NASA has chosen the Avcoat ablator system, which was used to protect Apollo capsules during re-entry, as the thermal protection system for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Made of silica fibers with an epoxy-novalic resin filled in a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb, Avcoat was used both on Apollo and on select regions of the space shuttle in its earliest flights. It was put back into production for NASA to re-evaluate.
Switzerland is withdrawing its rotorcraft support to the European Union’s operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, noting that the fielding of new helicopters back home is putting a strain on its forces. The Swiss government says it can no longer provide the resources to sustain the operation, but says the improving security situation in the Balkan country also makes the withdrawal possible. The two Cougar helos will be gone by the end of September. The services began in May 2005.
PARIS — The European Defense Agency has kicked off a four-year, €21 million ($27 million) advanced radar program. The so-called Studies for Integrated Multifunction Compact Lightweight Airborne Radars and Systems (SIMCLAIRS) effort is supposed to pave the way technologically for multifunctional radars between 2015-2020.
COMMAND EAGLE: Boeing says it demonstrated simultaneous command and control of three ScanEagle unmanned aerial systems (UAS) from a Royal Australian Air Force Wedgetail 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft flying over Washington state on March 16. Using the company’s UAS battle-management software, airborne operators issued NATO-standard sensor and air vehicle commands via a UHF satellite communication link and ground-station relay. Boeing will conduct a follow-on demonstration for the Australian government in early May.
The U.S. director of national intelligence (DNI) plans to sign a contract within months for the purchase of more than one classified electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging satellite that will extend the life of the government’s existing overhead collection architecture, according to senior intelligence officials. “We are not taking years to kick this thing off,” one official said April 7.
NEW DELHI — EADS has been awarded a consultancy project for India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) by the Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). The contract was signed two weeks ago in Bangalore. Bids for design and development work on the flight-testing stage of the LCA were solicited from EADS, Saab, Dassault, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and MiG Corporation. The consulting project, according to media reports, is worth about $20 million.
The U.S. Defense Department still needs to make changes to its acquisition policy, according to the congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO), starting with establishing realistic baselines. GAO’s April 1 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee’s panel on defense acquisition rested on a premise the Pentagon contests.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — BAE Systems is developing a new radar warning receiver (RWR) for use on satellites as part of the U.S. Air Force’s strategy to improve space situational awareness. Under the $6.3 million contract, BAE will be expected to deliver a prototype flightworthy RWR within three years. It is supposed to then have at least two years of in-orbit life. The intent is to allow satellites to know when they are being “painted” by radar energy, according to Eric Rhodes, business development manager for BAE.
The Pentagon’s forthcoming budget is expected to overhaul spending in the coming years on missile defense and Pentagon space programs. The Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) budget is expected to be reduced by $1.4 billion over what was anticipated in fiscal 2010.
With a declaration of “enough rhetoric, now is the time for action,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates on April 6 announced plans to end two of DOD’s major helicopter acquisitions — the U.S. Air Force’s Combat, Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) replacement and the Navy/Marine Corps’ VH-71 Presidential Helicopter.
The U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and DDG-51 destroyer were the winners April 6 when Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveiled his recommendations for the fiscal 2010 budget at the Pentagon. Gates called LCS “a key capability for presence, stability and counterinsurgency operations in coastal regions,” recommending the program grow from two to three ships in FY ’10 and continue to build out to the previously planned 55-hull fleet.
PARIS — The French aerospace and defense industry is urging the government to come through on military spending commitments to help counter the drastic decline in commercial business. In recent years, Paris repeatedly has failed to obligate its full defense spending. Last year alone, the government failed to obligate €1 billion in promised defense spending, says Guy Rupied, managing director of the French aerospace, defense and electronics association Gifas.
FCS CHANGES: The U.S. Army’s $160 billion Future Combat System (FCS) will see its entire ground vehicle program killed and sent back to the drawing board and the competitive bidding process. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said April 6 that the FCS vehicle program failed to take into account the counterinsurgency lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan about improvised explosive devices and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, while also adding that he was “troubled by the terms of the contract.”
CHECKING OUT: Orbital checkout is under way for the U.S. Air Force’s second Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) spacecraft, which was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 3. Built by Boeing at its factory in El Segundo, Calif., WGS-2 lifted off at 8:31 p.m. EDT aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 421 rocket. A ground station in Dongara, Australia, received the military communication satellite’s first signals 44 minutes later, and Boeing has confirmed that the satellite is functioning normally.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is dramatically restructuring the fighter, attack and cargo aircraft industrial base with a host of realignments to the fiscal 2010 budget proposal announced April 6 at the Pentagon. Perhaps most dramatic are decisions to discontinue purchases of two key aircraft — Lockheed Martin twin-engine stealthy F-22 and Boeing’s C-17 strategic airlifter.
LESS REFERRAL: The number of U.S. defense contracting fraud and corruption cases sent by government investigators to prosecutors dropped “precipitously” under the Bush administration, even as contracting by the Defense Department almost doubled, according to the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. DOD investigators during the last administration sent 76 percent fewer contracting fraud and corruption cases to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution than under the Clinton administration.
Republicans in Congress are calling for beefed-up missile defense spending and economic sanctions against North Korea for its weekend missile launch, which was ostensibly to send a satellite into orbit but is suspected of being a covert intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.
LOCAL POWER: India has flown its Nishant unmanned air vehicle powered by an indigenously developed Wankel rotary engine. Developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, the 55-horsepower single-rotor engine flew for the first time in the rail-launched and parachute-recovered UAV on March 31. Deliveries of the Nishant, powered by the original UAV Engines AR801 engine, are expected to begin soon to the Indian Army, almost 15 years after its first flight.
After a delay of almost 18 months, the U.S. Navy has released the final request for proposals for development of the Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS), which also will be procured for the U.S. Marine Corps as its land-based Tier II UAS. To meet its ship- and land-based surveillance, targeting and communications relay requirements, the Navy plans to buy around 56 systems, each with three air vehicles, including a variant of the land-based configuration for SEAL special-operations units.
At best, lawmakers on Capitol Hill greeted Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ restructuring of the defense budget April 6 as an honest — if overweening — attempt to fix a broken system, while at worst, they decried it as an attempt to divert funding to domestic programs at the expense of warfighters.
