THIRD CUTTER: First lady Michelle Obama will serve as the sponsor for the Stratton, the third National Security Cutter (NSC). The keel was laid on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel on July 20 at Northrop Grumman’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., marking the start of construction. This is the first time a first lady has ever sponsored a Coast Guard cutter, this one named for Capt. Dorothy Stratton, who directed the Coast Guard’s Women’s Reserve during World War II.
SIERRA GRAND: South Korea has requested the potential $1 billion sale of eight Sikorsky MH-60S helicopters equipped for airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM). The Korean Navy has been evaluating the MH-60S and AgustaWestland AW101 for its requirement to deploy four AMCM helicopters by 2012 and four more by 2015. The MH-60S would be equipped with AQS-20A towed sonar, AES-1 laser mine detector, AQS-235 mine neutralization system, ALQ-220 magnetic/acoustic minesweeping system and the AWS-2 30mm gun firing a supercavitating projectile.
The U.S. Senate has thrown a surprise twist into the ongoing debate over pursuing a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, adopting language that could eventually block the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 in the 2010 defense budget.
Astronauts used the robotics arm on Japan’s Kibo laboratory module to install three payload packages on the lab’s new exposed facility, delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the space shuttle Endeavour, completing installation of the outpost’s largest research facility.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The U.S. Air Force’s intelligence community is taking a new and leading role in designing war games for near-term threats. Pacific Vision, as the series is called, tries to weigh budgets — which are predicted to shrink — against what possible military foes could field, from advanced missiles to authorless cyberwar. Pacific Air Forces’ former intelligence chief, Col. Marty Neubauer (ret.), was directed to look at pressing, near-term issues and not to focus on outyear problems.
An Israeli Arrow-2 interceptor missile failed to launch during a test of the system July 22 along the West Coast of the United States. The U.S. range exceeds the size of facilities in Israel and was required for the demonstration. During the test, a long-range ballistic missile target was dropped from a C-17. Several sensors, including the Israeli Green Pine radar and the U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), PAC-3 and Aegis ship-based radars, acquired the target and tracked it.
The Pentagon’s ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is exploring the creation of air units for irregular warfare, and whether such units would be owned by Special Forces or conventional troops, according to the Pentagon’s top civilian official in irregular warfare needs. Michael Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities, thinks that a “light air” component for irregular warfare is an idea whose time has come.
TOKYO — A lot of attention is paid to Japan’s F-X and F-XX fighter programs, but of more lasting importance is its work in shaping an air arm that can support allied military operations in places like Iraq or the Indian Ocean, or humanitarian aid and disaster relief virtually anywhere. In an exclusive interview with Aviation Week, Col. Tanotsu Kidono, head of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) air staff’s Defense Plans, Policies and Programs Division, discussed tankers, transports and patrol aircraft.
U.S. defense contractors continue to post healthy sales and profits, even as they warily eye an uncertain future thanks to the economic downturn and proposed cutbacks in the U.S. defense budget. L-3 Communications beat analysts’ expectations with a 6 percent rise in second-quarter sales over last year to $3.9 billion. Net income fell $50 million to $225 million. The company revised its full-year earnings guidance up to between $7.25 and $7.35 earnings per share, on net sales of between $15.5 billion and $15.7 billion.
Boeing has completed the first flight of the first F/A-18F for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), after its July 8 unveiling. The flight lasted more than an hour and took place from Lambert International Airport, Mo., near Boeing’s St. Louis facilities. Boeing says the aircraft will be delivered before August, which the company says is three months early (Aerospace DAILY, July 9). The next milestone looms in March when the first Super Hornet is due at RAAF Amberley. All 24 of the aircraft are due to be handed over before the end of 2011.
Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) unit revenues were up in the second quarter, but the unit’s performance was overshadowed by issues at the company’s Commercial Airplanes division. IDS beat analysts’ expectations with revenues of $8.7 billion for the second quarter, up 9 percent over the same period in 2008. Boeing Military Aircraft saw second-quarter revenue up 3 percent to $3.4 billion, with margins up 11.7 percent compared with 2008. The P-8A had its first flight, and the Fiscal 2009 Supplemental authorized funding for eight U.S. Air Force C-17s.
LOUD STARS: The Donald Rumsfeld-led Defense Department did not violate U.S. anti-propaganda law in its outreach to retired military officers (RMOs) to support George W. Bush administration policies, U.S. Government Accountability Office auditors have ruled. But the retired officers’ industrial affiliations remain an unanswered concern. “Clearly, DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion with respect to the administration’s war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan through the RMOs,” auditors said in a decision released July 21.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The need for stealth in the Pacific and Asia isn’t limited to manned fighters; stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance and strike aircraft are also on the wish list.
Astronomers are eagerly awaiting a chance to try out Europe’s Herschel infrared telescope, the largest ever sent to space, after test observations with all three instruments proved promising.
CHAIRMAN OUSTED: Military microwave components supplier Herley Industries replaced Myron Levy as chairman and CEO and announced a new focus on bolstering revenues and profits. David Lieberman, a New York lawyer and longtime board member, becomes chairman. Richard Poirier, general manager of the company’s New England operations, will become CEO. Levy had worked for Herley since 1988 and was promoted to the top job after the company was indicted for trying to defraud the government on military contracts.
Spacewalkers Dave Wolf and Chris Cassidy managed to replace only two of the oldest batteries on the International Space Station (ISS), instead of the four planned, after a malfunction with the carbon dioxide scrubber on Cassidy’s spacesuit forced an early halt to the third extravehicular activity (EVA) of the STS-127 mission July 22.
Space ShuttleFlights and ISS Assembly Sequence Space ShuttleFlights and ISS Assembly Sequence Launch Target Assembly Flight Launch Vehicle Element(s) July 24, 2009 34P ISS Progress 34 • Logistics and resupply Aug.
Extending the service life of F/A-18C/D Hornets to close a U.S. Navy fighter gap could still lead to a tactical air shortage because of the amount of time the Hornets will be out of service pending their upgrade, naval aviation analysts said July 21.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The U.S. Air Force hasn’t given up on an airborne electronic attack capability. It has, in fact, morphed into a major issue for Pacific Air Forces planners as they have begun to look at mounting digital counterstrikes while under cyber and electronic attack. The problem is becoming even more complicated as networks and weapons systems expand and overlap to open new and unexpected avenues for penetration that must be located and defended.
Raytheon has completed a series of captive-carriage flight-tests of the seeker design that will be included in its developmental Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II). The tests included 21 flights in just more than two weeks; they were completed in mid-June, according to J.R. Smith, SDB II business development director for Raytheon.
