MOROCCAN F-16s: The Moroccan air force’s initial Block 52 F-16C made its first two flights last week at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, facility. It is one of 24 C- and D-model aircraft that will be delivered in 2010-11 as part of a $2.4 billion Foreign Military Sales contract. The fighters come with the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine and Sniper advanced targeting pod and video downlink to battlefield troops.
UNMANNED COOPERATION: Plans by Russia to start building Israel Aerospace Industries unmanned aircraft have advanced with an industrial agreement between IAI and Oboronprom. The deal, signed last week, has been in the works for most of the year, but was at risk over Russian arms sales to Israel’s adversaries. The core element of the deal is the Searcher Mk. III.
MOON DATA: The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. is among six companies to win Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data contracts from NASA. Under the awards, which have a potential aggregate value up to $30 million, NASA will receive technical data resulting from the companies’ efforts to demonstrate lunar vehicle technology and end-to-end robotic lunar lander missions. “The data from these contracts will inform the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles and exploration systems,” NASA says. The full list of winners can be found at www.nasa.gov.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 18 - 21 — Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology’s 26th Space Simulation Conference, Doubletree Hotel, Annapolis, Md. For more information go to www.iest.org OCT. 18 - 21 — White Eagle Aerospace’s Short Courses: “Fundamentals of Hypersonics,” Aero Institute, Palmdale, Calif. For more information call (520) 219-0526 or go to www.whiteeagleaerospace.com
European and Japanese space agencies are awaiting further developments as the U.S. puts the finishing touches on its new policy for exploration, adopting a wait-and-see attitude until Congress funds a compromise space plan and NASA fills in the details. Speaking at a Washington conference organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), France’s CNES and Germany’s DLR all expressed caution in the face of continued U.S. uncertainty.
LONDON — As Airbus Military builds its training center in Seville, Spain, the company is looking to add the first simulator for its flagship A400M transport in 2012. On Oct. 15, Airbus formally began operations at the center. The site has infrastructure for six simulators but is starting with only half the slots occupied. To date, Seville has two full-flight simulators for the C295 tactical transport and one for the smaller CN235. The center also has facilities for training crews to use mission equipment.
Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 2010 Munich, Germany Gain cost-effective best practices and strategies for engine MRO planning, new technology implementation, navigating maintenance contracts, green processes and compliance issues. Register now - http://www.aviationweek.com/events/current/mroeng/index.htm Click here to view the pdf
The Obama administration will stand firm in its plans for European missile defense, even if Russia once again ramps up objections to U.S. capabilities being deployed to Eastern Europe, a U.S. State Department official says.
SUB WORK: The U.S. Navy has awarded two contract modifications worth a combined $72.6 million to General Dynamics Electric Boat for nuclear and non–nuclear submarine and related work at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn. Electric Boat received a $27 million contract modification to continue operating the Nuclear Regional Maintenance Department (NRMD) at the base to repair submarines. The initial contract was awarded in October 2009 and has a potential value of $78 million over three years.
HOUSTON — Regional aerospace leaders counseled patience at an Oct. 15 Space Economy Career Summit attended by about 400 displaced mid-career NASA contractor professionals. The laid-off employees are wondering where and when they will work next as the agency responds to the retirement of the space shuttle program and the road map outlined in the 2010 NASA authorization bill signed by President Barack Obama on Oct. 11.
LONDON — AgustaWestland expects to add a third AW159 Lynx Wildcat helicopter to the program’s flight test program before the end of the month. The company on Oct. 14 added the second AW159, TI2, to the flight trials phase following first flight at AgustaWestland’s Yeovil, England, facility. TI1 began flight trials in November 2009, with TI3 expected to fly in the coming weeks as part of the 600-hr. flight test program.
POWERPLANT: Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine will power the initial purchase of Israeli air force F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, the company says, noting that “the F135 is the only engine currently powering the F-35 aircraft and is in production today.” Pratt is trying to fight off a team of General Electric and Rolls-Royce that is pitching the F136 for U.S. Joint Strike Fighters, even though the White House and Pentagon leadership do not want it.
