HOUSTON — Discovery’s astronauts sped toward a rendezvous with the International Space Station on Feb. 25, as they carried out pre-scheduled post-launch damage inspections of the heat shielding on the orbiter’s wing and upper fuselage. Shuttle commander Steve Lindsey and his crew are on course to dock with the orbiting science laboratory on Feb. 26 at 2:19 p.m. EST. The linkup will unite a dozen U.S., Russian and Italian astronauts for at least of week of joint operations.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Mar. 7 — SpeedNews Aerospace Raw Materials and Manufacturers Supply Chain Conference, Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, Calif. For more information go to www.speednews.com MAR. 8 — Aviation Week Laureate Awards, Andrew Melllon Auditorium, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
PARIS — The Eumetsat member states have given final approval to a new geostationary weather satellite system that will ensure improved weather and climate forecasting for the next three decades. On Feb. 25, Belgium, the lone holdout, agreed to release funds for the space segment of the €2.8 billion ($3.8 billion) project, permitting full-scale development to proceed.
NASA WORRIES: Like everyone else in Washington, NASA managers are braced for political bloodletting as Congress tries to keep the government funded past March 4, when the current continuing resolution ends. Going in, NASA has another week operating at its fiscal 2010 rate — $18.7 billion, the same as requested for fiscal 2012. But lawmakers have to appropriate funds for the rest of this fiscal year first.
U.S. Navy officials failed to properly compete multimillion-dollar contracts for overseas ship maintenance work, according to a recent report by the Pentagon Inspector General (IG). The IG reviewed 14 contracts worth a total of $35.3 million for Navy ship maintenance in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and found issues relating to competition, price reasonableness determinations, and appropriate and effective quality assurance.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Congress’s inability to pass new budget appropriations for fiscal 2011 has been detrimental to the U.S. Army’s force modernization plans, according to several three-star generals. At the Association of the U.S. Army symposium on Feb. 24, Lt. Gen. William Phillips of the Army Acquisition Corps said continuing resolutions are “one of the most inefficient ways of doing business” and that being forced to move money out of some programs and into others is “going to cause [modernization and equipment reset] schedules to move to the right.”
PARIS — Thales will redeploy space-related activities at Thales Alenia Space (TAS) to enable the Franco-Italian space contractor to establish a significant presence in Germany. In releasing final 2010 results Feb. 25, Chairman/CEO Luc Vigneron said the company will transfer undisclosed equipment activities to TAS so it can build up an industrial base in Germany that will allow it to bid more effectively for German and European institutional awards. The activity will “just be a kernel initially,” he says, “but will grow over time.”
LCA MODELING: Ignis Aerospace & Design is working on computer modeling of the flow field around India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk. II. Known as “meshing,” this process helps simulate pressure distribution over the aircraft using computational fluid dynamics tools. “There are other teams working on aircraft structures, axis machining, software development, and the independent verification and validation process,” says Nihar Ranjan Samantara, founding director of Ignis Group and a former scientist with the Defense Research and Development Organization.
PARIS — Thales says deliveries of the Watchkeeper UAV will get under way toward year’s end. Handover of the system, intended for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance, had been expected in February but were delayed by some as-yet-undisclosed “technical difficulties,” Thales executives said Feb. 25 in revealing 2010 final results. Executives say the issues were detected in a report issued by Britain’s National Audit Office and have now been resolved.
This year could be marked by more mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the aerospace and defense industries as companies grapple with flattening defense budgets worldwide, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says. In the large, developed economies of the world, flattening defense budgets are changing the landscape and will heat up dealmaking in 2011, PwC says. According to Scott Thompson, PwC U.S. aerospace and defense lead, consolidation at the top tier has been played out, but significant room remains among second- and third-tier companies.
Fewer meetings, less bureaucracy and a laser-like focus on user needs are among the characteristics shared by successful companies and military programs, according to a report from the Defense Science Board. Led by chairman Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon’s former acquisition chief, the DSB studied successful and unsuccessful commercial companies and military programs in an effort to make the military more adaptable.
