LONG BEACH, Calif. — NATO’s first Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) Boeing C-17 could make its initial operational sortie into Afghanistan on behalf of the 12 Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) partner nations as early as the end of this month.
The Pentagon could begin to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles suitable to track ballistic missiles early in flight into the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) layered system within two years, says agency director U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) says it could rapidly stand up an expendable space shuttle main engine (SSME) if the Obama administration decides to use a shuttle-derived throwaway heavy lifter as an alternative to the Ares I crew launch vehicle.
The U.S. Navy is inspecting 566 of 622 F/A-18A-D Hornets after cracks were found in horizontal stabilizer actuator support fittings. Though no mishaps have occurred, these support “bootstraps” are critical safety-of-flight items; failure could lead to a pilot losing control of the horizontal stabilizer, which is a primary control surface. The cracked bootstraps resulted largely from missing fasteners, Navy officials say. Each F/A-18A-D must have its bootstraps inspected within the next 25 flight hours, according to the Navy’s safety bulletin.
VH-71 LAYOFFS: Lockheed Martin has announced a mass layoff in upstate New York after the Pentagon terminated its bedeviled program to provide new helicopters for the president. “Today, we are notifying approximately 600 colleagues that their positions will be eliminated as a result of the decision to terminate the VH-71 presidential helicopter program,” a company statement said July 14. Under the state’s Workers Adjustment Retraining Notification Act, affected employees will receive 90 days of continued pay and benefits.
F-22 FIGHT: Opponents and supporters of proposed legislation to cap procurement of F-22 Raptors at 187 aircraft debated the issue in advance of an expected vote on the measure July 15. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said the planned shutdown “is budget driven pure and simple.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), co-sponsor of the measure to stop production, argued that diverting the money to more Raptors is unnecessary and will force the Pentagon to cut needed funding elsewhere.
Controllers are checking out RazakSAT, a Malaysian Earth-observation spacecraft, after a SpaceX Falcon 1 launch vehicle sent it into orbit late July 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It was the second successful launch in five tries for the privately financed Falcon 1, and the first with an operational payload. The vehicle’s first successful mission carried a dummy spacecraft.
More than a decade since the U.S. Army Materiel Command began its Logistics Modernization Program (LMP), the service has officially opened the doors to the Army Logistics University in Fort Lee, Va. The university will host more than 32,000 students annually, offering a curriculum of training and sustainment simulation for the military, civilians and multinational students.
SPACE FENCE: The U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman the first phase of a $30 million fixed-price contract to develop a global space surveillance ground radar system. The new S-Band Space Fence is part of DOD’s effort to track and detect resident space objects, which consist of thousands of pieces of “space debris” as well as commercial and military satellites. Space Fence will replace the current VHF Air Force Space Surveillance System built in 1961.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported a steady increase in DOD supplemental war funding over the past seven years, rising from $200 million in fiscal 2001 to $162.4 billion in FY ’08.
The first of the Airbus A330 EADS aircraft being converted into tankers for the U.K. is now at the company’s Getafe facility outside Madrid, where the real work of making it into a refueling aircraft will begin. The aircraft is one of 14 Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft due to start entering service with the Royal Air Force in 2011 under a complex private finance initiative run by the so-called AirTanker Consortium.
U.S. doubts are surfacing in reaction to an independent report out of Moscow that contends aviation losses during the conflict with Georgia were twice that reported by Russian Federation Air Force (RFAF) officials last year. U.S. intelligence analysts say they are suspicious of a new analysis written by the editors of Moscow Defense Brief, published by the Center for Analysis of Strategy and Technology (CAST).
As the demand for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) grows, companies are positioning themselves to take advantage of the burgeoning market, and BAE is no exception.
NASA has tapped the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics to develop the off-again/on-again Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
SHOOTING DAGRs: Lockheed Martin recently launched DAGR rockets from an airborne Boeing AH-6 Little Bird helicopter and hit the target in two separate trials. The company also fired DAGR rockets from the AH-64D Apache helicopter in March. Engineers mounted the DAGR four-pack launch canister on the outboard rail of a modified XM299 launcher carried by the AH-6 Mission Enhanced Little Bird test platform.
GLASS ACTION: Hawker Beechcraft has flown a T-6A turboprop trainer with upgraded cockpit and avionics. FAA certification and first deliveries to the U.S. Navy are planned for this month, with initial operational capability and the start of student training on the T-6B scheduled for April 2010. The Navy is expected to acquire more than 260 aircraft. The upgrade is based on CMC Electronics’ Cockpit 4000 integrated avionics and includes three multifunction displays and an upfront controller in each cockpit, driven by dual avionics computers.
NUCLEAR BLOODHOUND: Techniques to detect nuclear materials at standoff ranges are being sought by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The goal is to locate containers of plutonium or enriched uranium at distances of 5 kilometers (3 miles) or more using a sensor payload on an aircraft or satellite. As primary radiation signatures can be shielded by containment, DARPA is looking for ways to detect secondary effects from neutron and gamma ray emission, such as ultraviolet radiation emitted by gamma-induced ionization of ambient nitrogen.
Weather concerns scrubbed two attempts to launch space shuttle Endeavour on July 11 and July 12, delaying its mission to carry new supplies and complete the Japanese Kibo laboratory aboard the International Space Station (ISS). On July 11, managers decided to forego a launch attempt to give engineers more time to check systems for damage from a violent thunderstorm Friday that produced seven lightning strikes on the catenary wire protection system at Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded a $262,500,000 contract for the long lead parts and material procurement for the 4th Space Based Infrared Systems Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Satellite and the 4th Highly Elliptical Orit Payload. At this time, $137,125,000 has been obligated. Space Based Infrared Systems Wing, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8810-08-C-0002). ARMY
