Aviation International News reports there were four fatal crashes of US-registered business jets in the first half of 2023, resulting in nine fatalities. There were “zero such fatalities in all of 2022. Separately, two people were killed in one non-U.S-registered special missions business jet accident in the first six months, compared with six who perished in one non-U.S-registered charter jet crash in the same period last year.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Tag: US
USSF Directed by Congress to Procure Wideband Communications Satellite
Space News reports that the U.S. Space Force “will use funds that Congress added to the 2023 defense budget to buy a wideband communications satellite made by” The Boeing Company, “a spokesperson confirmed Feb. 7.” The new geostationary satellite, to be named WGS-12, “will be the 12th of the Wideband Global Satcom constellation that provides communications services to the U.S. military and allies.” The Space Force “did not request funding for a wideband satellite in the 2023 budget[,] but Congress nevertheless added $442 million, an action reminiscent of the 2018 defense appropriations bill when Congress inserted $600 million for WGS-11.” A Space Systems Command spokesperson said via email, “The $442 million was added to the WGS program element to procure a WGS-12, which will be a build-to-print of WGS-11.” The 2023 appropriations bill “did not specifically direct the Space Force to buy another WGS satellite[,] although it is implied.” The legislation directs the service to “procure a protected wideband satellite to provide resilient, jam resistant tactical communications to support warfighter needs.”
Full Story (Space News)
US Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon
The New York Times reported that “the United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday.” The balloon “spent five days traveling in a diagonal southeast route from Idaho to the Carolinas” and “was shot down within moments of its arrival over the Atlantic Ocean,” off the coast of South Carolina. “One of two F-22 fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base fired a Sidewinder air-to-air missile, downing the balloon, which was flying at an altitude of 60,000 to 65,000 feet. The F-22s were at 58,000 feet, with other American fighters in support.”
Full Story (New York Times)
US Tracking Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Over Montana
The AP reports that the US “is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts a further strain on U.S.-China relations at a time of heightened tensions.” Bloomberg reports that the balloon “was loitering over Montana – home to Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos – but posed no physical or intelligence threat, a senior Defense Department official said.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin informed President Biden, “but recommended leaving it alone because of the possible risk of falling debris.”
Full Story (Associated Press); More Info (Bloomberg)
Video
Chinese spy balloon spotted above over US. | ABC News; YouTube)
Rocket Lab Launches First US Mission
Reuters reports that Rocket Lab “launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday, kicking off an expansion of the company’s launch business that adds to a surge in private rocket activity at U.S. space ports.” The Long Beach, California-based company’s workhorse “Electron rocket, an expendable launcher standing 40 feet (12 meters) tall, lifted off at 6 p.m. EST from its new launch pad at the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.” The mission “marked Rocket Lab’s first outside its flagship launchsite on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, where the company has carried out all 32 previous Electron missions since the rocket’s debut in 2017.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Video
Rocket Lab Launches First Electron mission from Virginia, Tuesday, January 24, at 6 p.m. EST from Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)
US Air Force Aims for Decision on F-35 Engine by Year’s End
FlightGlobal reports that the Air Force is expected to make a decision on whether to re-engine the F-35 through the Adaptive Engine Transition Program by the end of 2022.
US Air Force Concerned Rejection of F-35 Engine Replacement Could “Collapse” US Advanced Propulsion Industrial Base
Air Force Times reports that US Air Force officials are concerned that opting against a F-35 engine full replacement “could lead to the ‘collapse’ of the advanced propulsion industrial base in the U.S.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)
China, Russia, and US Expected to Renew Long-Range Bomber Fleets
Aviation Week reports, “As of 2022, only three countries continue to operate dedicated long-range bombers – China, Russia and the U.S. – with 518 aircraft in service around the world.” Aviation Week Network “projects the number will increase over the next decade to 574 aircraft as the same three operators modernize and expand their fleets.” The next generation of bombers includes “the Air Force’s B-21 and China’s H-20,” while “the largest single family of bombers in service around the world is the Xian H-6 operated by China, itself a platform that can trace its lineage back 70 years to the first flight of the Tupolev Tu-16 just 12 days after the B-52.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)