ARMORED SURVIVAL: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has developed a new aircrew armored survival vest (ASV) for helicopter and nonfighter aircraft crew. NAVAIR’s Human System Division designed the ASV in three sizes to fit a range of body types and will reduce bulk, weight and heat stressors commonly encountered by helicopter aircrew flying for six or more hours on combat missions, NAVAIR says. The vest is constructed from a material called Halo-Tech, which is as fire-retardant as Nomex and more durable.
Negotiations for development of a new NASA spacesuit are expected to resume soon now that the two teams competing to do the work have joined forces. Exploration Systems & Technology (EST), a joint venture of Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover, will not submit another bid for the Constellation Space Suit System (CSSS), and instead will join the team headed by Oceaneering International, Inc., to build the next-generation modular spacesuit.
Michael Griffin should continue as NASA administrator, at least until President-elect Barack Obama sorts out his space policy agenda, the chairman of a key House authorizing committee said Dec. 18. “I have recommended that, at a minimum, he be kept during the transition period,” House Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) said, adding that he was also recommending that Griffin “be considered” to be kept on beyond that.
The U.S. Defense Department’s annual report on the status of its prepositioned materiel and equipment should be more comprehensive to help keep Congress aware of potential logistical issues, congressional auditors say in a new report. Although DOD provides a single annual report, there are variations in information coming from the armed services because of the differences in the configuration of their prepositioned stocks, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
MUSHROOMING OPPOSITION: Emboldened by Democrat Barack Obama’s U.S. presidential win, anti-nuclear weapons activists and lobby groups in Washington are ramping up their calls for cutting the nation’s strategic stockpile and killing the proposed Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW).
Fidelity Technologies Corp. announced Dec. 16 that it has received a $5.5 million contract to build 50 Call For Fire Trainers (CFFT) simulators for the U.S. Army and Army National Guard. The training simulator is used to instruct forward observers in methods for calling for fire missions through the use of three-dimensional battlefield simulation that is programmed to keep the trainee, as well as friendly and enemy forces, in motion.
THINK AGAIN: An analyst at the Lexington Institute is praising House members for openly disapproving the U.S. Army’s plan to cut billions from its M-1 Abrams tank upgrade and Stryker wheeled combat vehicle programs. Funding had been cut back in the Army’s Program Objective Memorandum (POM) for fiscal 2010-2015, with vehicles losing $222.5 million in funding in FY ’10, with cuts peaking the following year at $737.7 million. Total cuts to Stryker procurement during the POM horizon total $1.3 billion (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 1).
Lockheed Martin has been notified by NASA to stop work on GOES-R, because Boeing has filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office over the Dec. 2 $1.09 billion satellite award.
An article on Dutch unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) plans misidentified the system The Netherlands is looking to lease (Aerospace Daily, Dec. 15). The service will be provided by QinetiQ, using a UAV provided by Israel’s Aeronautics Defense Systems.
PARIS – The A400M program has reached an important milestone with the first flight of the TP400 turboprop engine on its C-130K test bed. The flight took place at Marshall Aerospace’s Cambridge, England, facility, with takeoff at 10:44 a.m. local time Dec. 17 and landing at 11:59 a.m. The aircraft reached a top speed of 165 knots and an altitude of 8,000 feet.
The U.S. military is exploring other options for expanding the coverage of its missile defense system if negotiations on locating a third ground-based interceptor site in Poland are not continued under President-elect Barack Obama. “We are in discussions with the MDA [Missile Defense Agency] on alternatives if the discussions in Europe do not continue,” said Air Force Gen. Victor Renuart Jr., head of both the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command.
European and Chinese-German teams have joined the race for the Google Lunar X Prize, the $30 million competition to land a vehicle on the moon, travel 500 meters and show it all with transmitted pictures by Dec. 31, 2012. The Euroluna team is led by Palle Haastrup, founder and president of the European Lunar Exploration Association. It plans to use commercial off-the-shelf technologies to build a lander called Romit.
DROP IT: The ability to hit a stationary target with an air-dropped mortar has been demonstrated by General Dynamics (GD) using a GPS guidance kit that replaces the fuze in existing 81mm mortar rounds. The U.S. Army-sponsored trials are intended to demonstrate a low-cost weapon that can be fielded rapidly on tactical unmanned air vehicles. GD’s nose-mounted Roll Controlled Fixed Canard guidance kit includes the fuze, flight controls and GPS navigation.
NASA managers have concluded they don’t need an active damping system in the aft skirt of the Ares I first stage to prevent dangerous vibrations from rattling the crew of the Orion crew exploration vehicle on top, and will use a passive system instead.
PITCH AND ROLL: Qinetiq has completed trials of a system to allow F-35B Joint Strike Fighters to make shipborne rolling vertical landings (SRVL) even when the deck is pitching in high seas. Qinetiq’s Harrier test bed flew some 230 SRVL approaches to HMS Illustrious last month to test the system. In a rolling vertical landing, wing lift complements engine thrust. The U.K. is developing the technique to enable the JSF to return to the carrier with heavier payloads, while the U.S. Marine Corps sees it as a way to operate its F-35Bs alongside F/A-18s on U.S. Navy carriers.
Planning considerations in day-to-day operations on the International Space Station (ISS) forced controllers to postpone an 18-hour test of a damaged power-generating mechanism, but at least a limited test probably will be conducted in the next week.
PALMDALE, Calif. – Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy are devising a series of control devices, visual aids and protocols to enable the X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator to operate seamlessly alongside manned aircraft within the confines of an aircraft carrier flight deck, as well as in its airspace.
VARIANT RESEARCH: The U.S. Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) has awarded Oshkosh Defense a $9.4 million contract modification for continuing research and development of the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) A3 variant. Oshkosh engineers will upgrade the vehicle’s engine horsepower and incorporate an Army Long-Term Armor Strategy (LTAS) compliant integral lightweight composite armor (A-kit) and add-on lightweight composite armor appliqué (B-kit) to improve crew protection.
The U.S. Navy’s secondary inventory stocks are being mismanaged to the tune of billions of dollars annually, according to congressional auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Between fiscal 2004 and 2007, the Navy had about $18.7 billion of secondary inventory, of which about 40 percent exceeded the current requirements.
The European Union (EU) has issued a draft Code of Conduct governing military and civil space operations, in a measure meant to strengthen the security of activities in outer space. The basis for the Code of Conduct is to avoid “harmful interference” against space objects — i.e., offensive space weapons — and includes several provisions, including: • Freedom of access to, exploration and use of outer space, • The inherent right of the individual or collective self-defense in accordance with the United Nations Charter,
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston released a draft request for proposals (RFP) Dec. 16 for the Altair Conceptual Design Contract, which will firm up requirements for the lunar lander the agency plans to use for its return to the moon. A pre-proposal conference will be held Dec. 18 in Houston. Prospective bidders have until Jan. 12, 2009 to comment on the draft RFP, and the final RFP will follow later that month, according to NASA.
The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) completed a comprehensive review last month that assessed its operational readiness and progress toward launch, prime Northrop Grumman announced Dec. 16. NPP is a risk-reduction mission for NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System), the beleaguered $12.5 billion civil/military weather satellite program managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Air Force and NASA.
