28 June 2023
by Gareth Jennings
The DGA on 26 June launched a test rocket carrying the VMaX hypersonic glide vehicle demonstrator. (DGA)
France test-fired its hypersonic demonstrator vehicle for the first time on 26 June, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) announced.
The VMaX hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) demonstrator was launched from a ground-based rocket at the Biscarosse test facility on the southern French Atlantic coast.
“This first demonstrator contained many onboard technological innovations. Its flight test, on a very demanding long-range trajectory, was an unprecedented technical challenge that paves the way for the future of our national hypervelocity road map,” the DGA said.
According to the DGA, technical analyses of the data recovered from the test are under way to draw lessons for the continuation of the experimental flights.
While technical details pertaining to the VMaX have not been released, it is understood to fly at Mach 5, which is the gateway speed for hypersonic capability. News of the test was disclosed shortly after imagery was posted online showing irregular contrails high in the sky over the test site.
26 April 2024
by Zach Rosenberg
A Kodiak-based MH-65 trains aboard the USCGC Healy in 2022. (Janes/Michael Fabey)
The last US Coast Guard (USCG) Airbus MH-65 Dolphin in Alaska retired from Air Station Kodiak on 23 April, ending the type's 36-year employment in the service's Alaska Patrol (ALPAT) role.
“For decades, the cutter and helicopter team were the core of the ALPAT mission,” said Commander James Kenshalo, a USCG MH-65 Dolphin pilot. “Together they projected force and protection to the most extreme remote regions of our nation's territories, operating beyond where help could reach.”
Air Station Kodiak operates six Sikorsky MH-60Ts and is scheduled to receive three more in 2025. The service intends to standardise its full rescue helicopter fleet on the MH-60T, which has a longer range, greater payload capacity, and commonality with other armed service fleets. Alaska is among the first regions to complete the transition because of the long ranges required to perform rescue and security missions in the region.
26 April 2024
by Olivia Savage
Flyeye is a multiple-optics telescope with a very wide field of view that will be capable of classifying objects in space as small as 15 cm in LEO and 35 cm in MEO. The 6.5 m high and 4 m wide telescope will be used by the Italian Space Agency and military for SSA. (OHB Italia)
The Italian National Armaments Directorate (NAD) is procuring three ground-based sensors to enhance the country's space situational awareness (SSA), Janes learnt at the Military Space Situational Awareness Conference 2024, held in London from 22 to 24 April.
In total, two optical telescopes and one high-performance radar are being procured as part of its national SSA plans, Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinando Dolce, the head of SSA at NAD, said at the conference.
The first sensor being procured is a high-performance optical surveillance telescope from OHB Italia called Flyeye, Lt Col Dolce said.
Flyeye will have the capacity to monitor objects in low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and geostationary orbit (GEO), Commander of the Space Situational Awareness Centre at the Italian Air Force Colonel Dario Tarantino told Janes
25 April 2024
by Victor Barreira
A Brazilian Air Force Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano light attack/counter-insurgency aircraft. The details of Brazil's fleet upgrade are as yet undisclosed. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
Embraer Defense and Security is to carry out the mid-life upgrade (MLU) of 68 of the EMB 314 (locally designated A-29) Super Tucano training and light attack aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force, the service's commander Lieutenant Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno said on 17 April during a presentation to the Brazilian Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense.
The MLU is intended to extend the lifespan of the aircraft by up to 25 years, Lt Brig Damasceno said, and follows a June 2023 agreement between Embraer and the Brazilian Air Force to study a technological refresh of the Super Tucanos, although details were not disclosed.
Brazil purchased 25 A-29A and 51 A-29B aircraft in 2001, adding eight A-29As and 15 A-29Bs in 2005. The fleet was received between 2003 and 2012.
For more information, please seeEmbraer sees market for 490 Super Tucanos .
France test-fired its hypersonic demonstrator vehicle for the first time on 26 June, the Directorate...
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