to spread phoney AI applications | IT World Canada News

    April 8, 2024 | International, Security

    Cyber Security Today, April 8, 2024 – Crooks are hijacking Facebook pages to spread phoney AI applications | IT World Canada News

    Crooks are hijacking Facebook pages to spread phoney AI applications. Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It's Monday April, 8th, 2024. I'm Howard Solomon with a roundup of the latest cybersecurity news. Cybercrooks are taking over poorly-protected Facebook profiles to spread links to fake artificial intelligence applications. That's according to researchers at Bitdefender. They say the

  • Air Force gets new stopgap system for GPS 3 satellites

    June 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Security, Other Defence

    Air Force gets new stopgap system for GPS 3 satellites

    By: Nathan Strout The U.S. Air Force's first next-generation GPS satellite launched in December and the second GPS III satellite is slated to liftoff in July. But there Air Force has a problem: The ground system currently in use isn't fully capable of controlling GPS III satellites. Worse, a new ground system that can, formally known as the next-generation operational control system (OCX), is five years behind schedule and won't be delivered until June 2021 at the earliest, according to the Government Accountability Office. Enter the GPS III Contingency Operations (COps) software—a critical stop gap measure that will update the current ground control system and allow it to access some of the more advanced features of the GPS III satellites until the next-generation operational control system is ready. On July 11, primary contractor Lockheed Martin announced that it had delivered the COps upgrade to the Air Force. “Positioning, navigation and timing is a critical mission for our nation and COps will allow the Air Force to gain early access to its new GPS III satellites,” said Johnathon Caldwell, Lockheed Martin's vice president for Navigation Systems. “We just finished final qualification testing and delivery on COps, and it will be integrated and installed on the [Architecture Evolution Plan Operational Control System] over the summer. We look forward to the Air Force ‘flying' a GPS constellation on the COps OCS which includes the new GPS III satellites, later this year.” The new GPS III satellites are built to be more robust and accurate than their predecessors and come with advanced features such as the ability to use M-Code, an encrypted GPS signal for use by the military. The COps upgrade will allow the current ground system to control the GPS III satellites as well as the legacy GPS satellites. It will also allow the current system to access M-code Early Use, an encrypted GPS signal with improved anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities, beginning in 2020. The Air Force contracted with Lockheed Martin to deliver the patch in 2016, the same year that the OCX program triggered a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach—a type of violation caused by significant cost growth that requires a program to be shut down unless the Department of Defense intervenes and approves a new cost estimate. The $6.2 billion OCX program is already five years behind schedule, and a May 21 Government Accountability Office report warned that the OCX program could be delayed even further. In addition, the Air Force has acknowledged that delays are possible during the seven-month testing period following delivery. Raytheon, the primary contractor behind OCX, rejected the GAO report, claiming that its findings were inaccurate. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2019/06/11/air-force-gets-new-stopgap-system-for-gps-3-satellites/

  • Can UAM, Advanced Air Mobility Escape From The Hype Phase?

    February 16, 2021 | International, Aerospace

    Can UAM, Advanced Air Mobility Escape From The Hype Phase?

    Michael Bruno Stop me if you have heard this before: A whole new class of aircraft will democratize and revolutionize seemingly everything, starting with air travel. Will it be advanced air mobility or maybe very light jets? Aviation consultant Brian Foley recalls the latter while thinking of the former, since both are in the news recently. Disruptive paradigms are not a new threat to aviation, even this century, he notes. The Eclipse very light jet (VLJ) was intended to make airborne commuting more of a reality before it became a $1.5 billion “smoking crater in the ground.” In November, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware authorized the sale of Eclipse Aerospace and the Eclipse Aircraft project to AML Global Eclipse, backed by British businessman Christopher Harborne, for $5.25 million. Now some observers wonder whether urban air mobility (UAM) and advanced air mobility (AAM) will experience something similar. “There are two sides of the fence, and you're either on one side or another,” Foley pointed out in a recent edition of the Aerospace Executive Podcast with talent finder Craig Picken. “One side of the fence is that this is disruptive technology, and this will just change the whole landscape of how people travel in cities and between regional points. Some investors believe that, too, and they are putting some chips down on the different potential winners if this thing does come out on the other end and is successful. “There are others that are a little bit curious to see how this thing works,” Foley continued. “We've had helicopter service for years, which isn't all that much different. There are some concerns over noise—these things are overgrown drones.” Yes, billions of dollars are pouring into UAM/AAM, but is it actually significant yet? Silicon Valley is behind this, as are multiple other investors. But UAM/AAM represents a fraction of their investments, which are otherwise cast far and wide and could include UAM/AAM only as a one-off gamble. “Even though it seems like a big number to us, it's just pocket change to them,” Foley said. “They hope there is a return. Right now, there are as many arguments why it's going to succeed and won't succeed.” Such context is easy to forget amid the flurry of recent headlines, such as Joby Aviation's takeover of Uber Elevate and a reported public trading debut on the horizon. What is more, consultants continue to publish eye-catching reports about the market's value in coming decades. The latest from Deloitte consultancy and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) says the UAM/AAM sector could be worth $115 billion a year by 2035, employing more than 280,000 “high-paying” aerospace workers and generating an annual $20 billion in U.S. exports. “It's become increasingly apparent that this particular area has become more real,” AIA Vice President for Civil Aviation David Silver told Aviation Week ahead of the release of the Jan. 26 study. “This is very real technology that is just on the horizon, and there is no single silver bullet that is going to make it happen.” Deloitte's global and U.S. aerospace and defense leader, Robin Lineberger, concurred during the interview. The report pushes for a sustained, collaborative approach by the public and private sectors for electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft to be widely accepted and adopted, sooner rather than later. “With the market poised to grow sevenfold between 2025 and 2035, it's important for U.S. policymakers and industries to cooperate now to ensure American leadership in this transformative emerging sector,” he said. Already, the global race for AAM leadership is intensifying, the groups said, and the U.S. faces strong competition from China, Germany and South Korea. As a result, the AIA-Deloitte document calls for streamlined eVTOL testing and certification as well as seamlessly integrating aircraft into the U.S. airspace system. Silver said it is important to shed light on the issue now, at the beginning of the Biden administration, as Washington is expected again to consider domestic infrastructure development as a key priority. The point is to broaden policymakers' horizons, he said, so that they wonder, “Are we even asking the right questions?” Still, other observers point out that—like almost everything in aerospace—paradigm shifts come slowly compared with other business sectors. Take the City-Airbus vision from the European giant: “Realistically, we will have to wait until the end of the decade to see more than a demonstrator,” Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even acknowledged in a November press briefing. Even's boss, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, was even more clear-eyed days later in a separate online debate with an automotive CEO. Faury explained that eVTOL projects, such as the Vahana two-seater and the CityAirbus four-seater, should be seen primarily as low-cost demonstrators for future technology on commercial aircraft. Faury stressed: “There will be a market eventually, but profitability will be tricky at the start." https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/urban-unmanned-aviation/can-uam-advanced-air-mobility-escape-hype-phase

All news