Aurora Flight Sciences plans to demonstrate a vision-based guidance system that combines optical and sonar sensors and allows a micro air vehicle (MAV) to navigate through a cluttered urban environment. The Panoramic Avoidance and Navigation using Optics Integrated with Sonar – Panoptis – system combines bat-inspired echolocation for obstacle detection with a phenomenon called “optic flow” for navigation, says principal investigator Jim Paduano.
In a rare about-face, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) withdrew a report issued earlier this year questioning security measures for classified material connected with the Joint Strike Fighter program. In its March 6 report, “Security Controls Over Joint Strike Fighter Classified technology,” the IG cited security concerns in the Defense Security Service’s (DSS) review of BAE Systems, a JSF partner and the largest foreign-owned or controlled contractor in the United States.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a cost plus fixed fee contract with Raytheon Co., Missile Systems of Tucson, Ariz., for $12,948,761. This action will provide for 436 propulsion sections (baseline rocket motors) to be installed into AIM-120B Air Vehicles. This effort supports foreign military sales to Turkey, Denmark, and Finland. At this time all funds have been obligated. 695ARSS, Eglin Air Force Base, is the contracting activity (FA8675-08-C-C=0049 P00005). ARMY
Don’t expect a significant cut in Homeland Security spending by either John McCain or Barack Obama – no matter which one is elected president, a leading securities analyst says. But Brian Ruttenbur, a homeland security analyst at Memphis, Tenn.-based Morgan Keegan & Co., says an increase isn’t very likely either, although he told the DAILY recently he thought there is a better chance of increased spending in homeland security “if Obama gets elected” – especially in port security.
FLY BY: Aviation cadets from a dozen nations will visit U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) squadrons in the U.S. in 2009 as part of an international air cadet exchange program that has been going on for 60 years. The countries participating in 2009 are Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Cadets from Hong Kong and Singapore also will be involved. This year’s visitors flew on CAP aircraft and in Maryland Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters.
STEVENS GUILTY: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, one of the highest-profile Republicans on Capitol Hill, was found guilty by a jury Oct. 27 on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents. Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count, but under federal sentencing guidelines, he likely would receive much less prison time if any at all, according to the Associated Press. The seven-term GOP lawmaker has been a key overseer of NASA, the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration, as well as record Pentagon appropriations.
WASTE, ENERGY: The Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) awarded Northrop Grumman a $10 million task order to provide support for the Facilities Energy Program and for the privatization of electric, gas, water and wastewater systems at U.S. Air Force, Army and Defense Logistics Agency installations all over the U.S. including Alaska and Hawaii.
SPRINGFIELD, Va. – An Obama administration would not be looking for a major near-term reduction in defense budgets, according to Barack Obama campaign advisor and former DOD acquisitions chief Paul Kaminski. The DOD budget would not change drastically under an Obama presidency “given the challenging base of activities we have under way today,” Kaminski told an industry group at a Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) Vision conference here Oct. 22. “The team believes our forces are stretched pretty thin.”
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Italy’s third Cosmo SkyMed military-civil Earth-observation radar satellite is entering a shakedown and commissioning phase, to be completed as early as December, after its successful injection into a sun-synchronous, down-dusk, polar circular orbit at an altitude of 630 km. (391 miles).
BLAME CANADA: A Canadian navy destroyer completed its first successful sea trials with a new inertial navigation system (INS) and data distribution network from Northrop Grumman. The Iroquois-class destroyer is the first naval ship to go to sea with the MK49 ring-laser gyro navigator INS and Navigation Data Distribution System, developed by Northrop’s Sperry Maine business unit. The MK49 provides real-time, three-dimensional position, heading, speed and attitude reference to provide a network backbone for INS data integration.
FOUR MORE: Arianespace has landed four new launch contracts, confirming continued strong demand from a buoyant market. Three were from SES under a multilaunch agreement signed in June 2007, and the other for Rascom-QAF1R, a pan-African telecom satellite being built by Thales Alenia Space to replace a unit that failed to reach the proper orbit after launch late last year. One of the SES launches, set for 2009-12, is earmarked for Astra 3b. The others have yet to be identified.
