PARIS France may be forced to cut A400M numbers and is already exploring the option of leasing Boeing C-17s as it tries to craft a rescue package for the struggling Airbus Military program and to sustain its airlift capacity. A revised A400M contract is unlikely before the end of 2009. “We have to take an in-depth look at how the present contract might be modified under acceptable conditions,” Laurent Collet-Billon, director general of French armaments agency DGA, told reporters March 18.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston Veteran Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata’s long-duration stay on the International Space Station (ISS), which began March 17 when he transferred his Soyuz seat liner to the station’s Russian lifeboat, kicks off an ambitious human spaceflight effort for Japan that could eventually see Japanese landers on the moon. The key to Japan’s plans for the human portion of its space program centers on the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), an autonomous cargo carrier scheduled to make its first flight to the ISS in September on an H-IIB rocket.
Northrop Grumman has exceeded 100kW in laboratory tests of an electric laser, completing the final milestone in the U.S. Army-led Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) technology demonstration program.
PICKING WRECKAGE: The U.S. military is picking over wreckage of the Iranian unmanned aircraft it shot down in Iraq in February. “We’re in the process of exploiting the debris that we’ve recovered,” a Pentagon spokesman said. “I don’t know if it was a drone that was capable of sending signals back or whether it was merely recording and then was going to return and its video or data then exploited by the Iranians.” Coalition aircraft over Iraq shot down an Iranian-made Ababil 3 model unmanned aerial vehicle about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad (Aerospace DAILY, March 18).
Analysis conducted by the U.S. Air Force shows there is an ideal fleet mix, but that framework depends on the operational scheme laid out by the joint force commander, according to retired Gen. Gregory Martin.
United Launch Alliance has rolled the Atlas V rocket carrying the U.S. Air Force’s second Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-2) spacecraft back from Launch Complex 41 to its integration building at Cape Canaveral, where technicians are attempting to determine the cause of the upper-stage liquid oxygen leak that resulted in the scrubbing of the previous day’s launch attempt.
WALKING PAPERS: Three senators have sent a letter to President Obama asking for the removal of NASA Inspector General (IG) Robert Cobb, “following years of complaints and investigations into Cobb’s work as the government’s watchdog at NASA,” according to a statement from the lawmakers’ offices. “We respectfully ask that you take immediate action to put an end to conflict of interest and cronyism in the IG process by replacing Mr. Cobb and nominating a qualified candidate,” wrote Sens.
The combatant commander in charge of U.S. Strategic Command told House defense authorizers March 17 that the United States remains vulnerable across a swath of cyber threats, but he asserts that the military is indeed making progress on the issue.
The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is making its annual trek to Capitol Hill, armed with two new issues touching on energy independence and efficiency in aerospace. “These are things that, if we [don’t] figure out how to mitigate the underlying problems, could have a significant impact on aerospace in the long term,” AIAA President George Muellner told reporters March 17. “We decided it was time to focus the technical expertise of this institute to deal with these problems.”
Despite news accounts that numerous big ticket Pentagon programs may be coming under the budget knife, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made no decisions yet, the Department’s comptroller said March 18. Anxious members of the House Budget Committee peppered Comptroller Robert Hale with questions about the continued funding viability of the F-22 Raptor, the Air Force replacement refueling tanker, the proposed long-range strike bomber and missile defense projects.
LONDON British officials March 18 signed a deal to purchase three Lockheed Martin F-35Bs that will allow the United Kingdom to participate fully in the operational test and evaluation phase of the program. British Defense Secretary John Hutton announced the decision during a visit to Washington. “By purchasing three aircraft for testing, we will secure access to the development of the program. Working alongside their U.S. colleagues, our pilots will gain an unrivaled understanding of this awesome aircraft and its capabilities.”
As Pentagon programs continue to run over budget and behind schedule, a number of watchdog groups are leaning hard on the Defense Department to clean up its act and increase its focus on managing those programs better from cradle to grave. The DOD, the watchdog groups say, must regain expertise in the lost art of program management. And the Pentagon is taking heed. Program management expenses have increased by about threefold over the course of this decade, according to a recent analysis of contracting data by Aerospace DAILY.
Alliant Techsystems has completed long-duration ground runs of a new ramjet engine and is preparing to combine the combustor with the inlet and nozzle for the proposed X-51B hypersonic demonstrator and conduct integrated engine testing later this year. The ALRJ-51-4 Thermally Throated Ramjet (TTRJ) is a dual-mode subsonic/supersonic-combustion ramjet that burns readily available JP-10 jet fuel, used in missiles such as Tomahawk and Harpoon. Long-duration testing at ATK’s Ronkonkoma, N.Y., facility was funded by the U.S. Air Force.
Northrop Grumman said March 17 it received a contract to developmentally and operationally test the Multi-Role Tactical Common Data Link (MR-TCDL) for the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has signed a science and technology research agreement with the German Ministry of Education and Research. The pact, signed March 16 in Berlin, is similar to collaboration arrangements the U.S. already has with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Sweden, Mexico, Israel and France.
IRANIAN DRONE: Coalition aircraft over Iraq shot down an Iranian-made Ababil 3 model unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, according to U.S. military officials. The Feb. 25 incident was announced March 16. “This was not an accident on the part of the Iranians,” officials said. “The UAV was in Iraqi airspace for nearly one hour and 10 minutes and well inside Iraqi territory before it was engaged.” Two coalition aircraft were directed to visually identify the UAV after it was detected hovering inside the Iraqi border.
In 2008 there were 6,000 cartel-related murders in Mexico, which is more than twice the previous record, says Mark Koumans, deputy assistant secretary of the office of international affairs for the Homeland Security Department. Even more alarming is that in January 2009 alone, there were 1,000 such murders.
The head of North American Aerospace Defense Command told Congress March 17 that the military unit charged with defending U.S. and Canadian airspace could have trouble maintaining sovereignty of the skies without aircraft recapitalization. In his written testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Air Force Gen. Victor Renuart Jr. noted that legacy F-16 fighters are aging and “will be stressed to maintain reliability and capability as we move into the 2013-2025 time frame.”
Members of the U.S. submarine industrial base are seeking and winning visible support in Congress for protecting the military’s underwater programs – namely the Virginia-class submarine – as the Pentagon undergoes expected budget tightening.
A state-of-the-art instrument to measure the effects of atmospheric aerosols – both natural and manmade – on the Earth’s climate is ready for installation on the NASA satellite that will take it to orbit next fall.
