NEW DELHI – India and the U.S signed a government-to-government deal here under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program on Jan. 28 for six Hercules C-130J military transport aircraft with multimission capability from Lockheed Martin, with options for six more.
Exploring common hull forms and maintaining strict discipline over requirements will be key if the U.S. Navy is to achieve its goal of a 313-ship fleet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said at the Pentagon Feb. 12. Since he took over as chief last year, Roughead has visited all the major U.S. shipyards to get a sense of their capabilities and the challenges they face, he said.
SINCERE DISAPPOINTMENT: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) has written U.S. Army Secretary Pete Geren to express his “sincere disappointment” at the service’s refusal to release a Rand Corp. study that reportedly faults the U.S. government’s planning for post-war Iraq. The study purportedly cites a variety of planning failures, some by military personnel, some by civilians, and some systemic, such as a lack of coordination between agencies.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER - The combined crews of the International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle Atlantis ventured into the newly installed Columbus laboratory module Feb. 12, getting so far ahead on their activation schedule that ground controllers had to rush to keep up. Aside from some issues with the interaction of the cooling systems in the new lab and the ISS that were “easily overcome,” and a synchronization problem with one of the Columbus computers, the activation went smoothly.
European missile consortium MBDA appears to have won a second customer for its Vertical Launch MICA ship-based local area air defense missile system, now that Morocco has signed a contract with a Dutch shipyard for three Sigma-class multimission frigates that will be equipped with the system. Last year, Oman became the launch customer for the system when it ordered three VL MICA-equipped ocean-capable patrol vessels from VT Shipbuilding of the U.K.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008 Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium Washington, DC AVIATION WEEK’S Laureate Awards were conceived 51 years ago to recognize the extraordinary achievements of individuals and teams in aerospace, aviation and defense. Today, this formal dinner and Awards ceremony is the industry’s premier event — attracting scores of industry pioneers and thought leaders from around the world.
Once again, the U.S. Air Force has put additional C-17s atop its list of things it wants but can’t afford, placing 15 aircraft worth about $3.9 billion on its fiscal 2009 Unfunded Requirements List. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said he will advise fellow committee lawmakers to include money for 14 C-17s in the fiscal 2008 DOD supplemental budget request (See story p. 3).
PARIS – The European Defense Area has identified the next set of topics it wants to address as part of its Force Protection Joint Investment Program, with exact funding details to be disclosed in mid-May.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy says France will support deployment of a space situational awareness system and a second generation optical/radar reconnaissance satellite system when it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) in July.
It may be up to Congress to take a hand in shepherding nanotechnology development, including DOD’s extensive efforts in the field, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report said. “The U.S. government has invested billions of dollars to ensure that American industry remains a global leader in the field, because the products of nanotechnology are seen to have great economic potential and offer possible solutions to national problems ranging from energy efficiency to detection of agents of biological warfare,” the late January report says.
CREWS ASSIGNED: NASA has assigned crews for the STS-127 space shuttle mission and the Expedition 19 International Space Station (ISS) mission. Targeted for 2009, STS-127 will deliver the final components of Japan’s Kibo laboratory to the station. Mark Polansky will command Endeavour, with Marine Corps Lt. Col. Douglas Hurley piloting, along with mission specialists Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn, David Wolf and the Canadian Space Agency’s Julie Payette. Expedition 19 will double the size of the ISS crew, expanding it to six people.
AUSTRALIAN SCANEAGLE: Boeing and Insitu’s ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) reached the 10,000 flight hour milestone with the Australian army in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company announced Feb. 11. The four-foot long UAV with a 10-foot wingspan provides about 15 consecutive hours of on-station coverage. It is launched autonomously via Insitu’s pneumatic catapult launcher and flies preprogrammed or operator-initiated missions guided by the Global Positioning System. It is retrieved using a system in which the UAV catches a rope hanging from a 50-foot pole.
DOD spends $10 billion annually on multiyear procurement (MYP) contracts for weapons systems, the management of which has been called into question by a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). DOD’s procedure for justifying the MYPs is what raised flags with GAO, which questions the Pentagon’s approval process as well as “the cost effectiveness of investments made for the risks assumed.”
STIMULATING CREDIT: New Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) chief executive Marion Blakey is taking up the charge to push a beloved but frustrating research and development tax credit. Blakey wrote Senate leaders late last month to try to get the credit’s renewal passed as part of the economic stimulus package coming out of Washington. The provision was not included in the relatively austere, must-pass bill. “The tax credit is a huge factor in fostering the technological advances that are the cornerstone of America’s success,” Blakey says.
The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) completed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in December, a few months past its original goal of late October, program officials announced Feb. 11. The PDR took place Dec. 19. The delay was due to the “complexity of this program,” Jim Cravens, president of prime contractor MEADS International, told a group of reporters Feb. 11. “The same sort of thing will occur as we transition into the Critical Design Review [CDR], where we’ll have significant discrete reviews.”
April 15-17, 2008 Broward County Convention Center Fort Lauderdale, FL Military and industry leaders assemble in a unique Working Group Seminar designed to develop a realistic plan of action to improve readiness, availability, cost, and cycle time for U.S. fighters, airlift/tanker, rotor wing and complex electronic aircraft.
Federal prosecutors announced spying charges and arrests Feb. 11 in two separate cases – one against a former Boeing engineer, and the other against a weapons systems policy analyst at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) and two Chinese natives who lived in the United States.
The $50.5 billion Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget request for fiscal 2009 includes $1.3 billion for department-wide efforts to counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Among the DHS units’ requests for that money, if approved by Congress, are $1.1 billion for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) explosive detection technology at airports, $30 million for training of TSA security officers, $50 million for Science and Technology development, and $9 million for the department’s Office of Bombing Prevention.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut (and French Air Force Gen.) Leopold Eyharts will be the first to enter Europe’s Columbus laboratory module Feb. 12, following its installation on the International Space Station (ISS) by the crew of space shuttle Atlantis Feb. 11. Following leak checks and power connections to the long-awaited module, Eyharts will don goggles and a mask as protection against tiny bits of debris that may have worked loose inside the module and float inside to begin activating the lab’s systems.
COMMUNICATIONS UPGRADE: Raytheon has won a $75 million U.S. Air Force contract to upgrade a satellite communications system that provides protected communications to soldiers in the field. The contract covers development and production of the Minuteman Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network program upgrade (MMPU).
