The president on July 15 gave some indication of where he stands on defense cuts — several hundred billion dollars above the $400 billion in cuts over 12 years he discussed in April, but not in the way the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission laid out.
Among 522 memos from 2005-06 released July 13 by the office of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are several that point to the slowness and confusion of wartime acquisition decisions.
CYBER OPTION: The U.S. Defense Department says it is partnering with the defense industrial base, the public, and private organizations and corporations that support the Pentagon, to increase the protection of sensitive information. To address growing cyber-threats to the department and within industry, the department launched the Defense Industrial Base Cyber Security and Information Assurance program in 2007.
NEW DELHI — India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) injected a new communication satellite into orbit July 15, completing its 18th successful mission in a row. An extra-large PSLV rocket, PSLV-XL, was used to boost the GSAT-12 communication satellite into space. The launcher was similar to the one used for the launch of India’s Chandrayaan-1 Moon mission in 2008.
HOUSTON — President Barack Obama commended the Atlantis astronauts for their efforts to fortify the International Space Station for the post-shuttle era in a July 15 telephone call in which the commander-in-chief also re-stated his call on NASA to develop the technologies for an eventual human mission to Mars.
EFFICIENCY DRIVE: Washington-area federal information technology consultancy Deltek says demand for vendor-furnished information systems and services by the U.S. government should increase from $84.1 billion this year to $91.3 billion in 2016, for a compound annual growth rate of 1.7%. The group says that despite growing federal deficits, federal IT directives promoting cost savings and efficiency will drive future annual markets.
With the space shuttle program ending and U.S. transportation to the International Space Station falling on private industry’s shoulders, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has hired away a chief legislative affairs executive from competitor Orbital Sciences Corp. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences share $3.5 billion in NASA contracts to fly cargo to the space station. SpaceX, a privately held company founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, also won $75 million in NASA funding to help upgrade its Dragon cargo capsule for human transport.
Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are evaluating data from a 1.9-sec. ignition test of the J-2X upper-stage rocket engine carried out in test stand A2 on July 14. The “burp” test was the first for the big new rocket engine, and was designed to ensure the start sequence was properly configured. “Our objective was to get the main chamber to ignite,” says Walt Janowski, J-2X program manager at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR). “We did that successfully, and got a little smoke and fire at the stand.”
PURLOINED LETTERS: An unidentified U.S. weapon system under development may have to undergo redesign following a cyber-exploit in March. More than 24,000 files were copied from a defense contractor’s internal databases, according to deputy defense secretary William Lynn, speaking as he unveiled the Defense Department’s new cyberwarfare strategy last week. Lynn did not say whether investigations pointed to a specific nation, but said that a “foreign intelligence service” was involved.
The U.S. Navy is looking to integrate H-60R helicopters and the future Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) system into its planned Aegis Advanced Capability Build (ACB) upgrades, according to Carmen Valentino, Lockheed Martin vice president of future surface combatant programs. The thrust for added helicopter and AMDR capability is included in the Navy’s recently released request for proposal (RFP) for the Aegis ACB 16 and higher upgrades, Valentino tells Aviation Week. The Navy released the RFP earlier this month.
LONDON — After years of concern over the number of helicopters available to U.K. forces operating in Afghanistan, a U.K. parliamentary committee warns the situation remains unresolved. “We are conscious that our predecessor committee was told in previous inquiries that U.K. forces have enough helicopters only to discover subsequently that this was not true. We are not convinced that U.K. forces yet have access to sufficient helicopter hours,” the House of Commons defense committee states in a new report on Afghanistan.
NUCLEAR AGREEMENT: The U.S. and Russia have reaffirmed their commitment to each dispose of no less than 34 metric tons of their surplus weapons-grade plutonium by irradiating the plutonium as mixed oxide fuel in nuclear power reactors. According to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the material is enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons. The two countries on July 13 exchanged diplomatic notes bringing the agreement into full effect. Under an April 2010 amendment to the agreement, the U.S.