FORM FILED: Northrop Grumman says it has filed a Form 10 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, officially signaling its intent to drive forward with a plan to unload its shipbuilding business. “Northrop Grumman continues to explore various alternatives for the potential separation of its shipbuilding business, including a spin-off or sale of the unit,” the company says. “Today’s filing is the initial step toward executing a potential spin-off” (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 15).
PAINT BATH: New electrodeposition (e-coat) work by Oshkosh Defense for the U.S. Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles has been underway since August, even though construction of the Wisconsin 150,000-sq.-ft. site is just now complete, the company says. E-coating is a multistep finishing process to prevent corrosion on FMTV bodies, according to the company. The truck cabs and trailers are dipped in a “paint bath” and electrically charged, then components are heat-cured to strengthen the paint to prevent corrosion, followed by a top coat.
Panasonic Avionics says carriers in Europe and the Far East plan to introduce its eXTV onboard broadcasting service, enabling satellite TV to expand outside its traditional North American stronghold.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The STS-133 crew and shuttle launch team completed the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test at Kennedy Space Center Oct. 15 with a simulated main engine abort at T-minus 4 sec., encountering no hurdles in the run-up to Discovery’s final liftoff Nov. 1. “I think it went real well, right by the book,” commander Steve Lindsey said as the simulation ended. “I wish we could save this weather for Nov. 1.”
HAWKS DOWN: Officials have grounded the fleet of Royal Australian Air Force Hawk 127s after one of the trainers based at RAAF Base Pearce “experienced a technical fault while taxiing before takeoff” on Oct. 11, causing the aircraft to shut down. The BAE Systems Hawks, which are also based at RAAF Williamtown, were grounded pending further investigation.
LONDON — Defense budget pressures in Europe and growth markets overseas are expected to lead to a shift in Thales’s maritime business activities, with a greater emphasis on services and applying hardware to mid-sized, multi-mission ships rather than larger, high-end vessels. As a result, Thales is developing on mission modules that could be installed on a range of vessels, including those for mine warfare and unmanned aircraft operations, says Pierre-Eric Pommellet, Tsenior vice president for defense mission systems.
LONDON — The Australian government has added a critical AP-3C Orion upgrade to its program watchlist, along with a landing watercraft project now in its 13th year. Australia established the list to bring more attention to troubled programs after a spate of cost overruns. On the current list are projects such as Boeing’s Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft and the Airbus Military KC-30 multirole tanker transport, both of which have experienced delays.
An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M deployed a fifth spacecraft for Sirius XM Radio today after a 9-hr. 12-min. mission launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff from Pad 24 came at 2:53 p.m. EDT Oct. 14, and the 5.9-metric-ton XM-5 spacecraft was released into geostationary transfer orbit at 12:05 a.m. EDT Oct. 15.
EXTENDED OPS: NASA has awarded Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne a $60.3 million contract to extend support for the space shuttle main engine (SSME) through March 31, 2011. The contract will cover the last two remaining shuttle flights on the manifest: STS-133, to launch Nov. 1, and STS-134, scheduled for Feb. 27, 2011. The contract does not cover SSME support for STS-135, the currently unfunded shuttle mission Congress authorized to launch in June 2011.
Once denied an arranged marriage with the U.S. Navy nuclear shipbuilding yard at Newport News, Va., nearly a decade ago, General Dynamics now could very well pick up the business on the rebound.
NOT HAPPY: House Armed Services Committee Chairman (HASC) Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) warned Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week that he may not be able to support the secretary’s August measures to reform Pentagon spending, such as closing U.S. Joint Forces Command, because his congressional panel has not received adequate justification. “The committee will be unable to support any request for legislation or funding resulting from the efficiency initiative until the committee’s requests for information have been satisfied,” Skelton wrote Gates in the letter, released Oct.
