Russia’s first space launch of 2009 was a rare scientific mission, using a Tsyklon-3 rocket to deliver the third Coronas-Photon spacecraft into orbit. Liftoff of the 4,200-pound spacecraft came at 8:30 a.m. EST Jan. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, sending the satellite toward a 342-mile-high semi-sun-synchronous polar orbit. Mission managers delayed the launch a day to correct a technical problem, according to Russian press reports.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a contract with M7 Aerospace, San Antonio, Texas, for $59,000,000. The extension is necessary to continue Contractor Logistics Support for the C-20 program, opening the resolution of the corrective action on contract FA8106-08-C-0010. At this time $10,400,008 has been obligated. 727 ACSG/PKB is the contracting activity. (FA8106-04-C-0003) NAVY
A Jan. 28 article on the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) misidentified the range of the weapon and configuration of the C-1 variant. It is roughly 70 nautical miles. The JSOW C-1 is made in the Block III configuration and a full-rate production contract is expected soon.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Feb. 2 - 6 — 8th Annual Light & Medium Armoured Vehicles, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, UK. For more information go to www.armoured-vehicles.co.uk/military Feb. 3 - 5 — AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems Program Review 2009, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.auvsi.org
MORAL SUPPORT: The Defense Department continues to express its support for its nominee for the top deputy spot, Raytheon lobbyist William J. Lynn III. The White House recently came through with a waiver to ease concerns expressed by Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) about the nomination. The waiver ended up swaying Levin to support Lynn (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 26).
SPACE STIMULUS: NASA is likely to use economic stimulus package funds to accelerate the Orion/Ares I shuttle follow-on vehicles and Earth-observation missions already in the pipeline. But beyond that, the agency will probably have to wait for top-line Fiscal 2010 budget figures from the Obama White House in late February for clues on how to proceed. This week, the Senate is set to take up its version of the stimulus package that passed the House Jan. 28 with a little more than $600 million for NASA.
ITALIAN CONTROL: Alenia Aermacchi, with parent company Alenia Aeronautica and Selex Galileo, will develop a new, four-channel digital fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system that is intended for the M-346 Alenia Aermacchi advanced jet trainer. The trainer currently flies with a BAE Systems FBW. There has been some concern in Italy that BAE’s involvement in the existing flight control system gave the British company too much influence on the program, which competes with BAE’s Hawk advanced jet trainer.
ARES PARACHUTE: Alliant Techsystems engineers are analyzing the results of a Jan. 29 test of the separation sequence that will allow the parachutes on the upcoming Ares I-X light test to deploy so the casing for the solid-fuel first stage can be recovered. In the full-scale test at the company’s facility in Promontory, Utah, a linear-shaped charge was fired to ensure it creates a clean separation between the booster casing and the base of the forward skirt extension, and to characterize the shock produced by the charge.
PRESIDENTIAL PROBLEM: The U.S. Navy is reporting a cost overrun on the VH-71 presidential helicopter. A statement issued by the Navy says the Nunn-McCurdy breach was reached because the Program Acquisition Unit Cost surpassed 50 percent over what was estimated in February 2006. The unit cost breach applies to Increments 1 and 2 of the program. “From the beginning, the program carried more schedule risk than normal due to the security environment created by 9/11,” says Lt. Clay Doss, Navy spokesperson.
GENOA, Italy — Two Italian Air force C-27Js Spartan tactical transport aircraft returned home on Jan. 27 after completing a deployment in Afghanistan which started on Sept. 12th, 2008.
SBIRS STEPS: The troubled Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) is cleared to proceed to its thermal-vacuum testing phase, according to U.S. Air Force officials. Prime contractor Lockheed Martin finished Baseline Integrated System Testing Jan. 29. This set of trials was designed to validate the marriage of the first satellite’s architecture with redesigned software. “We have proven the combined spacecraft, payload and new flight software work together,” says Lt. Col. Heath Collins, commander of the USAF SBIRS Squadron.