The reliability of the U.S. Navy’s MQ-8B Fire Scout has improved, Northrop Grumman says, since data were collected for a Pentagon evaluation that criticized the mission launch rate of the vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Based on data through the end of March, the early fielding report says MQ-8Bs operating from the frigate USS Halyburton since January were able to complete only 50% of their assigned missions. Issues included the poor reliability of the ground control station and tactical common data link.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) could block the Pentagon’s request to transfer more than $750 million to cover cost increases on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. “Based on the current information submitted to the Senate, I intend to oppose the department’s ‘reprogramming request,’” McCain says in a statement.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JULY 21 - 22 — Practical Aeronautics Short Courses: “Introduction to Jet Engines—A Practical Perspective,” Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland, Ohio. For more information call 970-887-3155 or go to www.practicalaero.com JULY 23 - 24 — Military Airlift Asia Pacific, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore. For more information go to www.smi-online.co.uk/militaryairliftasiapac58.asp
The U.S. Defense Department is considering delaying, cutting back or canceling planned future aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines to meet its budget-reduction mandates, says U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We’re looking at all the options,” Cartwright said July 14 following a Defense Writers Group breakfast interview session.
ITT’s spin-off defense company will be named ITT Exelis, executives said July 14. ITT’s core industrial business will continue under the ITT corporation name. The company explained that “ITT Exelis is an energetic name that is derived from the word ‘excel,’ which is rooted in ‘ex,’ meaning ‘out in front’ or ‘beyond.’” The defense unit will list on the New York Stock Exchange as “XLS.” A new logo and other brand information is forthcoming.
News of cost overruns on Boeing’s KC-46A tanker program have drawn the ire of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the senator whose inquiries helped to bury Boeing’s tanker-lease deal early in the last decade. McCain objects to the cost structure of the contract Boeing won in February, in which the government may be on the hook for 60%, or $600 million, in cost overruns on the program that was billed as fixed-price.
The decision by three of four defense committees in the U.S. Congress to cut funding for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is facing blowback from Germany, one of the three international partners developing the missile defense system. President Obama’s budget request for fiscal 2012 and 2013 includes $804 million to honor the nation’s agreement with Germany and Italy to finish development work on the program, despite the fact that the U.S. Army has no plans to buy the missile.
LONDON — A French Senate report advocating missile defense is proposing France and Germany cooperate on the development of an unmanned aircraft-based infrared detection system. France would contribute its infrared detector experience, with Germany providing the high-altitude unmanned aircraft. The German air force has planned flight trials of the Euro Hawk signals intelligence aircraft — a Global Hawk derivative — for next year, and is looking to buy wide-area surveillance Global Hawks toward the end of the decade (Aerospace DAILY, July 8).
Rockwell Collins has delivered the last of 419 upgraded Boeing C/KC-135s to the U.S. Air Force and begun work on a similar avionics modernization program for the service’s 59 Boeing KC-10 tanker/transports. The C/KC-135 global air traffic management (GATM) program was a follow-on to the Pacer Crag cockpit upgrade and has added datalink communications and precision navigation capabilities required to continue operating in civilian airspace.
While the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is questioning Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) $600 million savings figure for the closure of its shipyard in Avondale, La., a Wall Street consultancy cautions that any concerns now may be half-baked. In the recent Pentagon Inspector General semi-annual report to Congress, the DCAA called the $600 million gross savings — as well as $284.5 million of proposed costs to shut down the yard — “unsupported.”
NASA has selected a Space Florida-led team called the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) to manage commercial, industrial and other non-NASA uses of the International Space Station (ISS). Partners in the project, which initially will be worth up to $15 million a year, include Boeing, Bionetics and Dynamic Corp. Space Florida is a state-backed economic development board focused on building and diversifying Florida’s aerospace businesses. Casis will be based at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory, adjacent to Kennedy Space Center.
