AGENCY ADVOCATE: Cornell University professor Mason Peck will be NASA’s chief technologist come January, the space and aeronautics agency said Nov. 8. According to NASA’s description, Peck will serve as the agency’s principal advisor and advocate on matters concerning technology policy and programs. Peck — currently the principal investigator on the CUSat in-orbit inspection technology demonstration — succeeds Robert Braun, who returns to teaching and research positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
NEW DELHI — India’s top defense and military research institute will soon develop an electromagnetic bomb, or “e-bomb,” to help strengthen the country’s defense, space and internal security system.
FIRED UP: Northrop Grumman says MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV operations in Afghanistan have surpassed 1,500 hr. with more than 400 flights in the first five months. The unmanned vertical-takeoff-and-landing system’s deployment there, which began in May with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, will be extended through October 2012 under an $18.65 million contract awarded to the company Sept. 28 by Naval Air Systems Command.
The Obama administration is proposing export control changes that would allow aircraft components to be more freely traded on the global market, while continuing to protect parts designed specifically for the military’s most stealthy aircraft.
TANKER LANDED: Australian Defense Materiel chief Jason Clare announced Nov. 8 that the Royal Australian Air Force has accepted its third of five KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft. The aircraft was the third of four to be converted from a commercial A330 airliner to a military tanker by Qantas Defence Services at Brisbane Airport.
LONDON — Following its first operational deployment of Gripen fighters as part of the NATO-led Libya campaign, the Swedish military is assessing what improvements in equipment and processes need to be made for future deployments of the fighter.
BRAZILIAN FIGHTER: Brazil is likely to make its F-X2 fighter decision in the first quarter of 2012, Boeing officials believe. The aircraft type selection was expected this year, but has slipped because of a change in defense ministers. There also has been speculation that President Dirma Rousseff may scrap the program. But Boeing officials believe the program is still on, with the timing having merely changed. The contract for the program would follow some time later. A Saab official agrees, but notes that the decision could slip beyond the first quarter.
NASA is adding an unmanned test flight of the Orion spacecraft in 2014 in an effort to reduce risk and support development of the congressionally mandated Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket.
Under the guise of a fictitious company the agency created, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) purchased military-grade counterfeit electronics parts from China through the Internet, GAO tells lawmakers.
BEIJING — The South Korean government is negotiating export sales of the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Surion utility helicopter with two foreign governments, industry officials say. One of those governments is quite possibly that of Indonesia, a country with which South Korea has a rapidly deepening military-industrial relationship. The prospective deals appear to be entirely political. One industry source says no competitors are involved. The number of aircraft that would be covered by the orders is unknown.
With overwhelming evidence of massive interference, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should promptly rule that LightSquared can never use its frequencies closest to the Global Positioning System (GPS), says a coalition opposed to the company’s plans to use satellite communications spectrum for a terrestrial broadband wireless network.
The U.S. Coast Guard is testing a maritime sensor-net developed for the U.S. Navy to prevent the kind of attacks such as that suffered by the USS Cole 11 years ago. Called the Littoral Sensor Grid (LSG) project and developed by Intellicheck Mobilisa of Port Townsend, Wash., the net is a buoy system that collects environmental and security-related data and uses the company’s Wireless Over Water (WOW) technology to transmit the data to the shore Network Operations Center (NOC) for distribution to those who need it.
The U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade more than 300 Lockheed Martin F-16s and potentially additional Boeing F-15s to fill the gap caused by delays to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The service shortly will announce plans to extend the service life and upgrade the avionics on 300-350 late-model Block 40 and 50 F-16s, Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements, told Congress last week.
PARIS — Under pressure to reduce spending, the institutions responsible for setting and financing European space programs will meet this week to hash out space funding priorities against a backdrop of tremendous financial turmoil in Europe. The European Commission (EC) has already kicked off months of wrangling among the 27 members of the European Union after a draft budget plan abandoned future funding for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) project.
Rocket engineers at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are slated to attempt a 500-sec. hot-fire test of the J-2X engine this week, running the Saturn-heritage upper-stage propulsion system through a full-duration burn for the first time.
TOULOUSE, France — The U.K. Space Agency’s UKube-1 project passed critical design review (CDR) Nov. 4, marking a major milestone on the road to building and launching the miniature, cube-shaped spacecraft atop a Russian Dnepr rocket in 2012. Designed by Glasgow, Scotland-based cubesat-maker Clyde Space, UKube-1 is a pilot project under a broader CubeSat program that would see the fledgling space agency launch one mission a year.
LONDON and GENOA, Italy — Finmeccanica’s impending report of third-quarter financial results would be nothing special if not for that fact that the last time the Italian aerospace and defense giant communicated with the financial community, it went so badly the company lost more than 25% of its market value. At that time, investors had finally tired of Finmeccanica’s failure to deliver long-promised improvements in profitability. Repairing the damage will be neither easy nor quick.
ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded a $53,020,686 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to support the AH-64D Apache. The work will be performed in Mesa, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 28, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-09-C-0161).
General Dynamics plans to acquire Force Protection, which manufactures the Buffalo, Cougar and Ocelot armored vehicles, for $360 million, or $5.52 per share, the companies announced Nov. 7. The deal is expected to expand GD’s portfolio of armored vehicles and gives the company an aftermarket revenue stream from an installed base of 3,000 vehicles. “With this acquisition, we will create new opportunities to serve domestic and international customers alike,” said Mark Roualet, president of General Dynamics Land Systems.
