UNHAPPY HOLIDAYS: In a sobering Labor Day message to employees of Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDSS), CEO Dennis Muilenburg says there will be “overhead job reduction as part of our effort to drive competitiveness and future growth.” A company official says BDSS is still determining how many jobs are to be lost. The coming layoffs are expected to begin this fall and carry on into early next year. They will be in addition to the 1,000 job cuts announced last year in response to a speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April 2009.
Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stephens expects a “rephasing” of flight testing for the F-35B short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter to emerge from a comprehensive review of the program, due to report in November.
TEL AVIV — The biggest missile threat to Israel is the heavy artillery rocket with a half-ton warhead that can be fired — with increasing accuracy — by the hundreds, perhaps thousands into large areas of the nation.
MOSCOW — Three Glonass-M navigation spacecraft were orbited by a Proton M with a DM upper stage on Sept. 2, Russian space forces report. The spacecraft were designated as Kosmos 2464, 2465 and 2466. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan brings the navigation constellation to 26 satellites, including two in reserve.
An air-launched, missile defense system is being advocated by two veterans of the Pentagon’s Star Wars era and a 1990s program to mate unmanned aircraft and long-range air-to-air weapons. Len Caveny, former director of science and technology, and Dale Tietz, a retired U.S. Air Force officer who focused on unmanned aircraft, were part of the Pentagon’s ballistic missile defense organization. They are offering a new concept — backed up with a couple of decades of research — to kill ballistic missiles soon after launch when they are slow, bright targets.
ANAHEIM, Calif. – U.S. Air Force space launch activity is in the midst of an unprecedented ramp-up as it enters a new “production era,” says Lt. Gen. Tom Sheridan, Air Force program executive officer for space.
The first Boeing-built GPS IIF satellite in orbit will require software fixes to reduce “degradation” in the crosslinks for its nuclear blast detection payload, says Lt. Gen. Tom Sheridan, Air Force program executive officer for space.
Congressional auditors still see a bevy of issues clouding the future of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), including potential production hiccups as designs continue to evolve, uncertain cost estimates and development problems with the vessel’s crucial mission packages.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The risk of unavoidable catastrophic collisions between objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) will continue to grow despite mitigation efforts and will only be solved by physically removing spent vehicles and dead satellites, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) warns.
HOUSTON — United Space Alliance of Houston has received a $909.6 million contract extension from NASA for shuttle and International Space Station support activities in four states from Oct. 1 through March 30, 2011. The base contract, awarded in 2007 with several ensuing modifications, is valued at $6.6 billion, according to Kylie Clem, a spokeswoman at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. United Space Alliance is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
NEW DELHI — The Indian defense ministry is expected to reissue the request for proposals (RFP) for the third time for 140 wheeled guns within the next two weeks. Retrials will be held for the same guns that participated in earlier rounds to evaluate performance in extreme hot and cold conditions in the harsh desert terrains of Rajasthan and Ladakh. Firing rate and command and control will be assessed. Bidders being named include Kerametal of Slovakia, with its Zuzana gun, and Germany’s Rheinmetall RWG-52.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Senior space experts warn that NASA’s emerging human spaceflight goals will be unsustainable unless technology funding is boosted or targets are made more achievable. Richard Malow, a former chief clerk of the House Appropriations Committee that funds NASA and advisor to the Association for Universities for Research in Astronomy, says the $19-billion budget being formulated in Congress may leave the U.S. “with a very uncertain human spaceflight future which faces strong headwinds.”
Russia is moving ahead with a new launch site for human and other spacecraft on its own territory, but it does not plan to abandon the leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Kicking off construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Eastern Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin notes that the contract with the former Soviet republic to the south for use of Baikonur will remain in effect until 2050.
HOUSTON — A small team of NASA experts invited to advise the Chilean health minister on the rescue of 33 miners trapped nearly a half-mile underground stressed the need for proper nutrition, adequate rest and broad support for the mental health of the men during what promises to be a challenging effort to extract them.
SBSS LAUNCH: Launch of the Boeing/Ball Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite on an Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV has been rescheduled for 9:41 p.m. on Sept. 25 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The spacecraft was due for launch July 8 from Vandenberg, but was scrubbed because of a software glitch. The fault prompted a need for an on-pad inspection of avionics components aboard the Minotaur. Designed to survey the operational capabilities of other satellites with an eye to ferreting out hostile intent, SBSS was originally set for launch in April 2009.
RUNWAY REPORT: A U.S.-Japanese study group has offered a mixed report on potential new runways in Okinawa for U.S. forces — meaning little in regard to movement on an issue that rocked relations between Tokyo and Washington this year. The study group’s findings, released Aug. 31 by the Pentagon, examined both “V” and “I” shapes for runways at the future Camp Schwab Henoko-saki area (some of which will rely on land-reclamation from the surrounding ocean).
BENGALURU, India — Under an agreement with India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, military equipment manufacturer MKU Pvt. Ltd. will supply the country’s paramilitary and police forces with body armor containing Honeywell’s Spectra Shield (SS) and Gold Shield (GS) materials. Honeywell’s GS and SS composite materials will be the primary ballistic protection contained in 59,000 jackets, each of which will include two breast plates. India’s Central Reserve Police Force will be the first to receive the jackets.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian army’s specialized units are likely to be deployed for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), set for New Delhi on Oct. 3-14, where more than 70 countries are expected to participate. Army forces, which are expected to be deployed by Sept. 15, will help boosts many security aspects of the CWG. Service contributions will probably include maintaining critical communication links, including jammers. “Army teams trained to handle chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear devices might also [be utilized] .
LONDON — The European Aviation Safety Agency has granted a type certificate to Daher-Socata for the multimission version of the TBM 700 and TBM 850 single-engine turboprops. The effort is the latest in several business aircraft ventures to capture part of the commercial and military market for airborne imaging capability. The Daher-Socata TBMs are equipped with the Thales Agile 2 turret system, featuring electro-optical and infrared sensors as well as a laser range finder controlled by a console in the aircraft’s passenger compartment.
MOSCOW — The Russian air force this month is set to declare its first Mil Mi-28N attack helicopter squadron operational. In June, the squadron deployed to the 7th aerospace defense brigade airbase in Budennovsk, in the Stavropol region of southern Russia, and for the first time conducted tactical flight training with all of its 10 Mi-28N rotorcraft as part of a graduation exercise.