The U.S. State Department announced last month that it took action recently on several law-of-war treaties covering blinding laser weapons and explosive remnants of war. According to the department, the United States on Jan. 21 “deposited its instruments of ratification for Protocols III, IV, and V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (‘CCW’) and for an amendment to that Convention.”
The Pentagon’s commitment to retaining the capability to fight in two simultaneous conflicts in the growing era of irregular warfare will likely have a major effect in upcoming budget requests — especially for pet programs like F-22s, the Future Combat System (FCS) and the Navy’s DDG-1000 program, according to analyst James McAleese of McAleese & Associates.
An AH-64D Apache Block III attack helicopter recently took its first flight equipped with an upgraded version of the Video from Unmanned aircraft systems for Interoperability Teaming - level 2 (VUIT-2), called the Unmanned Aerial Systems Tactical Common Data Link Assembly (UTA). The Longbow UTA, as Lockheed Martin is calling it, is a two-way, high-bandwidth data link for Apache aircrews that allows sensor and flight path control of UAVs. During the recent test, the UTA acquired and tracked a Boeing unmanned Little Bird in flight.
EFV A-OK: The U.S. Marine Corps’ somewhat beleaguered Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program finally is finally reporting some good news following its December Critical Design Review (CDR). Contractor redesigns for reliability and performance were reviewed by an Overarching Integrated Product Team and a recommendation went forward to Pentagon acquisitions chief John Young that no Defense Acquisition Board evaluation was necessary, according to Col. Keith Moore, EFV Program Manager.
FIGHTING THE FUTURE: The Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) — which will shift passive electronic warfare into the arena of active electronic attack — is finally being shaped into a program. Despite a vague reference to low-intensity, hybrid and irregular war, the Pentagon is actually looking at NGJ being a key component in information warfare, electronic intelligence, computer attack and dispensing false information of many sorts to enemy sensors and networks.
HYPERBOLIC ARSENAL: Iran is boasting again of its secret military prowess. The Federation of American Scientists says new Iranian documents reveal that the Russian Shkval torpedo was tested for Iranian naval officials in 2004. The new, Iranian-built Hoot — also a high-speed, supercavitating anti-ship torpedo — is thought to be a derivative built by a division of Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization. In April 2006, Iran successfully test fired the Hoot. More were launched in July 2008 as part of a weapons display. Iranian hyperbole was also high performance.
The Pentagon’s 2010 budget is expected not to contain major program terminations, but drastic changes handed down by President Barack Obama are likely to follow in fiscal 2011 after the accelerated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is completed this summer. The QDR hasn’t yet formally begun; the terms of reference are now being ironed out. But Pentagon officials expect the majority of the work to be complete by August — in time to incorporate its findings into the FY ‘11 budget submission going to Congress in February 2010.
Ambitions for Europe’s planned ExoMars lander mission will have to be revised downward if the mission is to go ahead, even with Europe’s new plans to explore Mars jointly with NASA.
The U.S. Air Force is planning to conduct initial operational test and evaluation trials of its developmental Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) this summer, but a key hurdle remains for the program. MALD, an air-launched radar decoy manufactured by Raytheon, completed developmental testing last year. The expendable system weighs about 285 pounds and is about 112 inches in length; it is powered by a Hamilton-Sundstrand engine.
GLOBAL HAWK: The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $276 million contract to Northrop Grumman for sustainment of its Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. The contract will provide operations and maintenance support for fiscal 2009-10 for eight Global Hawks already delivered and the first Block 20 aircraft, which has larger wings and payload capacity. It also will cover operational assistance for new Global Hawk bases in Guam and Italy.
Cheaper and quicker ways of manufacturing future large aircraft and launch vehicles are being sought by the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the Navy. A request for information issued by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is seeking ideas for automated lay-up of large composite structures that can be cured without using expensive autoclaves.
