OBSERVING ARIANE: Yannick d’Escatha, director of the French space agency CNES, says NASA has agreed to benchmark launch operations at Europe’s Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport and the Kennedy Space Center to compare operational and technical experience. Michel Eymard, the French launcher director, says NASA wants to benefit from certain technical similarities between its new Ares launch vehicles and Europe’s Ariane 5 heavy lifter.
BAE C4I: BAE will provide the U.S. Navy with an entire package of command, control, computer, communication and intelligence (C4I) capabilities aboard new construction ships, with work expected to be complete by February 2013 with options that could take the work through February 2016. The contract, worth $242 million, includes three one-year options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $344 million.
U.K. CUTS: For those interested in the British defense arena, Feb. 20 is shaping up to be a key date - the U.K.’s Defense Management Board is due to meet that day to deliberate on London’s defense spending priorities. It also will cast a collective eye over the second iteration of the country’s Defense Industrial Strategy. Given the difficult choices faced - the question is not whether but what to cut - the meeting could prove challenging.
SMALLER FLEET: The U.S. Navy now projects to build just 47 new ships between fiscal 2009 and 2013, a drop of 13 from 60 outlined for the same period just a year ago. The cutback stems from changes in projections for the troubled Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, as well as lower-profile efforts like Maritime Prepositioned Forces-Future and T-AKE dry ammunition cargo ships (DAILY, Feb. 5).
PARIS – French armaments agency DGA has concluded a contract for basic helicopter training that will be France’s first major private financing initiative (PFI) in the defense arena.
Though Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he wants to keep the F-22 production line open at least until the next administration, there still will be a small gap in production for the Marietta, Ga., plant without at least some additional funding beyond the fiscal 2009 request and anticipated wartime supplemental funding.
A major new Canadian robotics system is being readied at Kennedy Space Center for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on the STS-123 mission on Endeavour in March. The flight will follow the STS-122 Atlantis mission now aloft to install the European Columbus module (DAILY, Feb. 8). Endeavour, set for liftoff as early as March 11, will carry the “Dextre” Dexterous Manipulator system that should reduce extravehicular activity (EVA) crew time for maintenance tasks on the exterior of the ISS.
FLARE UP: Alliant Techsystems could see temporary “limitations” on getting new U.S. Air Force contracts after its Launch Systems Group was placed on the service’s excluded parties list, the company says. The action is related to a previously disclosed, ongoing lawsuit regarding LUU-19 illumination flare performance testing in the late 1990’s by the then-Thiokol Corp., ATK says. “The company believes this action is unjustified and will have no material affect to its near- or long-term financial performance,” ATK adds.
EPX STUDY: The U.S. Navy is moving forward with development of concepts, cost and schedule estimates for its EPX aircraft program with the Feb. 6 award of separate $1.25 million contracts to two teams: Boeing/Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman/L-3 Communications. The EPX is the planned replacement for the EP-3 Aries aircraft, and will operate in concert with other maritime patrol and reconnaissance platforms such as Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) system and the P-8A Poseidon.
House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee chairman Rep. Neil Abercrombie thinks the experts at the Defense Department – not Congress – should be deciding what kind and how many air refueling tankers, stealth fighter jets and cargo airlifters it needs.
BOMBER MONEY: The U.S. Air Force’s fiscal 2009 budget request does not include funding for a new bomber, which the service wants in the field by 2018. Maj. Gen. Larry Spencer, USAF deputy assistant for budget, says the first funding for the next-generation bomber will come in the fiscal 2010 budget request. Instead, USAF is requesting $1.05 billion to continue operating and upgrading its B-1, B-2 and B-52 fleets.
ATACMS AWARD: Lockheed Martin will produce new Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) through the second quarter of 2010 under a $194 million deal the company announced Feb. 7. The contract includes ATACMS Quick Reaction Unitary and Block 1A missiles. Already, 456 ATACMS have been fired in the current Iraq war, according to Lockheed. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas produces ATACMS for the U.S. Army and allied armies.
