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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 2542.PDF
DEFENCE ACCIDENT Missile main suspect in Mil crash A missile hit is thought to be the most probable cause of the crash of the Mil Mi-26 helicopter on 19 August, in which 115 peo ple are believed to have died. The Russian army aviation helicopter caught fire at 650ft (200m) on approach to Khankala air base, the major military aero drome in North Caucasus. Russia's general prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov says evidence at the crash site supports both missile strike and technical fail ure as likely causes, although the former is considered most likely. The heavily loaded Mi-26, car rying 147 people (more than authorised), some of whom may have been civilians, was flying slow and low. Chechen rebels operate near Khankala, and a used Strela portable missile- launcher was found in a nearby village on 21 August. Mi-8 heli copter pilots escorting the Mi-26 saw a missile trail before the heli copter caught fire, and report two explosions: one mid-air, the other after the crash landing. Both ZMKB Progress D-136 engines are believed to have failed after the first explosion, forcing the crew to land 300m from the air base. The Mi-26 was badly damaged, with the rear ramp-door jammed shut, leaving only small side-doors for evacua tion. Many of the 115 people killed burned to death. Only 33 of 142 in the cabin were rescued, but six died later. All five crew survived the crash. Russian defence minister Ser gei Ivanov has "temporarily relieved" Gen Vitaly Pavlov of his army aviation command for "in fringements of orders not directly related to the Mi-26 catastrophe" - believed to refer to the heli copter carriage of civilians. Pavlov was made commander in 1989, and is one of the most distinguished officers in the Russian armed forces. Before the crash, he said "army Mi-26s had often carried up to 225 soldiers instead of the 86 officially permitted". LONG-RANGE WEAPONS PETER LA FRANCHI / CANBERRA JASSM cruises towards Australian F-35 strike role But defence department still intends to conduct comparative study of Taurus KEPD-350 Australia is likely to proceed with the acquisition of the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 JASSM cruise mis sile as main long-range strike weapon for its planned Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. But JASSM funding still depends on the 2004 Australian defence budget. The Australian defence depart ment says it intends to study JASSM and the Taurus Systems KEPD-350 missile until 2003, despite JASSM winning the Royal Australian Air Force Project Air 5418 stand-off missile competition in 2000. The RAAF also intends to retire its PGSUS AGM-142 Popeye missiles when the new fighters enter service around 2012. Australia's senior negotiator for involvement in the JSF programme, Air Marshal Ray Conroy, says the RAAF hopes the AGM-142 will enter operational ser vice on its General Dynamics F-l 1 Is in 2004 - six years after integration work began. He adds that AGM-142 is not on the US roadmap of weapons configuration develop ments for the Joint Strike Fighter, but JASSM and the MBDA Storm Shadow are. "1 don't think you will be finding us asking the joint pro gramme office to put AGM-142 on that roadmap," he says. The new round of Air 5418 stud ies will examine integration issues for JASSM and KEPD-350 on JSF as well as the RAAF's existing Boe ing F/A-18A/BS. The 1999 request for tender for Air 5418 called for the new missile to be carried by the RAAF's F-l lis and Lockheed AP-3Cs. Options were sought for F/A-18 integration. Darren Lovett, desk officer for stand-off weapons in the Australian Defence Headquarters aerospace de velopment group, says the studies will also look at modifications to the KEPD-350 and JASSM to supp ort RAAF-specific littoral strike requirements. "We have identified significant risk issues associated with the littoral weapon [require ment)," he says. Lovett adds the DoD wants to make a decision on the missile "towards year-end". Lovett says revised RAAF acquisi tion plans are based on the Air 5418 weapon entering operational ser vice from 2007. He adds considera tion has been given to re-opening the Air 5418 competition to the original bidders, including Boeing, Israel Aircraft Industries and Raytheon. The RAAF hopes the AGM-142 will enter operational service on its F-111 s in 2004 VISION ENHANCEMENT Max-Viz to work on sensor upgrade As an extension of the Joint Preci sion Automatic Landing System (JPALS) effort, the US Air Force Res earch Laboratory at Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, has awarded Max- Viz a contract to evaluate enhanced vision systems (EVS) as part of a sophisticated next-genera tion approach system. Portland, Oregon-based Max-Viz is developing infrared EVS technol ogy for corporate and commercial aircraft and will work with Oregon Graduate Institute (OG1) on the USAF contract. OGI is a specialist in EVS sensor fusion algorithm devel opment and will lead efforts to inte grate the aircraft sensor data with neural net computing technology. Max-Viz vice-president and chief technology officer Dick Kerr says: "This system will correlate data with digital information using massively parallel computers oper ating in a unit patterned after the human brain." One of the testbeds for the programme is likely to be a Boeing C-17 prototype. Max-Viz expects to complete an initial nine-month phase by the end of the first quarter of 2003, fol lowed by a two-year, $1 million phase. The company is hopeful of bidding for a third phase in 2005. The JPALS effort is in the con cept and technology demonstra tion phase. The programme has identified local area differential GPS as the preferred precision approach and landing solution, and architecture definition work is under way. 14 27 AUGUST - 2 SEPTEMBER 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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