AVIATION FUEL MANAGEMENT FORUM January 27-28, 2009 Sofitel Miami Miami, FL This in-depth, case study driven management forum will showcase Viable Strategies to Drive Meaningful Cost-Reduction and Improve Operating Efficiencies Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call +1.212.904.4483.
THE REPLACEMENTS: The Defense Logistics Agency has awarded Oshkosh Defense a contract with a potential value of $1.12 billion over 10 years for replacement parts for medium and heavy tactical vehicles including the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR), Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) and Palletized Load System (PLS). This follows a one-year contract that included seven option years, each of which were exercised, that ended in December 2008. The first contract order, valued at $17.5 million, is for about 2,300 replacement part numbers.
MISSIONIZATION ACCOMPLISHED: The U.S. Coast Guard has exercised contract options valued at $13.25 million with Lockheed Martin to install mission systems aboard two additional HC-130J aircraft. Once delivered, these aircraft will complete the Coast Guard’s planned inventory of six missionized HC-130Js. The aircraft’s new mission equipment and sensor packages aid in search, detection and tracking for maritime search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security missions.
NASA’s Orion program is drawing on the findings of a special investigation team formed to study the final moments of the space shuttle Columbia crew in an attempt to improve the chances of future crews surviving emergencies.
NEW DELHI – The Indian navy ordered eight Boeing P-8I multimission aircraft on Jan. 2 to replace its eight aging TU-142s, making for the first direct military sales by Boeing to India. “Clearly, we are pleased that the government of India has selected the P-8Is,” said Vivek Lall, vice president and country head for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. “India has become the first international customer for P-8s. It is significant for us to partner with this market.”
NAVY Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Ind., is being awarded a $221,690,616 modification to a previously awarded firm fixed price contract (N00019-07-C-0060) to exercise options to procure 96 MV-22 and CV-22 AE1107C engines, and one-year of support services. The work will be performed in Indianapolis and is expected to be completed in December 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Raytheon’s protest of the U.S. Navy’s decision to award sole-source contracts to Lockheed Martin for its Aegis modernization program has been denied by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Following the Dec. 22 decision by GAO, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is now free to proceed with its plans to procure the ship-based Aegis Combat System Modernization on Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh-Burke-class destroyers.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. will deliver the first CH-148 Cyclone to Canada in November 2010, two years later than planned in 2004 when the company won the C$5 billion ($4 billion) contract to produce and support 28 new maritime helicopters. Deliveries in 2010 will allow testing and training to begin, but fully capable Cyclones will not arrive until 2012, according to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). In turn, Canada’s 40-year-old CH-124 Sea King shipborne helicopters will not be completely replaced until 2013.
NEW DELHI – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted the Flight Acceptance Hot Test of its Cryogenic Engine at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Center’s (LPSC) test facility. The Dec. 18 hot-fire test was carried out for a planned duration of 200 seconds, during which the engine was operated in the nominal and 13 percent uprated thrust regimes. All the propulsion parameters were met and closely matched with predictions, according to ISRO.
Recent U.S. Air Force interim reviews of the candidates vying for the service’s $15 billion combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement show that the service indeed is much more serious about making sure the winner meets a spectrum of key requirements – including those that help it survive a war-zone mission – according to sources familiar with the effort.
Preliminary findings by the Aerospace Corp. show it would be more expensive to pull NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle off its shuttle-derived Ares I vehicle and mount it on an evolved expendable launch vehicle than to follow through on development of the Ares I.
WELCOME HOME: The U.S. Navy announced Jan. 2 it has decided to base five fleet squadrons of the P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) with a fleet replacement squadron (FRS) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Fla., four fleet squadrons at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., and three fleet squadrons at Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, with periodic squadron detachment operations at NAS North Island. The new P-8A MMA squadrons are scheduled to be introduced to their new headquarters by no later than 2012 and be fully installed by 2019.
Top spaceflight operations and exploration systems managers will gather Jan. 23 to decide whether it will be possible to launch the first flight-test of the Ares I space shuttle follow-on in July. In the complex transition between the retiring shuttle and new Ares I, managers will decide if Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center can be turned over for modifications needed for the Ares I-X flight-test, or must be held by the shuttle program until the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope is launched in May.
China used a Long March 3A rocket to place a weather satellite in geostationary orbit on Dec. 23, 2008, wrapping up an 11-launch series for the year that set a new pace for the country’s rapidly advancing space program. Liftoff of the launcher carrying the Feng Yun 2E spacecraft came at 8:54 a.m. local time (7:54 p.m. EST Dec. 22) from the Xichang launch center in southwest China, bound for an orbital position at 105 degrees East Longitude.
L-3 Communications’ Link Simulation & Training division has won the competition to provide new simulator centers for U.S. Air Force F-16 pilot training, defeating incumbent service providers Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Link has been awarded an $88.2 million contract that includes options to buy up to 20 mission training centers (MTC) for Block 40/50 F-16s. Each MTC will house networked simulators allowing multiship training.
South Korea is moving ahead with its FA-50 light fighter project, signing a development contract with Korea Aerospace Industries on Dec. 26. The government has chosen the Israel Aerospace Industries’ EL/M-2032 radar for the FA-50 after the United States, exercising its right to prevent the aircraft from becoming an F-16 competitor, blocked the first choice, the Selex Vixen 500E.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a production contract for the B-2 radar modernization program (RMP), a key upgrade required to “ensure sustained operational viability” of the stealth bomber fleet, the U.S. Air Force says. The upgrade was required after the U.S. Commerce Department directed the Air Force to stop using the B-2’s current radar frequency. The RMP moves the radar from a band where the B-2 is a secondary user to a frequency where it is a primary user.
BEIJING — The space industry base that China is building at Tianjin will handle all the main technical processes in making spacecraft and rockets, says the project’s backer, China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp. Activities at the base will form a complete chain stretching from research and development, to trial production, testing and manufacturing.
NEW BIRD: Space Systems/Loral has identified Intelsat as a customer for a satellite to be ready for launch in 2010 that the company mentioned but did not identify when it did its third quarter earnings report. The 45th satellite built by SS/L for Intelsat over the years, the new spacecraft will be named Intelsat 17 and will replace Intelsat 704 at 66 deg. East longitude. It will provide C- and Ku-band transmissions for Fixed Satellite Services.
Having terminated its Battle Control System-Mobile (BCS-M) effort in November, the U.S. Air Force is retrenching and shifting funds into a new entity — the Battlespace Command and Control Center, or BC3. Two years ago, the U.S. Air Force was touting the promise of both its fixed (BCS-F) and mobile BCS systems, despite a history of mounting costs and schedule slips. The service said BCS-F would meet its goal of marrying NORAD and FAA radars to prevent terrorists from carrying out 9/11-style attacks by using commercial jets as flying bombs.
