IRAQ DEVELOPMENT: A business development firm responsible for an annual Iraq military conference near Washington says the U.S. defense industry could capture up to $50 billion in business under such programs there in the next a few years. But despite obvious advantages in Iraq, U.S. companies must inform Iraqi leaders about their offerings or risk losing out to European and other bidders. “Iraqi officials have a strong affinity for U.S.
Eilene Marie Galloway, who helped draft the legislation that created NASA and went on to become an internationally recognized expert in space law and policy, died May 2 of cancer. She was 102.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – EADS announced May 4 that it will partner with Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control division to compete for the U.S. Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) when a new request for proposals is issued. The helicopter, called the Armed Scout, will be based on the yet-to-be-built EC645 airframe. It will be a militarized version of the company’s EC145, currently flying as the Army’s Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), the Lakota UH-72A.
The U.S. Navy’s developmental MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft has made its first series of landings on the Frigate McInerney. The tests, which wrapped up April 28, included four flights from the ship over three days, Capt. Tim Dunigan, the Navy’s Fire Scout program director, said May 4 during a press briefing at the annual Navy League Sea, Air and Space conference in Washington. “The aircraft is doing everything we want it to do,” he said.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Contractors unveiled their offerings for an Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) with zeal May 4, despite the Army’s announcement that it will head back to the drawing board for an analysis of alternatives (AOA) on its rotary wing fleet that could take up to two years. Boeing took the opportunity to showcase, yet again, its AH-6, with the promise of a prototype flight this summer and fast fielding if it wins a recompetition.
RESTRUCTURING COSTS: The U.S. Army’s preliminary cost estimate for expanding the force to 547,400 by fiscal 2013 was $70.2 billion. That amount would pay not only for personnel, but also operations and maintenance, procurement and military construction costs. But the Army is well ahead of schedule, according to congressional auditors, and is expected to reach its end strength goal by the end of FY ’10 (Sept. 30, 2010). The stumbling economy is responsible, at least in part, for the accelerated numbers, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
DAMAGE CONTROL: Rockwell Collins is to demonstrate damage-tolerant flight control of an operational unmanned aircraft under an extension to a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program during which it previously landed an F/A-18 scale model safely after deliberately blowing off 60 percent of the wing. The program’s 15-month third phase will demonstrate automatic recovery and autonomous landing with increasing damage to the wing and tail, as well as loss of an engine.
SPEC OPS: Lockheed Martin is to begin building MC-130J combat tankers for U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (SOC) after receiving a $15.8 million contract for configuration changes to six production-standard KC-130Js. The changes, including a refueling receptacle, will be incorporated into KC-130J tanker/transports. This kicks off the Air Force’s special-operations/combat search-and-rescue HC/MC-130 recapitalization program, which could total up to 115 aircraft. The first MC-130J is to be delivered in 2010 for testing.
UPS & DOWNS: Eurocopter said it’s taking steps to enhance workforce flexibility so it can more readily absorb future fluctuations in helicopter demand. Executives insist the new work rules do not imply an imminent production drop, but are part of a wide-ranging productivity initiative intended to update practices put in place a decade ago, when output was barely a third of current levels. However, they admit a wave of cancellations and deferrals among commercial helicopter customers in the U.S.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 4 — 21st Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open – Charity Golf Tournament, Lansdowne Resort, Lansdowne, Va. For more information go to www.gwao.org
M-ATV PROGRESSES: The next step in the competition to win the bid for the M-ATV (MRAP All Terrain Vehicle) contract was taken late last week when bidders Navistar, Force Dynamics, BAE Systems and Oshkosh all received indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts from the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command to deliver three more production-ready vehicles each for further testing.
CRITICAL LIFT: Deputy Commandant of Marine Corps Aviation Lt. Gen. George Trautman tells Aerospace DAILY he will meet with the CH-53K program office May 6 to “talk through potential perturbations in the program.” Trautman declined to provide specifics on the issues to be discussed. The new helicopter has passed preliminary design review, and the service is “trying to get our arms around the critical design review,” which will provide a better picture of cost and schedule, Trautman says. “We’re going to sustain our energy with the 53K because we need it,” he adds.
Experts believe that steps already undertaken by the U.S. military and the world’s spacecraft operators probably will be sufficient to manage the growing problem of space debris, absent additional debris-producing events like the January 2007 Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test that shattered a defunct weather satellite and left a cloud of debris in orbit.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has issued a temporary grounding bulletin on six UH-1Y Hueys and one AH-1Z Cobra due to extensive damage to the main rotor gearbox on two of the new Hueys.
GALILEO PARTNERS: The Galileo Services Assn.. and Oregin, the Organization of European GNSS equipment and service industries, will join forces to develop the market for services to be provided by Europe’s Egnos GPS augmentation system and Galileo navigation satellite network. Egnos is scheduled to go into routine service this year and Galileo in 2013. Separately, EADS Astrium reported that the Giove B Galileo test satellite, which it supplied, has completed its first year in orbit without a hitch.
Industry experts are combining digital tools for cyber warfare that even an inexperienced government operator should be able to use. In the unclassified arena there are algorithms dubbed Mad WiFi, Air Crack and Beach. For classified work, industry developers also have a toolbox of proprietary cyber-exploitation algorithms.
CANES: Lockheed Martin is teaming with General Dynamics, ViaSat Inc., Harris Corp. and American Systems to pursue the U.S. Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program, which will consolidate and reduce the Navy’s afloat information systems networks. In late 2009, the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence will pick two teams for system design and development on the common computing environment portion of the contract. A single prime contractor will be chosen in 2011.
MISSILE MODERNIZATION: The vice commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command says Russia is taking a more comprehensive approach to modernizing its nuclear forces than the U.S. is. Russia “is going well beyond what we’re doing,” Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe says. Quoting his boss, Gen. C. Robert Kehler, Deppe says the U.S. effort is more like “service life extension,” noting that the U.S. is still using the same Minuteman silos, the same launch control centers and the same operational concepts.
It may be flying every mission in theater, but the MV-22 is still facing reliability issues due to inaccurate predictive modeling, according to Lt. Gen. George Trautman, U.S. Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation. “We’re working on it, but that’s one concern I have in the Osprey program,” Trautman told Aerospace DAILY April 30. Reliability and maintainability are “not meeting my full expectations yet.”
LONDON — The British Royal Air Force’s Sentinel R1 airborne stand-off radar aircraft and the Royal Navy’s Sea King Mk7 airborne surveillance and control helicopter will be deployed to support operations in Afghanistan as part of a force increase, at least during the embattled country’s national election.
The U.S. is looking to commercial satellites to enhance ship identification and communication as a way to battle piracy. Long before the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by pirates last month, a sister vessel, the Maersk Iowa tested a device that combines the information obtained from shipboard radar and identification transponders. The idea is to give authorities a better overview of who is on the water and what they are up to.
