The U.S. Air Force is pondering the creation of a major command focused on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). A dedicated command could be part of a new way of doing business in ISR. The service is looking for alternatives to aging ISR technology, but is stymied by the time it takes from proposing new technology until it is operational, which is still about 10 years.
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA and Lockheed Martin are on track to close out all remaining open items from the Orion spacecraft preliminary design review by Oct. 1, program managers say. “All the requirements are met apart from a few outliers” says John Curry, NASA Orion project vehicle integration office manager. “We’re heading toward critical design review in February 2011 and the overall schedule is marching toward completion in 2015.”
Armadillo Aerospace flew its “Scorpius” lunar lander rocket vehicle twice in two hours at Caddo Mills Municipal Airport in Texas Sept. 12, simulating a lunar landing and officially qualifying for a NASA-sponsored $1 million prize.
GENOA, Italy — Ghana wants to be the first international buyer of an Alenia Aeronautica C-27J through a foreign military sales (FMS) contract. The U.S. Congress has been notified of the potential sale of four aircraft to the African country. Worth an estimated $680 million, the deal includes 10 R-R AE-2100 engines, four AN/ALE-47 self-protection systems and secure communications equipment.
SOUND OFF: Lockheed Martin has completed acoustic testing of the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite. During the test at Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif., satellite SV-2 was subjected to the noise levels expected during launch. The test marks the last critical environmental test phase, and clears the way for the final integrated spacecraft and system test activities that will prepare the vehicle for flight.
MINE HUNTER: The U.S. Navy recently took delivery of the next-generation of the AN/AQS-20A Minehunting Sonar and the AN/ASQ-235 Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) from Raytheon. The AN/AQS-20A Minehunting Sonar detects, localizes and identifies bottom, close-tethered and volume mines, and AMNS reacquires and neutralizes the mines. Developmental and operational testing of the AN/AQS-20A Minehunting Sonar and AMNS began in 2002. Under current contracts, Raytheon will deliver a total of 20 AN/AQS-20A systems by January 2011 and five AMNSs by December 2009.
LONDON — A regular defense review akin to the U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review is in the cards for London, with British Secretary of State for Defense Bob Ainsworth endorsing the idea Sept. 15. Ainsworth says he favors the introduction of a defense review during the course of each parliamentary session, to better ensure goals are met. Ainsworth, speaking at Kings College in London, says the government would move to set up a regular review process, though this will almost certainly not occur until after national elections in 2010.
L-3 Communications’ Geneva Aerospace division has won a potential five-year, $250 million contract to supply the U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) expeditionary unmanned aircraft system (EUAS). The system will use L-3’s Viking 400, a 530-pound gross-weight tactical unmanned air vehicle with an 8-10-hour endurance carrying a 75-100 pounds of payload. The aircraft is designed to operate conventionally from unimproved runways at expeditionary airfields.
ZERO EFFECT: U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says the Air Force maintains its position that the outcomes in cases against Boeing and Airbus before the World Trade Organization (WTO) will not alter the road ahead on the KC-X tanker replacement program. The WTO concluded in a preliminary ruling that Airbus is receiving illegal subsidies for its aircraft programs. There is “no initial impact on needing to add ... to the [draft] request for proposals” as a result of the preliminary ruling, he told reporters Sept. 14.
The Finnish defense ministry has placed an order with Saab for BOL countermeasures dispensers to be used on the northern European country’s F/A-18 fleet. The production contract, worth around €14 million, is part of a broader upgrade program Finland is undertaking for its Hornets. The system allows F/A-18 pilots to carry more chaff and flare than the baseline aircraft can accommodate. Each dispenser can carry 160 chaff or infrared expendable packages. First deliveries are planned this year and should run through 2011, Saab says.
OTTOBRUNN, Germany The European Space Agency (ESA) has pushed back the launch of its CryoSat-2 ice and snow monitoring mission to late February 2010 because of launcher availability issues.
DESERT GAMES: Lockheed Martin demonstrated its Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) recently during the Empire Challenge joint forces exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and China Lake Naval Air Station, Calif. U.S. Air Force crews flew the pod on an F-16 to evaluate proposed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The Sniper pod demonstrated autonomous reconnaissance and data collection during the exercise, which Lockheed Martin says can be used to monitor convoy routes or wide areas of interest.
Hawker Beechcraft has teamed with Lockheed Martin to offer a development of the T-6 Texan II turboprop trainer to meet the U.S. Air Force’s Light Attack Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) requirement, if it becomes a formal program.
Lockheed Martin’s MH-60R flight trials with India, although not officially scheduled yet, are expected by the end of 2009. The company partners with Sikorsky on integrating mission systems aboard the MH-60R, but not on the U.S. Army’s UH-60M helicopter (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 3, 2009)
Aurora Flight Sciences is waiting to hear whether it has been selected for a U.S. Defense Department joint concept technology demonstration (JCTD) of an affordable, persistent medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to begin in fiscal 2010. The 8,000-pound gross-weight aircraft, designed to carry a 1,000-pound payload for five days at 15,000-20,000 feet, cruising at around 70 knots, would be a conventionally powered development of Aurora’s hydrogen-fueled Orion high-altitude long-loiter UAV.
The on-again, off-again relationship between China and the United States is on, according to U.S. Navy Adm. Tim Keating, commander of Pacific Command (PACOM), who told reporters at a roundtable in Washington Sept. 15 that the United States has “resumed official military dialogue” with China. A flurry of high-level visits to the country, including a recent trip by Michele Flournoy, the Pentagon’s policy making chief, helped hasten the resumption of talks.
Norman Augustine, the retired Lockheed Martin CEO who’s spent the past three and a half months heading a blue ribbon panel reviewing the U.S. human spaceflight program, ran into congressional frustration and anger Sept. 15 as he outlined why he and his colleagues don’t believe NASA’s current program or any of its likely alternatives can get humans out of low Earth orbit without a sizeable increase in spending.
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. Boeing officials say they are planning to be more aggressive in their proposed cost for the forthcoming KC-X competition than during the last competition. How the company will do that remains largely unclear. But new KC-X Program Manager Rick Lemaster — he took the position in May — says he plans to propose a more simple platform design in the next KC-X competition. The company hasn’t yet chosen whether it will base the refueling tanker design on the commercial 767 or 777 airframes.
Northrop Grumman says it is on track to fly its SABR active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on an F-16 in November — with the help of its principal target customer, the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force provided a Block 60 F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for SABR fit checks in June, and has agreed to make the same aircraft available for a half-dozen test flights later this year.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has signed cooperation agreements with two of the U.S. space agency’s international partners, both aimed at advancing joint work in human spaceflight and other fields. On Sept. 11 Bolden and Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow the two agencies to work together on new space transportation systems, drawing on data generated in the development and operations of Europe’s Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
The space shuttle Discovery glided to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Sept. 11, after stormy weather thwarted four landing attempts in two days at its Florida home base. Touchdown on Runway 22 at Edwards came at 8:53 p.m. EDT, as STS-128 mission commander Rick Sturckow guided the orbiter onto the concrete strip after 219 orbits. Pilot Kevin Ford took control for part of the time during a 213-degree right-hand turn to line up with the runway from the northeast.
