The looming Senate debate on the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill is likely to include an emotional battle over whether to make the chairman of the National Guard Bureau a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others plan to amend the bill with a provision that would elevate the commanding general of the nation’s reserve force. Guard advocates say they have gathered enough potential votes to allow the Guard chief to climb the military ranks.
GENOA, Italy — Finmeccanica has postponed until Nov. 14 the board meeting that will approve both the company’s results for the third quarter of this year, as well as the comprehensive industrial plan that will be at the core of CEO Giuseppe Orsi’s strategy to turn the fortunes of the aerospace and defense group.
NASA’s nuclear-powered Curiosity rover is perched atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., and ready to head for Mars at the opening of its planetary launch window on Nov. 25, managers of the Mars Science Laboratory mission said Nov. 10. “MSL has been assembled, tested, encapsulated, and stacked on top of the Atlas, and is ready to go, 15 days to launch,” says Doug McCuistion, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program director. “It’s pretty incredible.”
Andrew Mellon Auditorium Washington, D.C. March 7, 2012 The Aviation Week Laureate Awards recognize individuals and teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation and vision that inspire others to strive for significant broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace. Join us at this black tie dinner and celebrate the best of the industry’s best! www.aviationweek.com/events/current/lau/index.htm
NASA’s J-2X upper-stage engine ran through a 500-sec. hot-fire test Nov. 9, achieving full duration for the terminated Ares I crew launch vehicle it was designed to power and passing a crucial hurdle for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) that will use it instead. “Based on a quick look, it performed exactly as we expected it to,” said Mike Kynard, SLS engines element manager at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, after the test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. “If we find issues we’ll take care of it; first look, it ran great.”
The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) has again cited concerns over U.S. Army helicopter deals with Sikorsky Aircraft, calling for better cost controls and other contract modifications. Essentially, the IG says, the Army needs to change the way it buys certain items from Sikorsky and to seek a refund from the company. The IG identified similar contracting concerns in reports earlier this year about work done by Sikorsky for Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command (Amcom) at Corpus Christi (Texas) Army Depot (CCAD).
The single largest intelligence gap in the fight against roadside bombs, which are responsible for 90% of allied casualties in Afghanistan, is uncovering how ammonium nitrate fuel makes its way from two legitimate manufacturing facilities in Pakistan across the western border into Afghanistan, says U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Office (Jieddo) at the Pentagon.
LONDON — Despite program setbacks at Airbus and Eurocopter, EADS is upping its financial guidance for the full year with stronger revenue and order bookings. The Airbus parent now projects gross order intake of around 1,500 units, with 1,372 already in the firm order book for the year. Deliveries should come in at 520-530 units.
HOUSTON — U.S. collaborators from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) say they gathered 4.5 million min. of data from the recently concluded Mars500 analog experiment in Moscow, which simulated an extended human mission to the red planet. The data include rest-activity patterns, performance and psychological responses of the six-member international crew to sleep loss, fatigue, stress, mood changes and interpersonal conflicts.
LONDON — Although much of the focus of Libya strike operations has been on platforms such as the Tornado GR4, Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale fighters, one lesson emerging from the conflict is the need to have a low-cost aircraft to support such prolonged operations.
NEW DELHI — The cost of acquiring the winning aircraft for India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is no longer a secret — except to the public, for now.
U.S. House and Senate defense spending bills must bridge a wide gulf, with hundreds of budget lines and billions of dollars requiring resolution before the bill can become law. The differences aren’t just a matter of coming to an agreement on the size of reductions (See chart p. 4). In 18 instances in the research and procurement budgets, for example, one chamber handed down cuts while the other added funding. The Senate, which drafted its bill after Congress agreed to tough spending limits, provided fewer funding increases to programs that the House cut.
HOUSTON — The Moon, nudged aside by U.S. policymakers in favor of a near-Earth asteroid as the next destination for human explorers, remains a focus for internationally sponsored missions and commercial entrepreneurs drawn to a deeper understanding of the celestial neighborhood as well as the prospect of profits from resources mined from the lunar surface. However, money from investors to nurture the latter, and politics to enable the former, remain significant near-term obstacles.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is looking for a contractor to develop an advanced infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), one that need not have the experience, expertise or infrastructure to design, build and test such a beast. Darpa’s Future Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle (FANG) program aims to emulate the information technology industry by using “crowdsourcing” to design an infantry vehicle and microchip-manufacture-inspired programmable foundries to build the vehicle.
Click here to view the pdf Programs In Play:Appropriations Changes Where The House And Senate Went In Opposite Directions ($ In Thousands) Programs In Play: Appropriations Changes Where The House And Senate Went In Opposite Directions ($ In Thousands) Descr
LONDON — The Czech Republic is examining what infrared sensor it should put on its Gripen fighters to improve visual identification. Several systems are being looked at, including the Litening targeting pod, says Maj. Martin Pelda, flight safety officer for the Czech air force’s 21st air base and a Gripen pilot. The Czech air force uses the Gripen only for air-to-air roles. Still uncertain is when a type selection may be made.
A propulsion system glitch plaguing an ambitious Russian Mars sample-return mission has left the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft circling in low Earth orbit. Launched Nov. 9 atop a Russian Zenit-2SB from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Phobos-Grunt was successfully delivered to a parking orbit from which its onboard engines were expected to raise it to a hyperbolic escape orbit. Following separation from the rocket, initial communications with the spacecraft indicated Phobos-Grunt was operating normally.
MESSENGER EXTENDED: NASA’s Messenger mission to Mercury has received a one-year mission extension, the agency announced via social media. The probe, managed by the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab, has been producing continuous global maps of Mercury since April of this year. Messenger is the first spacecraft ever to orbit the closest planet to the Sun. Its name is short for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging.
LONDON — The first two U.S. Air Force F-22s upgraded to Increment 3.1 have been delivered to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, kicking off a retrofit program running through 2016 to enhance the stealth fighter’s combat capability. The main features of the hardware and software modification are the ability to drop eight Small-Diameter Bombs, take synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and provide precision-location and electronic-attack capabilities.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — It is an old maxim that the best way to fight a submarine is with another submarine, but the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter has U.S. Navy officials rethinking their antisubmarine warfare (ASW) strategies. “The MH-60R shifts the advantage from the submarine to the helicopter,” says Robert Kimble, the Navy H-60 deputy program manager. What makes the upgraded Seahawk effective against submarines, he says, is its enhanced sonar — the AN/AQS-22 airborne low-frequency sonar, which serves as its primary undersea warfare sensor.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — As Lockheed Martin builds more Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the U.S. Navy, the contractor team will likely be able to produce the ships more efficiently thanks to improvements made at the Marinette Marine Corp. shipyard, according to Joe North, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Littoral Ship Systems business.
BRUSSELS — The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) says he plans to cut 25% of the agency’s internal spending by 2015 in response to the ongoing financial turmoil in Europe. “We are taking into account the economic crisis,” ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said of the 19-member intergovernmental agency during an annual space policy meeting here.
NASA scientists are studying a laser technique called optical trapping to see if it could be developed to produce “tractor beams” that would allow a spacecraft or lander to remotely capture particles for analysis. The technique is used in optical tweezers, scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to manipulate microscopic objects and are employed in biology and nanotechnology to study single molecules, viruses and even cells.
