Aviation Week & Space Technology - 30 March-12 April 2015

AviationWeek.com/awst AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MARCH 30-APRIL 12, 2015 15

First Take

DEFENSE

Korea Aerospace Industries has
selected Airbus Helicopters’ H155 as
the basis for the Light Civil Helicopter
(LCH) to enter service in 2020 and de-
rivative Light Armed Helicopter (LAH)
to become operational with the South
Korean army in 2022. The army needs
at least 200 LAHs (page 36).

Turkey has issued a request for infor-
mation to manufacturers interested
in participating in the TF-X indigenous
fi ghter program, seeking input on
what capabilities they can of er. The
indigenously designed, developed and
produced TF-X is planned to fl y in the
early 2020s and replace the Turkish air
force’s F-16 fl eet in the 2030s.

Boeing and Saab are jointly targeting
the Ground-Launched Small-Diame-
ter Bomb at Multiple Launch Rocket
System operators demilitarizing their
M26 artillery rockets to comply with
the Oslo Convention on cluster muni-
tions. Three demonstration fl ights were
conducted in February, and the weapon
could be operational within 18-
months of a contract award.

There will likely be two U.S. next-
generation fi ghter X-plane proto-
types, one for the Air Force and one
for the Navy, under the Pentagon’s
Aerospace Innovation Initiative, says
the deputy director of Darpa, which

will lead the ef ort. The

prototypes will integrate

technologies for air-dom-

inance fi ghters to enter

service after 2030.

United Technologies is

assessing “strategic al-

ternatives” for Sikorsky,

including spinning of the

helicopter manufacturer

because it is not suf ciently

profi table. As a platform

provider with the Pentagon

as its biggest customer,

Sikorsky cannot match the

margin or growth protections of UTC’s

other, mainly commercial, aerospace

units (page 58).

A software patch is being flight-

tested to improve the fusion of the

threat picture within a formation

of Lockheed Martin F-35s. Data

from different sensors is shared

across a secure network and blended

into a single display, but fusion has

been less than perfect. The upgrade

is expected to reduce pilot workload

and improve awareness of the battle-

field (page 61).

Airbus Group has sold a 17.5% stake

in rival fi ghter manufacturer Das-

sault Aviation, raising €1.64 billion

($1.8 billion). Dassault Aviation bought

back a 5% stake for €451 million and,

with parent Dassault Group, now holds

around 61% of the share capital. Airbus

still holds just under 25%.

As the U.S. Army retires its Bell

OH-58B Kiowa Warrior rotorcraft to

save money, the fi rst unit to take over

the armed scout role using a combina-

tion of Boeing AH-64E Apache attack

helicopters and Textron Systems

RQ-7Bv2 Shadow tactical unmanned

aircraft has been formed (page 58).

COMMERCIAL AVIATION

Boeing is test-fl ying a 757 with an

actively blown vertical tail and new

2013–

500 Gbps

How High-Throughput Satellite Capacity

Could Explode

New low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations like OneWeb

would dramatically increase commercial broadband

communications capacity, but operators say demand

for high-speed Internet is virtually limitless.

Gbps = Gigabits/sec Source: Northern Sky Research

2023–with at least 3 LEO constellations

~25,000 Gbps

2023–with 1 LEO

constellation

~8,500 Gbps

2023–

2,500 Gbps

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS

BOEING