Commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye has selected Lockheed Martin to build its next-generation GeoEye-2 Earth imaging satellite in support of the company’s bid for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) EnhancedView program.
The Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) program the U.S. Army has cobbled together from the remains of its Future Combat Systems (FCS) effort is an opportunity for a fresh start if all the elements are managed properly, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
LAOTIAN LAUNCH: China Great Wall Industry Corp. has contracted to supply and launch a telecommunications satellite for Laos. Laosat-1 will be built by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology and launched by an LM-3B from Xichang. The launch date was not given. It was the fifth in-orbit delivery award for China Great Wall.
SPEED PUSH: Sikorsky is targeting June to break the 250-knot speed barrier with its X2 Technology coaxial-rotor high-speed helicopter demonstrator. Flight tests were delayed in December when metal flaking caused by a manufacturing defect was discovered in the main transmission during ground test, requiring replacement of the gearbox. On return to flight, Sikorsky’s target is 150 knots — conventional helicopter speeds — followed by the push to 250 knots and beyond.
LIGHT MAINTENANCE: The U.S. Navy’s Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) fleet at Patuxent River Naval Air Station will be maintained by Helicopter Support Incorporated (HSI), a Sikorsky Aerospace Services company. A modified version of the existing Army Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) program will be provided to the Navy’s five EADS-built UH-72A helicopters. The CLS program for the Army provides total lifecycle support at a dollar per flight hour and is being subcontracted to HSI by EADS North America.
WEEKEND CYBERWARRIORS: Top U.S. Air Force generals in charge of space and cyber-operations tell senators that the country will have to consider how to attract and retain highly skilled cyber-warriors, and probably in unusual ways. Gen. C. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, tells the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee that the service is pushing National Guard and reserve service in front of active-duty personnel who are considering leaving.
MISSING TARGETS: A third of the British Army’s WAH-64 Apache pilots are breaking the ministry’s so-called harmony guidelines as a result of the demands of operational deployment. The Apache is being relied on heavily in combat operations in Afghanistan. The Joint Helicopter Command’s guidelines are “for crews to serve four periods at home for every one in theater,” says Bill Rammell, the minister for the armed forces. Rammell adds: “Apache pilot harmony is improving constantly as more pilots are trained and become available for deployment.”
ROBO-HAWK: Sikorsky plans to demonstrate automated formation flight in June as part of its roadmap to an optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter. The test will involve two Black Hawks, the second autonomously flying in formation with the first helicopter. In December, the company plans to demonstrate an unmanned cargo mission, with a Black Hawk picking up an external load and flying a circuit unpiloted, Sikorsky president Jeff Pino told investors March 12.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) March 15 - 18 — Satellite 2010, Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland. For more information go to www.satellite2008.com March 16 - 18 — Aviation Industry Expo, “Ground Support, FBO/Aviation Services and Aircraft Maintenance, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nev. For more information go to www.aviationindustryexpo.com/index.po
ENGINE TROUBLE: The debate continues regarding the fate of the F136 alternate engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with the Pentagon trying to kill it over annual congressional objections. Pentagon officials insist they were never bound by agreements with the eight international Joint Strike Fighter partner nations to develop the propulsion system. In a 2006 memorandum of understanding with the partners, the Pentagon committed to producing both engines.
Fiber-optics carry most of the world’s overseas communications, so the U.S. and other key countries want to monitor this mass of information for clues about terrorism and crime.
TEL AVIV — Regional battles and asymmetric warfare are pushing naval conflicts to the littorals, where a range of tactics that rely as much on numbers for success as firepower are evolving to threaten capital ships. Key to these tactics are small boats, which have a history of successful deployment in swarming hit-and-run attacks against materially superior adversaries. Swarming tactics require light boats that rapidly coalesce to attack an enemy from multiple directions, then swiftly disperse before being countered by heavy fire.
GREENBELT, Md. — The $2.5 billion in NASA’s Fiscal 2011 budget request to terminate the Constellation Program is probably “oversubscribed,” and will not cover all of the expenses expected to grow from shutting down the shuttle-follow-on effort.
ACCEPTED: The U.K. Defense Ministry last week formally accepted the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4, clearing the way for training to begin. Clearance had been expected in December. The Royal Air Force is to receive MRA4s, which eventually will replace Nimrod MR2s that will be withdrawn from service at the end of this month. The first MRA4 production aircraft, PA04, is at BAE’s Warton site, while PA05 was flown for the first time from the Woodford manufacturing site on March 8.
Thomas J. Cassidy, Jr., a veteran fighter pilot and rear admiral who battled a skeptical U.S. Air Force to win acceptance for unmanned aerial vehicles, is retiring as president of the Aircraft Systems Group at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) effective March 15.
Lockheed Martin officials say the U.S. Air Force has declared the newly re-engined C-5, the C-5M, is “effective, suitable and mission capable,” following a series of operational tests. This rating would be a step toward clearing the aircraft for operational use. Air Force officials declined to discuss their initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) findings because they haven’t yet been briefed to Congress.
Speaking last week at a conference in Ottawa, Canada, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, head of Central Command, was cautious when talking about the July 2011 drawdown date for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Speaking at the Conference Defense Association meeting, Petraeus warned that “one needs to be very careful in interpreting” what President Barack Obama has said.
The average per unit cost of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has substantially increased, from $50 million to up to $95 million, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter told senators March 11 on Capitol Hill. In today’s dollars, the per unit cost is estimated to be $112 million per unit.
President Barack Obama revealed two eagerly awaited reforms to U.S. export control regulations on March 11 and hinted that more reforms will be unveiled by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the coming weeks.
A leaner, more confident U.S. Coast Guard faced the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee March 11 to outline its acquisition and recapitalization plan for the next few years. “We’ve gotten great support in terms of appropriations, resources to hire acquisition professionals and revamped processes,” said Rear Adm. Ron Rabago, the Coast Guard’s acquisitions chief. “We’re not done yet and we don’t have it perfect. There’s plenty more work to do.”
U.S. Navy Dept. officials told senators March 10 that their Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) has now slipped to a first launch in December 2011. The officials and a congressional auditor from the U.S. Government Accountability Office all attributed the delay to further development problems in the Lockheed Martin-led effort. Overall, the UHF communications satellite program — once expected to be operational this month — now estimates a 21-month delay in delivery of capability from the first satellite (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 25). Four are planned.
An openly frustrated Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chair Carl Levin (D-Mich.) opened a critical hearing on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on Capitol Hill March 11 by recalling the optimism expressed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates back in August. “It’s a bit frustrating to hear the Secretary tell us that everything is OK,” McCain said, “and then read in media reports that it’s not.”
The International Space Station (ISS) partners agree there are no technical constraints that would preclude extending operations at least through 2020, and say they are taking steps to certify station elements through 2028. The Obama administration’s Fiscal 2011 NASA budget request extends station operations from their current baseline cutoff date of 2015 out to 2020, in line with recommendations from the Augustine human spaceflight commission.
