GLASGOW, Scotland – European Space Agency (ESA) engineers are confident that problems affecting its ambitious BepiColombo Mercury mission can be fixed, enabling the joint European-Japanese project to go forward.
ANOTHER SHOT: Boeing is to get another chance to prove its HyFly hypersonic missile demonstrator can work. After the first two tests ended in failure, Boeing has received $18,3 million from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a third demonstrator and launch it in 2010. A joint program with the Office of Naval Research, HyFly is designed to demonstrate Aerojet dual-combustion ramjet technology for a Mach 6 long-range missile.
BUY SWISS: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) recently completed a six-year program to buy and refurbish 44 retired Swiss Air Force F-5 Freedom Fighters, enabling the Navy to fly in a dedicated adversary role until at least fiscal 2015. The reverse Foreign Military Sales program began in 2000 when the Navy sought a replacement for its fleet of F-5E Tiger II adversary aircraft. The new Swiss F-5Ns were manufactured with so-called Improved Handling Quality systems, which include a sharper nose, different wing leading edge roots and automatic flaps.
U.K. SHUFFLE: Industry is looking to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet re-shuffle – which included replacing Des Browne as defense secretary – to renew impetus behind the Defense Industrial Strategy. Browne is replaced by John Hutton, who moves from being the senior minister for business, enterprise and regulatory reform. Unlike Browne, who also acted as secretary for Scotland, Hutton’s focus will be on defense only.
PARIS — The European Union (EU) wants to follow NATO’s lead and establish an multinational air transport fleet. But while NATO has bet on the C-17, the EU plans to build its fleet around the continent’s A400M. The initiative was endorsed last week by EU defense ministers, meeting under the French presidency. France is a major buyer of the A400M and not part of the NATO strategic airlift consortium acquiring three C-17s. No timeline has been given for the EU transport fleet.
NO SHOT: The U.S. Government Accountability Office has shot down a bid protest by Armorworks Enterprises over the U.S. Army Materiel Command’s (AMC) exclusion of its proposal from the competitive range under a May 2007 request for proposals for body armor. Armorworks’ body armor failed in AMC’s tests, but the company’s protest alleged AMC’s testing methodology was flawed. But in its Sept. 23 decision, GAO denied or dismissed the company’s complaint as not timely enough and insufficient.
WARTHOG WHIMPER: The U.S. Air Force has grounded 127 A-10 Warthog aircraft from flight status pending inspection and repair of wing cracks. The issue is facing A-10s with thin-skin wings, the first models to roll off the production line, according to Air Force officials. The service had noticed a spike in the instances of fatigue-related wing cracks in A-10s around the world, prompting the grounding order. Aircraft supporting U.S. Central Command are receiving inspections as quickly as possible.
The Pentagon needs to keep better track of its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program (EELV) program, especially now that the Defense Department has removed some reporting requirements, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
A speech recognition system that can work with any English-speaking pilot, regardless of accent, is to be flight tested on Eurofighter Typhoons in Spain.
BOMBS INBOUND: Flight testing of the Raytheon Paveway IV dual-mode precision-guided bomb will begin on the Eurofighter Typhoon this month. The integration of the Paveway IV, which uses both GPS satellite navigation and laser guidance, is part of the Phase 1 enhancement program for the aircraft that is expected to begin to open up the Typhoon’s air-to-surface capabilities.
OFFICIALLY SHARED: The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is telling its confederate U.S. intelligence agencies to favor information sharing over security concerns. The move comes as the intel community (IC) continues reforming since 9/11, when the government was accused not making enough connections in intel data. ODNI officials say the policy means there will be a single certification and accreditation process, so all IC systems must follow the same authorized security requirements.
