BACK ON TRACK: After waffling support – and an extensive study of alternatives – from the Pentagon this year, the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program now appears to be moving forward. The U.S. Air Force is expected to ask for revised proposals by the end of July and announce a contract award in September. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are locked in a duel for this effort, which will replace the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation providing secure communications for the U.S. and, eventually, Australia.
DIRECTED ENERGIES: Development of radio frequency and laser weaponry is a priority, according to U.K. Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Glenn Torpy, as the service seeks to acquire “tunable effects.” The U.K. has carried out laser and high power microwave (HPM) weapons research since at least the 1980s, with an HPM payload for a cruise missile one of the near-term applications.
CAREER MOVE: The next likely acquisition czar for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will try to find ways to recruit and retain program managers to stay in their jobs longer. “If confirmed, I would review current policy and practice for assigning program managers to major programs with senior Navy military and civilian leaders, including such considerations as career flow points, tenure agreements, and succession planning for program managers,” Sean Stackley told senators June 26.
SATELLITE MATING: Lockheed Martin is expecting to put its second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite in Baseline Integrated System Test following the mating of the Northrop Grumman payload with the core satellite structure. The first AEHF satellite is now in thermal-vacuum testing, which simulates the extreme temperatures found in space. Finally, Lockheed Martin recently accepted delivery of the third payload module, and a contract is expected in July for the fourth spacecraft.
PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA Administrator Mike Griffin believes that contractor job cuts at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) following the planned end of the space shuttle program in 2010 will total 3,000-4,000, only about half of the worst-case scenario of cuts in the 6,000-7,000 range. The total Kennedy workforce of both government and civil service personnel is currently about 14,000.
The U.S. Coast Guard has improved its oversight of the troubled Deepwater recapitalization program using its own project managers and technical experts, a congressional report found June 26.
THAAD SUCCESS: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and prime contractor Lockheed Martin declared a successful shootdown of a separating target with the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system over a Hawaiian test range June 25. The target, launched from a C-17 airlifter and intercepted in mid endo-atmosphere, presented a new target class compared with previous unitary targets intercepted by THAAD, and it makes for the first separating target shot since the late 1990s.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) conducted a full launch dress rehearsal and hold-down firing of its third Falcon 1 rocket June 25 at its launch site at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The test marked the first pad firing of SpaceX’s new Merlin 1C reusable engine – an upgraded version of the Merlin 1A used for previous Falcon 1 launches. The regeneratively cooled Merlin 1C operated at full power, with only the hold-down system keeping the rocket from lifting off, according to the company.
VICTORVILLE, Calif. – Boeing is beginning an intensive flight-test period in its A160T Hummingbird rotary unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program with upcoming evaluation of stub wings, a two-speed transmission and a revised flight control system.
REALISTIC RADAR: Boeing announced June 26 the selection of Elbit Systems as chief supplier of the Virtual Mission Training System (VMTS), which will integrate realistic radar training into the U.S. Navy’s T-45 Training System. VMTS simulates via data link an unclassified, mechanically scanned tactical radar that provides air-to-air and air-to-ground modules as well as simulated weapons and simulated electronic warfare. Those functions can be networked between the participating aircraft and instructor ground stations that control the mission presentation.
The Phoenix Mars lander, in its first series of soil chemistry tests, has discovered that Martian soil is remarkably Earth-like and could support a wide array of plants and organisms. “I am flabbergasted by this data,” says Samuel Kounaves from Tufts University, the lead investigator on the Phoenix wet chemistry investigations. “If the data is sustained by other measurements, it will be an historic discovery relative to the search for life on Mars.”
Combat needs are driving the new acceleration of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS), generals claimed June 26, saying they will not ask for more money to make the changes. But lawmakers are not yet sold on the move. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and airland forces subcommittee Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) called the changes a “positive step” in improving FCS. But they are still concerned that the new plan may not allow for adequate testing of the equipment due to its “very tight” schedule.
