BUILD, LAUNCH: Russia’s Reshetnev ISS and Thales Alenia Space have contracted to build a 1.6 metric ton Ku-/C-band satellite for Telekomunikasi Indonesia. The award followed supplier selection early this year. To be launched in 2011, Telkom-3 is the second non-Russian spacecraft to be built by the ISS/Thales Alenia team. Meanwhile, International Launch Services announced another 2011 launch — ViaSat-1, a high capacity Ka-band spot beam satellite for North America. Launch is planned for the first half of the year.
As long as there is no recurrence of the hydrogen leak that scuttled the March 11 attempt to launch shuttle Discovery, NASA plans to proceed with its countdown to a March 15 liftoff, even if the cause of the leak hasn’t been determined.
The U.S. Air Force’s decision to delay launch of the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite to summer or fall of 2010 will provide more time to replace some potentially troublesome hardware on the spacecraft, says Lt. Gen. John “Tom” Sheridan, program executive officer for space. Some units on the spacecraft have experienced complications on other satellites, and they require replacement. For example, engineers are switching out the amplifiers on a digital telemetry unit on AEHF 1 due to a failure, he says.
BAE Systems is bolstering its presence in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) market by agreeing to acquire Advanced Ceramics Research (ACR), a privately held U.S. manufacturer of small UAVs. Based in Tucson, Ariz., ACR has so far developed three small UAVs with funding support from the U.S. Navy. The Silver Fox is a gasoline/electric UAV with 8-10 hour endurance and a 5-8 pound payload that has been deployed operationally.
Surrey Satellite Technology has delivered two of three suites of satellite avionics and software for Russia’s new family of Kanopus Earth observation satellites, the first two of which are to be launched in late 2009 or early 2010. The third set is to be handed over later this year. The scope of delivery for the project – SSTL’s first major undertaking in Russia – includes power management and batteries, onboard computers, data handling for subsystems and operation and system design support.
With airline testing of biofuels making headlines, a small U.S. engineering consultancy is aiming to prove that biodiesel could be a renewable and safer alternative to kerosene rocket fuel. U.S. firm Flometrics has tested commercial B100 biodiesel as a replacement for RP-1 kerosene in a Rocketdyne LR-101 rocket engine. In the one ground test completed “we found the Isp [specific impulse] was about 4 percent less than RP-1, but the difference may be less once we figure out the best mixture ratio,” CEO Steve Harrington says.
The Obama administration should lead a “reformulation” of U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs to focus on combating international terrorism and other current threats, according to a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. “A bold vision is again required,” says Ronald Lehman, director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report.
The Pentagon has included the U.S. Air Force’s $15 billion combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement acquisition among the programs meant for the chopping block in upcoming budget deliberations, say industry and government sources familiar with the program procurement.
RESEARCH COLLABORATION: Boeing and the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command have launched a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to coordinate and fuse multiple types of sensor data in a secure environment for Integrated Air and Missile Defense and space situational awareness concept exploration. The CRADA, signed Feb.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is singling out the U.S. Air Force’s embattled F-22 fighter program as one of the weapon systems that should not be sacrificed in the next budget, despite its lack of utility in current conflicts. “We should never focus on the current fight to the exclusion of the next fight,” Chambliss said March 11 in Washington. “We have invested billions and we will invest billions more,” in programs like the F-22, Virginia-class submarines and Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD), he said.
Demonstration of an anti-brownout landing system combining see-through radar, sensor fusion, synthetic vision and automated flight controls has been completed successfully, helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky says. The Sandblaster system has been developed by Sikorsky, with Honeywell and Sierra Nevada, under a $6.9 million U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract awarded in May 2007.
MOVING FORWARD: The European Commission (EC) has approved the proposed purchase of a 26.56 percent share in Thales by Dassault Aviation. The EC inquiry focused on space, civil/military aviation and military flight simulators, where the two companies cooperate or have client-supplier relationships. The French government owns 38 percent of the voting rights in Thales and shares control of Dassault Aviation with the Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault through TSA, a state holding company.