GLASGOW, Scotland — Sergei Krikalev, the Russian cosmonaut who holds the record for time spent in space, says he doesn’t expect crew conflict to be a major problem on long-duration exploration missions, including 30-month trips to Mars and back. “I think for a mission like a Mars mission, motivation is going to be so high, if you know it’s so important, everything will be done to do your job the best way,” Krikalev told a questioner at the 59th International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 3. He has logged 803 days, nine hours, 39 minutes in space.
BLACK HOLE: U.S. Air Force Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Gary Payton says the U.S. is “one launch vehicle failure away from having gaps,” in its overhead imagery collection capability, which lends urgency to the Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability (BASIC) program, which aims to procure one or more 1.1-meter commercial imaging satellites for military use (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 19). The spacecraft are needed to eliminate “possible gaps we may have three to four years from now,” says Vice Adm.
Britain and Raytheon have spent a lot of money developing the new Astor airborne ground surveillance system, but they think export of this advanced radar system — with variants based on the customer’s pocket book — may slash away at the initial investment and development costs they’ve had to bear. “Astor offers a proven integration of complex mission systems that is a marketable commodity,” says British Army Maj. Simon Hanford, Astor chief of staff. “The United Kingdom covered the research and development cost of Astor so it has an interest in exports.”
A key congressional subcommittee has rescinded its objection to the U.S. Army reprogramming $11 million in fiscal 2008 funds to pay for its share of Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) concept definition and risk reduction work.
The Defense Department’s Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) process has been ineffective in identifying and prioritizing combat needs, congressional auditors at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) have found. Almost 70 percent of new proposals occur outside the joint community, GAO said in its report. By continuing to rely on service-specific proposals, DOD may be losing opportunities to improve joint capabilities.
HYPER ACTIVITY: Missile manufacturer MBDA and propulsion company Roxel, which MBDA jointly owns with SNPE, are setting up a test cell capable of simulating flight conditions at hypersonic speeds. The Bourges-Subdray plant in France will be home to the test facility, known as Methyle. The facility will be used to examine the performance of a dual-mode ramjet-powered test item, with the cell capable of simulating flight at speeds of up to Mach 7.5
GUIDED FLIGHT: Following a successful series of flight-tests at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the U.S. Navy announced that it concluded the four-year Ballistic Trajectory Extended Range Munition (BTERM) engineering demonstration. Of the three planned guided flight-tests, all achieved full rocket motor burn. One of the three BTERM rounds successfully hit its target at a range of 54 nautical miles. Two of the three rounds traveled greater than 50 nautical miles, but fell well outside the designated aim point.
The U.S. Defense Department’s resolution plan to address flight software problems with the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) is too ambitious to succeed, the congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
IBCS LAUNCHING: Northrop Grumman said Sept. 30 it received a U.S. Army award for the first phase of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) program. The long-awaited award should be matched by one to Raytheon as well. IBCS is supposed to provide air and missile defense forces better situational awareness and tools to carry out their mission (Aerospace DAILY, June 10). Related programs such as Patriot, SLAMRAAM, JLENS, Sentinel and THAAD will be connected. Northrop’s 11-month contract is valued at $15 million.
Aurora Flight Sciences is designing a new wing for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) flight demonstrator. The ACCA is based on a Dornier 328Jet regional airliner, with a new composite fuselage and tail, and the new wing will have the same aerodynamic shape as the metal original, but would be produced using nonautoclave composites, Aurora President John Langford says.
The worldwide 34-year technology embargo against India has ended with a late-session vote by the U.S. Congress endorsing a civil U.S.-India nuclear accord, opening new opportunities for the countries to collaborate in commerce, civil nuclear research, technology transfer and nuclear fuel.
SPECIAL SUPPORT: Boeing has submitted a comprehensive proposal for the $5 billion Special Operations Forces Support Activity (SOFSA) contract in response to a U.S. Special Operations Command request for proposals. SOFSA is a 10-year program that will provide comprehensive logistics support services to ensure the readiness requirements of the special operations forces are met. It includes support of virtually any product or item unique to the SOF. Boeing submitted its bid Oct. 1.
