A second attempt to boost a hypersonic glider across the Pacific Ocean at Mach 20 will be made as early as Aug. 10 after a review board approved changes made following the loss of the first Lockheed Martin HTV-2 test vehicle on April 22, 2010. The first HTV-2 was lost 9 min. into the flight from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., when its autonomous flight-termination system activated after vehicle roll exceeded predetermined limits (Aerospace DAILY, April 28, 2010).
While $400 billion in cuts would stretch U.S. military readiness to the breaking point, greater reductions could cause the different services to re-evaluate the way they do business, top service officers tell Congress. Top brass for the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps said July 26 that deeper cuts would bring about “fundamental” and “structural” changes to how they view their missions — or even what those missions might be — during a House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee hearing on readiness.
The chief of U.S. Strategic Command says he does not yet know if the goal of intercepting ballistic missiles early in flight — prior to apogee — is viable with existing technology and funding. But U.S. Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler says he remains “comfortable” with the Missile Defense Agency’s plans for ballistic missile defense (BMD), which rely heavily on the early intercept concept.
Developers of future human-rated launch vehicles will have a commercial flight computer to plug in if a new development internally funded by Ball Aerospace & Technologies works out. The Boulder, Colo.-based spacecraft and space-components house based the design of its prototype launch vehicle flight computers on hardware already in use by NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center simulation laboratories for developing software and test systems for human-rated launch vehicles, according to Ball.
The Pentagon’s effort to nail down $400 billion in cuts has been so tough that doubling that goal “would be extraordinarily difficult and very high risk,” the nominee to be the next top U.S. military leader told lawmakers.
ARMY SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., was awarded a $22,053,476 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the necessary support to improve the state-of-the-art airborne ultra high frequency radar for detecting targets of interest. The work will be performed in Menlo Park, Calif.; Arlington, Va.; Helena, Mont.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Princeton, N.J.; Iraq; Bridgewater, Va.; and Dothan, Ala., with an estimated completion date of April 15, 2012. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Miss., is the contracting activity (W912HZ-11-C-0029).
The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) has called into question U.S. Marine Corps accounting for nearly 57% of about $5.8 billion in war costs. “Marine Corps officials did not always support or accurately report fiscal 2008 OCO (Overseas Contingency Operations) costs,” the IG says in its July 22 report. The IG acknowledges that Marine Corps officials “properly supported” 179 transactions, worth about $2.27 billion, and partially supported 14 other transactions worth about $204 million.
Sept. 28, 201I IFEMA, Madrid, Spain This event provides a forum for knowledge delivery and information exchange on defense sustainment in Europe. Attendees will benefit from fist-hand information from Military and Defense agencies on how they’re overcoming current challenges and changes facing maintenance and sustainment, including budgets, cutbacks, and shifting mission requirements. Co-located with MRO Europe! Learn more and register today at www.aviationweek.com/events
F-16 SIM: Despite the U.S. decision to withhold $800 million in military aid to Pakistan, L-3 Link Training & Simulation has received a $20.6 million “instant buy” contract for two F-16 flight simulators for the country. The contract covers two aircrew training devices for the F-16C Block 52, one of which is reconfigurable to the upgraded F-16A Block 15. Both fixed-base simulators will have 360-deg. horizontal by 250-deg. vertical visual systems.
TRANSLATING GREEN: The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command this month selected six contractors to compete under a nine-year, $9.7 billion contract to provide high-quality linguist and analyst services in support of the Defense Department Language Interpretation and Translation Enterprise. Prime awardees include Northrop Grumman Technical Services, Linc Government Services, L-3 Services, Global Linguist Solutions and Mission Essential Personnel, according to FedBizOpps.gov. Other bidders were not identified.
CLOSE-OUT: The Obama administration will move to close 373 federal data centers by the end of 2012, including 113 defense, 24 homeland security, 15 NASA and six State Department centers, according to a White House announcement July 20. The centers are scattered across about 30 states and include a 195,000-sq.-ft. — roughly the size of 3.5 football fields — Homeland Security Department facility in Alabama.
AIR FORCE L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Greenville, Texas, is being awarded a $16,897,859 firm-fixed-price contract to incorporate the purchase of deployment labor required to support the deployment of C-27J aircraft to Afghanistan by issuing a delivery order against the subject contract. ASC/WLNJ, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-07-D-0099).
LONDON — The U.K. has already budgeted for any costs associated with the planned swap of an F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) aircraft for an F-35C carrier model (CV). After deciding to switch to the F-35C, the British government wants to modify one of three F-35B test aircraft it has already bought to the “C” model, which is to be acquired by the U.S. in the sixth low-rate initial production (LRIP) lot.
Threatened by the specter of future submarine system cuts and burdened by increasing demands, the U.S. Navy is looking to improve maintenance, enhance sensors, bolster payloads and solidify the posture of its undersea force.
CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s Juno, an innovative and ambitious mission intended to resolve some long-standing mysteries about the formation of Jupiter and the Solar System, headed to the launch pad in Florida July 25 in anticipation of launching Aug. 5.
Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are using a $1.7 million, 1-million-gal. basin to test a mockup of the planned Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) for its performance in the water landings that will be common to many of the next-generation U.S. crew vehicles in development. Testing of the MPCV article in the new Hydro Impact Basic at Langley started this month, and will continue in September with a higher-fidelity mockup of the Orion, which is the basis of the four-seat capsule NASA is developing to take crews beyond low Earth orbit.
Spatial Technology Ltd. of Hong Kong has tapped Astrium Services to provide high-resolution radar satellite data to monitor surface movement before and during construction of the Wan Chai Bypass tunnel on Hong Kong Island, the companies announced July 25.
LONDON — Embraer has confirmed that the International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 will power its KC-390 transport, after prolonged negotiations with several engine suppliers. The aircraft maker says the IAE joint venture will supply the first of the V2500-E5 turbofans in 2013, to support flight trials a year later. IAE will deliver four complete engines (with nacelles) for the two flying prototypes and two more spare engines to support the flight test campaign.
Pentagon program cancellations – while based on solid rationale – may represent a basket of missed opportunities for the Defense Department to modernize its forces, a recent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report says. “Over the past decade at least a dozen major programs were terminated without any operational systems being fielded,” CSBA says in its recent analysis of the fiscal 2012 U.S. defense budget.
