After more than a decade of pursuing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are indicating that the Pentagon’s biggest weapon program might need an understudy. “It seems to me [prudent that] we at least begin considering alternatives,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said during a hearing May 19, after hearing that current estimates show the program’s development and sustainment are unaffordable.
HOUSTON — The Endeavour astronauts successfully anchored the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 19, giving the orbital outpost a new scientific center of gravity. The four-hr. task of transferring the 15,000-lb. particle detector from the shuttle’s cargo bay to a starboard perch on the station’s long solar power truss was followed by its orderly activation, supervised by physicist Sam Ting, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Laureate who serves as the principal investigator.
LOS ANGELES — U.S. Navy, FAA and NTSB investigators are working to find out what caused the destruction of an Omega-operated Boeing 707 tanker at Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu, Calif., on May 18 after an aborted takeoff.
The first Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) satellite designed for geosynchronous orbit, GEO-1, has reached its orbital destination following its May 7 launch from Cape Canaveral according to officials at Lockheed Martin. Late May 18, the satellite began deploying its solar arrays, antennas and a light shade designed to protect the infrared sensors from the Sun. Col. Roger Teague, Sbirs program manager, says the satellite is continuing to perform well.
APPEALING SUBSIDIES: The World Trade Organization appellate body has largely, but not completely, upheld last year’s WTO ruling that certain subsidies provided by the European Union (EU) and some of its member states to Airbus are “incompatible” with WTO rules because they have caused “serious prejudice” to U.S. interests.
SURPRISE GIFT: The tri-nation Medium Extended-Air Defense System (Meads) will bear some technological fruit, the top civilian in charge of the U.S. Army told lawmakers May 18, but what that is remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Pentagon leaders have found that despite their efforts to persuade them, Italian and German officials will not support terminating the program early, Army Secretary John McHugh told Senate appropriators.
LOST AIRCRAFT: Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) lost out on buying 439 aircraft between fiscal 2003 and 2010 due to ever-growing program costs crowding out procurement, the vice admiral in charge of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ aviation acquisition command told the Aviation Week Affordability Requirements conference May 18. Vice Adm.
HOUSTON — Endeavour’s crew unloaded the first of their primary payloads, the spare parts-laden Express Logistics Carrier-3, onto the International Space Station on May 18, shortly after shuttle commander Mark Kelly maneuvered the 247,000-lb. orbiter to a smooth docking. The ELC-3 operations, methodically completed at 12:09 p.m., within 6 hr. of the docking, cleared the way for a similar transfer of the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer from Endeavour’s cargo bay to the station’s starboard solar power truss early on May 19.
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are embracing the U.S. Navy’s Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) program as a way to break the Lockheed Martin Aegis system’s lock on naval integrated ship and ballistic missile defense (BMD). But Lockheed officials point to their more than 40 years of experience developing and deploying Aegis as a reason the company should be favored for AMDR work.
MADRID — Airbus Military is preparing to flight test a C295-based airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) following a self-funded technology assessment effort. The concept foresees four-six operators. Prototype testing is to begin soon at the company’s Seville, Spain, facility. Three months of tests are planned, says Miguel-Angel Morrell Fuentes, head of engineering. The feasibility study was launched in the second half of 2010 and concluded around year’s end, before a decision was made to build the prototype.
SINGAPORE — MBDA will unveil the land-based launcher for its new Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) at September’s DSEi show in London, according to company officials at the Imdex Asia show in Singapore. A full-size mockup of the missile in its launch tube is making one of its first appearances at Imdex.
MADRID — The Royal Australian Air Force is likely to take delivery of its first two KC-30A tankers in June, marking the first customer handover of the Airbus Military A330-based refueler. Commercial talks between industry and the Australian government are under way to finalize the terms for the handover; but Antonio Caramazana, head of Airbus Military derivatives programs, notes that the second and third aircraft are ready.
A comparison of what it cost Space Exploration Technologies, Inc. (SpaceX) to develop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and the estimate of what it would cost NASA to do the same job, offers hope that NASA can focus on deep-space exploration and leave flights to low Earth orbit (LEO) to the private sector, according to a member of the outside panel that reviewed U.S. human spaceflight plans for President Barack Obama.
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report acknowledges that reliability concerns with the U.S. Navy Virginia-class attack submarines could continue to be an issue for Congress, although it cites other reports saying the Navy is addressing perceived problems. Navy program officials have maintained for some time that the submarines are among the most reliable in the fleet. “Another oversight issue for Congress concerns the reliability of in-service Virginia-class boats,” CRS says in its updated report on the submarines, released in April.
BETTER BUYING: The principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics reiterated May 17 that the Pentagon is not targeting industry profit margins – but he stressed that contractors, particularly primes, will be harder-pressed to show they deserve them from now on. “I am not opposed to high margins at all, if they are earned,” Frank Kendall told the Aviation Week Affordability Requirements conference in Washington.
Lawmakers are taking aim at the U.S. Air Force’s effort to buy aircraft to train foreign militaries, known as the Light Attack Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) program, due to concerns about its legality and the Pentagon’s “disjointed approach” to buying the aircraft. USAF has asked for $158.5 million to buy nine LAAR aircraft in fiscal 2012, with the eventual goal of buying 15.
SEVILLE, Spain — Airbus Military is looking at logging about another 1,000 flight-test hours on the A400M program to reach its target of commercial type certification before year’s end. At that point, the aircraft maker also plans to present data to customers for the initial operational clearance, the capability standard that will be delivered on the first three French air force and first Turkish air force aircraft in 2013. “We are very confident we will achieve the type certificate at the end of this year,” says program head Cedric Gautier.
NASA will fund research payloads on test flights of a pair of commercial suborbital reusable launch vehicles as its microgravity flight opportunity program moves beyond parabolic flights in aircraft.
SEVILLE, Spain — Despite a lull in new orders this year for light and medium-sized transports, Airbus Military expects to see double-digit sales growth in the sector this decade, with further growth in the 2020s. In the short term, “budget constraints are affecting the market quite heavily,” but in the longer term, “we expect increasing volume” of sales, says Antonio Rodriguez Barberan, commercial senior vice president. Growth patterns are expected both for the transport role and for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, he notes.
An Argentine satellite with a U.S.-built primary instrument will begin measuring the salinity of Earth’s oceans with unprecedented detail this summer, provided its planned June 9 launch goes well.
After battling instrument delays, NASA’s Npoess Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite has emerged from its last major prelaunch hurdle, a two-month-long thermal vacuum test, and is on track for an Oct. 25 liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
