PARIS — As the new Soyuz launch site at Europe’s South American launch center near Kourou, French Guiana, takes shape, Arianespace has signed a framework agreement to buy 10 more Soyuz boosters. The company has 17 Soyuz launches to perform, including five for Europe’s Galileo satnav system, but to date has only 14 of the Russian medium-lift rockets on order.
DIRECTV AWARD: Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has landed an award to build a 20-kw. satellite for DirecTV. The Ka-band/reverse DBS spacecraft, designated DirecTV 14, will position DirecTV to take advantage of surging demand for standard, high-definition and 3-D TV, the operator says. Work on the unit, to be launched on an undisclosed date, began in the first quarter under an authorization-to-proceed agreement. It was the third comsat award of the year for SS/L.
Developers at Hanscom AFB, Mass., have delivered a Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar sensor for integration on the Global Hawk Block 40. The milestone was reached June 15 when the developmental sensor reached Edwards AFB, Calif.; a production version will eventually be placed onto AF18, a Global Hawk Block 40 aircraft, says Col. Jim Shaw, Air Force MP-RTIP program manager.
The Indian military will spend $80 billion on acquisitions from 2011 to 2015, most of it for the army, according to Deloitte and the Confederation of Indian Industry in a study on the country’s defense market. The army will account for 53% of the spending, the air force 31% and the navy 16%, the authors project, basing their estimates on an analysis of official statements.
DECOY ORDER: BAE Systems has received a 12th order for Nulka hovering-rocket naval decoys from the Australian government. Production of an undisclosed number of rounds will run until 2013. Nulka, developed and made in Australia, is an active decoy designed to attract the attention of anti-ship missiles and lure them onto a harmless flight path by edging away from its launching ship.
COBRA TARGET: The U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded Lockheed Martin a $44 million follow-on production contract for 18 additional Target Sight Systems (TSS), the fire control system for the Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Cobra. TSS provides Cobra pilots with sensors that aid in acquiring, tracking and designating targets. The suite includes a laser designator, color TV and a third-generation, mid-wave, forward-looking infrared sensor with advanced image processing.
BENGALURU, India — India’s fifth limited series production (LSP-5) Tejas Light Combat Aircraft will fly in the first week of August. P.S. Subramanyam, program director for combat aircraft and director of the Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), tells AVIATION WEEK that designers, engineers and scientists from ADA and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. are working together to make the LSP-5 a complete, final configuration platform.
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Lockheed Martin is trimming its Orion spacecraft workforce by 20% as it works with NASA to redefine the vehicle as a crew rescue capsule for International Space Station crews. The cuts amount to 300 Lockheed Martin employees and 300 subcontractor personnel. While the company is working to find new positions for the displaced staff within the company, “layoff notices are probably inevitable, and that will happen shortly,” according to Linda Karanian, Lockheed’s Washington-based director of human space flight programs.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) june 21 - July 1 — White Eagle Aerospace’s 2010 Aero Institute: “Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics” and “Basic Missile Aerodynamics,” Palmdale, Calif. For more information go to www.whiteeagleaerospace.com June 22 - 24 — 2010 Joint CBRN Conference & Exhibition, Ft. Leonard Wood, St Roberts, Mo. For more information go to www.exhibits.ndia.org
BOEING INDIA: Bob Gower has been named vice president of Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA) India. “In this new position, Gower will expand and manage the BMA product line in India, including P-8I, F/A-18IN, C-17, and Apache,” Boeing says. Prior to this assignment, Gower served as vice president of F/A-18 and EA-18 Programs. Succeeding Gower will be Kory Mathews, who will serve as program vice president of F/A-18 and EA-18 Programs within Boeing’s Global Strike Systems division.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Prithvi-II, an indigenously developed, nuclear-capable ballistic missile, was successfully test fired on June 18, the country’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) says. The launch took place from Complex-III at Chandipur near the Orissa coast.
LEANER LOCKHEED: A Wall Street analyst says Lockheed Martin appears to have initiated a plan to cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars as it braces for a leaner U.S. budget environment. While the initiative has not been well defined publicly, CEO Robert Stevens and his team seem to recognize the company needs to change the way it does business, says Jefferies & Co. analyst Howard Rubel. “There is an urgency to reduce costs to maintain competitiveness,” he says.
STRAIGHT APPROACH: Of the 200,000 landings made by Boeing C-17s since 1997, less than 4% were in places that were not accessible to the Lockheed Martin C-5, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The secretary offered the statistic June 16 to Senate defense appropriators as part of the Pentagon’s justification in ending the C-17 program. “Should Congress add funds to continue this program, I will strongly recommend a presidential veto,” he repeated to lawmakers (Aerospace DAILY, June 17). The U.S. strategic airlift fleet counts 194 C-17s and 111 C-5s.
U.S. Air Force senior acquisition executive David Van Buren says improvements still can be made in delivering the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned intelligence aircraft at a lower cost.
NUCLEAR FORCE: The U.S. Defense Department has established a baseline nuclear force structure to guide its planning, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and it does not require changes to current or planned basing arrangements. He says the department will retain 240 deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles, distributed among 14 Ohio-class submarines, each of which will have 20 launch tubes. Also, the U.S. will retain up to 60 deployed heavy bombers, including all 18 operational B-2s, as well as up to 420 deployed single-warhead Minuteman 3 ICBMs.
BEST BEHAVIOR: The Aerospace Industries Association and its European counterpart, The Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe, are joining forces on a new program to standardize business ethics practices in the aerospace & defense industry. The International Forum on Business Ethical Conduct eventually will have participating companies on both sides of the Atlantic sign an annual statement of adherence to the group’s ethical standards. Signatories—and the standards—will be publicized on a website, expected to launch by the end of the year.
The establishment of a National Cyber-Range looks likely to become yet another victim of Moore’s Law, which says digital technology become antiquated in about 18 months. U.S. military and intelligence agencies—put off by the years-long development time line for a cyber-range proposed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa)—are building their own.
HIRE AMERICAN: Spirit AeroSystems, which will manufacture the front fuselage of the KC-X tanker if Boeing wins the bid, finds itself in an unusual position: it is being praised by its machinists for being the only aerospace company in Wichita not outsourcing jobs to Mexico. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers rallied last week as negotiators hammered out a new contract. The union will see the company’s proposal June 21, and has scheduled a vote for June 25—the day its contract expires.
PARIS—The Brazilian defense ministry and Embraer are in discussions about expanding the scope of the F-5M upgrade program. Embraer has already delivered 36 of 46 Brazilian air force F-5Ms it is due to upgrade. The effort involves a wide-ranging system enhancement, including adding a multimode radar, night-vision-goggle capability, electronic-warfare and communications enhancements and other features.
