CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) released a promotional video on March 31 that previews the unveiling of a new member of the Falcon rocket family, a heavy lifter that will compete with United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets. Details about the Falcon Heavy will be released on April 5. SpaceX’s website (www.spacex.com) describes the Falcon Heavy as being capable of lifting more than 32,000 kg (70,500 lb.) to low Earth orbit and more than 19,500 kg to geostationary transfer orbit.
High-end and low-end U.S. Air Force programs are in line for scrutiny as Congress considers the fiscal 2012 budget request. Lawmakers already are facing the toughest budget negotiations in more than a decade, and the mood to trim the deficit is likely to remain. So at $718 million, the Air Force request to modernize the F-22 Raptor is a tempting line item in the Air Force budget.
The larger launch tubes in the redesigned Virginia-class submarines will provide the U.S. Navy with a much greater array of payload choices, according to two retired Navy captains who now work for General Dynamics’ Electric Boat, one of the contractors building the subs.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A last-minute mechanical issue, not related to the scramjet, prevented the second flight attempt of the X-51 demonstrator on March 24, says Curtis Berger, hypersonics program director for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The Air Force says the next flight-test attempt from Edwards AFB, Calif., will be rescheduled following a check of the system, and when range and test assets can again be aligned. “We don’t know when that will be yet,” Berger adds.
As the U.S. Navy begins to design the SSBN(X) — the next class of ballistic-missile submarines — the service needs to define requirements with a keen eye toward life-cycle costs and tube-launching options, according to former Navy officers. Slated to enter the service in 2028, the program could cost as much as $13 billion to research, develop and manufacture the lead boat, with subsequent boats costing about $7 billion apiece to procure, notes Rear Adm. (ret.) Frank Lacroix in an article included in the Navy League’s latest Submarine Review.
BENGALURU, India — India’s defense ministry is embarking upon a pilot program aimed at developing radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based smart cards for Indian army, navy and air force personnel. The ministry will choose a consultant contractor for the project, which will have to analyze existing access control systems, infrastructure, processes across locations and software requirements for each military service.
Engineers reviewing options for a heavy-lift NASA Space Launch System (SLS) to replace the canceled Ares V will make their final selection no sooner than late June, a pace that is sure to add to the irritation among those in Congress who believe the U.S. space agency is moving too slowly on the big new rocket.
BENGALURU, India — India will soon join a select group of nations that have an exclusive Seakeeping and Maneuvering Basin (SMB) facility for testing models of ships in simulated ocean conditions. The SMB will be part of the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), situated in the South Indian coastal city of Visakhapatnam. The SMB is due to open by 2014.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will be evaluating the Dhruv helicopter simulator cockpit during the last week of April. Currently being integrated at the Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (Hatsoff) facility in Bengaluru, the Dhruv simulator was designed and built at CAE’s facility in Montreal.
LONDON — On March 31 the World Trade Organization (WTO) is due to unveil its findings in the European Union (EU) case against Boeing over aircraft subsidies. The WTO has already issued the public report on the case that the U.S. brought against Airbus via its EU proxy, and this will be the first public pronouncement by the trade body on the counter case. The draft ruling was issued in September, and the final one in January, which has been kept under wraps until translated into all formal WTO languages.
Affordability as a Requirement Complimentary Webinar: Wednesday, March 30, 2011, 1:00 p.m. EDT Going forward, programs will be designed for affordability, not desire. Unaffordable technical requirements will be discarded at program inception. This webinar will familiarize attendees with DoD’s new processes, and focus on affordability as a requirement for doing business www.aviationweek.com/events
GENOA, Italy — Italy’s Avio has unveiled 2010 results, with revenues stable at €1.75 billion ($2.5 billion) and operating results growing by 9.1% to €340 million, showing the positive effect of cost-cutting measures. The company has been able to cut its debt burden by more than 4% to €1.48 billion and has increased its order book to a record €6 billion. The company’s R&D investment stood at more than €100 million.
COMPUTER SUPPORT: NASA is exercising the third one-year option on a contract with Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) of Lanham, Md., to provide supercomputing support services to NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The option is valued at $58.6 million, and extends CSC’s work until March 31, 2012. The original contract featured a two-year base period that began Aug. 1, 2007, and eight one-year options bringing the potential total value to $597 million.
GENOA, Italy — By early July, Finmeccanica will have completed yet another step in its streamlining and consolidaton effort, this time focusing on its defense electronics businesses.
CAPTURING MERCURY: NASA’s Messenger probe has completed its first orbital imaging pass at the planet Mercury, sending back a look at a portion of the south polar region never before imaged from a spacecraft. The image was the first of a series collected over a six-hr. period as controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Columbia, Md., began the on-orbit checkout phase of the spacecraft and its instruments. The mission’s science phase begins on April 4 with the start of continuous global mapping of Mercury.
BENGALURU, India — The Defense Research and Development Organization’s (DRDO) Center for Airborne Systems (CABS) has begun integrating the indigenous mission systems for India’s modified EMB-145 Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft. The Indian air force will have three AEW&C aircraft by 2013; the first is due to arrive in the country by year’s end. Embraer unveiled the AEW&C aircraft in Brazil on Feb. 21.
MOSCOW — A top executive of the Russian KBM machine-building design bureau has confirmed that his company supplied Libyan government forces with the truck-mounted short-range anti-aircraft Igla-S (SA-24 Grinch) missiles recently spotted by the international media. Kolomna-based KBM is the designer of this system, as well as its predecessors, the Strela and Igla family of portable surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and has a government permit to export its products directly, without the help of Russia’s Rosoboronexport arms trade agency.
Japan’s IHI Corp. has resumed some operations at its two aero-engine factories in Soma and hopes to get its whole operation in the earthquake-struck city back online by May. Progressive repair work is under way at the Soma No. 1 and No. 2 Aero-Engine works, says an official from IHI’s aero-engine and space operations. Damage in some parts of the factories was relatively light. Production has partly resumed in those areas, including the machining of engine disks, the official says.
LONDON — The Pentagon has granted the Dutch defense ministry another month to decide whether to purchase a second F-35 test aircraft. The deadline for executing the contract was March 31, but the Dutch defense minister, Hans Hillen, tells parliament that the Pentagon has extended the deadline until the end of April.
The Pentagon is increasingly making decisions that better position “most” new or planned weapons programs to succeed, congressional auditors say, but half of the total major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) still do not meet cost-performance goals agreed to by the auditors, the Defense Department and the White House.
NEW DELHI — Japan will not take part in a joint naval exercise with India and the U.S. next month as its navy ramps up relief efforts after the massive earthquake and tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people and threatened to trigger a nuclear disaster. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force was supposed to participate in the Malabar series of war games from April 2-10 off Okinawa.
