The first test firing of the Aster 30 missile for the United Kingdom’s Type 45 destroyer-based missile defense system has achieved a successful target intercept, according to European missile maker MBDA.
Massachusetts-based Diamond-Roltran is betting that if slip rings rolled instead of slipped, the V-22 Osprey would not be facing the slip ring maintenance issues it encountered on its first deployment in Iraq.
A new report by U.S. congressional investigators highlights growing cost projections for maintaining or expanding nuclear warhead pit manufacturing as the Bush administration has proposed.
FLYING HIGH: The U.S. defense unmanned systems market generated revenues of $2.9 billion in 2007 but is expected to rise only to $3.5 billion by 2016, according to Frost & Sullivan. The Pentagon’s increasing demand for remotely operated aerial, ground and maritime systems “is accelerating procurement as well as the research and development efforts,” the report forecasts. But Frost & Sullivan analyst Lindsay Voss says “growth will likely plateau as technology matures” and political changes limit new unmanned programs between 2010 and 2016.
BERLIN – The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) 3-ton W2M satellite is about to enter final testing before leaving ISRO for its launch at the end of 2008 by Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana, Ghislain de la Sayette, regional export director for EADS Astrium, told Aerospace DAILY.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide led a happy gang of his crewmates into the main module of the big Kibo laboratory June 4, continuing activation of the long-awaited facility under the guidance of engineers at the newly operational control center in Tsukuba City, near Tokyo. “This is a great moment for the Japanese folks,” Hoshide said. “It’s a beautiful module.”
Lockheed Martin/VT Group joint venture Ascent has signed a 25-year contract to provide military flying training for the U.K. armed forces under a public-private partnership – a deal worth almost $12 billion over its life. The initial contract, worth 635 million pounds ($1.25 billion), covers Ascent’s role as training system provider for the U.K. Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) program, and the initial advanced jet training (AJT) package.
Radio frequency (RF) technology is facing technology gaps that will only be solved by going digital, according to a team at Hypres Inc. Hypres’ All-Digital RF architecture will permit communications receivers to operate with high levels of interference, the company says. A digital RF domain, created on a semi-conductor chip that runs about 10 times faster than the fastest silicone chips, offers “a lot of different options,” Hypres President Richard Hitt said. The signal exists on the chips, interacting with other electronics, power amplifiers and antenna.
SEOUL – South Korea will flight test its own radar-absorbing materials, even though the fate of its KFX stealth fighter project, the main beneficiary of the development, remains uncertain. The Agency for Defense Development, a research and development body, revealed successful ground tests on radar-absorbing material on a McDonnell Douglas F-4 fighter. The timing of the announcement could be interpreted as an attempt to gain publicity for the country’s advanced aerospace efforts, helping to keep the KFX alive (Aerospace DAILY, June 3).
The House Science Committee on June 4 approved a NASA authorization bill for fiscal 2009 that includes $1 billion to accelerate the Constellation program and sets the agency’s topline budget at $20.2 billion.
The Pentagon is preparing to finalize at least part of its airborne electronic attack (AEA) road map, perhaps in a matter of days, with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as the threshold platform, aerospace industry officials say. There is a draft Acquisition Decision Memorandum on the desk of Pentagon acquisition chief John Young that’s expected to be signed this week.
NILESAT: Thales Alenia Space has been selected to build a new telecom satellite for Cairo-based Nilesat. The 3.2 metric ton, 5.7-watt spacecraft, Nilesat 201, will carry 24 Ku-band and four Ka-band transponders and will be launched in February 2010. Arianespace will be the launch provider, according to Egyptian sources; the European launch provider has yet to confirm the selection. Nilesat officials say its two existing units, Nilesat 101/102, also supplied by Thales Alenia, are both full as strong demand in the Middle East and North Africa taxes existing capacity.
NAS WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. – The first Boeing EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack aircraft officially entered service with the U.S. Navy June 3 with its handover to VAQ-129 here.
The Netherlands will bring five additional Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters up to the same upgraded standard it is acquiring for the other 24 aircraft in its inventory. The five were previously earmarked to be sold as part of a budget realignment process. But recently the Dutch decided to retain them because of the operational value of the Apache in Afghanistan, and also because a proposed sale to the United Arab Emirates faltered.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – Spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan worked fast to recover from a late start on the first extravehicular activity of the STS-124/1J mission on June 3, getting Japan’s Kibo laboratory module prepped to move from the payload bay of the space shuttle Discovery to its final position on the International Space Station.
TUCSON, Ariz. – Phoenix Mars lander researchers are poised to begin operations with the spacecraft’s organic chemistry ovens and mini wet cell laboratory, after an excellent initial digging test that proved the lander’s robotic arm is ready to deliver soil to the units. An initial icy soil sample will be dropped into the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument this week, meaning that by next week researchers should have initial results in the search for life-critical organics on the surface of Mars.
Piasecki Aircraft says its X-49A SpeedHawk compound helicopter met or exceeded objectives during the first phase of U.S. Army-funded flight-testing, including increased speed and reduced vibration. The Essington, Pa.-based company is continuing to fly the X-49A, a Sikorsky YSH-60F equipped with Piasecki’s vectored-thrust ducted propeller (VTDP) and a wing, while a government review of the test data is completed.
South African Air Force (SAAF) JAS 39C/D Gripen fighters will soon be armed with European IRIS-T air-to-air missiles supplied by Diehl Defence of Germany under a contract signed May 28, the company announced at the ILA 2008 aerospace exhibition in Berlin. The order from South Africa represents the second export sale of IRIS-T outside the six-nation consortium (Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden) that jointly developed the infrared-guided missile, says Diehl Defence executive Claus Gunther.
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.
Britain’s parliamentary financial watchdog, the National Audit Office, has criticized the Defense Ministry for its “protracted” efforts to eventually overcome its inability to field a limited number of Boeing Chinook heavy lift helicopters. The NAO’s “Chinook Mk3 Helicopters” report, released June 4, says the “shortage of helicopters to support operations has been exacerbated” by the Defense Ministry’s failure to move more quickly to determine and implement a resolution to the problem. Ordered in 1995
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JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station (ISS) June 2, delivering the main element of Japan’s big Kibo laboratory module after a picture-perfect launch May 31. Mission commander Mark Kelly eased Discovery onto its pressurized mating adaptor on the end of the station’s Harmony node at 2:03 p.m. EDT, completing a journey that started with liftoff from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center right on time at 5:02 p.m. EDT May 31.
Political appointees in NASA’s Headquarters Office of Public Affairs inappropriately manipulated coverage of climate-change science the agency funded, apparently to keep it within the bounds of Bush administration positions on the issue, the agency’s inspector general (IG) has concluded after a year-long probe requested by Congress.
TOKYO – Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor still appeals to Japan’s leadership, but there’s an implacable demand for Japan’s industrial participation in any aircraft it operates, which appears to be diminishing demand for the Raptor.
