Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Eric Stallmer is calling on legislators from both sides of the aisle to put aside political differences and support moves to update the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA) that is working its way through Capitol Hill.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) reached another milestone during its refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) earlier this month with the installation of the ship’s AN/SPS-48 primary air-search radar antenna on Lincoln’s island, U.S. Navy officials say.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) program managers failed to fully implement U.S. Navy policy to request waivers and to certify program readiness for initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) on the P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Distributed Targeting System, and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft programs, according to the Pentagon Inspector General.
U.S. MARINE CORPS F-35B began first shipboard operational test phase (OT-1) aboard USS Wasp; testing to last two weeks. RCEVS (Elbit Systems of America/Rockwell Collins) has U.S. Navy contract to integrate Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System II on AC-130W. SAAB has SEK114m ($13.6m) Swiss contract for explosive training artillery ammunition to be delivered in 2015-16.
The House Appropriations Committee will consider a fiscal 2016 defense spending bill May 20 that would provide $578.6 billion for the military, including $88.4 billion for war efforts. The use of war accounts for additional defense spending is part of a budget deal that Congress has agreed on, but that agreement sets up a budget showdown with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill unless Congress also increases funding for other federal agencies.
“Customers are clear that they want to move high-end training into the T-X,” says Tom Conard, business development director for the company’ training and government services unit.
Winnefeld notes the Navy is developing programs for directed energy, rail gun weapons and similar technology that could apply to ballistic missile defense (BMD).
Both pilots ejected safely. According to a defense ministry spokesman, the twin-seater aircraft “was on a routine sortie when a technical problem forced the two pilots to abandon the fighter.”
NASA engineers have pared down the ablative Avcoat material that protected the unmanned EFT-1 Orion test article on its high-speed reentry, isolating samples that are being shipped to Ames Research Center in California for close analysis.
The House Appropriations Committee will consider a fiscal 2016 defense spending bill May 20 that would provide $578.6 billion for the military, including $88.4 billion for war efforts. The use of war accounts for additional defense spending is part of a budget deal that Congress has agreed on, but that agreement sets up a budget showdown with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill unless Congress also increases funding for other federal agencies.
The three nations have signed up to a declaration of intent that will see the leading defense and aerospace companies in each country—Dassault Aviation in France, Airbus Defense and Space in Germany, and Finmeccanica in Italy—carry out a two-year definition study of MALE systems, before a decision is made to start development and procurement of the system.
The crash of an Airbus A400M airlifter that killed four people on May 9 may have been caused by new software that cut off the engine-fuel supply, industry sources have said.
Japan will make another attempt to drop-test a low-boom supersonic aircraft model beginning on June 29, at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden, following on the August 2013 attempt that ended when the aircraft lost control and was destroyed.
GE and PRATT & WHITNEY each have $105m U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory contracts to mature technologies toward system-level preliminary design reviews and compatibility reviews for Adaptive Engine Research Design program.
This Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee will mark up its version of the Commerce, Justice, Science bill for fiscal 2016 that funds NASA at $18.5 billion for the year and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at $5.2 billion. Meanwhile, on Tuesday in Washington the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion on missile defense and U.S. national security featuring Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The 18-month DeSIRE II demonstration is being conducted by an industrial consortium led by led by Italian satellite firm Telespazio and aims to support the European standardization and regulatory activities surrounding the satellite communications-based command and control of UAVs, as EU regulators examine the requirements to allow the platforms in the same airspace as other traffic.
The changes have reflected internal disagreements about the vehicle’s mission and the extent of stealth technology to be incorporated into the platform.
ST. LOUIS—Boeing conducted four flight tests under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Triple Target Terminator (T3) program, Boeing Phantom Works President Darryl Davis said here May 18. The test vehicles, about the size of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam), flew “faster and farther” than an Amraam, Davis said, but he did not provide any other details.
The June launch of Inmarsat’s third Global Xpress Ka-band communications satellite has been delayed, following a mishap involving Russia’s Proton M/Briz M launch vehicle.
NASA on May 18 issued a request for information (RFI) on a single spacecraft that could be used for the planned Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and a notional robotic-servicing mission.
