AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded a $99,542,851 modified contract for the existing engineering, manufacturing, and development contract for the Space Based Infrared System High Component. At this time, no funds have been obligated. ISSW/PKS, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting authority (F04701-95-C-0017, P00583). NAVY
PARIS — Brazil will buy 36 Dassault Rafale fighters, giving France the first export order for the strike aircraft after years of trying. The deal cements a growing defense industrial strategic relationship between Brazil and France. Brazil is already buying 50 EC-725 transport helicopters and will develop, with French help, nuclear submarines.
AEROVIRONMENT LOSS: AeroVironment has posted its first quarterly loss as a public company as customers deferred orders for RQ-11 Raven small unmanned aircraft to await delivery of a new digital data link. The company, which went public in January 2007, says transition from development to production of the digital Raven is on schedule, and it expects deliveries of new systems and upgrade kits to support its revenue projections for the second half of its fiscal year ending April 30, 2010. Net loss for the first quarter ended Aug.
LONDON — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown used his Sept. 4 speech at London’s International Institute For Strategic Studies to lay out the U.K.’s strategy in Afghanistan, and to try to address the many criticisms leveled against the Labor Government. Only 24 hours before, one of the government’s own aides to Secretary of State For Defense Bob Ainsworth resigned — laying out a raft of concerns over the nature of British involvement in Afghanistan. Bad timing
Lockheed Martin has restarted the countdown to the first vertical landing by the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, with aircraft BF-1 returning to flight on Sept. 4 with an hour-long test sortie. The first short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) test aircraft, BF-1 had been on the ground for an extended period to incorporate modifications following earlier flight and hover-pit tests.
After using its primary reaction control system (RCS) thrusters to turn the International Space Station (ISS) around, the space shuttle Discovery undocked from the orbiting laboratory Sept. 8 to begin the trip back to Earth. Undocking came on time at 3:26 p.m. EDT, and was followed by the now-routine flyaround that took the orbiter out in front of the station, and then up and over it at a range of about 600 feet so astronauts could document its exterior condition.
BACK ON: NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) have rescheduled the first ground test firing of the Ares I developmental five-segment solid-fuel rocket motor for Sept. 10 at ATK’s facility in Promontory, Utah. The first try at the potentially historic static test was scrubbed 20 seconds before ignition Aug. 27 when test conductors received an indication an auxiliary power system fuel valve had failed to open (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 28).
With the consequences of the 1993 “Last Supper” meeting between Pentagon and industry leaders still reverberating, the U.S. Defense Department’s new procurement czar says improving the relationship with aerospace contractors and shoring up program management are among his top priorities.
POLICE FORCE: Germany’s first foreign operational deployment of its Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft — performing the Baltic air policing task — is underway as of the start of September. The German air force took over from the Czech air force to fulfill the NATO mission to provide air policing for the Baltic states. The German deployment at Siauliai air base in Lithuania will be split between the Eurofighter and the F-4F. The NATO commitment has now been extended at least until the end of 2014, with the Baltic states hoping this will extend to 2018, if not beyond.
DEVELOPMENT DONE: The U.S. Navy has completed the final developmental test of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM), leading up to the planned delivery of the first production unit to the service in January. During the eighth and final test Aug. 7, the missile was launched from an F/A-18C and flown against heavy countermeasures. The missile destroyed the air defense target. AARGM is being developed by the Navy for its use and for Italy.
Scientists are covetously eyeing the suborbital seats being built for wealthy space tourists by Virgin Galactic, XCOR, Blue Origins and others, and plan a major conference in Boulder, Colo., next February to discuss what to do with them. The Next-Gen Suborbital Researchers Conference will bring together specialists in atmospheric, microgravity, planetary and space life science, solar physics and other disciplines for two days of meetings on the new vehicles’ capabilities and the researchers’ requirements.
OCEANS OF FUEL: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was instrumental in breaking the code for turning plants such as jatropha and camelina into jet fuel — and which is now working with cellulosic and algal feedstocks — is looking for ideas on how to turn the abundant carbon and hydrogen in seawater into liquid fuels.
The 13 astronauts and cosmonauts on the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station (ISS) took some time off Sept. 4 before plunging into preparations for the third and final spacewalk of the docked portion of their mission.
A high-level, independent Joint Assessment Team (JAT) has been formed by the Pentagon’s chief procurement executive to investigate concerns about a surge in the projected cost of the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) — even as the Pentagon and White House move to shut down the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine and eliminate the engine competition that has been an integral part of the program since 1996.
GREEN LIGHT: Thales Air Defense has developed a lightweight laser dazzle system to meet a British urgent operational requirement (UOR) for Afghanistan. The Less Than Lethal Effect UOR provides the army with a rifle-mounted laser that can be used at vehicle check points. During development tests were carried out to verify that the system was eye safe. The British Defense Ministry is continuing to support research into laser systems across a breadth of applications.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense is considering the feasibility of extending the nominal 6,000 flight-hours fatigue life of its Eurofighter Typhoons. Utilization of U.K. Eurofighters is more than double that of the other partner nations. According to the ministry’s figures, the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) frontline Typhoons fly an average of 30 hours per month, clocking up a total of 25,000 flying hours through the end of 2008, while the fleets of France, Germany and Spain had each accumulated 10,000 hours or fewer.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 8 - 11 — DSEI 2009 (Defense Systems & Equipment International), Global Security in Defense, ExCel London, U.K. For more information go to www.auvsi.org/events/ Sept. 14 - 16 — Air & Space Conference and TEchnology Exposition 2009, Gaylord National Hotel, Washington, D.C.. For more information go to www.afa.org
HIGH PRESSURE: Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are using lunar-gravity algorithms developed during the Apollo era to measure pressure levels at the bottom of Earth’s oceans. By applying the “masscon” — for mass concentration — calculations to data collected by the twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft in Earth orbit, researchers have been able to tweak out ocean bottom pressure measurements.
OBSERVING EARTH: Paris-based Euroconsult reports that commercial satellite Earth observation revenues will pass the $1 billion mark for the first time this year and quadruple by 2018. Some 260 imaging, weather and other Earth-observation satellites worth $27.4 billion will be launched over the next decade, Euroconsult says, which is almost 25 percent more in value terms than the past 10 years and more than double in unit terms.
WHITE KNIGHT: Scaled Composites is reactivating the WhiteKnight One (WK1) mothership in readiness for another flight test program. The aircraft has been in mothballs for around a year since flight testing an anti-shoulder-fired missile infrared countermeasures pod under contract to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security as part of Project CHLOE. Scaled Composites test pilot Pete Siebold took the WK1 for its first shakedown flight from the Northrop Grumman-owned company’s base in Mojave, Calif., on Aug. 24.
GOOD TIMING: Brazil celebrates its independence day on Monday, Sept. 7, which officials say could provide an opportunity to announce the winner of its fighter competition being contested between the Saab Gripen, Boeing F/A-18, and Dassault Rafale. French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be in Brazil for the festivities. Brazil is looking to buy 36 aircraft.
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IMPROVED HEADCOUNT: The British Defense Systems and Equipment International show begins Sept. 8, and the local industry is hoping for a better turnout from the British military than that of two years ago. A guidance note from a senior civil servant is believed to have been circulated providing greater leeway for British military officials to attend the event compared to those issued in 2007.
