KC-390: Embraer has begun announcing major suppliers for the KC-390 tanker/transport, awarding DRS Defense Solutions a contract to develop the cargo handling and aerial delivery system. The Brazilian manufacturer is expected to announce suppliers for five major aircraft systems, including engines and avionics, before launching the joint definition phase in May. Embraer is developing the KC-390 under a $1.8 billion contract from the Brazilian air force.
LONDON — An industry group working on a study for the European Defense Agency (EDA) is drafting recommendations for governments to help preserve brittle European aerospace and defense capabilities. The Saab-led group crafting the “Future Air System for Europe” began its work last September and is due to finish in October 2011. The goal is to have a road map and implementation plan to show EDA member states how to sustain skills, says John Mattiussi, the agency’s principal officer for the defense industry.
HOUSTON — Lockheed Martin unveiled its suburban Denver Space Operations Simulation Center (SOSC) on March 21, a large development, evaluation and testing facility for NASA’s Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Lockheed hopes to launch Orion on its first test flight in 2013 and prepare for congressionally mandated operations by the end of 2016.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) particle detector, a $2 billion collaborative project by 16 nations, has been moved to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A, where space shuttle Endeavour is being prepared to lift off on the STS-134 mission on April 19. Once mounted to the International Space Station’s (ISS) S3 Truss, AMS is to spend the next 10-20 years looking at high-energy particles from cosmic sources. Among the ambitious research goals is to prove or disprove the existence of antimatter.
Boeing’s hold on a $323 million intelligence aircraft project for the U.S. Army has been dealt a blow after a government audit showed procurement missteps in the source selection.
RETURN TO FLIGHT: Deeming it a “recovery show,” Paris Air Show organizers say the June 20-26 event will help mark the revival of the global aerospace and defense industry. They said March 22 that an Su-30 is expected to fly, and possibly a Su-32, while the Pentagon will show off at least 13 aircraft, including Lockheed Martin F-16Cs, Boeing F-15Es, a Lockheed C-130J, and a Boeing C-17A. Several Bell Helicopter Textron military helicopters also will be exhibited.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) and XCOR Aerospace are planning a joint effort to develop a low-cost, upper-stage engine in the same class as the venerable RL-10, using technology XCOR is developing for its planned Lynx suborbital spaceplane. The two companies have been testing actively cooled aluminum nozzles that XCOR is developing for its liquid oxygen/kerosene 5K18 engine for the Lynx, a reusable two-seat piloted vehicle the company plans to use for commercial research and tourist flights.
BEIJING — The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has sent two Boeing C-17 Globemasters to Japan with a water cannon system for cooling at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station. The apparently urgent deployment follows the dispatch immediately after the March 11 earthquake of another Australian C-17 to Japan for disaster relief missions. It also comes less than a week after the government decided that the RAAF’s four C-17s were so useful that it should buy a fifth.
Based on two recent reports, the U.S. Navy should revisit its long-term shipbuilding plan and the way it looks at constructing its vessels. At the very least, the Navy must get a better grasp on just how many ships it wants or needs in the coming three decades — and for which missions those ships need to be built.
BEIJING – Power cuts are a bigger problem for Fuji Heavy Industries than earthquake and tsunami damage to suppliers, Fuji says in remarks suggesting that aerospace supply-chain problems in Japan will be temporary. All of Fuji’s product lines are influenced by the difficulties, says a spokesman for the company, whose aerospace products include Japanese military aircraft and major assemblies for foreign aircraft builders, including Boeing.
BENGALURU, India — India’s defense ministry has introduced a bilateral proposal under the United Nations banner to combat the growing threat to marine assets being posed by pirates. This comes in the wake of the Indian navy recently capturing 61 Somali pirates from the Arabian Sea. The finer points of India’s new proposal figure in the ministry’s Annual Report for 2010-11 delivered to the Indian parliament. The report says the increased incidence of piracy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is an issue of serious concern.
When Congress returns to Washington next week, it will begin work on what is likely the last in a series of stopgap spending bills keeping the government running in this fiscal year, says Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.). The spending package is likely to include funding for the Defense Department, along with domestic programs. “I don’t see defense being pulled out,” the House Armed Services committee member said after remarks at the 9th Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference and Exhibit on March 21.
AIR FORCE L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Miss., is being awarded a $314,623.67 firm-fixed-price contract for contractor logistics support for the C-12 aircraft for Pacific Air Force, Air Force Material Command, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Defense Security Corporation Agency, consisting of maintenance, repair and support functions for seven months (including phase-in) from April 1 through Oct. 31, 2011. The location of performance is Madison. OC-ALC/GKSKH, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity (FA8106-11-D-0002-0001).
HOUSTON — Russian federal space agency Roscosmos has scheduled an early morning April 5 launch for the Soyuz TMA-21/26S spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) with cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev and NASA astronaut Ron Garan, following a review of a Kvant-V communications system failure. The launch with the three Expedition 27 crewmembers from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is slated for April 5 at 4:18 a.m. Moscow Standard Time, or April 4 at 6:18 p.m. EDT.
MDA BUDGET: Current stopgap bills are funding the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Ground-based Midcourse Defense program at a reduced budget of $320 million, says Rep.
The new Northrop Grumman shipbuilding spin-off, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), will feature a mixed bag of opportunity and risk. Starting out with no small amount of debt, HII is promoting the consistently financially rewarding nuclear shipbuilding work done by its Newport News, Va, yard and the promise of better – and more secure – performance from its Gulf yards.
LONDON — Even as the U.K. looks to be entering a new phase of Libyan operations with a heavier emphasis on direct attack rather than standoff weapons, the country is preparing for the possibility of having to quickly replenish some of its cruise missile inventory. The U.S. and U.K. have combined to fire more than 120 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles since the start of operations on March 19. The U.K.’s launches have come from a Trafalgar-class submarine.
LIBYAN OPS: U.S. Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, who heads up U.S Africa Command and is currently tasked with leading Operation Odyssey Dawn over Libya, told reporters March 21 that while the coalition had launched 12 more Tomahawk missiles and flown about 60 sorties over Libya during the day — over half of which were performed by European jets — “no one who is part of this coalition is on the ground.” He also said that aircraft from France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, and the U.K.
Though early work on the first two land-based “Aegis Ashore” missile defense sites was sole-sourced to Lockheed Martin, U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly says that the prime contractor on a third site will be selected through a competition. O’Reilly approved a justification for sole-source work based on the need to deploy the system quickly, by 2015. He made his comments in response to a question from an audience member at the 9th Missile Defense conference in Washington March 21.
LONDON — The Dutch defense ministry is projecting the 30-year life-cycle cost of operating 85 Joint Strike Fighters to be 12% higher than earlier estimates.
The U.S. Army will use a General Atomics’ MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAV this spring to flight-test a new system of multiple sensors that can be controlled by ground troops or aircraft crews. Called Triclops, the system adds a sensor under each wing to the fuselage sensor carried by UAVs. If Triclops works as well in flight as in the laboratory, the Army will deploy it to Afghanistan as soon as December so combat forces can test it in operations, says Tim Owings, Army deputy project manager for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
