QUICKROUNDUP

AIRBUS HELICOPTER

On October 11 this year, Airbus Helicopter announced that its Helicopters UH-72 Lakota fleet has exceeded the one million flight-hour mark, some 15 years after the first Lakota UH-72A entered service for the US Army in 2006, following the first delivery of the newest UH-72B to the National Guard. Global Medical Response (GMR) will add a total of 21 Airbus helicopters from the H125, H130 and H135 families to its growing air medical fleet, with options to include up to an additional 23 helicopters, bringing the total order potential up to 44 helicopters.

AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE

In a context of increased momentum around space exploration, on October 26, 2021, Airbus Defence and Space,

Air Liquide and ispace Europe have announced the joint creation of EURO2MOON. This non-profit organisation will be dedicated to promoting better use of lunar natural resources, while accelerating the cis-lunar economy and federating industrial efforts across Europe.

The Webb Space Telescope (WST) arrived at the European space port in Kourou, French Guiana on October 18, 2021 and will be prepared for its launch that is scheduled for December 18, 2021 on an Ariane 5 launcher. One of the four instruments in its scientific suitcase is the Near Infra Red Spectrograph (NIRSpec) built by Airbus in Germany. Once in orbit, Webb will begin a month long journey, travelling four times the distance to the Moon, until it reaches its final destination, the Lagrange point L2, some 1.5 million km behind the Earth.

BOEING

On October 20, 2021 Boeing said that airlines in the Middle East will require 3,000 new airplanes valued at $700 billion and aftermarket services such as maintenance and repair worth $740 billion by 2040 with the region positioned to capitalise on the recovery of regional and international travel as well as rising demand for cargo.

Boeing has been awarded a $1.1 billion contract to extend seeker production for the US Army’s PAC-3 missile up to 2026. Under the contract, Boeing will produce approximately 1,500 additional seekers in Huntsville, Alabama, as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin beginning in 2023. The Boeing-built seeker provides guidance data to the PAC-3 interceptor, which has protected war fighters, allies and international partners around the world from a variety of air and missile threats for 20 years and counting.

On October 31 this year, Boeing reported that it has delivered its first KC-46A tanker to the Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) marking the programme’s first delivery to a customer outside the United States. The Japan KC-46A is capable of refuelling JASDF, US Air Force, US Navy and US Marine Corps aircraft. Globally, the KC-46A has already completed more than 5,000 sorties and transferred more than 50 million pounds of fuel to other aircraft through its boom and drogue systems.

The Defence Logistics Agency (DLA) and Boeing announced on November 08 this year that they have agreed to a follow-on