PARIS — European space leaders say an improved governance setup will be needed if the European Union (EU) is to assume a lead role in space policy-making without stepping on the toes of the European Space Agency (ESA) and member states. And they want the EU role to embrace all aspects of space activity, including orbital research and access to space.
NETWORKING: The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, says the next big effort in cyber for the Pentagon is not in defending today’s systems but in building an entirely new networked infrastructure. “The network we are in is not defendable,” he tells an audience of investors at last week’s Credit Suisse/Aviation Week Aerospace & Defense finance conference. The Pentagon’s new network should not be bulletproof or simply allow for point defense.
NEVER MIND: NASA’s plans to subsidize commercial human spaceflight are off the table as a budget cut recommended by the bi-partisan co-chairs of the presidential National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson had suggested the move could save $6 billion, but they left advocates of NASA efforts to seed a commercial crew transport industry an out when they indicated they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the agency wants to do.
NEW YORK — Lockheed Martin officials say they are on track with the most recent low-rate initial production F-35 contract to reach the $60 million per F-35 price at peak production, if orders come in as they predicted.
Senators who hammered out the three-year NASA authorization bill signed by President Barack Obama Oct. 11 feel they were undercut by the space agency and mid-level White House aides, and will watch them closely as the lame-duck Congress works on legislation to fund the program.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian Air Force (IAF) soon will form its first squadron of the homegrown tactical Akash Missile System (AMS) at Gwalior Air Base. Bharat Electronics Ltd., the principal integrator for AMS, will hand over the first squadron next month. The IAF is expected to operate the system with the Mirage 2000. P.C. Jain, BEL’s general manager of Defense Radars, says his company has firm orders for two AMS squadrons of 48 missiles worth Rs 1,221 crore ($269.5 million).
Australia has placed the acquisition of Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (Jassm) for its Boeing F/A-18A/Bs on its “Projects of Concern” watch list because of delays. Project AIR 5418 Phase 1 was approved in 2004, and an initial operational capability against land targets was planned for this year. But the program is “running late and risks to capability remain,” the defense ministry says.
NEW YORK — The No. 2 military official in the United States says that industry and the Pentagon must change their cultures to value “scale,” or buying capabilities in quantities, although the incentive structure in contracting seemingly ignores it. “Scale has to be one of the attributes that we start to chase,” says U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright. He made his remarks in a speech to investors during the Credit Suisse/AVIATION WEEK Aerospace and Defense Finance conference here on Dec. 2.
PARIS – EADS Astrium has been awarded a €795 million ($1.05 billion) contract to build two very-high-resolution optical imaging intelligence (imint) satellites to replace France’s Helios 2 system. The first of the spacecraft, part of Europe’s planned Multinational Space-based System (Musis) optical/radar imint network, is to be launched in December 2016. One is to be used for high-resolution surveillance and the other for identification. Thales Alenia Space will supply the optics.
Quiet international interest has been expressed about reports of Chinese advisors talking to and working with Taliban groups in Afghanistan that are now in conflict with NATO forces. Worries are that China might become the conduit for shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, improved communications and small arms to the Taliban.
BENGALURU, India — Indo-French cooperation in space will get a boost when President Nicolas Sarkozy touches down in Bengaluru to visit the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) headquarters here Dec. 4. He is scheduled to interact with top scientists at Antariksh Bhawan, an ISRO spokesperson confirmed to AVIATION WEEK.
TECH ROADMAPS: The National Research Council will spend the next year evaluating 14 different technology roadmaps drafted by NASA experts as the space agency works toward a long-range technology-investment plan. Topics covered by the roadmaps include launch and in-space propulsion, robotics, human health and life support, nanotechnology and thermal management. An NRC panel will gather public comments on the draft technology plans and make recommendations back to NASA by January 2012, with an interim report by the end of next summer.
LONDON – The Netherlands ministry of defense says the U.S. cost increases on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will add €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) to its planned program costs. The increase represents a 20% escalation in price, Defense Minister Hans Hillen tells parliament. The updated total could change again, though, he signals, as the U.S. is still conducting some cost assessments.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft on Dec. 2 test-fired chaff and flares from the countermeasure dispensing system (CMDS) indigenously designed and developed by Bharath Dynamics Ltd. (BDL), Hyderabad. This was part of the Tejas’ ongoing sea trials at INS Hansa in Goa. Tejas LSP-4, piloted by Group Capt. Suneet Krishna, also fired another R-73 missile Dec. 2, following a firing on Nov. 30 (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 1).
HOUSTON — NASA’s space shuttle Program Requirements Control Board met Dec. 2 without arriving at a root cause for the cracks found in the external tank of the shuttle Discovery. Discovery’s final mission, STS-134, has been on hold since Nov. 5, when a hydrogen leak in the external tank’s Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate forced a scrub of the 11-day assembly mission to the International Space Station.
LOS ANGELES — Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have won NASA study contracts for advanced, environmentally friendly airliner concepts for service entry in 2025.
EXPLOSIVE POWER: India’s Defense Research and Development Organization has synthesized an explosive it hopes to use to reduce the weight and size of warheads considerably while packing them with more power. The explosive is CL-20, or octanitrocubane, a nitramine-class of explosive 15 times as powerful as HMX. Scientists synthesized CL-20 at the Pune-based High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (Hemrl), but it is still very expensive to produce compared to RDX.
Cobham has a received a $28 million order from BAE Systems to supply weapons carriage and release equipment for the Indian Air Force Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer program. The contract award follows India’s purchase of 57 BAE Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer Aircraft (AJT) in July 2010, to be built by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. in India. Forty aircraft have been assigned to the Indian Air Force and the remaining 17 for the Indian Navy.
CINCINNATI — General Electric and Rolls-Royce are fighting a rear-guard action to save the embattled F136 alternate Joint Strike Fighter engine from being canceled by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates as funding threatens to dry up. But even then the program faces challenges on Capitol Hill.
NEW YORK — Pentagon procurement czar Ashton Carter is refuting insinuations from industry and lobbyists in Washington that his Efficiency Initiative is unfairly targeting corporate profit for aerospace companies. Contractors and lobbyists have been casting the Efficiency Initiative as targeting corporate profit in the name of savings. Carter has been focused on pushing fixed-price contracting, even for some development programs. This has raised eyebrows in an industry used to receiving cost-plus contracts for high-technology work.
NEW YORK — Pentagon procurement chief Ashton Carter says he expects not to have to pay the Pentagon’s estimated $92-million average per-unit Joint Strike Fighter price, and he is “unhappy” with performance on the $380-billion program to date. Carter says the Pentagon can “manage out some cost” from this estimate, which was devised by the Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office in the Defense Department.
LCS THREE: The U.S. Navy will christen Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Fort Worth on Dec. 4 at Marinette Marine Corp. shipyard in Marinette, Wis. LCS 3 is designed to operate in shallow water environments to counter threats in coastal regions, specifically mines, submarines and fast-surface craft. It is capable of speeds in excess of 40 kt. and can operate in water less than 20 ft. deep. The U.S. Navy is said to be considering splitting its LCS buy between Lockheed Martin, which built LCS 3, and competing contractor General Dynamics/Austal Shipyards (Aerospace DAILY, Nov.
