NO SURPRISE: The Defense Science Board’s 2008 Summer Study on Capability Surprise will meet in closed sessions June 10-12, 25-27, and July 10-12 in Arlington, Va. The board, which advises the U.S. defense secretary and acquisition chief on scientific and technical matters, will discuss interim results from an ongoing task force “on the whats and whys of capability surprise and the measures to ensure that [the Defense Department] and its interested partners are best positioned to prevent, or mitigate, capability surprise against itself.”
FIGHTERS WANTED: Whatever their generation, fighter aircraft are in demand. The United Arab Emirates has confirmed preliminary discussions with France on the potential purchase of Dassault Rafales to replace its 63 French-supplied Mirage 2000-9s beginning in 2013. The Rafale lost to the F-16 in Morocco last year, and Lockheed Martin has just received a $233.6 million contract to begin production of 24 Advanced Block 52 F-16C/Ds for delivery to the North African country beginning in 2011. Separately, the U.S.
SOLID STATE: Boeing achieved the highest known simultaneous power, beam quality and run time for any solid-state laser when it fired its new thin-disk laser system repeatedly in recent tests, the company said June 3. In each firing, the high-energy laser achieved power levels of more than 25 kilowatts for multisecond durations, with a measured beam quality suitable for a tactical weapon system. According to Boeing, the tests prove the concept of scalability to a 100-kilowatt-class system based on the same architecture and technology.
ACQUISITION DECISIONS: DOD Acquisitions chief John Young says he’s in no hurry to sign Acquisition Decision Memorandums (ADMs) that cross his desk. “I can’t tell you how many programs have come to me that aren’t signable,” he says. Young wrote a memo to Defense Secretary Robert Gates telling him the last five or six programs Young reviewed weren’t properly structured or funded. “I’m making more aggressive acquisition decisions,” he adds.
NAVY EAGLE: The U.S. Navy soon will deploy a Boeing ScanEagle aboard the USS Mahan, the 16th in a series of Naval vessels operating the long-endurance, fully autonomous unmanned aircraft (See p. 3). Under a new $65 million contract with Boeing, the Navy will continue to use the ScanEagle for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The contract runs through May 2009 with options for extensions.
DOLLARS & NETCENTS: The U.S. Air Force’s pending Network-Centric Solutions (NetCents) II contract calls for four mutually exclusive small businesses contracts (one for products and three for solutions), according to federal IT consultancy Input. The breakdown means about 75 percent of total awards could go to the small business community (30-48 small business fulfilled contracts of the total anticipated 40-64 awards).
AEGIS TESTS: The next test firing of a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) will occur off a Japanese Aegis ship later in 2008, Rear Admiral Brad Hicks, the U.S. Navy’s Aegis program director said June 5. In a teleconference announcing the successful test interception of a short-range unitary ballistic missile target in its terminal phase, Hicks said the Navy would like to try to accomplish two tests before the end of the year. The second SM-3 launch would also occur while the Japanese are testing on the Pacific Missile Test Range, and would be of an older variant.
German armored vehicle manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) is teaming with General Dynamics European Land Systems (GD ELS) of Vienna, Austria, to develop and market a new, air-transportable, autonomous and remotely-operated 155mm artillery system, the companies announced June 5. Called Donar, the system features the same Rheinmetall-built 155mm/.52-caliber ordnance used in KMW’s PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzer system sold to Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – Astronauts from the shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station (ISS) used the station’s robotic arm to move a Japanese pressurized logistics module into its final position, giving the Kibo laboratory the distinctive “hat” it will wear throughout its service life.
SMALL SUBS: Three small disadvantaged businesses were awarded subcontracts by Boeing under its NASA Ares I avionics contract. The avionics ring mounted between the Ares I upper stage and Orion capsule consists of onboard computers, flight controls, communications equipment, power systems, navigation and control systems and other instruments and their associated software for monitoring the rocket’s speed and position while supporting safe assembly, checkout and flight operation. Minority-owned GeoLogics Corp.
Despite indications to the contrary, the U.S. Defense Department is promising greater transparency from its Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Office (JIEDDO), claimed JIEDDO chief U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz. “Anyone with an idea [for IED defeat], we’re glad to listen to it,” Metz told a group at a June 5 Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) breakfast. “But from these lips will not come any advantage to the enemy.”
