To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) sept. 10 - 13 — 2012 MOAA/NDIA Warior-Family Symposium, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/2120/Pages/default.aspx sept. 10 - 13 — NDIA 17th Annual Expeditionary Warfare Conference, Wyndham Bay Point Hotel, Panama City Beach, Fla. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/2740/Pages/default.aspx
Syria is not in any jeopardy of near-term intervention by NATO, says the organization’s number two official, although he notes that alliance member air forces have restocked their supplies of precision-guided munitions since the conflict in Libya, where shortages became a concern. “There has been a rebuilding process,” says Alex Vershbow, NATO’s deputy secretary general and a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. “Countries took measures to ensure they [will not] run out. There is recognition that we have to be prepared for the next [intervention].”
PARIS — French defense equipment agency DGA has ordered a pair of studies from private industry on developing a successor to the Syracuse 3 military communications satellite system, the results of which are expected to support defense program decisions as the administration of President Francois Hollande updates the country’s defense and security strategy in the coming months.
HOUSTON — NASA and SpaceX are working toward an Oct. 9-10 launch of the first Falcon 9/Dragon Commercial Re-Supply Services (CRS) cargo mission to the International Space Station, though the two would like to lift off several days earlier if the opportunity arises. NASA would like to start the mission as soon as Oct. 5 if the U.S. Air Force Eastern Range becomes available, to avoid any conflicts with the launching of Russia’s Soyuz 30 mission to the station on Oct. 15, says Mike Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager.
With another Zumwalt-class destroyer design contract it its pocket, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer program office is steaming ahead with the planned three-ship fleet. The Navy brass is touting Zumwalt program success that contrasts sharply with missed budgets and deadlines that have marked other new-ship programs such as the Littoral Combat Ship or LPD-17-class dock ships.
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NEW DELHI — The 51-hr. countdown is underway for India’s latest Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21) mission, which will orbit two foreign satellites. The PSLV-C21 will be launched from the Satish Dhawan space center at Sriharikota in south India at 9:51 a.m. local time on Sept. 9, an official at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says. The countdown began Sept. 7. The launch will mark ISRO’s 100th mission into space.
The U.S. Air Force is starting a key, three-month Operational Utility Evaluation (OUE) of the stealthy F-35A at Eglin AFB, Fla., in preparation for the planned — and much awaited — start of formal pilot and maintainer training there early next year.
With scores of lawmakers retiring, and others who have lost primary elections or will be voted out of office come November, the congressional committees dealing with aerospace and defense issues are in line for changes. Resolution of who will lead next year is a long way off, but here is a look at who is leaving and some of the potential replacements. House Appropriations
CHILL TEST: Results of a cold-temperature hot-fire test have qualified a new fixed nozzle for ATK’s GEM-60 strap-on solid-fuel booster for the United Launch Alliance Delta IV, as ATK continues to upgrade the 12-year-old design. In a test Sept. 6 at the ATK facility in Promontory, Utah, the 53-ft.-long GEM-60 was chilled to a core temperature of 30F before the 90-sec. burn, which generated about 270,000 lb. of thrust. In addition to qualifying the new fixed nozzle for flight, the test results validated the low-temperature performance of the new nozzle insulation.
Australia is stretching out the construction of three air defense destroyers, aiming to preserve skills without adding to the cost of the Navantia-designed, Hobart-class ships. The first of the Aegis-equipped ships, HMAS Hobart, is now due for delivery in March 2016, 16 months after the previous target and nine years after construction contracts were signed. The Royal Australian Navy should receive HMAS Brisbane by September 2017 and HMAS Sydney in March 2019, Defense Minister Stephen Smith says.
NASA’s Dawn probe broke free of the pull of gravity from the asteroid Vesta early Sept. 5 and re-entered orbit around the Sun as its low-thrust xenon-ion propulsion system moves it on to the dwarf planet Ceres. With the change in orbit, which came at 2:26 a.m. EDT, Dawn started a transit through the Asteroid Belt that will take it to Ceres early in 2015. The spacecraft entered orbit around Vesta — exceeded in mass within the main belt only by Ceres — in July 2011, and spent 13 months studying the giant asteroid.
If in fact the Obama administration’s ambitious reform of controls on U.S. exports is almost ready to be rolled out, it is coming at a time filled with uncertainties and distractions.
The U.S. Navy this week formalized key ship specifications for the U.S.’s Ohio-class ballistic submarine replacement and the related U.K. successor programs. Rear Adm. Thomas Eccles, chief engineer and deputy commander at Naval Sea Systems Command’s (Navsea) Naval Systems Engineering Directorate, and Capt. William Brougham, Ohio replacement program manager, have signed the “Ohio Replacement First Article Quad Pack Ship Specification” document, marking a major construction milestone.
Honeywell has signed a $735 million contract to supply F124-GA-200 turbofan engines for Israel’s new fleet of 30 Alenia Aermacchi M-346 advanced jet trainers. Israel’s purchase of the F124-powered M-346 comes as defense departments in numerous countries including the U.S. are evaluating new training platforms to simulate the latest fighter aircraft such as the F-22, F-35, Eurofighter, Gripen and Rafale.
The U.S. military services are finding the procurement of unmanned systems particularly challenging because of problems defining requirements and developing software, according to the Defense Science Board (DSB).
MOVING MARINES: Oshkosh Defense recently received a contract worth about $67 million to deliver more than 260 Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacements (MTVR) to the U.S. Marine Corps. MTVR variants being produced under this order include the MK25 Cargo and MK27 and MK28 Extended Cargo trucks. Production will begin in April 2013 and be completed in September 2014.
