PARIS — The Brazilian government has extended the deadline of the bidders for the F-X2 fighter program to submit their final offers, following confusion after the country’s president announced that the choice already had been made. The government says Saab, Boeing, and Dassault now have until Oct. 2 to hand in the documentation to the Brazilian air force, which is running the program. The government says that until then, all three can provide improvements to their initial offer to get Brazil to buy the Gripen, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Rafale.
Launch of the U.S. Air Force’s secretive Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) Flight 1 Space Plane has been rescheduled for April 2010 following several shifts in the busy Cape Canaveral launch manifest. The OTV is the Air Force-led X-37B, a Boeing Phantom Works-built derivative of the X-37 technology demonstrator originally developed for NASA’s “Future X” project of the late 1990s aimed at future orbital vehicle development. According to updated United Launch Alliance launch plans, the vehicle will be launched aboard the 501 version of the Atlas V on April 10, 2010.
Boeing is hoping that a counterinsurgency aircraft designed during the Vietnam War can be reborn to meet the U.S. Air Force’s growing irregular warfare requirements. The company is offering an updated OV-10 Bronco to meet the Air Force’s Light Attack Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) specification, and believes the design could perform some of the companion Light Mobility Aircraft’s (LiMA) requirements.
A seasoned crew of spaceflight veterans will take the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) on the final scheduled shuttle mission on the NASA flight manifest. Steve Lindsay, the head of the astronaut office at Johnson Space Center, will command Discovery on the STS-133 mission, an eight-day logistics and resupply flight now scheduled to lift off on Sept. 16, 2010. Joining him will be pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott.
November 3 - 4, 2009 Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa Phoenix, AZ - AVIATION WEEK launches A&D Supply Chain Conference- THE event for senior defense supply chain and supplier management executives. Come together with prime contractors and sub-contractors and experience AVIATION WEEK’S interactive model. Register today for best rates! www.aviationweek.com/events
BEIJING — A last-minute decision by the Russian space agency Roscosmos to postpone launch of its Phobos-Grunt probe to Mars has left China’s first mission to the Red Planet on hold for 26 months.
PAKISTANI SPACECRAFT: The China Great Wall Industry Corp. and the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmospheric Research Commission will jointly develop a communications satellite, Paksat-1R, under an agreement signed Sept. 18 in Islamabad. China is backing the project with a soft loan of 1.35 million RMB (roughly $200 million), according to China Daily.
SMALL STUFF: Ruag Space and AAC Microtec of Sweden are preparing to fly a package of miniaturized control, computer and mass memory components intended to show the feasibility of carrying advanced subsystems on nanosat-class spacecraft. The package, weighing just 120 grams, will be the first in space based entirely on 3D wafer-level packaged (3D-WLP) microsystem technology. It features a plug-and-play 3D-WLP architecture, dubbed Inovator, built for OHB System with funding from the Swedish National Space Board.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Rolls-Royce a five-year, $7 million engine management services contract aimed at improving operational efficiencies and cost-effectiveness for engine monitoring data. The award covers work at seven military bases in the U.S. and includes asset tracking and management in support of USAF airlift and aerial refueling missions, Rolls-Royce says.
ADVANCING ARES: NASA has moved up the targeted flight-test of the Ares I-X suborbital flight-test demonstrator to Oct. 27, four days earlier than planned following better-than-expected results from power-up and systems testing (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 18). Pending successful testing and data verification, NASA is now expected to roll the 327-foot tall vehicle to Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., around Oct. 25 for the planned launch two days later. NASA adds that the target date has been confirmed with the U.S.
Trade representatives for government-services contractors are trying to head off a potential trend of federal managers defaulting to “insourcing” — hiring more federal employees, especially from industry’s ranks — in response to widely perceived problems with the nation’s acquisition regime.
A&D Programs Conference November 2-4, 2009 Phoenix, AZ A&D Finance Conference December 2-3, 2009 New York, NY Defense Technology & Requirements Conference February 17-18, 2010 Washington, DC AVIATION WEEK Laureates Awards March 17, 2010 Washington, DC
The U.S. Army made mistakes in a $4 billion contract it awarded to build trucks, Lexington Institute defense analyst Loren Thompson says in a recent issue brief.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is testing a miniature solid-state gyro sensor that it says will be the smallest ever flown in space. The sugar cube-sized gyro uses microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), a technology already widely used in the automobile industry that allows moving parts or sensors to be incorporated on a single silicon chip, saving space and weight and improving reliability.
The German air force is about to introduce a new reconnaissance tool into operational use in Afghanistan. A Luftwaffe official says reconnaissance Tornados deployed to Mazar-i-Sharif as part of the country’s support of NATO forces are cleared to start flying operationally with the RecceLite pod. The first operational missions are slated to take place in the coming days. Tornado crews have been training with RecceLite for several weeks. The pod was bought specifically for the Afghanistan deployment.
A consortium led by the U.S. Army’s Space & Missile Defense Command is scheduled to be established by Oct. 1 and a contract awarded for the Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) demonstration by the end of December. LEMV is joining an expanding pantheon of persistent ISR options under evaluation by the Pentagon, which is interested in deploying an autonomous, free-flying, surveillance airship to Afghanistan, according to industry sources.
Nothing if not ambitious, NATO’s new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is attempting to recast the alliance’s relationship with Moscow. Using his first major public speech, given at the Carnegie Endowment in Brussels last week, Rasmussen spelled out his agenda for bringing the NATO partners and Russia closer together. He took up the post at the start of August, replacing Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
AIR FORCE BAE Systems Technical Services of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was awarded a $39,553,260 contract to manage, operate, maintain, and logistically support the solid state phased array radar system at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., Thule Air Base, Greenland, Clear Air Force Station, Alaska, and Royal Air Force Flyingdales, U.K. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 21 CONS/LGCZG, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., is the contracting activity (FA2517-06-C-8001, P00165). ARMY
