MISSION PLANNING: Sagem will supply an upgraded mission planning system (MPS) for the Rafale intended to make the system compatible with the Rafale F3 multirole standard, introduced last year. The upgrade, known as Version 5 and funded under a defense stimulus plan put together in 2008, also will be compatible with new-generation ordnance carried by the F3, including the ASMP-A nuclear strike missile, Scalp cruise missile, AASM guided bomb and ReconNG optronic reconnaissance pod.
CHOKEHOLD: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is continuing a hold on the nomination of two key officials at the Pentagon because of his concerns with a draft request for proposals (RFP) for a KC-135 tanker replacement released last September by the U.S. Air Force. They are Erin Conaton, the pick for the No. 2 Air Force civilian position, and Frank Kendall, the nominee for the deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Sessions placed the hold Dec.
MATCHBOOK POWER: Mobile satellite specialist Iridium says it will have a matchbook-size data transceiver ready for production in June. The Iridium 9602 will include built-in GPS input/output ports. It is designed for portable tracking and monitoring devices and is 69 percent smaller and 74 percent lighter than the first-generation 9601 now in use.
SHAPING BOMBERS: With funding for a restructured Long-Range Strike (LRS) program to field a new penetrating bomber and intelligence collector for the U.S. Air Force expected in the Fiscal 2011 budget rollout planned for Feb. 1, attention is now turning to the question of what the aircraft will look like.
NEW CHIEF: India’s current army chief, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, retires from service on March 31, 2010. His successor, Lt. Gen. V.K. Singh, presently in charge of the Eastern Command, will be promoted and take over starting the same day. Singh was commissioned into the Rajput Regiment in 1970. During his career, he has served in a variety of command, staff and instructional appointments. Besides being an honors graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Ga., Singh studied at the Defense Services Staff College at Wellington in Tamil Nadu, India, and the U.S.
Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd. (SSTL) has split into two separate business units to facilitate management of its growing satellite operation. One unit, under John Paffett, will be responsible for the company’s telecom and navigation business; the other, run by Paul Brooks, will handle Earth observation and science activities. Paffett headed up the Galileo Satellite Navigation System’s Giove A test satellite project and SSTL’s geostationary telecom satellite program. Brooks is currently director of business development and sales.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s plans to buy Israeli Heron unmanned aircraft are back from the brink of cancellation with the government’s decision to go ahead and take 10 systems. The first four systems are to be handed over in March, with the rest to come in November, Turkey Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said. The Heron deal was first announced in 2005, but was plagued by development problems and further put in jeopardy as Tel Aviv and Ankara clashed at the political level, straining the once strong relationship.
The results of a non-kinetic cyber attack — which involves no high impact or explosion — still can be violently kinetic. A video shared selectively by the U.S. Air Force shows a two-megawatt electrical generator being subjected to the strain of having its circuit breakers recycled on and off every three milliseconds. Within a minute it starts smoking, then bursts into flames and finally destroys itself.
Few know everything about what is in the latest Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2011 defense budget plan, but everybody seems to know something. “There is a consensus in support of long-range strike [LRS, also referred to as next generation bomber],” a senior Pentagon scientific advisor says. Questions about whether it will be optionally manned and have a nuclear weapon capability are still undecided.
International rescue and recovery forces staging out of Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after last week’s devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake are using satellite imagery to guide their efforts in the chaotic situation. The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) says it will provide unclassified data from its commercial imagery suppliers — GeoEye and DigitalGlobe — to U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) and the U.S. State Dept. for infrastructure assessment and force protection.
HARD TALK: The government-industry meeting to hash out a new contract for the A400 and figure out how to split the €1 billion ($1.4 billion) in cost overrun will resume Jan. 22. The meeting that began Jan. 21 in Berlin did not quickly lead to an agreement, so a decision was taken to continue. The two sides remain around €3 billion apart in allocating the extra program costs, which resulted from a string of development problems that have now set the program back at least three years. Industry officials worry that a deal may not be reached this time.
The South Korean government will press ahead with the KF-X fighter and KAH attack helicopter programs, despite parliamentary opposition, under a national aerospace industry development plan. The government has decided that the KAH should be a new aircraft, not a derivative of the Surion utility helicopter of Korean Aerospace Industries. A civil derivative of either the KAH or Surion also will be delivered.
ROVER READY: The French Defense Ministry says U.S. Rover air-to-ground tactical datalinks will begin operational trials aboard French aircraft in Afghanistan in February. The links are being installed aboard Rafale and Mirage 2000D fighters and Harfang medium-altitude long-endurance UAVs. France is acquiring 25 Rover units from L3 Communications and Thales under an urgent operating requirement issued last year. U.S. brass have reportedly complained that the Harfangs, in particular, are of limited usefulness without a datalink.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft is being encapsulated at Astrotech’s processing facility near Kennedy Space Center in Florida in anticipation of launching next month on an Atlas V rocket. Built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the spacecraft was shipped by truck to Astrotech last June for a planned launch in November of that year. But liftoff was pushed back as a result of delays with another spacecraft that sent ripples through the launch schedule, according to Dana Brewer, program executive for SDO.
As a dozen U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys sailed toward Haiti Jan. 21, the first cut of a concept of operations (conops) for a Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL) aircraft was drafted that outlined how a vertical heavy lifter would support humanitarian efforts.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter continues to face developmental issues because of a lack of test aircraft, according to the fiscal year 2009 annual report by the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) that was recently briefed to lawmakers.
The U.S. Marine Corps is sending about a dozen tiltrotor MV-22 Ospreys to Haiti aboard the USS Nassau (LHA 4) to help with the earthquake relief effort.
The U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, says that changes to the much-awaited request for proposals (RFP) for the next-generation aerial refueler will “lessen the financial risk” for bidders.
CZECH OUT: The Obama administration is seeking a Reciprocal Defense Procurement Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Czech Republic, according to a notice in the Federal Register. In turn, the Pentagon is requesting industry feedback regarding its experience in public defense procurements conducted by or on behalf of the Czech Defense Ministry or armed forces. The U.S. has similar deals with 21 countries. The MOUs exempt qualifying countries from some Buy American restrictions, and U.S.
U.S. mobile satellite service pioneer TerreStar has received authority from the Federal Communications Commission to integrate terrestrial use of its 20 MHz S-band spectrum into its geostationary hybrid network. The FCC also granted a number of technical waivers that will permit TerreStar to integrate its Ancillary Terrestrial Component more efficiently. The license will permit the operator to begin rolling out integrated satellite/terrestrial communications using its TerreStar-1 spacecraft, launched on July 1.
PARIS — Despite a sharp drop-off in civil helicopter orders, Eurocopter was able to grow its orderbook last year largely on the back of military and other government business. Moreover, the company is still pressing ahead with new developments, and this year plans to launch its Dauphin replacement program, the 4-5 metric ton X4, potentially with backing from the French government. An engine decision has yet to be made, with Eurocopter listening to potential providers.
