AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE: Australia is proceeding with more than $1 billion worth of better battlefield communications but is also cutting 1,000 civilian defense personnel positions to give at least A$300 million over three years back to the nation’s budget. The jobs will be lost through attrition. Meanwhile, the government late last week said it gave first-pass approval to Joint Project 2072 Phase 2B, the communications upgrade effort, which is expected to cost A$100-$500 million. Final approval is expected around 2014.
The first Space Based Infrared System (Sbirs) missile warning satellite has executed the first of six liquid apogee engine (LAE) burns needed for the spacecraft to reach geosynchronous orbit, says Col. Roger Teague, Sbirs program manager for the U.S. Air Force.
A United Space Alliance engineer who died March 14 at Kennedy Space Center after falling from the 215-ft. level of Launch Pad 39A committed suicide, the Brevard County Medical Examiner’s Office says. Investigators determined that James Vanover, 53, of Titusville, Fla., had been depressed and believed he was going blind. A note in his wallet to his wife and children said he did not want to be a burden to them, the report says. “A review of his clinical charts reveals distorted vision, dryness, pain/soreness and tired eyes,” the report says.
Aviation Week A&D Finance Europe September 12, 2011 The Landmark Hotel, London, UK This event will provide a venue for major aerospace and defense companies in Europe and the USA to reach European institutional investors and secure funding for projects. Attend and benefit from high level networking opportunities and access to first-hand information on key industry developments and intelligence on your peers and competitors.
London – Europrop International (EPI) has received the civil type certificate for its TP400 – D6 turboprop from the European Aviation Safety Agency. The military qualification of the engine is due toward year’s end, although much of the focus for the engine team this year will be on support of Airbus Military to achieve civil certification of the A400M, EPI president Simon Henley says.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) terminated the LPD 17 Class multi-ship, multi-option (MSMO) maintenance contract with prime contractor Earl Industries of Norfolk, Va., the command said May 6, because of Navy findings of improper work performed, concern regarding Earl Industries’ quality assurance program and the company’s ability to control the quality and documentation of work it performs.
SBIRS SCRUBBED: Launch of the first U.S. Air Force Space-Based Infrared System satellite, slated for May 6 at Cape Canaveral, was scrubbed due to weather. At issue were cumulus clouds that failed to clear by the end of the launch window close to 3 p.m. Officials are planning to attempt a launch on May 6 between 2:10-2:50 p.m. Once launched, Sbirs is slated to be certified to warn of ballistic missile attack within 18 months.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 9 - 12 — Naval Helicopter Association 2011, Centennial of Naval Aviation Symposium, Town & Country Resort and Conference Center, San Diego, Calif. For more information call (619) 435-7139 or go to www.navalhelicopterassn.org/2011-nha-symposium
Houston – Top NASA managers set May 16 at 8:56 a.m., EDT, as the new target date for launching Endeavour’s delayed STS-134 mission to the International Space Station with the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and external spare parts. Endeavour’s final flight, STS-134, was also formally extended from 14 to 16 days. A full countdown is set to begin May 13.
London – Balancing arms control and commercial interests is difficult in the best of times, but at a time of shrinking budgets – when foreign sales take on added industrial importance – the issue becomes even more complicated. One place where that is already playing out is in Washington, where discussions on reforming export controls are in full swing. There may also be additional pressure for changes at the international level.
Washington – Northrop Grumman is planning to publicly unveil its secret Firebird aircraft later this month at the Pentagon’s Empire Challenge, an exercise designed to demonstrate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies that can be fielded quickly. Despite mature work in the unmanned rotorcraft, airship and high-altitude UAS markets, company officials have remained unsatisfied with the dominance of General Atomics in the medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAS market with its Predator, Reaper and Gray Eagle designs.
NASA’s $700 million Gravity Probe B (GP-B) experiment has demonstrated two key aspects of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, but not to the hoped-for degree of confidence because of the complexity of making the extremely subtle measurements in space. The project generated valuable technology and scientific spin-offs, including 100 new Ph.D. scientists whose graduate work contributed to GPB. It also taught some important lessons on the risks associated with tackling such an ambitious project.
The Navy signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Army on May 2 transferring all five of the Army’s Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) to the Navy. “This agreement with the Army demonstrates our commitment to reducing redundancies and saving money for the taxpayer,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a statement, calling the MOA “a responsible step.” Army Secretary John McHugh said in a statement, “The transfer of the JHSV is about aligning our core competencies, while at the same time realizing a measure of managerial efficiency.
DISCOVERY MISSION: Science teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Proxemy Research Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., and the University of Maryland will get $3 million each from NASA to advance concepts for a Discovery-class planetary mission in 2016. JPL’s Geophysical Monitoring Station, headed by Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt, would study the interior structure of Mars. The Titan Mare Explorer proposed by Ellen Stofan of Proxemy Research would land in a hydrocarbon sea on Saturn’s moon Titan.
Washington – The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee praised General Electric and Rolls-Royce for offering to fund the remaining stages of development for its F136 engine – which the Defense Department has canceled – and said the U.S. government should continue to let the companies operate at government facilities.
The helicopter that crashed in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan was not undone by a mechanical failure or a pilot problem, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday. The helicopter, which appears from published photographs to be an H-60 Black Hawk, crashed into the wall of the compound and ran into problems with a 15-deg. difference in temperature in the courtyard’s compound. “They couldn’t hold the hover,” said McKeon, who has received a briefing on the mission’s details.
