An Aerojet AJ26 engine destined to power the Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus II launch vehicle in the run-up to commercial resupply flights for the International Space Station (ISS) was badly damaged in a fuel fire June 9. “There was significant damage to the engine,” Orbital spokesman Baron Beneski said June 21.
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) nearly endorsed a move that could end Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — and the effort may continue. The committee’s top Republican, John McCain (Ariz.), sponsored the language, offered during the panel’s markup of its defense authorization measure for fiscal 2012. The proposal died there on a 13-13 vote before the committee approved the markup last week, but McCain has raised the prospect of trying again later with all senators.
Claims by communications company LightSquared that it has a solution to the problem of interference with GPS receivers have been met with skepticism from opponents of its plans for a nationwide broadband-wireless network using frequencies close to GPS. LightSquared says tests show the lower of its two 10 MHz blocks of L-band spectrum, located further away from GPS frequencies, “is largely free of interference issues with the exception of a limited number of high-precision GPS receivers.”
LE BOURGET — Northrop Grumman is looking to diversify and expand its space business, including a foray into the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) area, to stabilize that portion of its portfolio, says Gary Ervin, president of Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector.
Boeing has begun wiring and systems installation on the first of eight P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft for the Indian navy, at its Renton, Wash. factory south of Seattle. Based on a 737-800 fuselage built by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita and a set of 737-900ER wings made by Boeing at Renton, the Indian patrol aircraft is the first export version of the P-8A that Boeing is building for the U.S. Navy simultaneously.
PARIS — U.S. Air Force and industry team members studying the June 13 failure of the second X-51A hypersonic research test flight over the Pacific are looking at whether the timing of the ignition sequence was off, amongst other causes.
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LE BOURGET — European ships already equipped with advanced phased array radars are likely the first foreign hardware input from the continent into the U.S.-led European Phased Adaptive Approach missile defense architecture, according to Ed Miyashiro, vice president at Raytheon Missile Systems.
LE BOURGET — Airbus Military has teamed with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to offer a fast-rotating, active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on the C-295 airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. The C-295AEW’s rotodome S-band radar offers a rotating mode for 360-deg. coverage with three-dimensional electronic beam steering. It also has a sector mode to more closely examine a certain area with the radar stationary. S-band was chosen to maximize radar performance from the rotodome, which has a diameter of 6 meters (20 ft.).
NEW DELHI — Lockheed Martin could re-enter India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition with its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, if nascent congressional action in Washington is any indication. Two months ago, the Indian government shut U.S. companies out of the $11 billion program, rejecting Lockheed Martin’s offer of the F-16IN Super Viper and Boeing’s bid of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
LE BOURGET — The U.S. Air Force is getting ready to deploy its C-27J tactical transport to Afghanistan for the first time, in July, according to Alenia Aeronautica CEO Giuseppe Giordo. Two aircraft are due to deploy. Alenia argues the deployment will convince USAF that the C-27J deserves its niche in the transport fleet; but some service officials have indicated the role could be just as well met by Lockheed Martin C-130s.
LE BOURGET — Norway’s parliament on June 16 approved the purchase of four Lockheed Martin F-35As for training, solidifying earlier plans for the buy, according to Rear Adm. Arne Roksund of Norway’s defense ministry. The aircraft, the original USAF configuration, will be purchased in Lot 8, and some other international partners are expected to join this buy.
PARIS — Turbulence in the U.S. Global Hawk program is not likely to affect Germany’s plan to buy six variants of the unmanned aerial system (UAS) for intelligence collection, says Stefan Zoller, CEO of Cassidian, EADS’ defense business. The first Eurohawk, already purchased, is slated to ferry from Edwards AFB, Calif., to Germany this summer for integration with an indigenous signals intelligence collector and for testing. The goal is for the country to buy five more aircraft; negotiations are not yet complete for those additional UAS.
PARIS — U.S. Navy and Air Force test personnel will conduct an operational utility evaluation (OUE) of the Joint Strike Fighter using six of the first F-35As to go to the schoolhouse in Eglin AFB, Fla. this fall. The outcome of this OUE will determine the willingness of the Air Education and Training Command to approve commencement of formal training operations at Eglin, says Maj. Gen. C.D. Moore, deputy director of the U.S.-led JSF program office.
PARIS — The U.S. Marine Corps expects to get its version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter into service in late 2014 or early 2015, a two-to-three-year slip, says Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the commandant for aviation. He is confident the short-takeoff vertical-landing (Stovl) F-35B will be ready for use by then if the fixes in place for technical issues proceed as planned, he tells Aviation Week during a June 19 interview in advance of the Paris air show.
THOR 7: An agreement to build Thor 7 has brought Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) its first contract from Norway’s Telenor Satellite Broadcasting. The spacecraft will be the first for Telenor with a Ka-band payload, which the company says is needed to satisfy a surge in demand for high bandwidth in the maritime industry. Based on SS/L’s 1300 series platform, Thor 7 is to enter service in the first quarter of 2014. In winning the contract, SS/L is believed to have been in a face-off with Thales Alenia, which built Thor 6, the last in Telenor’s fleet to be launched.
MINUTEMAN TEST: The U.S. Air Force will conduct one of its periodic operational tests of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Wednesday, June 22. The tests verify the accuracy and operational status of the U.S. ballistic missile fleet, using a single, unarmed re-entry vehicle. Fired from Vandenberg on the southern California coast, the re-entry vehicle will be propelled 4,200 mi. to a Pacific Ocean target area near the Air Force’s Kwajalein Atoll test site in the Marshall Islands. The launch window is 3:01 to 9:01 a.m.
The U.S. Air Force is using new air routes — flying over the North Pole and across Russian airspace — from major domestic and European hubs for delivery of cargo and personnel as well as swapping out refuelers supporting operations in Afghanistan. The new routes were a product of negotiations between the White House and Russian authorities. The agreement allows for 4,500 flights through Russian airspace per year. The White House estimates this could save as much as $133 million annually in fuel and maintenance costs.
PARIS — The second Harvest Hawk, a C-130 tanker modified to provide covering fire to Marines on the ground, is headed to Afghanistan by the end of August, says Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the Marine commandant for aviation. The fires offered by the first Harvest Hawk, already supporting the war effort, are good enough to prompt Robling to reduce the planned buy by one-third. The service is expecting now to buy six units, down from nine. The Harvest Hawk kit includes a palletized roll-on/roll-off ramp-mounted gun and weaponization kit.
NAVY The Boeing Co., St. Louis, is being awarded a $408,753,999 ceiling-priced modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-fee contract (N00019-09-C-0019) for the full rate production and delivery of nine fiscal 2011 (LOT 35) F/A-18E aircraft in accordance with the aircraft variation in quantity clause. The work will be performed in St. Louis and is expected to be completed in December 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
PARIS — Longstanding shareholder and acquisition concerns continue to bedevil EADS, although company CEO Louis Gallois indicates a breakthrough on the business’s ownership structure may finally be in sight. EADS has been trying to find a way to smooth out shareholding structural issues, preserving the Franco-German balance and allowing industrial stakeholders, Lagardere and Daimler, to reduce their stakes, while also protecting the company from a hostile takeover.
PARIS — Raytheon and Nammo, a Norwegian ammunitions firm, are qualifying a second motor for use on the Advanced-Range Medium-Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam) after an accident at the primary source, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), hampered its ability to deliver on time. ATK is currently more than 100 deliveries behind, Harry Schulte, director of air warfare systems for Raytheon’s missile business, tells Aviation Week during a June 20 interview at the Paris air show.
