James Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and former head of the company’s defense unit, fears the U.S. could lose its competitive edge in aerospace if the federal government abandons investment in next-generation platforms and technologies in defense and space.
Key U.S. Senate appropriators are recommending a $695 million reduction to the Defense Department’s fiscal 2012 request for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter – a move coordinated or checked with the Pentagon, to some degree – saying the funds are not needed with the program slowed as it is.
HOUSTON — NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will join forces to accelerate the availability of commercial crew launch services to the International Space Station using the Liberty rocket, a U.S. and European hybrid unveiled earlier this year, officials from the agency and the Minneapolis-based defense and aerospace contractor announced Sept. 13.
CAPE CANAVERAL – The Florida-based Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) has signed a $15 million-per-year, 10-year agreement with NASA to manage the U.S. portion of the International Space Station (ISS) not needed by the U.S. space agency, officials announced last week.
LONDON — Thales expects the first Watchkeeper unmanned aircraft to be shipped in December to Afghanistan for British army use in operational capability integration, concurrent with the start of live training at Boscome Down. The initial standup activity in Afghanistan for one task line will be run by an operational conversion unit.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GAASI) has embarked on a company-funded program to develop a radar-based airborne sense-and-avoid system for its Predator/Reaper/Avenger family of unmanned aircraft. The company plans unmanned flight tests of the system late next year, its time line set by potential international customers requiring the capability to operate their aircraft in civil airspace.
LONDON — With the budget battle over the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System continuing, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) is asking for a Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of the costs of completing Meads versus sticking with the Patriot system. The review is seen as an effort to shore up support for Meads, whose partners are the U.S., Germany and Italy. Germany has conducted a similar assessment and concluded it should stick with Meads.
Northrop Grumman and Australian CEA Technologies recently demonstrated Ceafar – a scalable and tailorable S-Band active, electronically scanned array (AESA) multifunction radar suitable for naval vessels as small as offshore patrol craft and as large as destroyers and cruisers, the companies say. Northrop has boasted of its work on navy radar programs like Ceafar with CEA in the North American contractor’s discussions about why it stands a good chance to win the U.S. Navy’s Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) contract.
PARIS — NASA could delay a long-awaited commercial cargo demonstration to the International Space Station (ISS) that Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is currently planning to launch in late November.
LOS ANGELES – Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is assembling parts for an RLXX demonstrator rig that it hopes will be a pathfinder for a next-generation U.S. upper-stage engine by around 2017. Progress on the rig comes as the U.S. Air Force studies requirements for a next-generation engine (NGE) and as competitors such as Aerojet call for a competition to succeed PWR’s venerable RL10.
LONDON — Efforts to develop the air defense missile system for the U.K.’s Type 23 frigate and Type 26 Global Combat Ship are progressing, with MBDA reporting progress in initial trials of the system and key components.
NUCLEAR CUTS: Despite a presidential commitment of upward of $86 billion over a decade, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) says the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still has to make “significant changes in the timing, scale and extent of several major projects” to live within its budget. Cost estimates for two major new facilities – the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in Los Alamos, N.M.
As the Pentagon looks at its budget to find savings, everything is being considered, according to the man nominated to be the next No. 2 civilian at the Defense Department. That includes spending on military personnel, overseas basing and the Pentagon’s largest weapon system, the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter, according to Ashton Carter, who is currently in charge of buying weapons for the U.S. military.
PARIS – European launch provider Arianespace will send two DirecTV satellites into orbit and has the option of launching an additional two spacecraft for the consumer television service, the Evry, France-based consortium announced Sept. 13. The launch is planned for 2014. The four satellites will weigh in at more than 6 metric tons and will be part of a fleet expansion and replenishment program.
LONDON — As Raytheon continues its push for European navies to embrace the Standard Missile SM-3 Block 1B for missile defense roles, it says it has largely validated the dual-mode data link that would be key to the concept.
HOUSTON — NASA lacks an adequate system of controls to administer and manage its grant program, which in 2010 awarded $570 million for scientific research, scholarships, fellowships and other educational activities, according to an audit from NASA Inspector General (IG) Paul Martin. The awards to educational, nonprofit and commercial entities have totaled $3 billion over the past five years, with nearly 75% directed to educational institutions.
PARIS — The anomaly that caused an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M/Breeze M rocket to deliver a Russian telecommunications satellite into the wrong orbit last month has been attributed to a workmanship error, according to ILS President Frank McKenna. McKenna says officials knew within a week that the Aug. 18 launch mishap, which dropped the Russian-owned, Astrium-built Express-AM4 satellite into a useless orbit, was caused by a worker who fed a faulty parameter into the rocket’s flight software system.
BAE Systems plans to flight test improvements to its radar-based anti-brownout system in anticipation of the U.S. Army launching a program to equip its helicopters with an active sensor to improve safety when operating in degraded visual environments. The company’s Brownout Landing Aid System Technology (Blast) system is based on a 94ghz millimeter-wave radar that can see through blowing dust, a digital terrain database and special display symbology to help pilots land when sand stirred up by the rotors obscures their view.
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — As part of efforts to extend the life of the Gripen’s RM12 engine program, Volvo Aero has revealed details of a multiphase upgrade plan that could see overall thrust increased to more than 20,000 lb.
Boeing says it will adapt a touch screen interior control panel that flight attendants use on the 737 for the 767s it is adapting for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A tanker program. BAE Systems, which developed the touch panel for the Boeing Sky Interior product improvement package now being implemented as an upgrade option for the 737NG family, will produce the controls for the tankers at its Johnson City, N.Y., and Fort Wayne, Ind., facilities.
LONDON — British Defense Secretary Liam Fox warns the government may soon issue a list of programs of concern to put pressure on contractors to improve performance.
REPORTS DUE: The National Academies in Washington are expected to issue several reports this fall of interest to the missile defense and nuclear weapons communities. Reports due include an assessment of concepts and systems for U.S. boost-phase missile defense in comparison to alternatives, reviewing the management and science of the national laboratories, metrics related to cooperative threat reduction abroad, and technical issues over the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. More information is available at www.nationalacademies.org.
NO EASIER: Managing the U.S. Navy through another continuing resolution (CR) will be just as difficult in the coming years as it was through the last go-round, says Adm. Gary Roughead, who is set to step down as chief of naval operations at month’s end. Indeed, it may be even harder to navigate through such a clampdown because a CR could disrupt Navy plans to accommodate budget cuts with increased multiyear buys. A CR could cap those types of acquisitions. “It depends on what quantities are affected,” Roughhead said Sept.
