TANKER RFP: The Pentagon has notified prospective bidders that the long-awaited draft request for proposals for the U.s. Air Force’s KC-135 replacement competition is now planned for release in mid-September — with a formal draft likely to follow in October. If this schedule holds, selection of the winning replacement refueling tanker design could be in mid-2010. That is roughly a six-month slip from earlier plans for the program. A previous Air Force attempt at a KC-X competition included a purchase of 179 tankers worth an estimated $35 billion.
BATTERY SWAP: Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn were able to finish replacing the oldest set of batteries on the International Space Station July 24, catching up on a task that was halted abruptly on July 22 with the carbon dioxide level in Cassidy’s spacesuit started rising during the third extravehicular activity (EVA) of the STS-127 mission. The two NASA astronauts replaced four more batteries in an EVA that lasted 7 hours, 12 minutes, leaving the station’s P6 truss element with a total of six new batteries.
LOWERING EXPECTATIONS: Flir Systems is revising downward its full-year earnings outlook due to financial results from the first half of the year. The company revised its outlook down by $100 million to between $1.1 billion and $1.15 billion, and expects net earnings to be between $1.40 and $1.44 per share, down from the previous outlook of $1.40 to $1.47 per share. Flir reported second-quarter revenues of $278 million, up 7 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income was also up, to $55.7 million, compared with $44.6 million in 2008.
Estonia is looking at upgrading its air defense capabilities in the coming years, but is shying away from developing an air defense capability through at least 2018. The near-term priorities are on ground-to-air systems. For instance, a limited mobile, medium-range anti-aircraft system is included in the 10-year development plan. Estonia also plans to upgrade its close-in air defenses.
TOKYO In Japan there has always been the discussion of whether to focus on an expeditionary military or one that is focused on the defense of Japan and what the budget could afford. That discussion could be swayed by political and policy decisions concerning anti-piracy operations that require the Japanese military to deploy to the Indian Ocean. It also would provide justification for aerial tankers, maritime patrol aircraft and long-range transports.
Industry is concerned about the Future Vertical Lift Initiative (FVLI) in light of recent changes inside the Pentagon resulting from the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act. A letter signed by the leaders of six helicopter manufacturers — Boeing Rotorcraft, Sikorsky, Bell Helicopter Textron, AgustaWestland, American Eurocopter (EADS) and Lockheed Martin — is being sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reiterating the importance of the FVLI.
U.K. IS GO: The U.K. intends to drop its traditional opposition to involvement in manned spaceflight activities, says Paul Drayson, Britain’s minister in charge of space. Though he gives no indication of whether additional funding will be forthcoming, European Space Agency head Jean-Jacques Dordain welcomes the move. “At least now there’s a clear interest, and that [in itself] is already a change,” Dordain says. ESA will wait to see what emerges from the Augustine committee in the U.S. before deciding on a manned exploration strategy, according to Dordain.
CLUSTER SAT: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to award Orbital Sciences a sole-source contract for the second phase of its System F6 program to develop a “fractionated” satellite architecture in which clusters of modular spacecraft flying in loose formation and wirelessly networked would perform the same mission as a large monolithic satellite. Modules could be launched individually to replace failed elements or upgrade the “virtual” satellite.
EXPERT LAUNCH: A Russian submarine-launched Volna rocket is due to loft the European Space Agency’s Experimental Reentry Testbed (Expert) next year under an 18 million euro ($25 million) full-scale development contract to Thales Alenia Space for the atmospheric reentry demonstrator.
SWITCHING RIDES: The first Hylas broadband telecommunications satellite will launch on either an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher, rather than a SpaceX Falcon 9 as originally planned. Avanti Communications Group and Arianespace signed the launch contract last week. Liftoff is anticipated in the second quarter of 2010. Delays in the Falcon 9 program prompted the switch.
CHINA LAKE, Calif. A mini-synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-equipped variant of Boeing-Insitu’s ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is being demonstrated for the first time in Afghanistan-like arid conditions at the Empire Challenge 09 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exercise in California.
