JNBCRS AWARD: The U.S. Army Research and Development Engineering Command Acquisition Center awarded ICx Technologies a contract award potentially worth $711 million over seven years for the Joint Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance System Increment II (JNBCRS 2) program. The contract is for system engineering, analysis and integration.
The British Royal Air Force has a new intelligence aircraft, the Sentinel R1, that’s part of the Astor radar ground surveillance system. The radar’s resolution is officially described at under one meter, but aerospace specialists say it is at least on par with the U-2’s acuity of well under a foot – and probably just a few inches. The aircraft is small, fast, can do some things better than the U.S. E-8 Joint Stars, and it’s going to Afghanistan soon.
The Russian government has allocated funding to buy 34 MiG-29SMTs originally destined for Algeria in a move that comes as a welcome bonus to Russian combat aircraft manufacturer MiG. Moscow has earmarked 23 billion roubles ($900 million) to fund the purchase, according to Russian business daily Kommersant. All of the aircraft will be handed over to the air force by 2010.
Top NASA managers will decide next week the fate of the Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered astrobiology rover that already has cost $1.5 billion and is likely to hit the 30-percent overrun ceiling that could trigger cancellation by Congress. Officials from the agency’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are set to brief Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler on the program next week.
Lawmakers in last-minute fiscal 2009 legislation last week passed provisions that extend a moratorium on selling cluster bombs abroad while officially rejecting the Bush administration’s last efforts toward a Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). The Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby organization, declared the first provision “another clear victory” for its campaign to ban cluster bombs. A one-year moratorium on exports of most types of cluster bombs was set to expire Sept. 30, but legislators approved an extension through March 2009.
Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, AA-1, arrived at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 1 following a three-hour ferry flight from the company’s Fort Worth, Texas, production facility.
Alabama Aircraft Industries Inc. (AAII) has won the latest skirmish in the long-running battle for a $1.1 billion contract to perform programmed depot maintenance (PDM) on the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of aging KC-135 tankers.
The German parliament’s economics committee has given preliminary approval to a lunar orbiter. Government and industry officials say the budget committee of the Bundestag on Oct. 1 OK’d 300 million euros ($450 million) to begin work on the mission, and instructed Economics Minister Mickael Glos, who is responsible for space, to draw up a financing package. The research ministry will also contribute funding for the project, which is to be finalized in November when the overall 2009 budget is approved, officials said.
SHIP CHRISTENING: The U.S. Navy will christen the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Independence on Oct. 4 during a ceremony at Austal USA Shipyard in Mobile, Ala. The Independence is one of two LCS sea frames being produced. LCS 1, Freedom, completed its acceptance trials and was delivered on Sept. 18. It is scheduled for commissioning on Nov. 8.
EADS Astrium has inked a long-term framework agreement with Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization, to launch the company’s Earth observation satellites on India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Textron Inc., the parent of Cessna Aircraft, Bell Helicopter and Textron Systems, was added Oct. 1 to the New York Stock Exchange’s list of companies that cannot be shorted, becoming the latest beneficiary of a temporary U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) ban on short selling to calm tumultuous financial markets.
Turkey has formally started the competition to provide two air and missile defense systems to the country’s armed forces. Bids for both the Low Altitude Air Defense Missile System (LALADMIS) and the medium altitude air defense missile system are due Feb. 16, 2009; companies have until the end of this month to formally receive the request for proposals.
ALL-AROUND DEAL: Sikorsky Aircraft said Sept. 30 that it is partnering with Carson Helicopters to launch a modernization program for the S-61 helicopters. “The Sikorsky Modernization Program will breathe new life into this iconic symbol of rotorcraft excellence, providing the enhancements needed to perform effectively in high/hot operating conditions and to put this aircraft back to duty for years to come,” claimed David Adler, president of Sikorsky Aerospace Services.
South Africa has accepted the first four fighters under an order for 26 Gripen C/Ds. A Sept. 30 DAILY article incorrectly identified the type of those four Gripens.
BLACK BUDGET: Classified acquisition funding has more than doubled in real terms since fiscal 1995, according to Washington watchdogs, and 18 percent of the Defense Department’s requested acquisition funding is for classified, or “black,” programs. The findings, under OpenTheGovernment.org’s latest annual Secrecy Report Card, try to identify trends in public access to government information. Black funding includes $14.4 billion in procurement and $17.5 billion in research and development (R&D) funding.
ALABAMA MISSILE: Boeing announced Sept. 30 the August delivery of the first production Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) kinetic warhead kit built in Huntsville, Ala. The delivery came almost one year to the day after Boeing announced it would transfer its missile defense production work from Anaheim, Calif., to Huntsville. The placement of the SM-3 production work in Huntsville expands production capability and co-locates Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense production with similar missile defense activities. Boeing received approval from the Missile Defense Agency and the U.S.
A relatively small $125 million contract to Northrop Grumman signals a potentially big shakeout in the world of electronic attack (EA) and network-centric operations, which many consider the heart of future joint aviation concepts.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is using six new “phenomenologies,” or methods, by which to collect and analyze data to help soldiers in the field and war planners. They include what Navy Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, the Pentagon’s NGA director, calls “gravitometrics,” which helps locate underground passageways. The sensor used is a gravitometer.
Israel requested a possible purchase of 25 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, with an option for 50 more – including short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) versions – the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced Sept. 29. The total value of the contract, if all options are exercised, could reach $15.2 billion. The initial buy would be 25 conventional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) aircraft with an option to purchase an additional 50 CTOL and STOVL aircraft.
BIG HAUL: Oshkosh Defense has been awarded a new $180 million contract by U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command for more than 1,500 reducible-height armor kits to be supplied to the Marine Corps for the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) fleet. MTVR is an all-terrain logistics vehicle used by the Marines and Navy Seabees, and the kits will meet the service’s requirements of transporting armored MTVRs at a reduced height of 8 feet 2 inches to allow the vehicles to be stored on previously inaccessible decks on prepositioning ships.
The $630 billion-plus stopgap spending bill signed into law by President Bush includes $487.7 billion to fund the Defense Department and more than $40 billion to fund the Homeland Security Department through the end of fiscal 2009.
MISSILE MODELING: Science Applications International Corp. has received two task orders from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) to provide modeling and simulation to the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Systems Simulation and Development Directorate. Both orders run five years and their combined value is $160 million, if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and falls under AMCOM’s Expedited Professional and Engineering Support Services contract.
House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members have written Defense Secretary Robert Gates to express concern over the U.S. Army’s plan to cut big legacy programs to fund Future Combat Systems (FCS), urging the Pentagon chief not to sacrifice older platforms for new under the next long-term budget plan.
A Russian Dnepr-1 rocket orbited a Thai surveillance spacecraft, Theos, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last night, following the resolution of a long overflight dispute between the Kazakh and Uzbek governments. The dispute, which concerned possible downrange damage from the first stage of Dnepr boosters launched from Baikonur, had held up the mission for months. It was originally due to launch in late 2007 (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 5).
Northrop Grumman’s Oblique Flying Wing (OFW) program will not proceed to an X-plane flight demonstrator. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) confirms that OFW has concluded following the preliminary design effort. The OFW was a tailless variable-geometry flying wing designed to combine long subsonic loiter endurance with high supersonic dash speed. By increasing sweep as the aircraft accelerated, the leading edge always remained within the shock cone, reducing drag.
