IT NEXUS: A conflagration of trends may yet upset the Pentagon’s drive toward getting a handle on its information technology (IT), analysts at federal IT consultancy Deltek said May 4. The convergence of tightening budgets, IT acquisition reform, shifting warfighting requirements, and the move toward IT integration and standardization – all happening simultaneously – could both facilitate and hinder the Defense Department’s progress toward its goal of total IT transformation.
Los Angeles – ATK is gradually gearing up production of composite parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from three ship sets per month to eight under a $110 million contract from JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
Houston – Funeral services were conducted May 4 near Milan, Italy, for Maria Nespoli, the mother of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who is serving onboard the International Space Station. She died May 2, according to a European Space Agency statement. Expedition 27 commander Dimitri Kondratyev of Russia, NASA’s Catherine Coleman and Nespoli are scheduled to descend to Earth onboard the Soyuz TMA-20/25S spacecraft on May 23, ending a 160-day mission.
LONDON – French military test personnel have demonstrated the AASM air-to-ground precision-guided munition’s ability to engage a fast-moving ground vehicle even in difficult engagement scenarios.
LONDON – Airbus Military and the Europrop International (EPI) joint venture developing and building the TP400D turboprop engine for the A400 military airlifter have resolved their dispute over contract terms. The two sides were sparring over liabilities linked to A400M delays and cost overruns. The dispute included competing legal filings, although those were quickly set aside to arrive at an out-of-court settlement.
The Pentagon and the National Nuclear Security Administration have made progress in studying and updating the military’s performance requirements for the B61 nuclear bomb and have even ruled out some design options, congressional investigators say, but the broad scope of their study has complicated the looming refurbishment effort. Key components of the B61 – a pivotal part of the U.S. arsenal, especially for NATO – need to be replaced or they will begin reaching the end of their service life.
houston – Endeavour’s second launch attempt will come no earlier than May 10, shuttle and International Space Station program managers decided May 2, following a detailed look at plans to replace Loads Control Assembly-2, an electronics box blamed for last week’s scrub. A retest of the new hardware will also be conducted. A May 10 launch would be targeted for 11:21 a.m. EDT.
Los Angeles – In a last-ditch bid to keep the F136 combat engine alive following cancellation by the U.S. Defense Department, General Electric and Rolls-Royce are developing a plan to convert the development effort into a self-funded demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force’s long-range bomber as well as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
EXPORTS ON: Based on direct commercial sales data, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs expects little change in the high foreign demand for U.S. military products, an official said May 3. Andrew Shapiro, the undersecretary who heads the bureau, says officials expect to grant about 84,000 export licenses this year, equaling the range of 80,000-85,000 granted annually over the last several years. The total value of authorized direct commercial sales is approximately $145 billion, or about 1% of GDP.
LONDON – Signatories to the Missile Technology Control Regime should rethink the terms of the pact because the capabilities no longer deserve their protected status, says Wes Bush, president and CEO of Northrop Grumman. The MTCR “merits a completely fresh look,” the head of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft-producing company tells the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Changes to the MTCR could spur the sale of long-endurance unmanned aircraft.
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A set of rigid requirements doomed the VH-71 program from the start, but the presidential helicopter replacement program now appears to be back on track, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report states.
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New Delhi – The Indian air force’s fleet modernization is on track, and it is inevitable that the IAF will have three or four different types of aircraft, IAF Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik says. “In the next 10 to 15 years, India will have Sukhoi SU-30s, the medium multirole combat aircraft, the fifth-generation fighter aircraft jointly being developed with Russia, and the indigenous light combat aircraft (Tejas) in the IAF inventory,” Naik says.
New Delhi – India’s space agency has developed a supercomputer to tackle complex aerospace problems and other launch issues. The SAGA-220 – or the Supercomputer for Aerospace with GPU Architecture – will be the country’s fastest supercomputer in terms of theoretical peak performance of 220 trillion floating point operations per second, or TeraFLOPS. It will be used by space scientists to ensure that space-related calculations take place more quickly, says S. Satish, spokesman of the Bengaluru-based Indian Space and Research Organization.
Washington – A mock Soyuz countdown is underway at the European spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, validating ground operations up to but not including fueling of one of the first two Russian launch vehicles to reach the equatorial launch site on the north coast of South America.
JFCOM SPINOFFS: The Pentagon on May 2 announced the reassignment of several U.S. Joint Forces Command (Jfcom) organizations and functions. The organizational transfer of authority includes reassignments like realigning the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command to Transportation Command, the Joint Warfare Analysis Center to Strategic Command, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency to the Air Force, and the NATO School to European Command.
Washington – Despite a tight veil of security being thrown over Boeing’s Phantom Ray unmanned aircraft demonstration program, several industry officials say the stealth-shaped aircraft made its first flight at Edwards AFB, Calif., on April 27.
