NASA probably won’t be able to meet its 2010 deadline for retiring the space shuttle fleet, and even if it does it will probably take about two years longer than planned to get the follow-on vehicles into operation, meaning the anticipated five-year gap in U.S. human space access is likely to stretch by at least a year.
FT. WORTH, Texas — The U.S. Navy has strongly endorsed a single engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, citing lack of space on its aircraft carriers to support an alternate powerplant. “I’m in the one engine camp,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, speaking July 28 at the rollout of the first Pratt & Whitney F135-powered F-35C carrier variant here. “On a carrier, space matters.”
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
GENOA, Italy The Italian government is further boosting its effort within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), sending more air and ground assets to Afghanistan. The decision was made following an increase in combat clashes involving Folgore Brigade paratroopers deployed in western Afghanistan.
Astronauts and cosmonauts on the space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station (ISS) wrapped up the fifth and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of their joint mission July 27, and will say their farewells and undock July 28. NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn made short work of most of their assigned tasks on EVA 5, but managers at Mission Control Center - Houston made a “conservative” call and sent them back inside instead of out to the station truss for one final chore.
HIT HARD: Sales declines in Moog’s commercial and military programs led to a 96 percent drop in year-over-year profits. The company reported fiscal third-quarter sales of $445 million, down 10 percent from the same period a year ago. Aircraft sales in the quarter were $162 million, or 8 percent lower than last year. Military sales were up, the company said, but much of the work on the F-35 has been completed. Sales in Moog’s space and defense division were up 2 percent in the fiscal third quarter, to $65 million.
APACHE ARROWHEAD: The U.S. Army recently awarded Lockheed Martin a $142 million follow-on production contract for the Arrowhead Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) for the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter. The Lot 6 contract includes 55 Arrowhead kits for U.S. Army Apaches and kits for several international customers. More than 850 systems will have been delivered with the completion of the Lot 6 contract, which extends production through December 2011.
Saudi Arabia has become the second largest customer for Airbus Military A330-based multirole tanker transports with a decision to double its order for the refuelers. EADS announced July 27 that Saudi Arabia will buy three more of the aircraft. The deal comes on top of a commitment for three A330s that the country signed last year. The first of the Saudi refuelers is to be delivered in 2011. Saudi Arabia will use both hose-and-drogue pods and the refueling boom system that Airbus developed.
NEW DELHI India’s first indigenously built nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was launched on July 26 at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam. The 6,000-ton sub INS Arihant, which means “Destroyer of Enemies,” features a single 80 MW pressurized nuclear reactor and carries six 533 mm torpedoes, Klub land attack and anti-ship cruise missiles.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Dryden Flight Research Center here have conducted an aerial radar survey of volcanos in Alaska, the Aleutians and Cascade Mountain Range using a Gulfstream III equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
Aurora Flight Sciences is developing technology demonstration plans for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) with the target of identifying ways to reduce air mobility fleet fuel usage 90 percent by 2030-2035. The study is being conducted under the Revolutionary Configurations for Energy Efficiency (RCEE) program, which is being funded with Recovery Act stimulus money. In June, Boeing and Lockheed Martin were awarded RCEE contracts to study aft-body drag reduction.
ARMY Raytheon Company, Integrated Defense Company, Andover, Mass., was awarded on July 23, 2009, a $8,926,847 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for FY ’09 Patriot engineering services contract option award for 37,822 man-hours of effort. The work is to be performed in Andover, Mass. (1.39%), and Tewksbury, Mass. (98.61%) with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2014. One bid was solicited with one bid received. U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-09-C-0057).
Classified intelligence community satellites have yielded a treasure trove of imagery on Arctic Sea changes, but a National Academies panel wants even more access. The panel’s report especially wants more dissemination of Literal Imagery Derived Products (LIDPs), which would provide detailed data for scientists about changes in the seascape. The committee recommends that the intelligence community release and disseminate all Arctic sea ice LIDPs that have been produced to date as soon as possible.
NEW DELHI Rolls-Royce Defense Aerospace is exploring further opportunities in India as it awaits decisions in numerous pending bids in the military engine and civil nuclear arenas. “We wish to take advantage of India’s competitive edge [by] extending our relationship with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and in newer areas of value-added components,” said Anil Shrikhande, president of Rolls-Royce India.
PARIS The European Space Agency and Eumetsat have inked a framework agreement that will enable the two agencies to work together on the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative as they currently do in Europe’s weather satellite efforts.
PARIS Government stakeholders in the Airbus Military A400M transport have agreed to formally start talks with industry to renegotiate the contract and keep the program alive. During a meeting in southern France, defense ministers from the seven core A400M customer countries have said they will remain committed to the program, rather than exercising the option to cancel the deal owing to program delays.
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SBIRS CERTIFICATION: U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) is expected to formally certify the second Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO-2) payload and ground system modifications for the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) in August after they were accepted for operations by the U.S. Air Force last week. Orbited as a payload on a classified mission, HEO-2 has been undergoing in-orbit checkout. The HEO-1 payload was accepted last November and certified in December by STRATCOM. Lockheed Martin is under contract to build a third HEO; its launch date is classified.
