A CV-22 Osprey flying a training mission near San Diego, California. (Photo: US Air Force)
The US Air Force (USAF) last week released the results of the investigation of the CV-22B Osprey accident in November 2023 in Japan. The incident killed eight crew members and led the Pentagon toward standing down its entire tiltrotor fleet for four months.
The USAF report concluded that multiple causes contributed to the accident including a “catastrophic failure of the left-hand proprotor gearbox”, inadequate risk management and ineffective crew resource management.
After analysing maintenance logs, flight recorder data, briefing materials and inspecting aircraft wreckage, a multi-disciplinary team of subject matter experts found that an issue with the gearbox generated a rapidly cascading failure
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The record-breaking defence budget request focuses on bolstering some core next-generation aircraft programmes across each domain, although questions remain on the US's commitment to some key defence programmes.
The recent acquisition announcement for Cambridge Aerospace’s Skyhammer solution is a key step in the UK’s efforts to bolster its counter-UAS capabilities, but more still needs to be done to tackle even smaller drone threats.
While Denmark appears to be more committed to UAVs than most of its Nordic neighbours, its procurement efforts are likely to be split between American-made systems for its larger requirements and Nordic partnerships for smaller platforms.
The single-engine multirole fighter jet is seeing heightened demand with a sizeable orderbook and expanding export potential, as Shephard summarises the aircraft’s latest orders and developments.
The revised funding allocation will see up to 23% of the additional budget put towards stockpiles of munitions, with the country’s GDP spending expected to reach 2.5% by 2030.
The design and development contract is set to run until the end of June and will now enable the partnership to drive the programme forward as it targets its 2027 demonstrator date.
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