The short take-off and landing F-35B Joint Strike Fighter has moved a step closer to first flight with the first engine runs at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant. Two runs on April 18 totalling almost an hour began the final series of ground tests leading up to a first flight, expected in late May or early June.
AMOS WAITS: Israeli satcom operator Spacecom says the scheduled April 24 launch of its Amos-3 satellite atop a modified Sea Launch Zenit booster from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, has been postponed indefinitely. The delay in the mission — the first for the new booster, known as Land Launch — was attributed to a faulty launch system supporting arm. The launch campaign will not resume until the problem has been resolved.
CYBERIA: The Pentagon has decided that using energy as a weapon is an assignment for Air Force Cyber-Command’s 450th electronic warfare wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. “We’re going to stop yielding the battlefield to people who can set off explosives with a cell phone or who can use radar, radio waves or other forms of energy to disrupt our mission or hurt our people,” says Lt. Col. Tim Sands, a cyber-command transition team chief.
South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Committee has approved the purchase of an additional 21 Boeing F-15Ks, but will switch engine suppliers. The 40 F-15Ks ordered in 2002 are powered by General Electric F110s; the additional aircraft will have Pratt & Whitney’s F100, which powers Korea’s Lockheed Martin KF-16s.
A successful French operation earlier this month to free hostages taken from the cruise ship Ponant and capture the Somali pirates who seized them has prompted Paris to call on the United Nations to create an international force to police the waters around the Horn of Africa, which has been the focus of some of the world’s most intense pirating activity. The French navy late last year helped set up a multinational flotilla, now under Danish leadership, to patrol the region.
TOULOUSE, France – The European Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a 2 billion euro ($3 billion) funding plan for the Galileo satellite navigation system that will allow construction and deployment of the 30-spacecraft network to be financed entirely with public money.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have introduced legislation to curb contracting fraud via Iraq and Afghanistan operations.
The Defense Department will invest billions of dollars over the next few years in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, and yet the department does not have a clearly defined vision of its future ISR enterprise, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
JEFX FCS: The U.S. Army’s participation in the Air Force’s Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) 2008 has come to a close. The Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) provided ground maneuver for the brigade-level and below network portion of the JEFX. Sensors and unmanned assets were positioned throughout the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) to demonstrate full joint connectivity and situational awareness. A “live-fly” operational scenario required target acquisition by FCS soldiers using Unattended Ground Sensors and both Class I and IV unmanned aerial vehicles.
South Korea wants “to upgrade its foreign military sales status with the United States and to have the same access to U.S. military technologies as NATO and other key allies,” according to President Bush. “I strongly support this request and have instructed Secretaries Rice and Gates to work with the Congress to get this done,” Bush further said, referring to his State and Defense department chiefs.
NEW DELHI – With the deadline for proposals in India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition drawing closer, EADS held a large conference here to tell industry it’s ready to submit its response April 28. Boeing submitted its 7,000-page proposal four days earlier, offering its advanced F/A-18E/F to the Indian air force. Other expected contenders include Lockheed Martin’s F-16, Dassault Aviation’s Rafale, the MiG-35 and the Swedish Gripen (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 28).
Lockheed Martin’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) prototype has undergone electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing to determine whether on-board electronic systems could be disrupted or detected by enemy forces.
INDUSTRIAL BASE: Members of the Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition (ACIBC) arrived in force on the Hill April 24 for a two-day blitz in support of their industry. More than 100 aircraft suppliers from 46 states will visit with members of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus to ask for support for the president’s fiscal 2009 budget shipbuilding requests, including $2.71 billion in procurement funds for the Gerald R. Ford and $1.24 billion for advanced procurement for CVN 79.
FOUNDER FIRED: Aircraft diesel engine maker Thielert has had to file for insolvency after the board of directors ousted management last week, including founder Frank Thielert. The board took the action over concerns of improper bookkeeping between 2003 and 2005. Industry officials believe the aircraft engine business still will be bought. Among the company’s clients is General Atomics, which uses a Thielert engine for its Sky Warrior unmanned aircraft. An Army aviation official reportedly said another engine can be found for Sky Warrior, if needed.
The Bush administration’s plan for a Europe-based missile defense system to detect and destroy an Iranian missile attack won’t work because the radar is too weak and the interceptors are too few, according to a pair of U.S. scientists.
Poor coordination among the departments of State, Commerce and other federal agencies involved in technology export controls has created “vulnerabilities” in the system charged with keeping sensitive U.S. technologies out of enemy hands, a congressional report says.
The threat of terrorists making common cause with pirates to raise money and menace new targets is “a very, very real issue,” a former top official of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says. Adm. James Loy (ret.), former Coast Guard commandant and Transportation Security Administration chief, says there’s no doubt that criminals in such pirate haunts as the seas off the Horn of Africa would cooperate with terrorists if given the chance.
TRAINED DELIVERY: Hawker Beechcraft Corp. said it was awarded two follow-on U.S. Air Force Materiel Command contracts for 137 more T-6A Texan II military trainer aircraft worth $550 million total. The awards fall under the Air Force and Navy’s Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) program, which calls for 768 aircraft and 105 aircrew training devices through early 2016. Logistic support plans stretch beyond 2050. The U.S.
With the U.S. Navy choosing a variant of Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk as its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) aircraft, program officials are planning to enhance the stalwart unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with three packages of futuristic communications and sensors.
ESPOUSING EXPORTS: Soaring exports of aerospace products in the fourth quarter of 2007 helped the aerospace industry’s trade balance into record territory last year, totaling $60.4 billion, according to the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). AIA chief Marion Blakey reiterated a common AIA argument that the industry’s trade surplus track record helps offset the otherwise “chronic” overall U.S. trade deficit. AIA said industry exports rose to almost $97 billion in 2007, a nearly 14 percent increase over the $85 billion worth of aerospace products exported in 2006.
ROYAL TRAINING: A new F-15E Mission Training Center (MTC) has opened at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the U.K. This is the third such center built by Boeing, and will provide F-15E aircrews with high-fidelity, simulator-based training without the material, personnel and environmental costs associated with training on operational aircraft. The training center provides two dual-cockpit F-15E simulators with a 360-degree visual system, a synthetic environment and instructor/operator and brief/debrief stations.
U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, will be nominated to lead U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced April 23. If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus would replace Adm. William Fallon, who resigned as CENTCOM chief in March following press coverage that portrayed a schism between him and the White House (Aerospace DAILY, March 13).
SUB BOOM: The to-be USS New Mexico, the sixth Virginia-class submarine, is on track to be delivered in August 2009, eight months earlier than its contract delivery date, according to U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Recent keel laying for the sub, built by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat, is the first of four ship-oriented milestones being promoted this year by the Navy. The fourth in class, North Carolina, will be commissioned May 3.
