USCG MPA: Three new U.S. Coast Guard HC-144A maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) have been relocated to the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., in preparation for final delivery. Lockheed Martin is completing integration and developmental testing of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission system pallet for the aircraft. The first MPA airframe was delivered to the Coast Guard in Dec. 2006. Five additional aircraft are on contract, and the fourth and fifth are under construction in Seville, Spain.
The U.S. Air Force's desire to keep key performance parameters (KPPs) and the initial deadline for the revised request for proposals (RFP) for its combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter fleet shows that the service still has a split personality between requirements and expediency for the acquisition, analysts say.
The first of five extravehicular activities (EVAs) that will take place while the shuttle Discovery is docked to the International Space Station (ISS) is set for Oct. 26, following a smooth docking by the orbiter to the station Oct. 25. Four of those EVAs will be done by the Discovery crew and one by the U.S./Russian ISS crew throughout the coming week.
Eutelsat has issued a new three-year guidance for 2008-2010 targeting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of better than 5.5 percent, with a strong acceleration in growth toward the end of this period, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of more than 77 percent. In presenting full-year 2006-07 results at the end of July, Chairman/CEO Giuliano Berretta had scared analysts by deferring long-term guidance while awaiting evaluation of capital expenditures, notably for a new Ka-band satellite.
The U.S. Army has decided to halt the xBot ground robot program while it reassesses the ability of winning contractor Robotic FX to fulfill its responsibilities.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun training the first nonmilitary government pilots to operate its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border, a department official said Oct. 24. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the DHS unit charged with securing U.S. borders, patrols the southern border with two General Atomics Predator B UAVs based at Fort Huachuca, near Sierra Vista, Ariz.
BEIJING - A Long March 3A rocket boosted China's Chang'e 1 lunar mission into an initial Earth orbit of 205 by 50,930 kilometers (127 by 31,650 miles) from the Xichang launch center in Sichuan province on Oct. 24, three days after the end of the Communist Party's latest congress. If it can overcome such key challenges as tracking and control in deep space, Chang'e 1 will open the way for Chinese scientists to move on to their next moon shot - the launch of a rover as early as 2012.
The STS-120 Discovery crew will dock to the International Space Station at about 8:35 a.m. EDT Oct. 25 after spending its first full day in space doing thermal protection system inspections with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS). Concerns about the degradation of the coatings on specific Discovery reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) wing leading edge panels prompted mission managers to decide before launch that one of the OBSS scans on each wing would be done more slowly.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT: A law firm named in part after Republican presidential nominee candidate Rudy Giuliani says a new law passed by lawmakers upset over the since-doomed Dubai Ports deal may "sharply" increase the potential for political controversy over foreign investment in the United States.
ROOSEVELT: Northrop Grumman is being awarded a $190.7 million contract option for continuation of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Refueling Complex Overhaul advance planning effort, which includes shipchecks, design, documentation, engineering, procurement, fabrication and preliminary shipyard/support facility work. Work will be performed in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be completed by October 2008.
An Oct. 22 brief gave the incorrect impression that Raytheon is the prime contractor for the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP). Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems in El Segundo, Calif., is the MP-RTIP prime, with Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems' Norden Systems unit in Norwalk, Conn., as principal subcontractor. Raytheon's Space & Airborne Systems unit in El Segundo is a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems on MP-RTIP.
The U.S. Air Force released a long-anticipated draft revised request for proposals (RFP) late Oct. 23 for the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement fleet that focuses on deploying early and leveraging available platforms or technology. This is the third go for the service, which awarded an initial contract to Boeing only to get knocked down by two sustained protests by competitors Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The eruption of wildfires across Southern California this week sent the NASA-Dryden Research Center's General Atomics Predator B team scrambling to reconfigure the Ikhana unmanned aircraft to join the aerial effort to combat the blazes.
The top two U.S Air Force leaders lobbied Capitol Hill for their service Oct. 24, suggesting lawmakers help extend the F-22 Raptor production line with 20 more of the Lockheed Martin fighters than currently budgeted.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would like young faculty members to propose "speculative and high-risk ideas" in micro- and nano-electro mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) to "deliver new technology of value to the Department of Defense."
A special access program oversight committee (SAPOC) is scheduled to meet on Oct. 30 to decide the fate of the Core Component Jammer (CCJ), which was introduced as the future of stand-off electronic warfare capability for the U.S. Air Force. The CCJ is a scaled-back version of the Stand-off Jammer (SOJ), for which the stand-off piece was the B-52 and the stand-in element was the E-18G. The original program cost was in the neighborhood of $7 billion, so the Air Force requested it be pared down (DAILY, April 5, 2006).
Evaluators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) expect more cost growth and schedule slips in procurement of the next generation of U.S. geostationary weather satellites, but have found improvements in the program's management.
SIDM TRAINING: The French air force says it expects to start training operators for its long-delayed SIDM interim medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle fleet in November, and to begin operational flight trials at Mont de Marsan Air Base in southwestern France in early 2008. Initially targeted for deployment in May 2003, the 75 million euro ($105 million) EADS system, which uses an Israel Aircraft Industries Heron (Eagle-1) air vehicle, has suffered numerous delays, some attributed to EADS, some to IAI and others to U.S.
The European Space Agency (ESA) says the Oct. 5 flight of an Ariane 5 GS rocket fully validated the multiple in-orbit reignition capability of the booster's Aestus upper stage engine, which will be required to launch ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The ATV will serve to resupply the International Space Station, periodically reboost it to proper orbit and evacuate waste. The first ATV is due to be launched Jan. 31.
CROW SIGHTS: BAE Systems said Oct. 23 that it received a $15 million contract to provide thermal imaging sights for the U.S. Army's Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station II (CROWS) program. Under the five-year contract, which is worth up to $200 million, BAE will manufacture and deliver up to 6,500 TIM1500 thermal sights to Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace AS, the CROWS II suppliers. CROWS II has a maximum order quantity of 6,500 remote weapon stations. Production deliveries will begin in early 2008.
The Bush administration has reaffirmed its desire for ground-based midcourse ballistic missile defense (BMD) elements based in Europe, while indicating it may be willing to slow their rollout until a purported Iranian threat materializes.
A last-gasp effort by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to clinch a Rafale combat aircraft sale to Morocco has failed, leaving the next-generation fighter still without an initial export order. Following a visit to Morocco last week, Sarkozy threw in the towel and acknowledged the U.S. F-16 was preferred by the Moroccans. French observers attributed the loss to the continued failure of government agencies, including armaments agency DGA, to coordinate effectively on foreign defense sales.