SOUNDING ROCKET: The second Texus sounding rocket in two weeks has been launched from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden. Texus 45, containing fluid physics and biology experiments funded by German aerospace center DLR, lifted off on Feb. 7, a week after Texus 44, which was equipped with a metal alloy and biology payload from the European Space Agency. The microgravity missions, the first to use a new parachute recovery system, highlighted the importance of Europe’s Columbus orbital lab, which lifted off aboard space shuttle Atlantis Feb. 7.
IRANIAN SAMs: Imagery and electronic intelligence analysts were put on notice last week by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) boss to keep sharp eyes and ears for the first sign of Gargoyles in Iran. The Gargoyle in question is the Almaz-Antei SA-20 long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. Its arrival in Iran would mark a step change in the country’s air-defense potential and be welcomed neither by the U.S.A. nor Israel. DIA director Lt. Gen.
LASER DAMAGE: The U.S. Air Force is paying Ball Aerospace $42 million to analyze and model the effects of lasers on various targets so vulnerabilities can be predicted accurately. Examined will be space- and ground-based targets including missiles, systems, subsystems and components.
AMRAAM DELAY: The Pentagon’s fiscal 2009 budget request reflects another six-month delay in the newest version of the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). System design and development for the AIM-120D is now expected to conclude in the fall. Earlier delays occurred in the development of its predecessor, the C model, which is now being sold internationally, and those slips rippled into the D program. The D version, however, will employ a conformal antenna for improved off-boresight engagement, a GPS receiver and a two-way datalink.
Independent commissioners from a panel on the National Guard and reserves pressed their call on Capitol Hill Feb. 7 for better preparation and organization of non-active military forces, and managed to drum up genuine congressional attention - both good and bad.
SAN JUAN: General Dynamics has received a $25.4 million firm-fixed-price delivery order for the fiscal 2008 docking selected restricted availability of the USS San Juan (SSN 751) at the Naval Submarine Base, New London, Conn. The contract includes options that could bring its total value to $28.7 million. Work should be completed by May 2008. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
In its fiscal 2009 budget request, NASA has reduced its Mars exploration budget approximately $1.1 billion through FY ‘12, as compared to the run-out numbers from the agency’s FY ‘08 request. NASA’s fiscal 2009 request for Mars is $386.5 million, which is down $167 million from the FY ‘08 enacted level, and down $208.3 million from the level projected for FY ‘09 in the FY ‘08 request.
Russia has upgraded the satellite telephones that returning International Space Station (ISS) crews use to communicate with recovery forces on the ground after they land when they miss their intended landing zone. When the three-member Expedition 16 ISS crew returns in April on Soyuz TMA-11, it will have an Iridium 9505A satphone in the vehicle. The unit will use the Iridium constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to relay the capsule’s Global Positioning System coordinates to helicopter-borne recovery crews.
SEOUL – An influential South Korean government think tank is standing fast in its opposition to the air force’s proposed KFX stealth fighter program. The Korea Development Institute reported in its first assessment, issued in December, that the project’s costs outweighed its economic benefits. Under pressure from the defense ministry, it has submitted another finding – and it still opposes the project.
NEW DELHI – With rotorcraft business booming, it’s not difficult to see why 2008 has been declared the Year of the Helicopter in India at the HeliPower show here. Fifteen Bell 429s already have been booked for the commercial market. Helicopter procurement remains strong, despite lingering problems for the Indian helicopter industry such as poor infrastructure, complicated regulations for rooftop landings, delays and congestion at airports.
MADRID CENTER: The European Space Agency has inaugurated a space astronomy center near Madrid. The European Space Astronomy Center (ESAC) will be in charge of operating astrophysics and solar system missions, including the existing XMM-Newton, Integral, Mars Express, Venus Express, Rosetta and Akari observatories and upcoming initiatives like Herschel-Planck, Gaia, LISA Pathfinder, the James Webb Space Telescope and the BepiColombo Mercury probe. ESAC also will have a key role in Earth observation science missions like SMOS, to be launched later this year.
