ZEPHYR CONTRACT: U.K.-based Qinetiq has received a $44.9 million U.S. Navy contract to deliver seven Zephyr solar-powered long-endurance unmanned aircraft by 2014 for accelerated testing leading to an operational deployment, possibly within 18 months. The hand-launched Zephyr 7 will be able to carry a small payload to high altitude for a week or more.
CYBER CALL: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, highlighted U.S. cyber, space and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) concerns to House appropriators May 20. “Our nation’s cyber vulnerabilities could have devastating ramifications to our national security interests,” Mullen said in prepared testimony.
TURNING POINT: The U.S. Air Force chief of staff is declaring a turning point in a cultural and operational evolution to unmanned aerial systems (UAS) from manned aircraft within the service. “This is an inflection point,” Gen. Norton Schwartz says. The chief, an airlift pilot and former head of Transportation Command, acknowledged that there may be a loss of verve among some USAF members who grew up around the panache of piloting high-performance fighters.
A new program to develop a high-speed, long-range airborne weapon that can engage aircraft, cruise missiles and air defenses is part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s $3.25 billion fiscal 2010 budget request. The Triple Target Terminator (T3) would be carried internally or externally on fighters, bombers and unmanned aircraft, allowing them to switch between air-to-air and air-to-surface capability and increasing the variety of targets engaged on each sortie.
U.S. military officials in charge of running weapons storage and accounting at the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) Depot 1 need to improve their operations, according to a recent report by the Pentagon Inspector General (IG). Some of the weapons cannot be accounted for, the IG says. “We identified material internal control weaknesses in accounting for weapons provided to the ANA,” the IG’s report says.
SHIP SLIP: Because of projected cost increases, the U.S. won’t be able to achieve a planned 313-ship Navy by 2038 unless it commits much more money to shipbuilding, an analyst with the Congressional Budget Office says. Eric Labs, senior CBO analyst for naval forces and weapons, says the average price of a naval vessel has risen from $1.2 billion per ship (in constant 2009 dollars) during the Reagan Era military buildup of the 1980s to a projected $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion per ship for 296 ships over the next 30 years.
Following several attacks on its Afghanistan-deployed forces, the German defense ministry is buying a counter rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) system. Rheinmetall has secured the €120 million ($160 million) contract to field the short-range air-defense system, part of the larger German SysFla air defense modernization umbrella program. The latest contract includes two of the C-RAM systems. About €110 million is for the hardware, with the rest going for ammunition. There’s also a €20 million option for supporting efforts, including training.
The Iraqi navy has taken a big step in its fleet enhancement plan by taking delivery of its first patrol ship. The Fatah patrol ship 701 was handed over during a ceremony at La Spezia, Italy. The vessel was built by the Fincantieri shipyard. Three more ships of the type are due to go to Iraq. The Fatah has been designated the Iraqi navy’s flagship. The crew of 34 has been training in Italy since January.
NASA’s rover project team is preparing to use the same simulated Martian soil material employed by the Phoenix Lander team in 2008 to help develop an escape maneuver for the Spirit rover, which has become bogged down in the planet’s soft surface. “Spirit is obviously in a serious state because she’s embedded,” says John Callas, Spirit and Opportunity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Callas told Aerospace DAILY that JPL remains committed to saving the stalled rover, despite the fact that it is well past its expected service life.
DEFENSE REFORM: The House and Senate have passed defense acquisition reform legislation endorsed by President Barack Obama after defense authorizers reached a compromise on their competing versions of the bill. Negotiators for both legislative bodies worked out the language for the combined legislation May 19. The Senate passed it the next day, 95-0, and on May 21, the House passed it by an overwhelming majority. Obama, who endorsed reforming the Pentagon’s procurement system in April, wanted a bill to sign before the Memorial Day holiday.
WASTE NOT: NASA has given the Expedition 19 crew aboard the International Space Station the formal go-ahead to begin drinking the water from the station’s urine recycling system. Mission control in Houston radioed the good news to the crew May 20. The move is a key milestone toward supporting the six-person crew that will be occupying the orbiting outpost by the end of this month, and also will help reduce water transport requirements in the post-shuttle era.
The Pentagon spent more than $2.7 billion on “miscellaneous items” in 2008 for which the contractor was listed as “not available” — a rare omission for Defense Department documentation — according to an Aerospace DAILY analysis of an independent national database of government contracting data.
STONEWALL OSPREY: The U.S. Marines were scolded and sent home by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, May 21 when the service arrived unprepared for a hearing.
Even though the Pentagon has decided to scrap all manned ground vehicles in the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, the service plans to go ahead with fielding the program’s network centric technologies, a top acquisition official said May 21. “We plan to continue efforts to further develop, produce and field FCS capabilities in the form of early spin-outs to seven infantry brigade combat teams,” David Ahern, the Defense Department’s director of portfolio systems acquisition, told the House air and land forces subcommittee.
PARIS — French defense officials expect the first flight of the upgraded engine for the Tiger helicopter before summer. The powerplant, designed to deliver more thrust for the heavier Hélicoptère d’Appui Destruction (HAD) version, was recently qualified. The engines are now being installed on a prototype by Eurocopter, says Maj. Sophie Le Berre, program manager for the HAD program at French defense procurement agency DGA.
PARIS — The French government is exploring whether it should rent EC225s to provide vital helicopter lift capability to bridge a gap before fielding of the NFH90. The rented EC225s — the civil version of the military EC725 — would be used to avoid a shortfall in at-sea rescue capacity, says Col. Pascal Point, who oversees helicopter programs for the French joint staff. France has been struggling with reliability on the aging SA.321 Super Frelons, which will be removed from service next year as the replacement NFH90 is brought online.
The General Electric/Rolls-Royce team developing the F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has begun flight clearance work for the start of the test program in early 2011, despite being targeted for cancellation for the third time in the latest U.S. defense budget.
A low pressure system in Florida is making an on-time May 22 landing of Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) appear somewhat unlikely, although the orbiter itself is clean and ready. “I’ll tell you, it doesn’t look great,” STS-125 Entry Flight Director Norm Knight said of the weather during a press conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston May 21. “We’re waiting for that system to move out. We expect it’s going to improve over the next couple of days, but again, it’s just a matter of waiting and seeing.”
2008 Pentagon Spending On Miscellaneous Items 2008 Pentagon Spending On Miscellaneous Items Contractor Number Of Contracts And Modifications Total Amount Average Amount Per Transaction “Not Available” 6,475 $2,738,526,043 $422,938
CLEARED TO LAND: On-orbit inspections of the thermal protection system on Space Shuttle Atlantis revealed no problems that would preclude a safe re-entry and landing on the morning of May 22. The STS-125 crew performed end-of-mission inspections of the wing leading edges and nose cap on May 19 after releasing the Hubble Space Telescope following its final servicing, and NASA spent that night and the following morning reviewing the data.
Boeing is refining a variant of the 737-based P-8A maritime patrol aircraft for the U.S. Navy’s EP-X signals intelligence (Sigint) requirement, but it says smaller platforms are again on the table for the Army, which wants a twin turboprop solution for a proposed revival of its Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program.
