LITTLE WING: AeroVironment (AV) announced May 27 its win of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Phase II contract to design and build a flying prototype for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program. AV completed a preliminary design review at the end of its Phase I, $1.7 million program. Phase II, initiated in March, is a six-month, $636,000 development program that will culminate in the demonstration of a rudimentary, three-inch flapping-wing air vehicle.
TEST RANGE: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract to deliver the first phase of the next-generation DOD range-upgrade program, the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS). CRIIS is a program to improve accuracy, security and data link features for test ranges. The program will replace the Advanced Range Data System developed in the 1980s with an open-system architecture which allows for future growth.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be challenging future military leaders to avoid promoting questionable major acquisitions over less-expensive defense spending that can better address near-term warfighting, but the message hasn’t resonated on Capitol Hill just yet, according to recent House action on the F-22 Raptor.
CHARGES FLY: A Washington watchdog group is trumpeting a U.S. Army and Defense Department joint finding that a major supplier of materials used in the production of composite parts on aircraft possibly committed fraud on “every aircraft manufacturer in the world” from 1997 to 2005. The watchdogs, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), further say the Air Force still has not taken disciplinary action, as an Army Criminal Investigation Command and Defense Criminal Investigative Service memorandum recommended.
The FAA Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system went out of service at 10:30 p.m. Washington time (2:30 Coordinated Universal Time) on May 22 and has been down for 12 hours with no end to the outage in sight.
TRUST, VERIFY: In the wake of last year’s turmoil in NASA’s astronaut corps stemming from the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak, lawmakers may require NASA to conduct biennial anonymous health care surveys of its astronauts and flight surgeons “to evaluate communication, relationships, and the effectiveness of policies,” and to report the results to Congress.
FCC MILESTONE: ICO Global Communications says that two-way voice and data communications between its ICO G1 satellite and mobile terminals is now operational and it has filed its final milestone certification confirming the capability with the Federal Communications Commission. ICO G1, launched on April 14, is the first in a new wave of hybrid satellites intended to serve mobile TV, navigation and other high-speed mobile service.
USCG & FCS: The U.S. Coast Guard may be looking to expand the reach of its communications architecture, and the solution may lie with the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) network. At an Army Evaluation Task Force (AETF) media day in Ft. Bliss, Texas, May 21, a Coast Guard officer observed the Army performing dry runs with its Class I unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the small unmanned ground vehicle (SUG-V) being developed for FCS. The Coast Guard official said his service was not the only one interested in the FCS network, and U.S.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed language that would prohibit new contracts that rely on private contractors to serve as lead-system integrators (LSIs) starting in fiscal 2011 – along with several other contracting-disclosure and reform-minded requirements.
LORAL LOSSES: Loral Space & Communications recorded a net loss of $71 million in the first quarter, on revenues of $386 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $99 million. Results included a first-time contribution from Telesat of Canada, in which Loral acquired a 64 percent stake on Oct. 31, 2007. Without Telesat, Loral would have recorded sales of $219 million, with break-even EBITDA. Backlog of the company’s Space Systems/Loral satellite manufacturing arm rose to $1.2 billion, from $1 billion at the end of December.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) May 26 - 30 — 4S Symposium, “Small satellite systems and services conference,” Rhodes, Greece. For more information go to www.congrex.nl/08a12/ June 2 - 4 — The 2008 Navy Opportunity Forum, “Transitioning Technology to the Fleet,” Hyatt Regency, Crystal City, Va. For more information go to www.navyopportunityforum.com
QUAKE ZONE: Chinese government agencies operating in earthquake-stricken Sichuan province are using unclassified U.S. government maps derived from satellite imagery to guide recovery efforts under an unprecedented data-sharing effort coordinated by the U.S. State Dept. The Chinese government requested the data on reservoirs and other infrastructure damaged in the Magnitude 8 earthquake, according to the Pentagon. A spokeswoman for the U.S. National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA) says it is the first time the U.S.
BOMB AGREEMENT: MBDA and Safran will collaborate on Safran’s Sagem AASM air-to-ground powered bomb, which was recently deployed for action in Afghanistan aboard the Rafale F2 fighter. Missile maker MBDA, which has no equivalent precision weapon in its portfolio, will take over marketing responsibility for the AASM, and the two companies will work together in developing future variants. Safran and MBDA have long partnered in the missile seeker domain.
A pair of astronomical observations 22 years apart has revealed that a supernova in the constellation Sagittarius occurred about 140 years ago, confirming it as the most recent stellar explosion observed in the Milky Way galaxy. In 1985 the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array in New Mexico made an observation of the supernova remnant G1.9+0.3 in radio wavelengths. Then early last year NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory collected data on X-rays from the blast.
HEADING NORTH: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to base a Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on the border with Canada in a month or two, says CBP Air and Marine’s chief. Assistant Commissioner Michael Kostelnik tells the House Homeland Security Committee his agency will soon move one of its four Predators – now based at Sierra Vista, Ariz. – to Grand Forks, N.D., which opened last year (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 25, 2007). It’s all part of CBP Air and Marine’s plan to increase security along the Canadian border.
CONNECTING AFRICA: Satellite operators plan to help double the number of earth terminals operating in the African region so that underserved rural, suburban and urban users can benefit from the 20-odd telecom satellites to be brought into service in the region over the next five years. The announcement, in response to the International Telecommunications Union’s Connect Africa initiative, was made at the ITU Telecom Africa conference last week.
Editor’s Note: These are the next in an exclusive series of articles exploring how the U.S. Air Force came to initially choose Boeing’s HH-47 for its Combat Search and Rescue helicopter replacement (CSAR-X), and the ramifications of that choice for the service, the industry competitors and the warfighter (Aerospace DAILY, May 23).
RADAR APPROACH: The U.S. Navy’s Top Management Attention (TMA) team is investigating several responses to failures occurring to AN/SPS-48E long-range 3-D air search radar systems, including replacing short-lived components with new parts designed to better withstand maritime elements and implementing new training programs. The failures are caused by component corrosion and improper maintenance, according to Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) representatives.
C-17 PITCH: A modification of the C-17 could meet 80 percent of the U.S. Air Force/Army Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL) requirement for 10 percent of the price, Boeing’s defense chief Jim Albaugh has told investors. A C-17B variant with enhanced short take-off and landing performance is being eyed for JFTL, which is in the requirements definition phase following the January decision to merge competing Army and Air Force efforts to develop a heavy-lift intra-theater transport.
The U.S. Air Force is expecting Boeing, its C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) contractor, to install the final increment of hardware and software onto a test aircraft in August.
SECURED MEDS: Lockheed Martin will provide the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center in Charleston, S.C., with cybersecurity technical support services for the Joint Medical Information System. If all options are exercised over a five-year period the contract may be worth up to $189.8 million, the company says.
MISSILES DEFENDED: Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services (HASC) strategic forces subcommittee, has successfully carried her portion of the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill through that chamber despite significant challenges from both her left and right. Tauscher on the House floor May 22 fended off two amendment efforts to her subcommittee’s mark-up of authorized missile defense spending, which fell $719 million below the Bush administration’s request of $9.3 billion.
Further changes found their way into the U.S. Air Force’s $15 billion Combat, Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) replacement helicopter procurement that reduced some survivability requirements. “We are asking for capabilities in excess of a validated threat analysis and [to] force the [CSAR-X] designer to make trades in areas where we really need improved capability [range and lift capability],” one of the consultants wrote in a May 2005 email about the survivability requirements.
