Selex Communications will provide communication, navigation and self-protection equipment for the Italian Army’s 16 Boeing CH-47F Chinook helicopters, which AgustaWestland is to assemble and deliver.
When it comes to improving airport security, the most critical issue is the lack of timely dissemination of national threat intelligence, according to Houston Airport System Interim Director Col. (ret.) Eric Potts. Potts spoke with Aviation Week just prior to testifying on March 17 before the House Homeland Security subcommittee, which is assessing the adequacy of checkpoint security.
There are some hiccups involving the hangar bay and other areas in making CVN 21 next-generation aircraft carriers good homes for F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs), according to a recent report by the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) office. “Emerging results from the ongoing … operational assessment highlight significant integration challenges with the F-35 JSF that will adversely impact mission accomplishment,” DOT&E says in its recently released 2009 annual report.
NEW DELHI — India has been strengthening counterterrorism procedures to enhance domestic security, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said March 15 in response to queries in parliament. Measures taken include augmenting the Central Para-Military Forces, strengthening and reorganizing the Multi-Agency Center to share intelligence with other intelligence and security agencies; tighter immigration control and effective border management through fencing, flood lighting, deployment of surveillance equipment and coastal security.
European and Russian planners for the upcoming Phobos-Grunt (Phobos Soil) sample-return mission to the tiny Martian moon have some new high-resolution imagery of their possible landing sites to use. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter is using its unique orbit around the Red Planet to capture imagery of the proposed sites. Because of the orbiter’s unusually close passes to Phobos, the resolution is 4.4 meters per pixel.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) wants the U.S. Army to proceed carefully as the service ramps up its new Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) program. “With ground force modernization efforts at an early stage, the [Defense Department] and the Army face the challenge of setting the merging modernization efforts on the best possible footing by buying the right capabilities at the best value,” the recent report says.
SMART MOVE: The Business and Industry STEM Coalition has announced a commitment to doubling the number of graduates with a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) to 400,000 from 200,000 by 2020.
NEW DELHI — A flight test March 15 to demonstrate the endoatmospheric interception of a tactical ballistic missile failed when the target missile deviated from its trajectory, according to an official announcement from the Indian defense ministry. A new target missile is expected to be ready to repeat the test in June. As part of the mission, a target missile mimicking an incoming ballistic missile was launched from the Interim Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur in East India.
The Federal Communications Commission released a National Broadband Plan on March 16 intended to ensure that every corner of the U.S. has access to robust, affordable Internet service.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has agreed to team with Dutch Space to develop and market a spacecraft bus that will permit it to piggyback a geostationary payload utilizing normally excess capacity under a rocket fairing.
The state of Florida has permission to develop two more pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for commercial users, clearing another hurdle as the political wind shifts toward greater use of private vehicles to launch public payloads — including astronauts.
Heads of the five space agencies in the International Space Station (ISS) partnership have decided to try to expand participation by other nations in the orbiting laboratory, while not opening up the formal partnership to new members. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said March 16 that at the heads of agency meeting held in Tokyo last week to discuss the implications of the U.S. decision to continue funding station operations beyond 2015 to 2020 or beyond, the partners agreed to broaden their organizations’ separate efforts to bring in new participants.
EVERETT, Wash. — If Boeing nabs the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X competition — an apparent inevitability since Northrop Grumman’s withdrawal — the 767s built for it will flow through a new assembly line that is to open in February 2011.
The U.S. Air Force should sole-source the work to build a follow-on Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite to Boeing, according to Craig Cooning, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International. “Once that [nonrecurring engineering] technology investment is made by the government and the recipe is fixed, it makes a lot of sense to go ahead and build them,” he says.
JSF PM: The Pentagon has officially nominated Vice Adm. David J. Venlet, head of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ air systems acquisition command, to take over the U.S.-based program office for the Joint Strike Fighter. The March 16 announcement, which was expected, makes good on dramatic restructuring and disciplinary actions Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveiled Feb. 1. Venlet currently heads Naval Air Systems Command (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 3).
UNRAVELLING: U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced new programming moves under the beleaguered Secure Border Initiative’s networking effort (SBINet) March 16.
The first International Black Hawk, the S-70i, rolled off Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.’s Polish production line at PZL Mielec on March 15. The helicopter is not just new for Sikorsky, but new for PZL Mielec, which had been producing fixed-wing aircraft for many years. The helicopter will be sent to Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach Development Flight Center, where it will be tested and qualified. Production flight tests are planned at PZL Mielec later this year as that facility continues to undergo modernization.
The U.S. Army’s recently scrapped plan to buy light tactical wheeled vehicles skirted Defense Department procurement requirements and the service needs to revamp those acquisition procedures, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says.
PRIMARY POWERPLANT: Pratt & Whitney has reached another milestone on its F135 engine, achieving an initial service release for the conventional takeoff and landing/carrier version, which clears it for operational use in the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter. This variant of the F135 has been certified for low-rate initial production and flight operations.
With the second drug seizure in as many weeks under its belt, the USS Freedom has cause to celebrate. Only 10 days after the U.S. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) recovered more than a quarter of a ton of cocaine, the ship conducted another counter-illicit trafficking operation that resulted in the capture of one and one-half tons of cocaine. This time, five suspected drug smugglers were caught as well.
MOSCOW — Russia is boosting defense cooperation with India, signing several contracts during the visit of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to New Delhi. The two sides finally settled the price increase for modernization of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier. Russian officials would not reveal the revised price for the ex-Admiral Gorshkov, but Indian press reports quote a figure of $2.33 billion. In 2004 India agreed to take the 44,500-ton carrier for free, paying only $800 million for modernization at Russia’s Severodvinsk-based Sevmash facility.
LONDON — Although the U.S. and Russia retain their top rankings in terms of conventional arms trades, the latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) also reveals that France and Germany have done much better in the past five years than the U.K. During the period from 2005-2009, Germany saw a jump of more than 100 percent in defense sales, with France’s figure up 30 percent over the prior period of 2000-2004. The U.K., by contrast, saw a 13 percent drop. The big German jump largely comes from armored vehicle sales.
