THREE’S A CROWD: The British Royal Air Force is looking to avoid the cost implications of supporting three different types of airlifters, with the medium-to-long-term aim of retaining only two models of dedicated military transport aircraft. The potential shift in fleet structure could yet see the air force try to acquire a further handful of Boeing C-17 airlifters, according to industry sources. The U.K. ordered a seventh C-17 at the end of 2009. The RAF presently operates a mixed fleet of Lockheed Martin C-130Ks, C-130Js and C-17s.
HOUSTON—The TMA-19 Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin and Americans Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker docked with the International Space Station on June 17, ending a two-day journey. The linkup occurred at 6:21 p.m. EDT , as the two spacecraft sailed 220 mi. over the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina. The newcomers join the station’s Expedition 24 crew, commander Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko of Russia and American Tracy Caldwell Dyson.
General Electric is challenging statements by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine does not meet the performance requirements of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
TOKYO—The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa’s asteroid sample return capsule arrived at its Curation Center in Samagihara on June 18. Examining the capsule closely for the first time, Hayabusa Project Manager Junichiro Kawaguchi remarked upon its condition, saying that even the heat shields looked almost “brand new” and “unaffected” by their reentry. “Originally I imagined it would come back half destroyed and in really bad condition,” Kawaguchi says. “But in actual fact, the capsule looked more like a newborn infant.”
Lockheed Martin plans to submit a proposal for a second C-130J multi-year procurement (MYP) to the Pentagon in September. The offer is expected to cover 98-115 aircraft to be purchased over five years beginning in Fiscal 2012 or 2013. The first MYP, which covered 60 aircraft, was completed in Fiscal 2008. Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon are now in final negotiations on an undefinitized contract for 65 C-130Js funded in Fiscal 2009 and 2010.
NASA’s payments to Zero Gravity Corp. have not forced the private company to provide consistent levels of simulated microgravity in parabolic flights, and should be tightened to encourage better service, the agency’s inspector general has found. Inspector General Paul Martin recommends that NASA revise its performance-based payment plan for Zero G—a private “space entertainment and tourism” company that also sells parabolic flights to individuals—to encourage better performance.
A circumferential friction stir weld used to join the two halves of a test article for NASA’s proposed Orion crew capsule is the longest ever accomplished, demonstrating the manufacturing advances achieved in the U.S. space agency’s troubled Constellation program. Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans used a Universal Weld System II to weld the forward cone and aft barrel of the Orion article, creating a strong, lightweight join 445 in. long.
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has awarded a contract to a consortium anchored by General Dynamics Robotics Systems that includes eight academic and corporate leaders in robotic technologies. The deal includes a five-year research agreement worth about $63 million to create the technical foundation supporting development of autonomous unmanned air and ground systems.
General Dynamics C4 Systems of Scottsdale, Ariz., has been selected for a $642.2 million, seven-year contract to upgrade NASA’s ground system and network for the Tracking Data and Relay Satellite (TDRS) constellation. General Dynamics bested a Northrop Grumman/Boeing team as prime system integrator for the Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment project to build a new ground system architecture. The network is run by the Goddard Space Flight Center. In late 2007, Boeing won the contract to build two new TDRS satellites (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 2, 2008).
PARIS — The upheaval in the narrowbody commercial engine market currently playing out is having ripple effects in the military domain and complicating Embraer’s efforts to pick a powerplant for its KC-390 tanker/transport.
Lockheed Martin is aggressively countering the belief that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is becoming unaffordable, claiming its cost will be competitive with the latest F-16s and F/A-18s — if planned production rates are achieved. “If we secure the production volume to drive down the learning curve, we expect the acquisition cost to be approximately comparable to a similarly equipped [F/A-18E/F] or F-16 Block 60,” CEO Robert Stevens said during a media event near Washington June 17.
With the Obama administration and lawmakers eyeing the possible end of major combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the next year or two, attention in Washington is turning to institutionalizing some of the U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) response rapidly stood up in the last five years. On Capitol Hill, where the next federal budget is under deliberation, the issue is emerging amid tightening fiscal projections and growing concerns about North Korea, Iran and China.
PROGRAMS SHELVED: The new U.K. government is shelving work on military search-and-rescue helicopters and the successor to Trident submarines to save almost $10.5 billion. The moves are part of a sweeping cost-cutting effort underway in London. Projects that have been suspended will be halted “for the time being” and considered as part of the spending review process announced last week, according to a prepared government statement June 17.
NEW DELHI — Those awaiting news about an increase in India’s current 26% cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in defense joint ventures are liable to be disappointed. R.K. Singh, secretary for defense production, said at the Eurosatory defense expo in Paris that the ministry favors continuing with the FDI limit. International investors have argued that the cap should be raised to 49% (Aerospace DAILY, May 11).
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) is expected to create a marriage of active electronically scanned array (AESA) antennas — combined in experimental arrays — that are controlled by easily updated and replaceable packages of software. The NGJ program will be developed in two parts. The first task is designing a pod for the Navy’s EA-18G Growler. The second part of the problem will be refining NGJ for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter so that the stealth signature will not be altered by external pods.
PARIS — The U.S. Army awarded ITT an $8.4 million contract to continue supplying its AN/PVS-14 night-vision monocular device, the company announced here at Eurosatory June 16. It is the latest Omnibus VII contract from the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center, following orders already placed under the contract for 400,000 AN/PVS-14 monocular devices, 3,000 AN/PVS-7 goggles and 100,000 associated spare image intensifier tubes.
USAF COMMS: Arinc Engineering Services has won the U.S. Defense Department’s Data Link Services Provider contract, which means the company will continue as the primary provider of commercial aviation communication services for the U.S. Air Force. The company has fulfilled this role since 2001. The award, managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency, has a total value of $20 million over five years.
AIR BOSS: Several Washington newspapers are reporting that U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Amos is the Pentagon leadership’s choice to become the armed service’s next commandant, a move that could shake up the Corps by establishing an aviator on top during two land wars and changing military policies. A former F-4 and F/A-18 pilot, Amos’ selection could turn negative for the embattled General Dynamics Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the reports surmised. Amos, currently assistant commandant, would follow retiring chief Gen. James Conway.
A Pentagon assessment of the national security risks of removing satellites and related components from the United States Munitions List (USML) is expected imminently from the Defense Department, along with the Obama administration’s long-awaited Space Posture Review (SPR), AVIATION WEEK has learned.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stood their ground June 16 in testimony to Senate defense appropriators who peppered them on the Joint Strike Fighter’s alternate engine, C-17 airlifters and other spending priorities.