INTO AFRICA: Morocco has ordered four Alenia Aeronautica C-27J tactical transport aircraft in a deal valued at $137 million. The North African nation is the first non-NATO customer for the twin-turboprop airlifter. Alenia already has orders for 39 aircraft from Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Greece and Romania, while the U.S. Army and Air Force plan to buy 78 C-27Js. Morocco also has 24 Lockheed Martin F-16s on order.
ADVERSARIAL AVIONICS: The U.S. Navy is upgrading its F-5N Adversary aircraft with $6.1 million in new avionics to try to save an estimated $20 million later, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). “The current inertial navigation system [INS] was becoming too old and costly to repair so a new system was found,” says Jay Bolles, Adversary Integrated Product Team lead. The upgrade program — entailing 44 units — was split between the Navy Reserve, which fly the F-5Ns, and the Support and Commercial Derivative Aircraft program office.
Preparations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are beginning to peak for the planned Nov. 14 launch of Endeavour on the STS-126 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) Endeavour arrived at Launch Complex 39A Oct. 24 carried atop a 2,700-ton crawler transporter, which moved it from Pad B where it had been positioned for on rescue standby for the Atlantis Hubble servicing mission now postponed until February.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Oct. 27 - 29 — SAFE Association 46th Annual Symposium, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino hotel, Reno, Nevada. For more information call 541-895-3012 or go to www.safeassociation.com or www.safeassociation.org Oct. 28 - 30 — The National Space INFOSEC Symposium, The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif. For more information go to http://www.aero.org/conferences/
REQUIREMENTS ROADKILL: A theme is developing among some of the Pentagon’s errant programs: Get the requirements right and stick with them. After days of talk that the multibillion-dollar Transformational Satellite contract award was to be cancelled (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 23), Pentagon acquisition chief John Young, through his spokesman, now says that “TSAT is a capability that the Defense Dept.
The U.S. Air Force will stand up a new major command, called Global Strike Command, devoted strictly to the nuclear enterprise, the service announced Oct. 24 at the Pentagon. “We’ve taken many corrective actions in response to painful lessons learned,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told reporters, but “more work remains to be done.” Air Force leaders released a so-called roadmap, titled “Reinvigorating the Air Force Nuclear Enterprise,” that details major actions the service will take, including:
SPEED LIVES: Blackswift may be dead, but the U.S. Air Force is still looking for a way to demonstrate a reusable hypersonic vehicle. The Blackswift was cancelled after Congress eviscerated U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Air Force Research Laboratory funding for the ambitious program to demonstrate a turbojet/scramjet-powered unmanned aircraft able to take off, accelerate to Mach 6, maneuver, return to a runway landing, then do it all again (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 13).
UNDER SCRUTINY: A Congressional push to shut down the use of Chinese launch services by overseas satellite manufacturers may move from theory to practice with the passage of the fiscal 2009 defense authorization measure. The measure, signed into law earlier this month, includes a provision instructing DOD to review whether the engagement of DOD contractors or subcontractors supporting Chinese launches poses a security risk, and instructs the secretary of defense to submit a report on the review by March 1.
SPACE WING SUPPORT: Harris Corp. will get another $60 million to continue work on its U.S. Air Force Network and Space Operations and Maintenance program, a contract it won in January. The company provides operations and maintenance support for the 50th Space Wing’s air Force Satellite Control Network under the contract, which is worth a potential $405 million over six and a half years.
Russia’s Soyuz TMA-12/16S landed pretty much on target and right on time in Kazakhstan Oct. 24, returning two cosmonauts and a wealthy American space tourist to Earth after apparently performing as planned during reentry. “The Soyuz TMA-12 has landed, just about on target,” reported Mission Control Center – Houston after the landing, which came at 9:37 a.m. local time (11:37 p.m. Oct. 23 EDT) as scheduled.
HORNET CRACKS: The U.S. Navy is inspecting all 636 of its F/A-18A-D Hornets due to the discovery of fatigue cracks in an aileron hinge on the outer wing panel of 15 of 112 deployed fighters. Failure of this aileron hinge could result in damage to the aileron or further damage to the aircraft. No aircraft have been grounded, according to Lt. Clay Doss, a Navy official. The inspection must be handled within the next 15 flight hours for each fighter. Any aircraft that do not pass inspection, which will take two weeks for the entire fleet, will be grounded pending a fix.