QDR INPUT: Combatant commanders are having more of a say in this year’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), according to Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command. “[They] just didn’t have as significant a role in previous QDRs. [By contrast] I’ve been back [to Washington] three times for the singular purpose of participating in a two-day session chaired by the [defense] secretary and the [Joint Chiefs of Staff] chairman. I can see changes as the QDR unfolds. [Changes in] day-to-day operations in the Pacific have not been significant.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense has contracted Miro Technology for the first phase of an integration project to link the WRAM (Work Recording & Asset Management) Online system and the health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) for the Apache Attack helicopter program operated by the British army.
REDEPLOYMENT PLANNING: House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) says the Pentagon needs to consider the equipment needs of the National Guard as it plans to redeploy troops and materiel from Iraq. In a July 24 letter to Gen. Craig McKinley, head of the National Guard Bureau, Skelton expressed concern about what will happen to the equipment deployed with National Guard units when the U.S. begins drawing down its force in Iraq and sending equipment to Afghanistan. Skelton asked McKinley for an operational assessment of U.S.
HAWKEYE UPGRADE: Northrop Grumman will upgrade six E-2C airborne early warning systems aircraft from Group II to Hawkeye 2000 configuration for Taiwan via the U.S. foreign military sales program. Work should be completed in June 2013 under the $154 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. Taiwan has four E-2Ts and two other Hawkeyes that already are in a more advanced configuration.
After having remained mum on recent builder’s trials for the nation’s second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), General Dynamics revealed July 24 that there were challenges during testing, but they should not affect the ship’s planned delivery date.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. has cleared two new Earth observation satellites for a twin launch next week aboard a Russian Dnepr booster. The launch, on July 29 from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will orbit Britain’s UK-DMC2 and Spain’s Deimos-1, intended to form the nucleus of SSTL’s second-generation disaster monitoring constellation (DMC).
MELBOURNE, Australia — The market for the Australian-U.S. Nulka naval decoy may be expanding by a factor of two, thanks to a prospective easing of restrictions on exports of the hovering rocket. As the system is fitted to ever-larger ships previously thought impossible to defend with decoys, there are signs that it will even go aboard the largest of all — U.S. aircraft carriers — giving them one more defense layer to add to the several that already surround them.
PARIS Better than expected sales activity in the first months of the year is allowing Saab to increase its earnings guidance for 2009, but the Swedish defense and aerospace company remains cautious about the long-term outlook. The company says that for the year, sales will increase over 2008 levels. The previous guidance was for flat sales development. Sales in the first half were up 6 percent to 11.7 billion Swedish kronor ($1.57 billion).
ITEP STEP: The U.S. Army is taking another step on the long road towards acquiring a new 3,000 shaft horsepower turboshaft to re-engine Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, issuing a request for information for the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP). This is intended to develop and qualify a powerplant demonstrated under the Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine (AATE) program. General Electric, with the GE3000, and Honeywell/Pratt & Whitney, with the HPW3000, plan to run their competing AATE demonstrator engines in 2011.
GYRO TAKEAWAY: Lockheed Martin has agreed to acquire Gyrocam Systems, a privately owned supplier of gyrostabilized optical surveillance systems. Sarasota, Fla.-based Gyrocam’s vehicle mast-mounted sensors are installed on MRAPs deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the company supplies stationary and shipborne mast-mounted systems as well as airborne stabilized sensors. Terms of the transaction, expected to close this quarter, have not been disclosed.
Boeing has withdrawn its protest of the award of the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) system space segment contract to Lockheed Martin. The spring protest to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which followed an earlier complaint late last December, sought to overturn a $1.09 billion award by NASA for two GOES-R weather satellites, plus an option for a third, issued on Dec. 10.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The former commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard, who recently moved to the staff of U.S. Pacific Command, is still planning on receiving the F-22 Raptor in Hawaii, despite efforts in Washington to cap production of the stealthy Lockheed Martin fighter.
SUNSET DAYS: After two decades of service that have seen it image the equivalent of the Earth’s total surface 46 times, Europe’s Spot 2 is headed for retirement. The spacecraft, launched in 1990, will be removed from its low Earth trajectory on July 30 and left in a harmless orbit from which it will re-enter the atmosphere 25 years hence. Spot Image, which operates the satellite, can still call on Spot 5 and 4 until two new spacecraft, Spot 6 and 7, are deployed in 2012-14.
