CRY A LITTLE: Argentina’s economic troubles have pushed its military modernization plans out to at least 2025, according to U.S. consultancy Forecast International. “As long as the Argentine economy is in a slump, prospects for procurement remain dim,” analysts there said in a statement. So far this year, Argentina has suspended the army’s Gaucho wheeled light vehicle program, the navy’s new offshore patrol vessel, and procurement of Russian Mi-17 helicopters.
The U.S. Army’s Raven small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) will benefit from several upgrades in the near term to keep up with demand from the field, according to the service’s UAS project manager, Col. Gregory Gonzalez. Gonzalez and his deputy, Tim Owings, addressed reporters at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) show in Washington Aug. 11. Gonzalez said the Army has tested a digital data link (DDL) for Raven and is on track to field the system at the start of fiscal 2010.
NASA has assigned the crew for space shuttle mission STS-134, which will deliver the long-delayed Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station (ISS). U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Kelly will command STS-134, which is set to launch in either July or September of 2010. Retired Air Force Col. Gregory H. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission Specialists will be Air Force Col. Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff and Andrew Feustel. European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori also will serve as a mission specialist.
The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory has whittled down prospective bidders for its unmanned cargo lift contract to two competitors: the Boeing A160T Hummingbird and the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-MAX helicopter. Eliminated from the competition are the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout and the MMIST SnowGoose.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini South telescope in Chile to peer nearly 11 billion years into the past have discovered stars in a small, distant galaxy moving at speeds of 1 million miles per hour – roughly twice the speed at which our sun moves through the Milky Way.
WEBSTER FIELD, Md. — The U.S. Navy is facing a long slog in its effort to define and standardize interoperability for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Rear Adm. Bill Shannon, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons.
Satellite communications company Iridium Satellite LLC reported growth in subscriptions and revenue for the second quarter of 2009, which the company says offset declines in equipment sales tied to the economic recession.
BACK ON: South Korea has rescheduled the first launch of its first space rocket for Aug. 19, following a delay caused by a diagnostic error during testing. Data showing a malfunction on a pump in the Russian-built first stage of the KSLV-1 rocket have been found to be erroneous. A launch was previously scheduled for Aug. 11 (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 4, 10).
WEBSTER FIELD, Md. — U.S. Navy specialists gathered near Patuxent River, Md., for Naval Air Systems Command’s annual unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) demonstrations are looking into the future of unmanned sensors, platforms and operations.
The production rate of Boeing subsidiary Insitu’s ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which was 35 vehicles a month at the beginning of the year, has reached 54 a month to meet operational needs worldwide, according to the company.
PAK-FA: Russian air force chief Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin appears to still be confident that the prototype of Russia’s fifth-generation combat aircraft, known as a PAK-FA, will be flown before the end of the year. “I believe that this year we will certainly take this plane into the air,” Zelin is quoted by Russian news agency TASS, August 11. When Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Komsomolsk-on-Amur production site in May, Zelin apparently briefed him that the prototype Sukhoi T-50 would be flown in October or November.
WEBSTER FIELD, Md. — The U.S. Navy is preparing its MQ-8B Fire Scout for deployment this fall aboard the frigate USS McInerney (FFG 8) to perform counternarcotics mission in the Caribbean. The deployment is on schedule for early October, says Capt. Tim Dunigan, Navy Fire Scout program manager. The aircraft has been going through shakedown flight tests for months.
On the heels of a trio Pentagon Inspector General (IG) reports about electrical safety in combat zones, the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) has concluded that while private and government officials failed to do their jobs properly, no one did anything criminally wrong in connection with the January 2008 electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth in Iraq. Maseth was electrocuted while showering in his quarters at the Radwaniyah Palace.
A new group has formed under the leadership of former NASA science directorate chief Alan Stern to try to further the research and education potential of the current crop of suborbital reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) under development by industry. The Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) plans to have its first meeting Aug. 18 in Boulder, Colo.
TINFISH SUPPORT: A decade-long capability contract covering the U.K.’s Spearfish and Sting Ray torpedoes has been signed between the Defense Ministry and BAE Systems. Along with the provision of support the Torpedoes Capability Contract is also intended to provide a vehicle for an upgrade of the Spearfish. The partnering approach is intended to provide a 20 percent savings compared to the ministry’s traditional support path. The contract is worth £369.5 million ($608.2 million) over the ten-year period.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on Aug. 6 notified Congress of several possible foreign military sales (FMS), including a $308 million deal with Egypt for six Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopters.
WEBSTER FIELD, Md. — The U.S. Navy, which is modifying the Air Force’s Global Hawk Block 40 vehicle for its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) aircraft, is now working toward a common ground control station that both services could use to control the Northrop Grumman-built unmanned aircraft.
GETTING FIRED: Selex Galileo has been carrying out a further test set of catapult launches of its Falco tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The trials, carried out using a range in Finland, examined launch performance with the UAV in heavy take-off weight configuration. The latest trials were carried out at the end of July, earlier catapult tests occurred in December of last year. The Finnish trials used a Robonic catapult launcher at the company’s test center in northern Finland.
Early reports on the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft’s technical performance are so positive that its mission duration could be doubled, Ball Aerospace Program Manager John Troeltzsch says.
