LONG BEACH, Calif. — Orbital Sciences is “30 days out from accepting the pad complex” at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, according to Mike Hamel, the company’s senior vice president for corporate strategy and business development.
MILITARY AID: Look for the U.S. to ramp up foreign military sales and financing to Southeast Asia, as Washington expects military aid to do for it there what it did in the Middle East. “Our funding helps tie a country’s security sector to the United States, creating strong strategic and financial incentives for the recipient countries to maintain close relations,” Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, reminded a Washington think tank audience Sept. 27.
LAKEHURST, N.J. — The U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye carrier-based airborne early warning and command-and-control aircraft should be ready to begin its six-month operational testing phase this December, program manager Capt. James Gahagan says.
LAKEHURST, N.J. — The U.S. Navy’s proposed electromagnetic aircraft launch system (Emals) — one of the linchpin technologies for the service’s next-generation aircraft carriers — continues to make waves this week with the first test launch of an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. The Navy launched the E-2D Sept. 27 following a press briefing to provide an Emals update. After a few trial runs of the Emals catapult, the Hawkeye zipped down the test strip and took to the air cleanly after hitting about 125 kt.
LOS ANGELES — Virgin Galactic is close to finalizing the initial flight crews for its space tourism and science operations. Three pilots will make up the first crew who will fly both the SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle and WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) mother ship. “There were 550 applicants, and we downselected to the finalists this summer,” says Virgin Galactic President and CEO George Whitesides.
Iraq has sent its first payment to the U.S. for the purchase of 18 F-16 fighters, according to Pentagon officials, marking a major a step toward rebuilding the country’s air force. Baghdad is buying the Block 52 variant of the Lockheed Martin single-engine aircraft in a deal worth $3 billion, adding roughly one more year of work for Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth assembly facility. Company officials recently voiced concern that slow activity on the Iraq sale as well as a pending deal with Oman was forcing the company to fund some of its suppliers.
L-3 Unmanned Systems is upgrading its Viking 400 medium-endurance tactical unmanned aircraft, which is flown by U.S. Special Operations Command and other unidentified customers. The company has flight tested the Block 1A aircraft with an improved electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor and digital data link and is working on extending endurance and expanding multi-payload capability.
BEIJING — Australia is moving to buy a sixth Boeing C-17 Globemaster, barely six months after deciding to order a fifth, which has just arrived. The country’s request for information on cost and availability for another C-17 follows the discovery that its first four aircraft, ordered in 2006, have been more useful than expected. The Royal Australian Air Force could exploit scale economies in operating a larger fleet of the type, says Defense Minister Stephen Smith.
LONDON — South Africa’s Paramount Group and Aerosud are hoping to piggyback the growing interest in reconnaissance and light attack aircraft with the launch of the Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC). The aircraft is designed to have a maximum cruise speed of 300 kt., payload capacity of up to 800 kg (1,760 lb.), and range of 1,150 nm on internal fuel alone. It also is supposed to be able to take off within 550 meters (1,800 ft.) with a full payload to take advantage of remote airfields.
Orbital Sciences Corp. launched the TacSat-4 spacecraft on a Minotaur IV rocket flying from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska on Sept. 27, placing the U.S. Navy satellite in its highly elliptical polar orbit. Liftoff from the launch site on Kodiak Island came at 11:49 a.m. EDT, and the satellite separated about 28 min. later into its targeted 115-by-7,415-mi. orbit. From there, it will be able to provide 2 hr. of coverage three times a day over a warfighting theater 2,000 nm in diameter, according to the Office of Naval Research.
UP AND DOWN: Forecast International says that 1,877 light military rotorcraft will be built between now and 2020, with production estimated at $24 billion in constant 2011 U.S. dollars. Growth will continue through 2012, but then yearly production “will enter a period of gradual, though erratic, decline through the 2018/2019 time frame.” The U.S.-based consultancy projects production will total 193 units this year and 215 next year, dropping to 186 units in 2013. It then increases to 204 units by 2015, but dips to just more than 165 units in both 2018 and 2019.
