DUTCH RAVEN: The Netherlands Ministry of Defense soon will be operating Raven small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), under a $7.7 million contract with manufacturer AeroVironment. The order includes new aircraft systems as well as training, logistics support and airworthiness certification. Each Raven system typically consists of three aircraft, a ground control station, a remote video terminal, system spares and related services. The Raven weighs 4.2 pounds and can be carried by backpack and launched by hand.
BACKING OFF: The U.S. Coast Guard is temporarily backing away from its attempts to recover $96 million for the faulty conversion of eight 123-foot patrol boats – while the Justice and Homeland Security departments pursue investigations of the Deepwater fleet modernization project. “We are taking a step back from our contractual actions,” says Rear Adm. Gary Blore, the Coast Guard’s acquisition chief.
NO PROTEST: Boeing has informed the U.S. Air Force it will not protest the service’s decision to award a $1.5 billion development contract for the next-generation of GPS satellites to its rival, Lockheed Martin, according to industry sources. The deal, worth up to $3.568 billion, effectively shuts Boeing out of the precision timing and navigation satellite market for years once the company completes its GPS IIF work, which is expected to last about three more years. Boeing’s problems delivering capabilities on time for GPS IIF likely contributed to the company’s loss.
The U.S. Air Force plans to wrap up testing of its first active electronically scanned array radar designed for use on the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) this fall, says Col. Jim Shaw, the program’s director at the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. This is a slip from plans to wrap up testing in May. Complications calibrating the radar, which program officials say have been resolved, required more time to handle.
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FASTER, FASTER: U.S. Air Force Gen. Arthur Lichte, Air Mobility Command chief, wants to accelerate purchases of the new KC-45A tanker. He hopes to get funding approved for the fiscal 2010 budget request now being put together at the Pentagon. The goal is to boost production from 15 per year to 26 per year. A faster infusion of the new aircraft into the fleet would allow faster retirement of maintenance-needy KC-135s; otherwise, some KC-135s will still be flying in 2040. A potential problem with the KC-135 fleet is “what keeps me awake at night,” Lichte says.
The U.S. Air Force is again extending Raytheon’s contract to design and produce a significant upgrade to its radar-guided Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).
Ernst Stuhlinger, a space-science pioneer and leading member of the team of German rocket experts who accompanied Wernher von Braun to the U.S., died May 25 in Huntsville, Ala. He was 94. A Ph.D physicist from the University of Tubingen who survived Stalingrad as an enlisted soldier in the German army, Stuhlinger went on to help answer the Soviet Union’s Sputnik I with the Explorer I, launched on a U.S. Army Redstone rocket developed by von Braun’s team.
PASADENA, Calif. – The robotic arm of NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander has been successfully unstowed, marking the second most critical milestone for the mission following its safe landing on May 25.
PARIS – The French Assembly defense committee says it will move to amend some provisions in a white paper planned to reorient France’s defense priorities in light of new threats and budget realities. In particular, committee chairman Guy Tessier, a member of the ruling UMP party, says the Assembly will urge changes to reflect a greater focus on air mobility and less emphasis on complex hardware like digital battlefield systems.
Thales Alenia Space, Telespazio and the Italian Fire Brigade have teamed up to demonstrate a location-based service to enhance civil protection activities. The demonstration, carried out in cooperation with the Sussex, England, police department under the European Liaison program, was intended to show how public safety teams can be provided with guidance and other critical data.
MAJORITY SHARES: Space Transport Inc., majority shareholder in Proton operator International Launch Services (ILS), has sold its shares to Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The move will give the Proton prime contractor effective control of the venture, underscoring its growing role in the program.
SMEX FINALISTS: NASA has selected six finalists in its Small Explorer (SMEX) Program. The agency will pick two of the mission proposals in the spring of 2009 for full development, and the first could launch by 2012. The selected proposals are the Coronal Physics Explorer (CPEX), the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS), the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), the Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite (JANUS), the Neutral Ion Coupling Explorer (NICE), and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – If the U.S. Army wants to field newer technologies faster, the key is collaboration, according to Maj. Gen. Fred Robinson, chief of the Army’s research, development and engineering command (RDECOM).
MBDA chief executive Antoine Bouvier says partners in the trans-Atlantic Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) are reviewing technical difficulties that have been encountered in the development of the system and are preparing a plan to address them. Bouvier said the plan should ensure that the program, which is funded by the U.S., Germany and Italy, remains within the announced schedule and budget envelopes.
BERLIN – MiG General Director Antaloy Belov is confident his company will sell the Russian air force a modernization package for its full fleet of MiG-29s and land big orders for new fighters both from the air force and export customers. Belov declines to say how many new aircraft the Russian air force will buy, but thinks it will be a mix of MiG-29s and the company’s newest model, the MiG-35, to meet differing operating requirements. He forecasts 300-350 new aircraft sales worldwide for MiG over the next decade.
SCALPEL, PLEASE: Lockheed Martin successfully conducted the first Scalpel weapon system release in a recent flight-test at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division China Lake test range in California. Three inert Scalpel weapons were captive-carried and released from two AV-8B Harriers. The weapons were released from various altitudes and distances from their targets to demonstrate range and accuracy. Scalpel is a small weapon system that offers precision engagement while minimizing the potential for collateral damage in close air support and urban environments.
The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program is gearing up for an intercept test against a separating missile target next month at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Since 2005, eight of 14 total planned THAAD flight-tests have been conducted, according to Col. Bill Lamb, U.S. Army THAAD project manager. The four prior targets used in the current flight-test program were all unitary targets, although an earlier incarnation of the program in the late ’90s included a successful test against a separating target, Lamb said.
NASA is pushing toward an on-time launch of the space shuttle Discovery May 31, with no constraints in sight. Liftoff of Discovery on the STS-124 mission to deliver the main pressurized section of Japan’s Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) is set for 5:02 p.m. EDT. Officials said May 29 that no serious technical issues were being tracked, and the weather at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) posed only a 20 percent chance of halting the countdown before liftoff.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Despite U.S. Army vehicles becoming heavier with armor in response to the ever-present threat of improvised explosive devices (IED), the answer may lie on a much smaller scale: nanotechnology. At a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN)-Army Industry Collaboration conference here May 28, the focus was on the little things, literally, that will curb the threat of IEDs and better protect soldiers.
BERLIN – Participating as a partner country in the International Aerospace Exhibition and Conferences for the first time, India is being wooed by the Europeans for its large defense procurement projects. India’s biggest defense purchase is its 126-aircraft Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program, which is evaluating proposals.
THAAD BATTERY: The U.S. Army activated the first battery of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system during a May 28 ceremony at Ft. Bliss, Texas. The battery will receive three THAAD launchers, a THAAD Fire Control and a THAAD radar as part of the initial fielding. Full-system fielding is scheduled to begin in 2009, according to THAAD prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
China plans to use its newest, most advanced weather satellite to forecast conditions for the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, and the dual-use spacecraft also will benefit the Chinese military. A Long March 4C rocket carried the Fengyun-3 (FY-3) spacecraft from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province on May 27, and it entered its polar orbit 27 minutes later, according to the Xinhua news agency.
