SKY WARRIOR: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. is promoting a successful flight of the first Sky Warrior Block 1 aircraft for the U.S. Army’s Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) program. The test flight, which occurred March 31 but was not announced until April 15, took off from the company’s El Mirage Flight Operations Facility in Adelanto, Calif. The program, including follow-on production, should be worth more than $2 billion and calls for 17 Sky Warrior aircraft and seven so-called One System Ground Control Stations.
JSF COSTS: Lockheed Martin F-35 program officials are pulling their hair out over the press’s dismissive response to the Pentagon’s judgment in the 2007 Selected Acquisition Reports that the Joint Strike Fighter program is actually going down in cost. In the report, $11 billion in actual cost growth was offset by $12 billion in estimated future savings. The big question mark was $9 billion transferred from recurring cost (which get added to the price of each aircraft) to a nonrecurring cost category.
ICO LAUNCHES: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V with two solid rocket boosters placed the highly advanced ICO G1 mobile communications satellite into its geosynchronous transfer orbit after liftoff from Cape Canaveral at 4:12 p.m. EDT April 14. The 7-ton Space Systems/Loral satellite, with solar arrays spanning more than 100 feet, is one of the largest communications spacecraft ever launched. It carries a 40-foot Harris mesh antenna to initiate a new wave of hybrid high-speed mobile services.
IDEAS WANTED: The National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) C4ISR Division is calling for papers for its disruptive technologies conference Sept. 4-5 in Washington. The conference will explore technologies with disruptive operational capabilities affecting air, cyber, ground, ISR, sea, and space-based operations. NDIA is accepting abstracts on brain-computer interfaces; detection and signal processing; genomics; nano and quantum computing; robotics; and temporal, spatial and spectral data fusion.
Growing concerns with the U.S. having enough Army and Marine Corps land forces to react to potential unforeseen crises overseas are drawing attention on Capitol Hill. The concerns come as lawmakers craft fiscal 2009 defense bills and eye post-Bush administration budgetmaking, keeping in mind the looming potential for a significant number of troops operating in Iraq for years to come and the strain that deployments so far have placed on the volunteer U.S. military.
ARMY Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems Limited Partnership, Sealy, Texas, was awarded on April 3, 2008, a $6,096,214 firm-fixed price contract for 38 medium tactical vehicle 5-ton cargo trucks. The work will be performed in Sealy, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 15, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Two bids were solicited on Aug. 15, 2002, and two bids were received. U.S. Army TACOM-Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-03-C-S023). NAVY
While the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program’s recent Selected Acquisition Report points to some cost stability within the program, the program still faces some serious challenges ahead, a recent Teal Group report says. Industrial “greed” abroad and program commitment at home continue to put the F-35 in the crosshairs, according to the report.
Tests at the Mount Hopkins Observatory in Arizona this summer could validate a new technique for finding extra-solar planets on the same scale as Earth. Developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics with input from experts at MIT, the device uses extremely short pulses of laser light, in combination with an atomic clock, to make measurements accurate to one part in a trillion of the light coming from distant stars.
AIR FORCE Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of Herndon, Va., is being awarded a modified contract for $27,970,673. The action will provide survivability and vulnerability technical research and development analysis for U.S. Coast Guard ship, aviation, and Command and Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. At this time $7,714,009 has been obligated. Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (SP0700-03-D-1380, Delivery Order: 0250).
EURO TECH: Northrop Grumman has been awarded a U.S. Army contract to consolidate and centrally manage information technology (IT) resources for the service’s 5th Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany. Northrop Grumman hopes its effort, managed through the European Theater Network Operations Security Center (E-TNOSC), will streamline the Army’s European IT infrastructure to improve network integrity and security while reducing overall costs.
BMDS DACS: American Pacific Corp.’s in-space propulsion subsidiary ISP said April 14 it will deliver a “qualification unit” and two flight-test units for a liquid divert and attitude control system (DACS) for the U.S. ballistic missile defense system in September 2010. The schedule stems from a $15 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop a low-cost, low-risk propulsion system for interceptor kill vehicles. ISP is teamed with Moog Inc.’s Space and Defense Group, which will provide subsystem design and component support.
