CIVIL WAR: Washington watchdogs Taxpayers for Common Sense claim a recent move by the Obama administration may add proverbial teeth to countering war profiteering. The U.S. Attorney’s Atlanta office this month handed down an indictment against Public Warehousing Co. (PWC) for allegedly defrauding the United States. But the Justice Dept. further said it would join a civil suit filed against PWC by the same whistleblower behind the criminal case.
EXPLOSIVE ISSUE: The Obama administration is retaining U.S. land mine policy last set under the George W. Bush administration. A State Dept. spokesman made the comment last week while announcing the U.S. will “observe” the Second Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention in Cartagena, Columbia. “We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs, nor our security commitments to our friends and allies, if we sign this convention,” Ian Kelly says. He did not provide more information on when the review took place.
PAYING BILLS: Several leading Democratic congressmen are promoting a bill to pay for Afghanistan operations through tax increases, especially on wealthy Americans. The Share the Sacrifice Act of 2010 is not expected to pass, but it is forcing more explicit White House attention on the budget side of the war issue as President Barack Obama unveils his long-awaited plans in early December — reportedly including the addition of tens of thousands of additional ground troops, each costing the equivalent of about $1 million per year under federal bookkeeping.
LONDON Defense technology company Qinetiq is reflecting uncertainty in its two key markets, the U.K. and the U.S., warning it is now unlikely to meet its financial expectations for the year. Announcing its first-half results, Qinetiq cautions that its “main geographic markets are experiencing short term uncertainties in specific areas. In the U.K., political and economic factors are delaying the letting of contracts; in the U.S., the finalization of policy for Afghanistan continues to impact Government decision-making.”
HIGH YIELD: The U.S. Army 20th Support Command, a relatively new unit, will conduct a capabilities exercise Dec. 1 to demonstrate several of the unit’s chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive capabilities. The demonstration, which will be held at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., will showcase the unit’s capabilities including sensitive site exploitation, explosive ordnance response, analytical laboratory confirmation, nuclear disablement operations and coordination element integration.
PARIS The Australian government has decided to buy 14 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) now and not review its larger commitment for operational squadrons for another few years. After weeks of discussions, Canberra says it will put A$3.2 billion ($3 billion) into the U.S.-based Lockheed Martin program to start receiving aircraft in 2014 for testing and training. The aircraft will operate in the U.S. The spending also will buy infrastructure and support.
EURO MILSATS: French defense officials say France and Italy will sign off on contracts for two new military communications satellites by year’s end. A go-ahead for the satellites — the Sicral 2 secure satcom and Athena-Fidus dual-use broadband spacecraft — has been held up for over a year because of discussion over technical requirements and other issues. Thales Alenia Space is expected to be prime contractor for the two satellites.
LONDON With observers on both sides of the Atlantic anticipating an announcement from President Obama next week on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, the British secretary of state for defense says that if the U.S. commits more troops, then the partner nations will follow suit. London expects the U.S. to announce a “substantial uplift” in personnel numbers. Some U.S. reports peg the number at 34,000 additional troops.
MORE ISR: The U.S. will send 50 additional MC-12 Liberty surveillance aircraft to Afghanistan in January, according to Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell. “We’re going to want to dedicate some of these additional airframes to making sure our routes are clear,” Morrell says. The U.S. Air Force MC-12s provide “persistent eyes in the sky” against the emplacement of improvised explosive devices. “The whole point of them is that we can build them cheaply and quickly and make sure we can get more of them,” Morrell adds.
PARIS — There were few surprises in the latest national audit of major Australian defense programs, but the newly released report nevertheless puts the spotlight on several projects that are running behind schedule and are still at risk.
SPEAKING GERMAN: “What is now still exceptional — German military deployments — needs to become more common and needs to become thus more widely accepted,” says the German defense minister. In an address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, H.E. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg says he is trying to speak to his countrymen in blunter terms about the needs and resources for future deployments. Not only can events in far away places like Afghanistan eventually touch Germany, but Europe and the U.S.
Blue Origins, the space-tourism startup developing the New Shepherd vertical takeoff and landing suborbital vehicle, has picked three scientific experiments to ride the vehicle as early as 2011.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to launch the third Boeing Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) communications satellite Dec. 2 from a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. This will be the first WGS to launch on the Delta IV.
In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish issues on Nov. 26-27. The next issue will be dated Nov. 30
The dozen space travelers on the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station (ISS) said their farewells and went their separate ways Nov. 24, closing the hatches between their spacecraft in preparation for undocking early Nov. 25. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott joined the six men on the orbiter side of the hatch after wrapping up a three-month stint as an ISS flight engineer. She is scheduled to land with Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center early Nov. 27.
SLOW START: First flight of the U.S. Navy’s Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator has slipped from late 2009 to the first quarter of 2010 after propulsion acoustic and engine-start sequencing issues uncovered during ground checkout at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., forced adjustments and additional testing. Low-speed taxi tests are now expected to begin no later than December, the Navy says, adding that sea trials of the carrier-capable UCAS-D remain on schedule for 2012.
Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter says that the Pentagon does not plan to change its strategy for the KC-135 replacement competition to account for a potential final World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the European Union for illegally subsidizing development of commercial aircraft by Airbus.
The U.S. Navy took delivery of the first three production MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aerial vehicles (VTUAVs) from Northrop Grumman recently, completing the first year of low-rate initial production (LRIP).
GENOA, Italy — An Italian air force inquiry board is investigating the fatal crash of a Lockheed Martin C-130J belonging to the Pisa-based 46th Aerobrigade. Five crew members were killed. The aircraft crashed in the early afternoon on Nov. 23 during a training mission. It was initially scheduled to perform paratrooper launches working with the Folgore airborne brigade, based nearby, but local wind conditions were above the allowed limits and the launches were canceled.
LOS ANGELES — The newly-created 24th U.S. Air Force, the service’s latest numbered force, aims to establish the first elements of a cyberspace command operations center in San Antonio by the end of December.
STOVL HIATUS: The first short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35, aircraft BF-1, is expected to return to flight on Dec. 7 after being grounded for maintenance since it arrived at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., on Nov. 15 to begin powered-lift flight testing.
IN ORBIT: Eutelsat controllers were monitoring the new W7 satellite Nov. 24 after its ascent to orbit on an International Launch Services Proton-M flying from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Thales Alenia Space Spacebus 40000C4 satellite carries 74 Ku-band transponders. It will provide digital broadcasting service to customers in Europe and Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia from its orbital position at 36 degrees East Longitude. Liftoff came at 9:19 a.m. EST.
PARIS Engineers have switched on the Miras radiometer on Europe’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, which will improve scientists’ understanding of the role these variables play in regulating Earth’s water cycle.
