A Boeing/Ball Aerospace Team has completed testing of the payload electronics and high-speed gimbal for the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) Block 10 satellite’s sensor. With the completion of the gimbal tests, about 85 percent of the system’s flight hardware is complete. The two-axis gimbal will be used to slew the sensor quickly from target to target in space, allowing operators to track targets as they are launched and boosted into orbit.
Senate defense appropriators from both political parties offered a favorable reception to the fiscal 2009 missile defense requests from the Defense Department at a Capitol Hill hearing April 23, with panel leaders lining up a future closed-door session to help educate other lawmakers on subsequent efforts like the so-called Third Site in Europe.
LAIRCM OPTICS: Rockwell Collins announced April 23 it has been selected by Northrop Grumman to provide optical assemblies for the Miniature Pointer Tracker (MPT) used on Northrop’s Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system. The MPT will be used to defend aircraft from infrared missile attack by automatically detecting a missile launch, determining if it is a threat and activating a high-intensity system of pulsed lasers to track and defeat the threat by confusing the guidance head. The contract is valued at up to $66 million and goes through 2010.
Delays in 787 production and its disputed loss of the U.S. Air Force KC-45 tanker competition have not dimmed the outlook for Boeing in 2008 or hurt its first quarter performance, the company said April 23.
SEVILLE, Spain – EADS is still holding out for an early summer first flight for its A400M military transport aircraft, but officials admit it will be tough going. The first prototype is fully assembled, except for the four TP400 turboprops, and is undergoing systems tests at the final assembly plant here. CEO Carlos Suarez said in briefings April 22 that the aircraft is to roll out on June 26 and make its first flight in “early summer.”
TURKISH DEFENSE: Boeing and a leading Turkish software and systems company, Havelsan, have announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to continue pursuing regional and global ballistic missile defense systems. The MOU extends an agreement signed in 2003 under which the two companies jointly evaluate and develop opportunities in missile defense. Boeing and Havelsan previously worked together to study integrating missile defense assets into NATO systems that could be used to defend Turkey, the U.S. and other NATO countries.
UNDUE LOBBYING: The Pentagon chief has said top U.S. military officers should not unduly lobby friendly civilian authorities over major acquisitions. “Senior officers have from time to time been tempted to use these ties to do end runs around the civilian leadership, particularly during disputes over purchase of large major weapons systems,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged late April 21. “This temptation should and must be resisted,” the presidential cabinet member added. Gates’ speech to future Army officers at the U.S.
MINNEAPOLIS – The U.S. Army is counting on its Manned Ground Vehicles (MGVs) to generate their own power via lightweight, fuel-efficient, hybrid electric drive engines.
SENSITIVE GBOSS: In-house technical experts for the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy are looking into adding a new suite of unmanned aerial vehicle sensors, an unmanned ground vehicle and a large touch-screen display to the Marines’ Ground-Based Operational Surveillance System (GBOSS). A developmental test is planned for late April at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, Calif., Naval Sea Systems Command said April 17.
The U.S. military’s need for ground equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan and strong global demand for business aircraft have helped General Dynamics achieve better-than-expected first quarter earnings. The company reported April 23 that its Combat Systems unit had sales of $2 billion in the quarter ended March 31, a 27 percent increase from the same period of 2007. The unit’s operating profit was up 49 percent to $259 million.
The U.S. Navy has selected Northrop Grumman to design and build its new surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The $1.16 billion development contract for two Navy owned test aircraft was announced late April 22 at the Pentagon. Another development-phase aircraft will be provided to the program, but Northrop Grumman will retain ownership.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Developers are touting the breech-loading system on the Non-Line-of-Sight Mortar (NLOS-M) for U.S. Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) manned ground vehicles (MGVs) as one of the few major innovations in mortar launcher technology in the past 200 years. An NLOS-M mounted on a common MGV chassis fired its first round April 21 at Camp Ripley, Minn., and will go on to fire another 950 over the next several weeks in preparation for its deployment to the Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., this summer.
WORLD VIEW: Boeing’s commercial launch business has been awarded a contract to launch DigitalGlobe’s second WorldView Earth-imaging satellite on a Delta II launch vehicle. The first WorldView was launched by Boeing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2007. A Delta II expendable launch vehicle will carry the WorldView-2 spacecraft into orbit from Vandenberg in mid-2009. The vehicle is being purchased, along with related support services, from United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture.
Lockheed Martin expects to double its production of C-130 transport aircraft by 2010, the company’s chief financial officer told analysts April 22. Bruce Tanner, Lockheed executive vice president and CFO, said in a teleconference with analysts that growing U.S. and international demand was expected to lead to greater build-rates on the C-130 within a couple of years. The company manufactures 12 per year now, according to Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analysts.
The U.S. Air Force believes it has surpassed 1 million missions flown by Air Force aircraft in global operations since Sept. 11, 2001. The announcement came late last week as service officials continue to highlight their armed service in light of increasing budget battles within Washington.
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems will build a gapfiller satellite for NASA to maintain as much continuity in the 36-year-old Landsat data set as possible.
The Russian State Commission has found that a rupture in the duct linking the gas generator and the turbomachinery in the Proton rocket main engine caused the Breeze M upper stage to shut down two minutes early, stranding the AMC-14 satellite in a useless orbit following its March 15 launch. A Russian State Commission ordered Khrunichev, manufacturer of both the Proton and the Breeze M upper stage, to make improvements in the stage’s RD-2000 engine before it returns to flight.
NASA cautioned against speculation ahead of the facts after a Russian news agency reported the three crew members aboard Soyuz TMA-11 were in grave danger when it re-entered the atmosphere April 19 following six months docked to the International Space Station (ISS).
The U.S. and South Korean militaries might pursue licenses to use a Eurenco-patented technique for filling artillery, tank and mortar shells with cast PBX (plastic bonded explosives) compositions used for insensitive munitions. The European energetic materials company is using the process in a new, €6.8 million ($10.5 million) workshop started in 2006 in Sorgue, France.
A potential wave of funding for U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities may already have started, despite an otherwise tightening defense budget environment. Some of the defense programs expected to profit are the newest Global Hawk Block 40 RQ-4 long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), its small version of the MP-RTIP active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and upgrades to the venerable E-8 Joint-Stars, including a 20.8-by-2.5 foot version of the new radar.
NASA has awarded launch services startup SpaceX an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract potentially worth as much as $1 billion for launches on its planned Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 vehicles. The contract period runs through June 30, 2010, for launches through December 2012.
GOING GREEN: Northrop Grumman made an Earth Day announcement April 22, trumpeting the fact that its East Coast Manufacturing and Flight Test Center has been accepted into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) National Environmental Performance Track program. It is one of 16 facilities in the Southeast U.S. to be named to the program.
