NEW DELHI — India is turning to Europe for support of the naval version of its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) after its initial choice of the U.S. was stymied by an inability to gain the requisite approvals from Washington. India selected Lockheed Martin as the winner of a bid for consultancy work on its naval LCA, but failure to secure U.S. State Department licensing approvals — at least in a timely fashion — now has resulted in EADS being in negotiation for the work.
PARIS — Arianespace has replaced Sea Launch as the launch provider for Intelsat 17. It was the fourth telecom satellite contract of the year for Arianespace. The Paris-based company also was chosen earlier this year to orbit 10 Galileo satellite-navigation spacecraft.
SAVINGS BANK: BAE Systems has picked up a £150 million ($221.5 million), five-year Eurofighter Typhoon avionics support contract from three of the four partner nations. The contract was placed by Eurofighter GmbH on behalf of Germany, Spain and the U.K. The arrangement incentivizes BAE to deal with problems more quickly and cut down on the amount of repair work carried out. Securing savings in through-life support costs was a key element of the Tranche 3A production agreement secured in 2009.
NATO PLANS: The North Atlantic Council on May 17 will receive a report with recommendations for NATO’s new strategic concept. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has led the study group. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will draw on the recommendations to start drafting the new strategic concept during the summer. The goal is to present it to alliance members during the Lisbon Summit planned for November.
LITTLE BIRD: The Jordanian government has announced plans to acquire an undisclosed number of Boeing AH-6i light attack and reconnaissance helicopters; the “i” version is the export derivative of the U.S. Army special operations AH-6 Little Bird. The helos are to replace about 30 AH-1 Cobras in Jordanian air force inventory.
PREDATOR PATROL: FAA on May 14 gave approval to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin flying Predator B UAVs along the southwest Texas border beginning June 1, 2010. Last month, U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote a letter to FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt encouraging him to give priority consideration to CBP’s certificate of authorization for UAV operations in Texas.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 19 - 21 — AVIATION WEEK NextGen Ahead 2010, Renaissance Washington, DC, Washington, D.C. For more information go to http://www.aviationweek.com/events May 17 - 20 — 2010 Joint Armaments Conference, Exhibition & Live Fire Demo, Hyatt Regency Dallas, Dallas, Texas. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/9930
MULTIYEAR HORNETS: The Pentagon will pursue a new multiyear production (MYP) contract covering 124 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, Congress was informed May 14. The MYP would cover production orders through 2013, with the last aircraft to be delivered in 2015.
LOST GALAXY: The FAA says it is studying options to remedy the loss of a GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) transponder onboard the wayward Galaxy 15 satellite, which has been drifting out of its orbit since it went out of control April 5 (Aerospace DAILY, May 12). The agency says 16 airports, chiefly in northwestern Alaska, are affected by the failure, but will be able to accommodate localizer performance with vertical guidance approaches with GPS only, although there may be service interruptions.
NAMING NAMES: The British Conservative-led coalition with the Liberal Democrats is now in the process of populating all the ministerial offices of government — and throwing up some intriguing combinations. The Conservatives’ Liam Fox is the new secretary of state for defense. He is an avowed Atlanticist and strongly supports the retention of a submarine-based ballistic missile nuclear deterrent. Fox is joined in his team by the Liberal Democrats’ Nick Harvey as the minister for the armed forces.
APACHE FIRST: The first fully equipped AH-64D Apache Block III helicopter took its first flight May 10 at Boeing’s facility in Mesa, Ariz. The company has been flying the many components of the Block III upgrades on a variety of test aircraft in the past few months. The test aircraft, identified as PVD027, flew fully loaded with all the avionics, performance and structural upgrades that will comprise the Block III.
LONDON — Defense ministers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have stressed the need for their three countries to undertake more joint purchasing and to hike defense spending. In particular, the three ministers have expressed the desire to increase defense spending to around 2% of gross domestic product. To help foster more common procurement, the ministers vowed to draft proposals for areas where joint action may be possible. The goal is to have that list in hand by this fall to help build future defense budgets.
WATCH IT: Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chair of the appropriations panel that funds NASA, warns White House Budget Director Peter Orszag to be careful about spending Fiscal 2010 money at the space agency to shut down the Constellation Program in Fiscal 2011. “Deeply troubled” by word that NASA is directing contractors to retain funds to cover termination liability, Mikulski urges Orszag to adhere to appropriations language prohibiting termination of Constellation this year.
The list of what the Pentagon knows about cyberwarfare appears to be much smaller than the one listing all the problems and unknowns. Falling into the area of unresolved problems is network situational awareness of the battlespace, which involves how knowledge is displayed, interactions of the services’ networks and the commercial network grid as well as understanding and dynamically illustrating the physical condition of the global infrastructure, according to Vice Adm. Bernard McCullough, III, commander of the cyber-warfighting 10th Fleet.
LENGTHY TRIAL: State acceptance trials of the long-range missile for Russia’s Almaz-Antey S-400 (SA-21 Growler) surface-to-air missile (SAM) system are due to be concluded in the third quarter of 2010, according to the manufacturer’s general director. The longest-range weapon associated with the S-400 is thought to be the 40N6. This missile has a fly-out range of up to 400 km. (250 mi.). The head of Almaz-Antey also reportedly confirms that the S-500 SAM system is intended to be ready in 2015.
HOUSTON — The shuttle Atlantis lifted off May 14 on the last scheduled flight of the 25-year-old orbiter, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station to deliver the Russian “Rassvet” docking and research module and carry out communications and power system upgrades with three spacewalks. Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with six astronauts at 2:20 p.m. EDT. It was on course to dock with the space station May 16 at 10:27 a.m.
LONDON — Eurocopter order cancellations and A400M cost overruns remain troublesome areas for EADS, although in reporting first-quarter results, the aerospace giant signals that it sees an overall improvement in business conditions. Eurocopter saw 18 cancellations in the quarter, down from the level of a year earlier. And while demand is improving over 2009, EADS warns that “commercial appetite is still far below 2007 and 2008 levels.” Deliveries also declined, to 86 units from 93.
FORT WORTH — As the debate rages about Joint Strike Fighter life-cycle cost, Lockheed Martin officials are raising a previously unheard point to bolster their low-price claims — a new low-observability (LO) substance called fiber mat.
To nearly no one’s surprise, the Pentagon on May 13 authorized the U.S. Army to cancel the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS). The final cancellation decision came as a result of a Capability Portfolio Review of the NLOS-LS and other related programs, the service stated.
STRATEGIC MARK: The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is pushing for Congress to provide “sustainment” funding for the solid rocket motor and military satellite communications industrial bases. At the same time, the panel recommends a “significant” reduction to the Defense Department side of the recently split-up National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) program.
REAGAN REDUX: A group of well-known conservative activists in Washington is “advancing a 10-point platform for restoring national security by returning to the time-tested practice President Ronald Reagan called ‘Peace Through Strength.’” The group, including Reagan administration veterans Edwin Meese and Frank Gaffney, hopes to blunt cost-cutting moves promoted by Pentagon chief Robert Gates and the Obama White House.
