Rockwell Collins has delivered the first TacNet datalink for Raytheon’s Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW), allaying the U.S. Navy’s earlier doubts about the potential challenges involved in integrating a new datalink on an existing weapon. Raytheon recently approved final testing and accepted delivery of TacNet for integration into the JSOW C-1 variant as part of the Navy’s Strike Common Weapon Data Link Program.
Ad Astra Rocket Company will work through a series of development “gates” to build an advanced plasma-propulsion engine for in-flight testing on the International Space Station (ISS) by 2012. William Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for space operations, and Franklin Chang Diaz, Ad Astra president and CEO, signed a Space Act agreement Dec. 8 that will allow the Houston-based company to place a 200-kilowatt version of its Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) on the ISS to test its performance in space.
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A new Pentagon vertical-lift study working its way around Washington appears to draw from the latest acquisition strategies for picking a new combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter for the U.S. Air Force. At the same time, Boeing’s HH-47 Chinook remains listed as the vertical-lift program of record in the “Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Capabilities Based Assessment” (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 12).
DAMAGE CONTROL: Rockwell Collins will demonstrate its damage-tolerant flight control technology on an “operational representative unmanned aerial vehicle” under a $3.12 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Previous demonstrations involved blowing a large part of the wing off a subscale F/A-18 model in flight and showing that the vehicle could autonomously recover its performance and land safely using the control system.
PARIS — The EADS board of directors has endorsed a push by company CEO Louis Gallois to streamline the operation. The main elements of the move are to shift EADS’s military transport aircraft division (MTAD) under Airbus, and more closely link the Astrium space operation with EADS Defense & Security.
PARIS — Transferring defense articles between European Union (EU) member states will become easier now that the European Parliament approved a reform package Dec. 16.
The two most pressing technology needs of U.S. forces in combat remain precision close-air support and counter-IED capabilities, according to Navy Vice Adm. Robert Harward, the new deputy commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command. Moreover, the sequence of combat involvement may be flipped on its head, with conventional forces learning how to support special operations forces (SOF), instead of the current practice of using SOF to support conventional warfare, Harward told defense reporters at a breakfast Dec. 16.
NEW DELHI — India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) took another step with the prototype vehicle (PV-3) landing in Leh airfield — one of the highest airfields in the world — in Ladakh at an altitude of 10,600 feet with temperatures falling to negative 20 degrees Celsius. The Indian Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) said the objective at Leh is to expose the onboard systems to the extreme low temperatures while making an assessment of the aircraft performance in rarefied atmospheric conditions.
RUNNING AGAIN: Ground tests of the F135 powerplant for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, halted on Dec. 2 after an engine suffered foreign-object damage, resumed on Dec. 16, manufacturer Pratt & Whitney says. Testing was halted after inspection of the engine revealed that a nut released from a bearing compartment had caused minor damage to the fan and compressor.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are considering improving defense cooperation with a particular focus on procurement. In a meeting of the three countries’ defense ministers, army development and joint procurements were high-profile issues. Initial efforts are already under way with a joint infantry battalion assigned to NATO Response Force 14.
The developers of a small, lightweight — but high-powered — laser system say it could make directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) technology more affordable to protect commercial airliners from surface-to-air missiles.
MAKING WAVES: The Jason defense science advisory panel has dismissed the notion that high-frequency gravitational waves (HFGW) could pose a national security threat. The group of experts was asked to evaluate the scientific, technological and national security significance of the waves. “Our main conclusions are that the proposed applications of the science of HFGW are fundamentally wrong; that there can be no security threat; and that independent scientific and technical vetting of such hypothetical threats is generally necessary,” an October report said.
CHRISTMAS LIST: President-elect Barack Obama and the 111th Congress should cast their immediate attention on the ongoing wars, homeland security, defense spending and readiness, and the space shuttle’s pending retirement, nonpartisan congressional auditors suggest in their own list of to-do’s next year. The list is the centerpiece of a new Web site the Government Accountability Office launched last month that is supposed to help the incoming administration and lawmakers.
GROUND CONTROL: NASA says Science Applications International Corp. will provide engineering and technical support services to support the Constellation next-generation launch development systems, primarily at Kennedy Space Center. A two-year baseline contract includes three one-year options; the total value possible is $69 million. Constellation includes the Orion space capsule and its shuttle-derived Ares launcher.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is awarding a firm fixed price contract to McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St. Louis, Mo. for $110,224,001. This contract action will exercise the Lot 5 Option for Small Diameter Bomb, Increment I Production for munitions, carriages, and technical and logistical support. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 681 ARSS/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8672-09-C-0047).
The U.S. Navy has contracted with General Dynamics (GD) for T-AKEs 11 and 12, as well as long-lead time and materials toward the last two ship planned in the new class of auxiliary support ships. The Naval Sea Systems Command award — announced late Dec. 12 — with GD’s National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. is worth more than $940 million, according to the company and the Defense Department.
Italy’s Defense Ministry has certified AeroVironment’s Raven B micro unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to fly military-operated missions in Italian airspace, the company announced Dec. 15. A military aircraft type-classification certificate was issued for the 4.2-pound, hand-launched UAS by the ministry’s General Directorate for Aircraft Weapons Systems — the first issued in Italy for a micro-UAS, according to AeroVironment.
BEIJING — China orbited the remote sensing satellite Yaogan 5 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center Dec. 15, marking the country’s second remote sensing satellite to be launched this month. “Yaogan” means “remote sensing.” The stated purpose of the satellite is the collection of data for land resource surveys, environmental surveillance and protection, urban planning, crop yields, disaster management and space experiments. Yaogan 4 was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center earlier this month.
INTELLIGENT BUSINESS: CACI International has received a prime contract worth up to $452 million to continue providing mission support services to the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. The Arlington, Va.-based company said Dec. 10 that the Genesis III award “significantly increases” the size and scope of CACI’s business with the command. CACI is responsible for engineering and logistics support for ground and air-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems worldwide.