SPECIAL OPS: France will have nearly 3,300 troops in the Afghan theater following a commitment by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the NATO summit in Bucharest. Sarkozy promised 700 additional troops, to be deployed in support of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan. He declined to take action on a proposal to send 200-300 special operations troops to replace those removed in December 2006.
PARIS – The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted for a second Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system spacecraft and is poised to award a third as it gears up for a GMES expansion plan to be submitted for approval in November. Thales Alenia Space was awarded a 305 million euro ($475 million) contract April 14 for Sentinel 3, the second of five dedicated Sentinel satellites that will form the backbone of the space segment of GMES, which is being developed under ESA’s responsibility.
AIR FORCE Boeing Co. of Anaheim, Calif., is being awarded a modified contract for $24,960,000. This undefinitized contract action will incorporate Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 0035, Strategic Networks, into the Family of Advanced Beyond-Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) Increment 1 program. At this time $9,250,000 has been obligated. Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-02-C-0048/P00141). ARMY
Aurora Flight Sciences announced April 14 that it has won a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to begin working on a concept for an aircraft that could stay airborne up to five years.
TURRET WEAPONS: A new Frost & Sullivan analysis over the European turret-mounted weapons market projects the value of the market to be up to $15.3 billion through 2016. Based on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, customer demand has shifted to lightweight and more effective turret-mounted weapons systems with enhanced crew protection and mobility to operate in unknown territories, the consultancy says.
CAT & MOUSE: The U.S. Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office are undertaking an analytical review of space protection needs for national security military satellite constellations. Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for space Gary Payton says the satellite cadre in the government needs to “take a lesson” from the Navy’s submarine community, which is constantly updating its operational concepts and countermeasures.
SPACE SUPPORT: As the space-industrial complex spins up its pitch for more funding from the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, oddsmakers at the 24th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs see New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as the strongest space supporter in the three-way presidential race as it stands today. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s support for civil space is considered weakest, given his early call for diversion of NASA funding into education and subsequent lack of specifics on his position. The presumptive Republican nominee, Sen.
RAPTOR WRINKLE: F-22 Raptors will require more frequent inspections because of a potential for catastrophic failure in flight due to a manufacturing defect in crucial titanium supports, according to recent media reports. The titanium parts provide structural support in a section of the aft fuselage that connects to the wings, and the defects could lead to failures resulting in the loss of the aircraft, according to reports on a lawsuit filed by Boeing against Alcoa, which forged the titanium parts.
PROTESTERS BEWARE: U.S. Air Force officials are postured to handle a protest from the losing contractor of the Global Positioning System III downselect expected April 18. Lockheed Martin and Boeing are competing for the satellite segment. The Air Force is in the midst of protests of the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) replacement contract and its $35 billion KC-45 award to a Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team, and service officials fear this trend will bleed over into the space acquisition arena.
Lawmakers are eager to find ways to close projected shortfalls in U.S. Navy and Marine Corps tactical aircraft and ship forces without leaning on traditional bill payers, and are eyeing major programs like Maritime Prepositioning Force-Future (MPF-F) and DDG-1000 ships instead. To be sure, the Navy still supports its budget requests for the MPF-F and destroyers, according to recent congressional testimony, and the high-profile DDG-1000 continues to enjoy significant backing, such as from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
CUBESAT: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) intends to launch one or two CubeSat-type nano-satellites by the end of 2008. Depending upon final mission plans, the spacecraft will be carried on a Russian Dnepr rocket piggybacked with a larger non-Israeli payload. So far about 32 nano-satellites have been launched worldwide with a success rate of at least 50 percent. IAI has purchased some Boeing support hardware for the flight. “Israel has entered the nano-satellite area relatively late,” says David Zusiman of the Israel Nano-Satellite Association.