NASA is in the final stages of vetting a review on the feasibility of accelerating the crew transport portion of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, according to Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Rick Gilbrech.
Astronauts worked to outfit Japan’s main Kibo laboratory June 5, moving racks into the spacious new module while spacewalkers worked outside on its hull. Meanwhile, spacewalker Mike Fossum found what he thought were some unusual deposits on the port-side solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ), raising concerns that both of the 10-foot-diameter mechanisms that keep the space station’s big solar array wings pointed at the Sun may have problems. The starboard SARJ is parked because one of its rotating surfaces apparently has broken down.
NASA is supporting the requirements of its Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring (IVHM) program road map by funding an effort to create a Prognostic Integration Architecture (PIA). The PIA, being developed by Sentient Corporation under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, will act as a complete diagnostic and prognostic management architecture to monitor the health of mechanical systems. According to Sentient’s director of research and development, John Hartin, “If you look at the road map for IVHM, this type of architecture is a part of that.”
DOD acquisitions chief John Young refuses to “rubber stamp” the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) without reviewing the program’s elements individually.
Crews and maintainers never formally recorded information on a vulnerability involving the B-2’s air pressure sensors and the simple workaround crews came up with to mitigate it, a crucial omission that set the stage for a Feb. 23 B-2 crash in Guam. Aircrews and maintenance teams learned about the sensors’ susceptibility to moisture during a Guam deployment in 2006. They also discovered that turning on the 500-degree pitot heat would quickly evaporate the water and the flight computer would receive normal readings.
The ramifications from Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ firing of the top U.S. Air Force civilian and general are only now unfolding, but the shock wave already is reverberating beyond the Washington Beltway. “This can’t be good news for any of us,” said one Lockheed Martin official with insight into the F-22 program. “I was completely surprised and nobody I know knew anything about it beforehand,” the official noted.
TERMINAL PHASE: The U.S. Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system successfully detected, tracked and intercepted a short-range unitary ballistic missile target in the terminal phase of its trajectory during a June 5 test at the Pacific Missile Range off the Hawaiian coast. The mission was the first to use the latest version of the Aegis BMD system, which adds short-range ballistic missile defeat to the capabilities. The system will be certified for U.S. Navy fleet operations later this year.
SEATTLE – The Royal Australian Air Force has approved results from the first set of mission requirement flight-tests on the Boeing 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft, marking the beginning of the end in a long-delayed delivery effort of the first Wedgetail in March 2009.
The future C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) will be built in Jacksonville, Fla., but without Boeing, which is splitting from the partnership. Alenia North America will construct a new production and assembly facility and handle what would have been Boeing’s work itself, company spokesman Benjamin Stone said. “We are breaking the partnership with Boeing,” Stone said, saying the breakup was due to a difference in developing a “business case.”
Singapore SUNTEC International Conference & Exhibition Centre October 14 - 16, 2008 MRO Asia brings together the top airline and government officials, maintenance and safety experts from Asia, Asia-Pacific and around the globe. Join them in Singapore as they share insight, best practices, practical experience and solutions. Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call +1.212.904.4483
Hamilton Sundstrand is preparing to flight-test its NP2000 eight-blade propeller on a U.S. Air National Guard (ANG) Lockheed Martin C-130, aiming for a market to retrofit 400 E- and H-model Hercules transports. The composite-bladed propellers have been installed on an ANG C-130E at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., says Bob Leduc, president, flight systems. Flight-testing is expected to begin in July-August and last four to five months.
Due to an editor’s error, an article published June 3 about Japanese fighter planning included an incorrect headline. The headline should be “Raptor Prospects Dim, EA Desires Rise in Japan.”
FUTURE FLIERS: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Pennsylvania-based Fidelity Technologies Corp. a $68 million contract to provide classroom and simulation training to the next generation of Navy aviators and flight officers. Under the five-year contract, beginning Aug. 1, Fidelity will provide flight instructors for the Navy’s Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA). The instructors will work with trainees in the first phase of aviator schooling, in which they will be taught such basics as wing dynamics and how to approach a runway.