Debris from a spent rocket motor passed within 4.5 kilometers of the International Space Station March 12, forcing the crew into the Soyuz capsule as a precaution. The crew – Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yuri Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus – spent about 10 minutes in the Soyuz, which serves as the station lifeboat. Had there been a collision requiring the station to be abandoned, Lonchakov would have been able to pilot the Russian vehicle to an emergency re-entry and landing.
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) thinks that without a split buy of the U.S. Air Force’s refueling tanker, the nation will not have tankers. Murtha, who chairs the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, also addressed rumors that the Obama administration could be considering scaling back or halting the tanker effort, among other programs. “What you’ve heard in the papers is not true,” Murtha told a group of investors and select press at the National Press Club March 12. “The administration did not say we’re not going to have tankers.”
The U.S. Defense Department this year should formally draw up requirements for more aviation, civil affairs and psychological operations in its special operations forces (SOF), according to a leading Pentagon figure on the issues. Michael Vickers, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict & Interdependent Capabilities, said at an Aviation Week conference March 11 that the Quadrennial Defense Review is also likely to reiterate a demand to grow U.S. SOF, as previously planned, and possibly even more.
SHUTTLE CHECKS: Engineers at Kennedy Space Center have determined that a change in bolt-tightening protocols will allow them to more quickly troubleshoot a hydrogen leak that has stymied launch of the space shuttle Discovery. As a result, NASA is pressing ahead for another launch attempt on March 15. The leak forced a scrub March 11 late in the launch countdown for the mission to deliver solar arrays and life support gear to the International Space Station (Aerospace DAILY, March 12).
LIGHT, TACTICAL: Two vehicles on the list for Defense Department procurement are looking slightly redundant: the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), or MRAP “Lite,” and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell called the M-ATV an “immediate need,” adding the JLTV is a long-term objective of the Army’s, and will act as a more agile Humvee replacement.
DEFLATING BUDGET: The Pentagon is looking at ways to trim its procurement spending by about 2-3 percent in its fiscal 2010 baseline budget, DOD Deputy Comptroller Kevin Scheid says. In 2009, the Pentagon budget included $181.2 billion for weapons purchases. Scheid also says that while larger cuts to the Pentagon’s major weapons programs are possible in later budgets, decisions on those cuts won’t be made until planning for the fiscal 2011 budget moves ahead.
The BAE Systems-led Mantis medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator is now at the Woomera test range in Australia, with a first flight anticipated very soon. The acquisition of a long-term MALE capability is a priority for the U.K. Defense Ministry. It has already acquired a handful of General Atomics Reapers to meet an urgent operational requirement. The Reaper and the Mantis both are candidates to meet the ministry’s procurement aspiration.
FT. WALTON BEACH, Fla. – U.S. Special Operations Command is proposing to start a new gunship in the fiscal 2010 budget, but it remains to be seen whether the tight fiscal environment will support a new program, according to Pentagon officials. Keith Sanders, deputy director of air warfare for the Pentagon acquisition chief, says the gunship will be a more flexible system than today’s AC-130H/U aircraft. One requirement likely to emerge is to operate the gunship safely in an urban environment such as Baghdad.
TANKER PLEA: The Reserve Officers Association (ROA) issued a statement March 11 regarding the new Air Force tanker, declaring that “the Pentagon must expedite” its acquisition. “Tankers are the key cog in all joint military operations,” the statement reads. “The acquisition of a new Air Force tanker must rise to be DOD’s number one acquisition requirement.” ROA called the current KC-135s Eisenhower-era aircraft that “potentially pose a danger to the men and women who operate them.”
COUNTERTERRORISM: ITT Corporation has been awarded a $317 million order to produce an additional 4,501 CREW 2.1 Vehicle Receiver Jammers (CVRJs), vehicle-mounted systems that prevent the detonation of improvised explosive devices. The systems will be used by the U.S. Marine Corps. The CVRJs will be mounted on various armored vehicles and other military transport equipment, and will be deployed to current military operations.
