GROUND CONTROL: Raytheon reported July 29 that it has achieved two milestones for the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) next-generation Control Segment (OCX). The company completed its integrated baseline review (IBR) and “capability maturity model integration” appraisal method for process improvements in late June. According to Raytheon, the IBR validated the team’s earned value management system, established the credibility of the technical, schedule and cost baselines and developed a mutual understanding of program risks.
ITT Corp. is now delivering a new “Enhanced” Night Vision Goggle (EVNG) to the U.S. Army that combines image intensification with infrared imaging capability to improve situational awareness on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The first ENVG was shipped in April, and now that the product is in low-rate initial production, there are about 200 of the new units in the field. Meanwhile, the Army has just awarded a $24.4 million follow-on order to ITT for the new AN/PSQ-20. Longer range
CYBER SECURED: Raytheon has acquired Telemus Solutions Inc., a provider of information security, intelligence and technical services to defense, intelligence and other federal customers. According to Raytheon, the acquisition will help it expand its information security portfolio and its reach into the cybersecurity market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal comes after the Bush administration early this year enacted a multibillion-dollar cybersecurity initiative, as well as a new cyber command within the U.S. Air Force.
Scientists working with Europe’s Corot orbital observatory have discovered a gaseous exoplanet orbiting a star with nearly the mass of the sun. The discovery, presented in July at the Cool Stars 15 meeting at St. Andrews University in Scotland, is another milestone in the mission’s quest of locating a solar system with rocky Earthlike planets.
CHEMICAL LASER: Boeing, industry partners and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) have completed installation of the Airborne Laser (ABL) high-energy laser aboard its 747-400 and have begun testing it with its chemical fuel at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The tests involve flowing the chemicals through the laser to confirm sequencing and control. Once these tests are completed, the test team will fire the laser aboard the aircraft on the ground for the first time.
The U.S Air Force and Boeing are preparing for the first flight-test of an unmanned military spaceplane. Launch of the first mission of the USAF/Boeing X-37B space maneuvering vehicle is scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in November on an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. A landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., would follow.
The European Space Agency has issued an international announcement of opportunity for a payload to be carried by the second Vega light booster, which is to begin operating from Europe’s Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport late next year. The launch, one of five bankrolled under the agency’s Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment (Verta) program to demonstrate the flexiblity of the Italian-led three-stage solid-rocket launcher – and notably a multiple payload capability – is planned for mid-2010.
A Russian military spacecraft with characteristics that suggest it is a new “Persona” modified imaging reconnaissance satellite is undergoing checkout in a sun synchronous polar orbit following launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northeast Russia. The 15-ton Cosmos 2441 spacecraft was launched from Pad 4 of Plesetsk Launch Complex 34 onboard a Soyuz 2B booster at 2:31 p.m. EDT July 26. The satellite was placed into a 770 x 210 km. (478 x 155 mi.) orbit inclined 98.3 deg.
The requirement for a heavy lift aircraft isn’t in dispute, it’s whether it will lift its payload vertically or operate as a traditional airplane. That’s the sticking point between the U.S. Air Force and the “land services” over Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL).
NEW BABY: The U.S. Coast Guard christened its newest National Security Cutter (NSC), the Waesche, on July 26 in Pascagoula, Miss. Waesche is named for U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Russell Randolph Waesche, who led the Coast Guard from 1936 to 1946. He was the longest serving commandant and the first to achieve the rank of four-star admiral. The NSC is a 418-foot ship with a 4,300-ton displacement at full load. It is about 64 percent complete.
MULTISPECTRAL SENSOR: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin an $80 million follow-on contract for the Gunship Multispectral Sensor System (GSM2), the electro-optical/infrared fire control system for the AC-130U Gunship. Four initial production units are scheduled for delivery later this year, the company said July 28. The production contract follows a so-called risk-reduction flight demonstration that assessed system performance in target imaging, line-of-sight stabilization, image blending, image processing and system controls.
With the Pentagon spending about twice as much as it did at the beginning of the decade, the Defense Department continues to face challenges in meeting government spending procedures, the DOD Inspector General (IG) reported recently.
The head of Taiwan’s legislature says he’s confident the U.S. will still approve a massive defensive arms sales package to the island nation – despite multiple delays. Wang Jin-pyng, speaker of the Legislative Yuan, said in a July 29 speech that one of the main reasons for his U.S. trip is to meet with Bush administration and congressional leaders about “the arms sales issue.”
The British Defense Ministry (MOD) intends to select up to five industry partners to form a core part of its revised approach to meeting its chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) protection needs.
SENATOR INDICTED: One of the most powerful U.S. senators to rein over legislative committees managing national security, aviation and space issues, Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), has been indicted, federal prosecutors announced July 29. Stevens has been charged with seven counts related to allegedly engaging in a nearly eight-year scheme to conceal receipt of more than $250,000 in value from Alaska-based oil services company Veco Corp. and its former chief executive Bill Allen.
A pair of two-seat Gripen fighters arrived at Switzerland’s Emmen Air Base late last month to begin flight and ground evaluations for the Swiss air force’s F-5 Tiger replacement program. The Saab Gripen will be followed by the Dassault Aviation Rafale on Oct. 9 and Eurofighter Typhoon on Nov. 6 for their respective evaluation periods. About 30 flight-tests of the Gripen are planned, including some at night. A further 50 flights or so will be conducted in conjunction with Swiss air force F/A-18s and F-5s.
The British government on July 28 formally launched its participation in the Rotor Embedded Actuator Control Technology (REACT) program involving AgustaWestland and academia. The REACT program will run for 36 months, with half of the project’s GBP8.8 million ($17.5 million) funding being provided by the government’s Technology Strategy Board.
NO CREDIT COSTLY: The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) trade association near Washington claims that the U.S. economy already has lost at least $10.5 billion in new economic activity in the last six months due to the lack of extension of a federal tax credit for corporate research and development. Both leading presidential candidates support a permanent R&D tax credit, according to ITAA Chief Executive Phil Bond.
GREEN AVIATION FORUM September 23, 2008 Madrid, Spain Don’t miss the second annual AVIATION WEEK Management Forum dedicated to green initiatives in the airline industry, including: emissions treading; carbon offsets; and air traffic management improvement. Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/forums or call +1.212.904.3195.
The director of national intelligence wants his confederacy of 16 agencies to reach a point by 2015 where users and contributors to the U.S. intelligence community (IC) apparently collaborate like many public Internet groups do now. In a new, glossy document called “Vision 2015,” available online, DNI Mike McConnell calls for “a globally networked and integrated intelligence enterprise” and tries to nudge IC participants toward change – whether they are ready or not.
Space shuttle managers have eased up on their hopes of getting the two remaining launches this year off a little early, shifting the target for pushing up the launch dates by three days each instead of six.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is continuing testing of its Block 1 U.S. Army Sky Warrior unmanned aerial vehicle system. Two of eight Block 0 aircraft, configured with the larger Predator-based airframe and the service’s heavy fuel engine, remain in U.S. Central Command supporting war efforts.
MOJAVE, Calif. – Virgin Galactic has unveiled the new “mothership” for the vehicle that will take tourists into suborbital space, as well as plans to entice more than just tourists into space. At the July 28 rollout at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson made comments that expand the business’s potential customer base beyond leisure passengers to include payloads and scientific projects.
