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  23 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Defense Innovation Unit issues contract for unmanned orbital outpost

  Nathan Strout The Defense Innovation Unit has awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation a contract to build an orbital laboratory that would serve as a kind of unmanned space station, the company announced July 14. The unmanned orbital outpost will be placed in low Earth orbit to be used for experiments and demonstrations. The autonomous, free flying vehicle will be able to host payloads and support space assembly and manufacturing, microgravity experimentation, logistics, training, testing and evaluations. Under the contract, Sierra Nevada Corporation will repurpose their Shooting Star transport vehicle into a scalable, autonomous space station that can be used for experiments and demonstrations. The Shooting Star vehicle is a 16-foot attachment to the company's Dream Chaser space plane that was developed for NASA Commercial Resupply Services 2 missions. The vehicle was initially designed to provide extra payload storage and cargo disposal upon re-entry. “We're excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star,” Fatih Ozmen, SNC's chief executive, said in a statement. “It was originally developed for NASA resupply missions to the International Space Station, and since then we keep identifying new capabilities and solutions it offers to a wide variety of customers.” The company's press release notes that while the initial orbital outpost will operate in LEO, future orbits could be placed in other orbits, including cislunar. “The current Shooting Star is already designed with significant capabilities for an orbital outpost and by adding only a few components we are able to meet Department of Defense needs.” added Steve Lindsey, senior vice president of strategy for SNC's space systems. “We are proud to offer our transport vehicle to DoD as a free-flying destination for experimentation and testing, expanding beyond its current payload service capabilities for Dream Chaser cargo missions.” According to the original DIU solicitation released June 2019, orbital outposts will need to be established in low Earth orbit within 24 months of the award. A DIU spokesperson told C4ISRNET at the time that the “the prototype will explore the military utility of exclusive DoD access to an unmanned orbital platform in order to perform experiments with no risk to human crew or other non-DOD payloads.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/07/16/defense-innovation-unit-issues-contract-for-unmanned-orbital-outpost/

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  13 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Indian MoD approves procurements worth USD1.17 billion

  by Rahul Bedi India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has approved the procurement of indigenously developed platforms and weapon systems worth INR87.22 billion (USD1.17 billion) for the country's three military services, including basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Indian government's Press Information Bureau (PIB) announced on 11 August that the MoD's Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which is headed by Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh, agreed to acquire an initial 70 Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) aircraft from public-sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) following their certification. An additional 36 tandem-seat HTT-40s are expected to be acquired thereafter, once the IAF has operationalised the first lot of trainers. A HTT-40 prototype powered by a Honeywell TPE331-12B turboprop engine made its maiden test flight in June 2016, following a six-year delay, but the aircraft has yet to enter series production. The HTT-40 was developed to replace the HAL-designed HPT-32 Deepak, which was grounded in July 2009 following recurring accidents. Once inducted, the HTT-40 is meant to supplement 75 Pilatus PC-7 Mk II basic trainers that have been in IAF service since 2013. The DAC also cleared the procurement of an unspecified number of upgraded 127 mm/64 cal ‘super rapid' guns from state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) for fitment onto Indian Navy (IN) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) vessels. Industry sources told Janes that the IN plans to arm an initial 13 frontline warships – including the indigenously designed and built Shivalik-class frigates and Delhi-class destroyers – with these guns. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/indian-mod-approves-procurements-worth-usd117-billion

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  21 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Germany’s Defence Ministry is under the gun to name a Tornado replacement

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — You can count on Germany to stir the pot of nuclear weapons sharing amid a global pandemic. Such was the case in the past few days in a country that, armed with a superb health care system and a relatively low COVID-19 mortality rate, is seen as a model for managing the coronavirus crisis. But as of Sunday afternoon, the national security community was abuzz about a news report saying Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer effectively promised her U.S. counterpart that the ministry will buy 45 F-18 jets from Boeing. The Der Spiegel report comes after news broke a few weeks ago that Berlin planned to acquire a mix of Airbus Eurofighter jets and Boeing F-18s for a smattering of air warfare jobs too demanding for the country's aging Tornado fleet. Those jobs include flying conventional fighter-bomber missions, jamming enemy air defenses and carrying U.S. nuclear-tipped gravity bombs to hypothetical World War III targets somewhere eastward, per NATO's so-called nuclear sharing deal. According to Der Spiegel, Kramp-Karrenbauer sent U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper an email last week detailing her ministry's wish to buy F-18s not only for the atomic mission — which comes as little surprise — but also for the electronic warfare role. That reported promise stung Eurofighter advocates — even those who might begrudgingly accept an American product for the nuclear mission — because Airbus has plans for a souped-up jamming plane that it wants to see in Germany's inventory. In short, the Eurofighter crowd wants nothing more than Berlin to pick a pure Eurofighter fleet, arguing that the F-18′s shelf life is expiring in U.S. budget planning anyway, and that the Boeing jet is no closer to nuclear weapons certification than any other aircraft. The German Defence Ministry has always signaled it will take into account industrial policy considerations in the Tornado-replacement question. So strongly did senior leaders believe in the idea of a keeping the European industrial base humming toward an eventual Franco-German aerial über-weapon that they nixed Lockheed Martin's F-35 from the competition. But keeping American aircraft entirely out of the loop has always seemed a nonstarter. A ministry spokesman on Monday said Kramp-Karrenbauer's missive to Esper was only meant to test the waters regarding America's ability to start delivering those planes when the actual acquisition program gets underway in a few years. A formal decision on replacing the Tornados had initially been expected by the end of March. But as the coronavirus crisis unfolded, that decision was pushed to after Easter. Kramp-Karrenbauer is expected to announce her plans before the parliamentary Defence Committee on Wednesday, where she is likely to face opposition from lawmakers of the SPD coalition partner. Until then, Germans have yet another puzzle to discuss, as an increasingly divisive debate unfolds here over reopening the country. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/04/20/germanys-defence-ministry-is-under-the-gun-to-name-a-tornado-replacement/