G/ATOR: The U.S. Marine Corps’ new Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) successfully completed Preliminary Design Review (PDR) at Northrop Grumman headquarters in Baltimore, Md. G/ATOR is a highly mobile system intended to support the Marine Corps’ expeditionary warfare requirements. The multimission radar system will provide the Marines with capabilities to detect, track and provide target data to engage hostile aircraft, cruise missiles and unmanned air vehicles, as well as provide the location of hostile rockets, mortars and artillery.
Airbus Military has rolled out the first A400M transport from the EADS Casa final assembly line in Seville, Spain, with the much-delayed first flight now expected in September or October. The 37-ton payload A400M is being developed under a €20 billion ($31 billion) fixed-price contract signed in 2003. The airlifter now is expected to enter service with the French air force in April 2010 – six months later than originally planned.
AASM FIRED: French armaments agency DGA has completed a second successful test firing of the AASM precision weapon in infrared (IR) seeker mode. The test, from a Mirage 2000 fighter, used the AASM’s inertial navigation system for the initial 25-kilometer cruise, with the Global Postitioning System shut off, before switching to the IR for terminal guidance. The basic GPS-guided version is currently in service with Rafale combat aircraft in Afghanistan. The IR/GPS variant, which will have one-meter-class precision, is to complete qualification this summer.
Alabama Aircraft Industries, Inc. (AAII) announced its intentions June 26 to file a lawsuit in the United States Court of Federal Claims challenging the U.S. Air Force’s selection of Boeing for a $1.1 billion contract to maintain its fleet of KC-135 refueling tankers.
Repairs to the damaged flame trench on Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) shouldn’t delay the planned Oct. 8 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, but it remains an open question what effect the condition of the twin Apollo-era KSC launch pads will have on the Ares launchers under development to replace the shuttle.
Northrop Grumman is giving the Shepherding Spacecraft for NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) its final checkout, after completing thermal vacuum testing of the fast-track hardware some two months early. Based on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter, known as an ESPA ring, LCROSS will be ready to fly to the moon as a piggyback payload on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) just 25 months after the contract was awarded.
The U.S. Army’s chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, briefed Defense Secretary Robert Gates June 25 about a substantial change in fielding the first set of Future Combat Systems (FCS) “spinout” capabilities. DOD sources tell Aerospace DAILY that the time frame for fielding Spinout 1 equipment has not changed, but different Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) will now receive those capabilities.
PRESIDENTIAL SQUEEZE: The next U.S. president’s first opportunity to wield full budgetary power will be in the fiscal 2011 budget – and even then, the chief executive and commander in chief will have only two budget cycles before being preoccupied with re-election, according to information technology consultants at Input in Reston, Va. “Contractors could still see changes in priorities and funding allocation once the new leadership teams are in place,” said senior analyst Deniece Peterson. But White House transitions are always nebulous.
The recently revealed $1.1 billion in additional costs for the troubled NPOESS program is an estimate of its out-year operations and maintenance expenses that was purposely not considered in previous estimates of the total price tag, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is leading the development of the NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) civil/military weather satellite constellation in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force and NASA. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor.
Cyber attackers have become so proficient in their missions that they are forcing the U.S. military, government and industry to rethink the way they look at defending their information and operations, according to Bill Neugent, chief engineer for information security at MITRE. “There’s been a real shift from information assurance to mission assurance,” Neugent said June 25 after a briefing he gave at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement’s Cyber Security for Defense conference in Arlington, Va.
NEW DELHI – EADS Military Aircraft is expected to offer consultation services for India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as part of the 50 percent offsets required in the country’s Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) procurement, for which the company is offering its Eurofighter Typhoon. EADS says its Mako High Energy Advanced Trainer (HEAT) shares commonality with India’s LCA, for which India is seeking international help. The program was launched 25 years ago to replace India’s aging MiG-21s as the air force’s primary multirole tactical fighter.
NO ASAT PROGRAM: There is no program of record – yet – for the U.S. military to pursue an air-launched anti-satellite missile despite a preliminary, successful test performed earlier this year, according to the Missile Defense Agency’s chief. “We do not have any robust program in place,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering told a Capitol Hill breakfast audience recently. Still, Obering – who retires this fall – volunteered information over the “functional demonstration” as part of a litany of purported progress that MDA has achieved in recent years.