PARIS — Safran is predicting that sustained defense and security business, coupled with an ongoing rebound in original equipment manufacturer sales in the civil market, will put Safran back on a growth curve after a couple of years of flat activity.
HOUSTON — Shuttle Discovery thundered away from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the last time on Feb. 24, piercing the sunny Florida skies with the final pieces of the International Space Station (ISS) and a legacy already rich in achievement. NASA’s oldest orbiter at 27 years, Discovery lifted off on its 39th flight at 4:53 p.m. EST and climbed steeply on a northeasterly trajectory that will lead to a 13th docking with the orbiting science laboratory on Feb. 26 at 2:16 p.m. EST.
Additional capabilities beyond the mandatory requirements were not a factor in the U.S. Air Force’s selection of Boeing’s 767-based tanker, now designated the KC-46A, as the service’s KC-X replacement aerial refueler, Pentagon officials said late Feb. 24. EADS North America’s larger Airbus A330-based KC-45A, winner of the previous KC-X competition, was the losing bidder. Officials announced the Boeing award shortly after 5 p.m. EST in Washington.
FRENCH UAVs: Safran says its Sagem defense unit will supply three additional Sperwer Mk II tactical unmanned aerial vehicles to the French army. The sale, which includes five vehicles on option plus associated ground remote video terminals (RVTs), will reinforce France’s Afghan contingent and provide more systems for training. The aircraft will be equipped with Euroflir 350+ optronics suites. Sagem also will modernize a batch of RVT remote terminals ordered in 2009 under the deal. The French army has used the UAV in Afghanistan since 2008.
EUCOM COST: A new U.S. Government Accountability Office report to the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee says that Defense Department posture guidance for the U.S. European Command (Eucom) does not include comprehensive cost data, so “DOD lacks critical information that could be used by decision makers as they deliberate posture requirements.” The Pentagon in 2004 announced a reduced military posture in Europe, and current Defense Secretary Robert Gates has criticized the continued size of military leadership based there.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Northrop Grumman is scheduled to cut some of the first bits of steel Feb. 25 for the aircraft carrier now designated CVN-79, the second of the next-generation Ford-class carriers, formerly known as the CVN-21. The Ford-class carriers use essentially the same hull as their predecessors, the Nimitz-class ships, but with a series of ship-wide modifications that are meant to cut manpower and costs while making operations more efficient.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli thinks the M1 Abrams tank is a good model on which to base the service’s upcoming Ground Combat Vehicle, since the Abrams has remained relevant and useful across a range of scenarios even though it has been in service for more than 30 years. The Abrams “has had incremental builds” while remaining “a platform that still shows great potential for growth,” Chiarelli said Feb. 23 during a speech at the Association of the U.S. Army symposium here.
SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — Embraer is closely watching reaction to Boeing’s win of the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X tanker contest to assess whether there could be any political effect on its bid to win a significant Air Force contract over a U.S. competitor. The Brazilian manufacturer is competing against Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft for a potential $950 million Air Force contract to supply up to 55 light-attack/advanced-trainer aircraft for training and equipping foreign air forces.
The European Space Agency’s Johannes Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV-2) successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at midmorning on Feb. 24. The ATV-2, launched Feb. 16, linked with the station’s aft docking port at 10:59 a.m. EST, as the two spacecraft sailed 220 mi. over the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of the Liberian coast. The linkup was delayed several minutes to correctly align a video tracking device.
NEW DELHI — Israel’s defense industry is further cementing ties with India, with New Delhi’s decision to equip the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) with the Rafael Derby as the baseline beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (Bvraam). Opting for the Israeli Bvraam weapon is supposed to help the Tejas reach its full operational clearance by December 2012. Indian officials last year already gave up on the notion of using the indigenous Astra missile as the main Bvraam, due to development problems.
SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — Selection of the major suppliers for the Embraer KC-390 is expected in March, with the joint definition phase for the Brazilian tanker/transport program scheduled to begin in May. Embraer has issued reports recommending suppliers for the main systems, including avionics and engines, to the Brazilian air force, which is funding development of the KC-390 and has the final decision on selecting industrial partners and major suppliers for the program.
