Rapid Fire 2012-01-23: Panetta on JSF, Carriers

Jan 23, 2012 08:00 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

  • Fresh from its UAV pact with Alenia, EADS signs an agreement with Rheinmetall for a joint venture in the UAV field. Rheinmetall makes the KZO tactical UAV, which has been fielded in Afghanistan alongside Germany’s longer-range, Rheinmetall-operated, leased Heron-1 UAVs.

  • Looks like Colombia was the country that recently joined Israel and Chile as Hermes 900 MALE UAV customers. The Hermes 900 is a Predator-size UAV, from the firm that makes Britain’s new MK450B Watchkeeper system.

  • Australia’s Army has temporarily suspended S-70A Black Hawk helicopter flights, due to fractured bolts. The RAN’s S-70B Seahawk naval helicopters are different enough that they remain unaffected.

  • The Navy thinks a small heli-UAV is just the thing to keep tabs on agricultural data at its Maui (Hawaii) experimental biofuel farm.

  • US House Armed Service Committee (HASC) Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ-8) is resigning from Congress.

  • Forthcoming HASC hearings: Getting Innovative Solutions from Concept to the Hands of the Warfighter (this afternoon); episode XXXVIII of Perspectives on Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Efforts (tomorrow morning).

  • According to Reuters the “activist” hedge fund MMI Investments LP is liquidating, after having taken positions in several defense and aerospace companies in the past couple of years.

    • Categories: Americas - Other, Australia & S. Pacific, Daily Rapid Fire, EADS, Elbit Systems, Fighters & Attack, Fuel & Power, Helicopters & Rotary, Israel, Partnerships & Consortia, People, Policy - Doctrine, Politics, UAVs, United Technologies, USA

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