UAV AMENDMENTS: Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) wants to require FAA to develop air traffic control requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles while Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wants to expand the number of test sites in the agency’s UAV pilot project from four to 10. The senators offered amendments last week as the Senate swiftly began debating the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement bill (S.223). Both amendments were pending as of late Feb. 4.
The U.S. Marine Corps is testing an electronic-attack payload on the AAI RQ-7B Shadow as it expands the tactical unmanned aerial vehicle’s capability to meet urgent needs emerging from operations in Afghanistan. Testing at Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona is being conducted under the Corporal joint capability technology demonstration (JCTD) with the U.S. Army. To be completed in June, this involves a long-wing Shadow with a pair of underwing pods for communications relay, signals intelligence and electronic attack.
The U.S. Army announced Feb. 4 its decision to “no longer pursue the Unattended Ground Sensors and the Class 1 Unmanned Air System” as part of the Early-Infantry Brigade Combat Team (E-IBCT) program, the follow-on program that grew out of the cancellation of the Future Combat Systems suite of networked sensors and unmanned assets.
GOES-R: The Lockheed Martin Space Systems preliminary design for the GOES-R weather satellite series has been approved. The company is under contract for two spacecraft with two options. The critical design review is expected early next year. First launch is set for 2015.
HOUSTON — NASA and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly announced Feb. 4 that the veteran shuttle flier will remain the commander of the STS-134 shuttle mission to the International Space Station, while his wife, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, recovers from the gunshot wound she received at a Jan. 8 Tucson political rally.
Feb. 16-17, 2011 Hilton Embassy Row Washington, DC Learn where priorities and opportunities exist beyond the 2012 defense budget. Hear from top military officers from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, and examine methodology from the world’s largest defense manufacturers and service providers. -- Discover potential growth areas -- Learn about evolving requirements -- Learn about areas of global defense growth
PARIS — Orbital Sciences Corp. has inked a preliminary agreement to pre-purchase capacity for hosted payloads on Iridium’s second-generation mobile satellite constellation, making it the first piggyback payload customer to sign on for the system.
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft is being refined to locate very small targets at long range, which gives it the potential to counter stealth designs such as China’s J-20 strike aircraft and its low-observable cruise missile.
China’s J-20 stealthy fighter prototype “is at the heavy end of the fighter scale, leaving ample room for medium and light platforms” as follow-on stealth designs to be issued by Beijing’s aerospace industry, says Douglas Barrie, senior fellow at The International Institute for Strategic Studies. These follow-on aircraft may also be the vehicles for developing more all-aspect low observability.
NEW DELHI — India’s Nishant Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has completed a series of confirmation trials conducted by the Indian army at Chandan Range Pokharan in western India. The recent successful flight trials were conducted by the army before taking delivery of a set of four Nishant UAVs and ground systems. More orders are expected.
CONSERVATIVE SPENDING: House Republicans have outlined Fiscal 2011 defense and homeland security spending goals that are only 1% over 2010 enacted levels, but 2% under President Barack Obama’s request for the current fiscal year. A combined amount proffered for defense, homeland security, military construction and veteran affairs totals $634.91 billion, not including warfighting supplemental spending. By comparison, President Obama sought $650.57 billion and Congress and the White House agreed to $627.26 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010.
By leveraging commercial computer software and processor development and combining them with modular construction techniques on its new Virginia-class attack submarines, the U.S. Navy is fielding some of the most advanced sonar the service has seen thus far for its sub fleet, according to Lockheed Martin, the sonar contractor.
AID QUESTIONED: U.S. military aid to some Middle Eastern allies, including Egypt and Israel, has suddenly come under public reassessment in Washington as Arab uprisings, U.S. budget pressures and political differences combine to call into question the annual donations. While aid is not expected to be cut to these countries any time soon, the public discussion has spotlighted the billions of dollars of aid provided to the allies and others like Lebanon.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Robert Bigelow, hotelier and space entrepreneur, came here to Cape Canaveral on Feb. 2 with a plan to help keep Florida’s Space Coast afloat.
BENGALURU, India — Bengaluru is living up to its name as the “Aviation Capital of India,” with the Karnataka government detailing its plans for a dedicated aerospace park near the new Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli.
As the U.S. Navy refines and deploys several types of unmanned undersea and surface vessels, the service is still in the hunt for more rugged sensors, better propulsion systems and open-architecture host vehicles capable of deploying smaller unmanned systems. The service also is interested in greater endurance and more reliable ways to refuel or recover unmanned equipment, Navy brass told attendees Feb. 3 at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Unmanned Systems Program Review 2011 in Washington.
MOSCOW — The Russian Geo-IK-2 military satellite intended for geodetic measurements was delivered to an incorrect orbit by a Rockot launch vehicle with a Briz-KM upper stage on Feb. 1. The spacecraft, designed by ISS Reshetnev, was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 5 p.m. Moscow time. The first two stages of the Rockot reportedly worked properly, then the Briz-KM upper stage with the satellite attached lost radio contact with mission controllers, who could not find the satellite in its planned position during its next orbit.
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia is finally fielding its first early warning and control aircraft — the Boeing/Northrop Grumman Wedgetail — which will tie together the air force’s airborne network-centric organization when it becomes operational later this year. But depending on how you count, it is arriving 4-5 years late. The Australian military was stunned in 2006 to discover that the Wedgetail’s large, long-range radar still needed both hardware and software improvements.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Hatsoff helicopter training facility announced Feb. 2 the arrival of a simulator cockpit for the civil/conventional variant of the Dhruv helicopter. The cockpit was designed and built at CAE Inc.’s manufacturing facility in Montreal. The Dhruv simulator cockpit will be installed and integrated with the CAE-built full-mission simulator currently in operation at Hatsoff. The simulator features CAE’s roll-on/roll-off cockpit design, which enables cockpits representing various helicopter types to be used in the simulator.
While the U.S. Navy has continued to make improvements to its F/A-18 electronic attack variant — the EA-18G Growler — the service has yet to prove the aircraft is suitable for operations, says a recent report by the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). At the same time, DOT&E notes another Navy electronic warfare aircraft, the EA-6B Prowler, is suitable, despite testing limitations faced by the program.
BENGALURU, India — Indian defense public sector undertaking (PSU) Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) expects to open its new facility in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Feb. 8.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved development of a higher-power version of the Alphabus large satellite platform intended to help Europe’s satellite makers keep up with high-power models offered by U.S. suppliers such as Space Systems/Loral and Boeing or planned by newcomers like China’s Avic. ESA will invest €37.5 million ($51.8 million) in the undertaking, while French space agency CNES and manufacturers EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, which will market the technology, will kick in matching amounts.
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — In just its first four months of operation, the Kepler orbiting observatory has identified 1,235 candidate planets, including five in orbit in a habitable zone around a slightly smaller, cooler star than our Sun.
