Planetary scientists using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) are taking advantage of the relatively dust-free springtime atmosphere over the Red Planet’s northern hemisphere to resume terrain observations after a four-month shutdown triggered by a recurrent software problem. On Dec. 8 controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) restarted the orbiter, which had been in a safe mode since it spontaneously reset its computer on Aug. 26. The spacecraft was reoriented with its instruments pointing downward, and observations began again.
PARIS — The Swiss government is seeking closer cooperation with the European Defense Agency (EDA). The Swiss parliament says it is seeking the relationship to strengthen the country’s defense and security policy, although the influential foreign affairs committee still has to endorse the measure. EDA includes all European Union (EU) member states except Denmark. The Brussels-based organization aims to foster greater European defense industrial cooperation through a variety of research and development efforts that countries can choose to join.
The battle royale being waged over the U.S. Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles program rages on, following the recent ruling by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustaining a protest by losing incumbent contractor BAE Systems.
In a next step toward full operational certification in early 2011, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system aboard the USS Lake Erie recently completed tracking exercises in the Pacific. BMD 4.0.1 detected, tracked and conducted simulated engagements against a variety of ballistic missile targets. The key feature of the new system, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin, is a new integrated signal processor designed to improve the system’s discrimination capability to defeat sophisticated ballistic missiles and their countermeasures.
A new Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Avionics repair site at U.S. Naval Air station Jacksonville, Fla., was dedicated by Raytheon and representatives from Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) Dec. 9, the Navy announced Dec. 18. The FRSCE team will add maintenance, overhaul and repair capability for the newest FLIR system, which comprises three Weapons Replaceable Assemblies: the turret, electronic and hand control units. The systems support the Navy’s MH-60R and MH-60S multimission helicopters.
ARMY The Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pa., was awarded on Dec. 14, 2009, a $704,417,000 firm-fixed-price contract for 21 new build aircraft and 14 remanufacture aircraft. This is the third year of a multi-year contract for CH-47F. Work is to be performed in Ridley Park, Pa., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2013. One bid was solicited with one bid received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aviation and Missiles, CCAM-CG-A, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0098). NAVY
While military planners have put together a sound early-stage transportation plan to withdraw troops and equipment from Iraq, more work needs to be done to meet the exit timetable, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says in a recent report. “The transportation plan is still fluid,” the IG says. “Whether it is fully executable cannot be determined.” The Pentagon still has to identify everything it is bringing back to the United States, the IG says, and the effect of the withdrawal also still has to be quantified.
LONDON — Saab has secured a 200 million Swedish kronor ($27.4 million) contract for in-service support of Gripen multirole fighters. The contract was let by the Swedish defense materiel administration, acting for export customers of the single-engine combat aircraft in Thailand, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
LONDON — The Swiss government has taken delivery of the last of 20 EC635 transport and training helicopters. The acquisition of the rotorcraft was confirmed in the 2005 defense modernization spending plan, and the first helo was delivered by Eurocopter in July. The first four of the helos were assembled at Eurocopter’s Donauworth facility, with the final 16 undergoing the process in Switzerland at Ruag Aviation in Alpnach.
Three new crew members are en route to the International Space Station (ISS) after a safe launch in Soyuz TMA-17 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The pre-dawn liftoff of the three-seat capsule came at 4:52 p.m. Dec. 20 EST, carrying cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA’ s Timothy Creamer.
Construction started Dec. 17 on the first Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV), a ship praised by senior U.S. military leadership for its management up to this point. Rear Adm. Bill Landay, head of the U.S. Navy’s program executive office for ships, has hailed JHSV as a program that has managed to stay on track throughout its development. “Our goal for design maturity [on JHSV] was 85 percent,” he said. “Our analysis says we’re at 87 percent.” The program completed an extensive production readiness review Oct. 20 in preparation for the start of fabrication.
PARIS — The U.S. Export-Import Bank has agreed to help finance a broadband satellite for U.K.-based Avanti Communications, indicating a growing willingness on the bank’s part to counter a strong offensive by the French export credit agency Coface.
LEGISLATIVE FLURRY: The U.S. Senate approved the final Fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill on Dec. 19 by a vote of 88 to 10. The bill — a congressional compromise with the House, which passed it Dec. 16 — then awaited President Barack Obama’s expected signature. Covering the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, the bill does not address the president’s new Afghanistan security strategy because the administration has yet to request any funding for that initiative (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 21).
LONDON — The United Arab Emirates plan to procure four Boeing C-17 airlifters has taken another step forward with the formal foreign military sale (FMS) notification now submitted to Congress for parts of the transaction. The FMS deal would cover the logistics element of the acquisition, with the aircraft to be bought under direct commercial sales terms. The value of the logistics contract is estimated at up to $501 million.
UKRAINIAN BIRD: MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA) will build and launch a communications satellite for the Ukrainian space agency under a $254 million deal. The award includes the supply of ground stations for two other spacecraft. The contract win follows a $200 million award to provide payloads for the Russian Satellite Communications Company’s (RSCC) AM5 and 6 spacecraft, being built by Reshetnev ISS. MDA beat out Thales Alenia Space, Reshetnev’s traditional payload supplier, for the RSCC award.
NASA has opened for the first time in-flight the cavity door covering the 98-inch infrared telescope mounted in the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia), a modified Boeing 747SP. The one hour and 19 minute long flight, which took off from NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif, included two minutes with the telescope’s door fully opened, the agency says.
OVERSIGHT SURGE: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a former state auditor who made a reputation trying to do the same in Washington, is questioning the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the departments of Defense and State whether adequate mechanisms for oversight of contracts in Afghanistan are in place and if the lessons learned in Iraq are being applied to the war there.
The U.S. Navy announced Dec. 18 that Lockheed Martin’s Remote Minehunting System (RMS) program has triggered a Nunn-McCurdy cost/schedule breach notification. The company’s RMS is to be deployed on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as part of the mine countermeasures missions (MCM) module. It comprises a Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV), its launch-and-retrieval system, the RMMV-towed sonar sensor and advanced communications equipment and software. The RMMV portion is the one that has run afoul of Nunn-McCurdy regulations.