SINGAPORE — The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress about the request for equipment to be included in Taiwan’s upgrade of Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs, which includes active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars.
NEW DELHI — India plans to conduct the first development flight of the long-range Agni-5 missile in December. “Agni-5 will take us to a level of 5,000-kilometer-plus ... missile systems, which meets all our threat requirements,” says V.K. Saraswat, chief of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). However, Saraswat adds, “Though India has the capability of developing long-range missiles, we are not developing any intercontinental ballistic missiles. Our threat perception today doesn’t require developing any ICBMs.”
HOUSTON — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Johnson Space Center workers they can expect to shoulder more basic engineering and integration responsibilities as the agency develops the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, during Sept. 26 remarks in which he emphasized a post-shuttle future of lean budgets.
Canada has restarted its politically charged procurement of search-and-rescue aircraft to replace its aging fleet of de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Buffalo and Lockheed Martin C-130H Hercules transports. The Fixed Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) project has been overhauled significantly since becoming mired in controversy over claims the Department of National Defense (DND) was limiting competition and the potential for Canadian industrial participation.
The U.S. Navy is getting ready to take delivery of prototype electromagnetic railguns from BAE Systems and General Atomics for testing to begin early next year at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Va. While operating at muzzle energies similar to the BAE-built laboratory railgun at Dahlgren, which set a record in December by firing at 33 megajoules (MJ), the “advanced containment launcher” (ACL) prototypes are more representative of railguns that could arm a warship.
NEW DELHI — India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has conducted engine tests of the naval Light Combat Aircraft prototype in the southern city of Bengaluru. The first engine ground run (EGR) of aircraft NP1 was conducted at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) complex on Sept. 26 with the primary objective of checking aircraft-to-engine integration. In addition, flight control, hydraulics, fuel systems, electrical and avionics systems were evaluated, a DRDO official says.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The softness of the small-satellite launch market has forced Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) to suspend production of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle pending an upcoming market review. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says: “We haven’t abandoned it, but we are looking to address the market in a more cost-effective way. We were really hoping the small-sat market would be really robust. However, with Falcon 1 we sold very few vehicles through 2010.”
The U.S. Navy this week awarded new DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer contracts for up to three ships for a potential total of $2 billion, including options. The Navy also publicly provided for the first time the cost for another DDG-51 vessel, bringing the possible price tag for the recent Burke buys to about $2.8 billion.
NEW PLAN: The Pentagon is streamlining and underpinning the kind of life-cycle planning now required from major U.S. defense acquisition programs, according to a Sept. 14 memo from Frank Kendall, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. The memo is the third in a series of document-streamlining memoranda following the so-called “Better Buying Power” policy outlined a year ago by Ashton Carter, the Pentagon acquisition chief who is set to become deputy defense secretary.
WRAPPING UP: The Lockheed Martin F-22 final assembly line schedule was not affected by this year’s grounding and the industry team continues to roll out Raptors on time, with final aircraft completing in December 2011, the prime contractor said Sept. 26. The U.S. Air Force lifted its four-month stand down, which was sparked by concerns about the fighter’s oxygen delivery system, on Sept. 19.
LONDON — Despite the continued lack of a firm customer, EADS is pressing ahead with work on its Talarion unmanned aircraft concept, with Saab announcing it will supply avionics. Saab says its work covers the aircraft vehicle management, communications, and mission and payload management computers. Deliveries are planned to take place in 2012-14.
Efforts to cut costs by increasing commonality between U.S. Air Force RQ-4B Global Hawk and Navy MQ-4C Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft systems are gaining momentum as manufacturer Northrop Grumman looks ahead to advanced capabilities. A joint technology-insertion road map is being developed that includes BAMS and Global Hawk variants for foreign customers, such as Germany’s Euro Hawk and NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program, says George Guerra, vice president for high-altitude, long-endurance UAVs.
