Space shuttle managers probably will begin closing down the program next month, absent an unlikely infusion of funds to keep it going after assembly of the International Space Station is completed next year.
NEW DELHI – Re-endorsement by the Obama administration and U.S. congressional acquiescence is helping Boeing provide India with eight P8-I aircraft, with a congressional notification clearing the way for the direct commercial sale (DCS) deal on April 11. Vivek Lall, vice president and country head of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, told Aerospace DAILY here that his company was “pleased” that both the U.S. and Indian governments have “leaned forward to conclude this historic deal.”
ISR PUSH: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said April 14 en route to Fort Rucker, Ala., that he is going to propose requesting funding for up to a half-dozen new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, as well as new sensors to collect full-motion video. Some of the new platforms are and will remain classified. Gates will also propose an increase in funding for additional ISR exploitation and dissemination technologies.
AUSMIN ARRANGEMENTS: Last week’s annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations in Washington focused on security challenges faced by the United States in Afghanistan, Australian officials said afterward. Australian and U.S. officials also discussed Iran’s nuclear activities and condemned North Korea’s launch of a Taepo-Dong 2 long-range rocket, stressing that the launch was in violation of U.N. Security Resolution 1718, which stemmed from the regime’s 2006 launch. AusMin participants this year, the first with the Obama administration, included new U.S.
Climate scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan have run computer models coupling ocean and atmospheric conditions that suggest atmospheric aerosols have a much greater impact on the warming observed in the Arctic than previously appreciated.
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will join the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville as an “eminent scholar” and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, the school announced April 14.
The U.S. military’s successful rescue of an American cargo ship captain from pirates may signal a change in U.S. strategy for combating crime on the high seas. Experts and policymakers have long seen piracy as a law enforcement problem requiring a civilian solution, rather than a military problem. But that could change given the high-tech operation to rescue Richard Phillips, captain of the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates.
PATH BLAZED: Northrop Grumman’s industry team leading the Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) program has completed full-scale “pathfinder” ground operations in preparation for the weapon system’s booster flight-test scheduled for later this year, the company said April 14. The dry runs and rehearsals precede an actual flight-test or launch, including all aspects of vehicle preparations, ground operations and range safety systems. KEI was spotlighted in proposed changes to U.S. missile defense efforts as outlined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates this month.
Embraer has launched the KC-390 military tanker/transport with a seven-year, $1.3 billion development contract from the Brazilian air force (FAB). The all-new aircraft is scheduled to fly in 2012 and enter service in 2015.
The Pentagon needs to invest more money in nonlethal warfare – and change the way its conducts those types of missions, says a recent report by the Rand Corp. For too long, the government-sponsored think tank said, the Defense Department has given short shrift to nonlethal technologies or investment. The report comes as Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced a significant shift in defense budgeting from mostly Cold War-type weapons and systems and toward counterinsurgency (COIN) and antiterrorism capabilities (Aerospace DAILY, April 7).
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a fixed price incentive contract to Boeing Satellite Systems Inc., El Segundo, Calif., for an estimated $8,105,000. The action will provide sustaining engineering for Post-Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of the Wideband Satellite System for Wideband Global Satellite (WGS)-25. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC/MCSW), Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. is the contracting activity (FA8808-06C-0001, P00044). NAVY
SEATTLE – Competitors for the nascent U.S. Navy EP-X, Army Aerial Common Sensor and Air Force Rivet Joint programs are beginning to define their efforts by sorting through the art of the possible.
Changes in military acquisition strategies for ground mobile radios (GMRs) and the handheld, manpack, small form factor (HMS) radios could raise concerns in Congress about the viability of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program, especially as a joint network, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says.
EAGLE EYE: The U.S. Navy has released video images of the Somali pirate episode taken by a small ScanEagle ship-launched unmanned aircraft capable of collecting videos and images of targets. The images showed the massive USS Bainbridge destroyer dwarfing the Maersk Alabama’s lifeboat, which was then holding four Somali pirates and the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips. The standoff in the Indian Ocean ended April 12 when Navy SEALs shot and killed three of the pirates, rescued Phillips and arrested the fourth pirate, who had surrendered earlier to Navy officials.
ARMY Harris Corp., RF Communications Division, Rochester, N.Y., was awarded on April 3, 2009, a $149,732,819 firm fixed price contract for AN/PRC-117 tactical satellite radio systems, associated spare parts, and support services. The work is to be performed in Rochester, N.Y., with an estimated completion date of April 3, 2013. Twenty seven sole source bids were solicited and one bid received. CECOM Acquisition Center, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-09-K-K002). NAVY
Northrop Grumman’s said its Litening precision targeting and sensor targeting pod systems deployed with U.S. and allied forces logged an operational availability of 97 percent over the last two years. The system has operated more than 1 million hours to date, with just less than half occurring during deployed or combat conditions. Recipient aircraft have included AV-8B, A-10A/C, B-52H, EA-6Bs, F-15E, F-16 and F/A-18s.
NAVY Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $9,248,723 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for fabrication of production rate tooling in support of the UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopters. The work will be performed in Fort Worth (70 percent) and Amarillo, Texas, (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-09-C-0023).
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND UV Country Inc. of Houston is being awarded a $28,390,453, not-to-exceed, firm-fixed-price, five-year indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract for 1,625 Light Tactical All-Terrain Vehicles. The acquisition is in support of U.S. Special Operations Command. The period of performance of the contract is April 10, 2009, to April 9, 2014. The contract number is H92222-09-D-0013.
Certain supplemental requests by the U.S. Marine Corps for reset programs failed to meet requirements, a recent Inspector General (IG) report said. The Marine Corps requests were mostly in line, the report said. “However, $383.3 million in requirements, or approximately 5.6 percent of the supplemental funds requested, did not meet DOD or Marine Corps guidance for inclusion in its supplemental funds request,” said the report, “Marine Corps’ Management of the Recovery and Reset Programs,” released April 1.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) continues to vow a fight on Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plans to halt the F-22 Raptor program at 187 of the stealth jet fighters. In an April 13 teleconference call with reporters, Chambliss said restoring the F-22, which is assembled at a Lockheed Martin plant employing about 2,000 in Marietta, Ga., was “by far, at the very, very top of my list” when he gets back from a congressional fact-finding trip to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
