21 mars 2024 | International, Terrestre
21 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval
India clears $2.12 billion purchase of Hellfire-equipped naval helicopters
By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday cleared the purchase of 24 Sikorsky MH-60R naval multirole helicopters through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, according to a Ministry of Defence official.
The acquisition, which is worth about $2.12 billion, was approved by India's top defense clearance body, the Cabinet Committee on Security, which is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The MoD had approved funds for the purchase in August 2018.
The clearance comes ahead of a two-day visit to India by U.S. President Donald Trump beginning Feb. 24.
The MoD official said a formal government-to-government contract for the MH-60R helicopters will be signed once cost negotiations are finalized. No timeline has been set, but delivery will take place three years after the contract is inked, he added.
A previous attempt to buy naval multirole helos failed when the MoD canceled the planned purchase of 16 S-70B Seahawks from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, in June 2017 following expiry of the $1 billion price tag offer.
The 2009 tender for 16 helos was sent to Sikorsky, NHIndustries, Airbus Helicopters and Russian Helicopters. The S-70B was selected over NHIndustries' NH90 helicopter in 2011; the other potential contenders did not participate.
The cost of weapons was not included in the original program, but the recently approved deal for 24 MH-60Rs does include a weapons package, according to an Indian Navy official. The helicopters are to be armed with multi-mode radar, Hellfire missiles, Mark 54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets.
The Navy plans to use the helicopters for its front-line warships to replace its outdated British Sea King Mark 42 helicopters. They are also to be used in limited intelligence gathering roles, for surveillance missions, and in search and rescue efforts, the Navy official said, adding that the procurement of the helicopters is the top-most priority for the service. The helicopters are also expected to have the capability for conducting amphibious assault and anti-submarine warfare missions.
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19 juin 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Northrop to build 3D-printed scramjet engine for Raytheon hypersonic weapon
By: Valerie Insinna LE BOURGET, France — Raytheon has partnered with Northrop Grumman on its air-breathing hypersonic weapon, which will be powered by a Northrop-made scramjet made entirely of 3D-printed parts, the company announced Tuesday. Raytheon and Northrop's weapon is one of the competitors in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's HAWC project, short for Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept. The companies' offering — which comprises Northrop's scramjet engine and Raytheon's air vehicle — is ready to make its first flight, said Tom Bussing, vice president of Raytheon's advanced missile system segment. “We have a flight test planned for the near future where we will begin flying this particular class of weapon system,” he said during a briefing at Paris Air Show. While the exact schedule is classified, Bussing noted that the companies have already conducted “significant” ground tests “The combustor, everything that we do now is done by additive manufacturing, so its driving affordability into the hypersonic boost missile's scramjet engine. We are also looking at ways to reduce the weight so we can have more fuel, more payload,” he said. The entirety of Northrop's scramjet is 3D printed using advanced materials, said John Wilcox, the company's vice president of advanced programs and technology. “There gets to be points where you have to weld additive manufactured parts, but right now even the full combustor [is printed],” he said. “We think we're the first to ever 3D print a full combuster for an air-breathing scramjet engine. That's what's going to drive the affordability for air-breathing scramjet missiles.” According to Raytheon, scramjet engines use high vehicle speeds to then compress air moving into its inlets before combusting it. The process allows a vehicle to maintain hypersonic speeds — more than five times the speed of sound — over longer periods of time. The Raytheon-Northrop team is competing against Lockheed Martin for the final HAWC contact. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/paris-air-show/2019/06/18/northrop-to-build-3d-printed-scramjet-engine-for-raytheon-hypersonic-weapon/
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4 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
BAE Systems to Deliver Autonomy Capabilities for Army’s Future Vertical Lift Initiative
BAE Systems announced today it has been awarded multiple contracts from the U.S. Army to develop key technologies for the Advanced Teaming Demonstration Program (A-Team). BAE Systems was the only company awarded contracts for three of the program's four focus areas, designed to advance manned and unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capabilities that are expected to be critical components in the U.S. Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. In order to combat the increasingly complex, contested, and communication-denied battlespace presented by near-peer adversaries, the U.S. Army developed the A-Team program to create an automated system to offload the cognitive burden of pilots while enabling them to command swarms of unmanned aircraft. BAE Systems was selected to deliver a highly automated system to provide situational awareness, information processing, resource management, and decision making that is beyond human capabilities. These advantages become exceedingly important as the Army moves toward mission teams of unmanned aircraft that will be controlled by pilots in real time. The contracts total $9 million and include awards for the Human Machine Interface, Platform Resource Capability Management, and Situational Awareness Management elements of the program. To deliver the critical autonomy technology, BAE Systems' FAST Labs research and development team and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Systems business area will leverage their decades of work pioneering autonomy technologies. The program will leverage the Future Open Rotorcraft Cockpit Environment Lab to conduct simulation tests and demonstrations with products from different contractors in consideration of transition to the FVL program. Work for the program takes place at the company's facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts and San Diego, California. https://www.defenseworld.net/news/28242#.X6L0RWhKiUk