ARMED OSPREY: U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is ground-testing BAE System’s belly-mounted gun system for CV-22s, with flight-testing scheduled next, the company says. SOCOM oversaw the successful installation of the system hardware aboard the aircraft in January at Hurlburt Field, Fla. The GAU-2B minigun weapon is based on BAE’s Remote Guardian System, a two-year company-funded effort to develop a common airborne defensive capability for the Osprey and other special-mission rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft (DAILY, Oct. 1, 2007).
R&D: The slowing economy is dampening research and development spending, according to Battelle R&D Magazine, with defense R&D expected to dip this year by 0.5 percent, or $414 million. Nevertheless, under off-budget supplemental requests before Congress, an additional $3.9 billion for “development R&D” could ultimately provide a 3.2 percent increase over fiscal 2007. The Air Force and Army will see increases while the Navy and Marine Corps will decline. Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Department will see a 9 percent increase in FY ’08.
With next week’s impending announcement of its critical design review (CDR) phase, the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) is taking another step toward full on-the-move communications capability for soldiers in the field.
AIRBORNE NETWORKING: Northrop Grumman and Harris Corp. announced Feb. 21 that they demonstrated airborne networking capabilities on Dec. 5, 2007, linking fixed and mobile ground units on an ad-hoc information network. The Highband Networking Radio (HNR), a collaborative radio system developed by Harris and BAE Systems, was used to implement the self-forming, self-healing, mesh network using the Highband Networking Waveform (HNW).
The total cost of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission could reach $2 billion as the program races to surmount its developmental problems and make its scheduled 2009 launch, according to Associate Administrator for Science Alan Stern. A surface rover the size of a small car, the flagship-level MSL mission originally was approved at a cost of $1.5 billion, Stern told a Feb. 20 meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) in Monrovia, Calif. The latest estimate for the program is $1.8 billion, but it continues to rise, Stern said.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – The flawless landing of the space shuttle Atlantis here Feb. 20 ended the STS-122/1E Columbus delivery flight, clearing the way for the launch in less than three weeks of the shuttle Endeavour on STS-123 with a load of Japanese and Canadian hardware for the station.
AgustaWestland has been carrying out air-to-air refueling trials of the AW101 Merlin using a Lockheed Martin C-130J in support of its campaign for the U.S. Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) helicopter program. The trials began in February using an Italian air force C-130J fitted with wing-pod hose-and-drogue units. AgustaWestland used an AW101 trials helicopter modified with the BERP IV blades. These are fitted to the British Royal Air Force’s Merlin Mk3A helicopters, and offer improved performance over the standard rotor blades.
NEW DELHI – The first flight of India’s limited series Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) with the F404-GE-IN20 engine will take place in April. Government-owned defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) ordered an additional 24 F404-GE-IN20 afterburning engines to power the first operational squadron of LCAs for the Indian air force last year. Deliveries are to start in 2008, slowly closing the gap of the LCA’s much delayed development.
FRENCH MILSATCOM: EADS Astrium Services has received a four-year contract to supply end-to-end voice, e-mail and Internet communications services to 10,000 French troops deployed overseas, primarily in the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East. The contract, under the French defense ministry’s Passerel welfare communications program, follows an earlier award in 2006 for its Astel-S nonsecure coms project, and is part of a growing effort to shift French defense logistics support services to the private sector.
The U.S. Army is working with the Air Force to address transportability issues raised by a 2007 report from the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) regarding the Future Combat Systems’ (FCS) Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C). An assessment in the DOT&E report says the cannon’s performance “may be compromised in order to meet C-17 aircraft weight and size restrictions for the standard deployment of three howitzers on one aircraft.”
LASER AWARD: Boeing said it has won a $49 million U.S. Air Force award under the Laser Application Support and In-house Research and Development (LASIR) contract for research, design, development and testing at Air Force Research Laboratory sites at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M. The Feb. 1 award will in part go to support the Laser Center of Excellence, whose efforts include gas, hybrid electric-gas and chemical laser systems.
The Sultanate of Brunei is modernizing its armed forces combat net radio inventory by acquiring $25 million worth of tactical communications equipment from Harris RF Communications of Rochester, N.Y., the company said Feb. 19. Ed Lockwood, vice president of international sales for Harris, says the newly-ordered radio sets “will be used to provide a secure and integrated communications network linking Brunei’s new Ministry of Defense Joint Operations Center to regional base stations and other parts of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces.”
CARLSON COMMENT: The U.S. Air Force stressed to Aerospace Daily Feb. 20 that Gen. Bruce Carlson, chief of Air Force Materiel Command, told a group of reporters Feb. 13 that the Air Force would figure out a way to buy 380 F-22 Raptors “if DOD and Congress will allow us to do it. We’ll figure it out.”
AUSTRALIA REVIEW: Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon on Feb. 18 unveiled a two-step examination of the “adequacy of current planning for Australia’s Air Combat Capability (ACC) to 2045,” including the status of plans to acquire Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets and Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs). The first stage will assess ACC requirements from 2010 to 2015, the feasibility of keeping F-111s in service beyond 2010, and a comparative analysis of aircraft available to fill any gap caused by withdrawing F-111s, as well as F-18 acquisition plans.
GREEN FORCE: The U.S. Air Force is third on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Top 25 List of green power purchasers. The service purchases more than 899 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough to meet about 9 percent of the Air Force’s purchased electricity use.
Following the same trend set in 2006, Pentagon contracts and modifications for fixed-wing expenditures surged at the end of 2007 to become the leading Defense Department expense one again, a position those costs have maintained throughout the decade, according to an Aerospace Daily analysis.
The U.S. military’s unprecedented missile shootdown of a prematurely dying intelligence satellite could take place as early as late Feb. 20 as it passes over a Pacific Ocean missile testing range off Hawaii, although poor sea conditions may affect the Navy’s ability to shoot the Standard Missile-3 interceptor from an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense cruiser.
Competitors Boeing and Lockheed Martin are anxiously awaiting DOD’s final proposal revision for the Airborne/Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF) Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), the last milestone before the award is announced by the end of the first quarter of 2008.
PARIS – Europe’s helicopter industry is headed for a significant structural shift as manufacturers move abroad to reap a higher return on their euro investments.
