National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) chief Conrad Lautenbacher told Senate lawmakers May 6 that if NOAA is funded under a continuing resolution for fiscal 2009 it could delay the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) system by a year. NOAA already has let contracts for the instruments to be carried on the GOES-R weather satellites, but the agency has yet to choose prime contractors to build the spacecraft or the ground segment.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – India may be looking at further purchases of the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, which is mounted on the carrier USS Trenton that was sold to the Indian navy. Since renamed INS Jalashva, the Trenton arrived in India with two Phalanx weapons systems onboard. Raytheon Missile Systems is talking to India about purchasing more Phalanx systems for other ships in the Indian navy.
BAMS STOPS: The U.S. Navy has suspended work on its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program in accordance with acquisition regulations as a result of Lockheed Martin’s May 5 protest. A Lockheed Martin/General Atomics team proposing a Predator variant lost the $1.6 billion contract to Northrop Grumman, which pitched a version of the Global Hawk. Boeing, which submitted a proposal based on an optionally manned Gulfstream 550, does not plan to protest.
Researchers have pulled together real-time data on solar activity delivered by Earth-orbiting satellites and are using the Google Earth interface to produce an intuitive global electron-density map that can provide air traffic and spacecraft controllers with forecasts of ionospheric conditions that could affect radio-frequency communications.
MICROGRAVITY METALS: A microgravity experiment to be launched May 9 from Europe’s Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden will carry into space for the first time an X-ray diagnostic system designed to monitor how advanced metallurgical processes behave in real time. The system, one of four metallurgical and fluid physics experiments to be flown in the Maser 11 mission, will observe the kinetics and stability of aluminum-based metallic foam for six minutes of zero gravity, a condition that cannot be replicated on Earth for more than a few seconds at a time.
Video of astronauts conducting underwater training for China’s first extravehicular activity (EVA) – planned for the Shenzhou VII mission this fall – shows spacesuits that appear identical to Russian Orlan EVA suits. However, top Shenzhou managers say emphatically that the Chinese EVA suits have been designed and manufactured in China, not Russia.
Space shuttle astronauts assigned to the STS-124/1J International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., on May 6 to practice for the upcoming launch of the shuttle Discovery with Japan’s big Kibo pressurized laboratory module in its payload bay.
U.S. military officials are eyeing depot support for the Joint Strike Fighter’s (JSF) F135 main engine at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., by 2012, and at the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., around 2014.
ELECTRONIC ATTACK: The U.S. Navy, via a $101.9 million contract, will acquire a third lot of Northrop Grumman Improved Capability (ICAP) III airborne electronic attack systems for its EA-6B Prowler fleet. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2010 and will include seven complete systems plus associated piece parts and spares. The first two lots of modified aircraft have deployed several times to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Navy expects to award the Block III contract for the next eight Virginia-class attack submarines in December, according to a May 2 statement. But the Navy still is preparing to negotiate the terms of the Block III deal with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat, which split the program (Aerospace DAILY, March 25).
The fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill cleared last week by the Senate Armed Services Committee includes $160 million for U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft depot maintenance. The bill, approved unanimously by the committee, authorizes $96.9 million for Air Force B-52 flying hours and depot maintenance. The committee noted that the Defense Department failed to include adequate funding in its $612.5 billion FY ’09 budget request to meet the requirements set in the FY ’08 authorization act.
RADAR LOVE: Boeing has selected General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products to supply the new wideband radomes for the U.S. Air Force F-15 Radar Modernization Program. The award covers design, development and production. The program will upgrade F-15Es with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system. The anticipated program start date is no later than the end of the third quarter of this year (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 13, 2006).
SBX TESTING: Boeing asserts that by the end of this year, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) should get to test full involvement of the Sea-based X-Band (SBX) radar in the ground-based midcourse missile defense system. Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, says in the next test – slated for summer – the radar “will be playing off-line in a more complex way.” Then, “MDA will then make a final decision and in the last test it will be more involved,” he says.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has rejected an Alabama Aircraft Industries (AAI) protest that the competition for the U.S. Air Force’s $1.1 billion KC-135 programmed depot maintenance (PDM) contract should be reopened because the Air Force has made significant, material changes to its original PDM requirements. In a decision issued May 2, GAO dismissed AAI’s claims concerning changed requirements, but said it still is considering AAI’s overall protest of the service’s Feb. 29 decision to award the PDM contract to Boeing.
An “independent, unbiased” analysis of alternatives (AOA) will determine whether one aircraft can meet both U.S. Army and Air Force requirements for a heavy-lift tactical transport, a senior U.S. Army officer says. Planned to begin later this year and to be completed by the end of fiscal 2009, the AOA will examine options for meeting the newly merged Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL) requirement.
EXPLOSIVE DETECTION: The U.S. military’s Robotics System Joint Program Office has awarded a $4.8 million contract to ICx Technologies of Arlington, Va. to deliver Fido XT handheld explosives detection systems for use in Iraq and Afghanistan and train service personnel. Fido is an ultra-sensitive explosives sensor that is also being used by the Transportation Security Administration to screen air passengers’ carry-on baggage for liquid explosives.
Russian defense spending is expected to increase, but Moscow’s “strategic bandwidth” may be constrained by several defense-related economic factors, consultancy Forecast International said May 5. “Three major trends will define Russian defense spending between 2008 and 2012,” according to Matt Ritchie, an Eurasian defense economics analyst. They are “increased procurement, increased funding for strategic arms, and a relative decline in research and development.”
Lockheed Martin is protesting the U.S. Navy decision to award a $1.16 billion contract to Northrop Grumman to design and build its new Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicles. The company filed its protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) May 5. GAO has 100 days to rule on the protest.
HELO DEFENSE: ITT Corp. said May 5 it received an expected $57 million award for 25 AN/ALQ-211(v)6 sensor-and-self-protection systems for U.S. Army special operations MH-47 and MH-60 helicopters. The fixed-price contract, which also extends authority for full-rate production, is the first part of a $312 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity award made recently to ITT by the U.S. Special Operations Technology Applications Program Office.
HOT AWARD: Raytheon said April 30 it received a $3.3 million contract to tackle thermal challenges in semiconductors designed for new high-power radars and other electronic systems for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The award is for the first phase of DARPA’s three-phase Radio Frequency Thermal Ground Plane program, which could be worth $8 million if all options are fully exercised. The full program could run 45 months, ending in the fourth quarter of 2011.
