The U.S. Navy said Jan. 5 that it chose Northrop Grumman Corp. as the mission package integrator for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission modules program. Northrop Grumman won the long-awaited 10-year contract, which has a potential worth of $159 million - almost twice the five-year, $85 million award previously envisioned by the Naval Sea Systems Command (DAILY, Feb. 7, 2005). The fiscal 2006 portion of the contract, for $4.5 million, was awarded on Jan. 4.
Gen. Gordon Sullivan (Ret.), former Army chief of staff and current president of the Association of the U.S. Army, is cautiously optimistic about the prospects for the Future Combat Systems program, despite recent cuts to its budget.
EXPANDING RELATIONSHIP: International Launch Services will launch SES Astra's 1KR spacecraft in April on an ILS Atlas rocket, the first time that SES - a longtime Proton customer - has opted for Atlas. The satellite will be lofted to Astra's 19.2 degree east longitude orbital slot, where it will provide replacement capacity allowing older spacecraft to be redeployed. The 1KR spacecraft is based on Lockheed Martin's A2100 spacecraft bus.
BATTERY BUY: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has signed a contract with the Indian Space Research Organization to develop and manufacture a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery for the Insat series of satellites for long-distance telecommunications, radio and television program distribution, meteorological and Earth observation, and data relay. One of the Insat platforms will be configured with the Japanese Li-ion battery to provide full payload power requirements of 2,500-5,000 watts during eclipse.
READINESS RECHECK: Lockheed Martin engineers believe borescope examination of seams in an Atlas V first stage kerosene fuel tank will reaffirm the booster's readiness to launch the New Horizons mission to Pluto as early as Jan. 17. NASA slipped the original Jan. 11 launch date for extra inspections after a test tank ruptured during a water pressure test at the company's plant near Denver. That test was to validate Atlas V integrity under maximum loading conditions, with four or five solid rocket boosters attached.
The U.S. Navy said Jan. 5 that it pulled off a trial, land-based test of a Sidewinder AIM-9X air-to-air missile for potential submarine use. The long-range research goal is to field any existing Defense Department missile aboard submarines quickly and at low cost. The November test - supported by Raytheon Missile Systems - involved detecting, tracking and destroying an unmanned helicopter, which was not visible to the missile at its launch.
LOST RAVEN: The 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team has suspended its search for a Raven unmanned aerial vehicle in Mosul, Iraq, the Defense Department reported Jan. 6. The unit lost contact with the UAV on Jan. 4 during operations in the northern Iraqi city. The Raven is the Army's smallest UAV, weighing about 4.5 pounds, with a wingspan of about 5 feet.
U.S. Army budget makers will balance the number of new modular combat brigades that the service hopes to establish with increased spending on research and procurement for the Future Combat Systems program, according to Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita. The stated goal of 43 modular brigades now seems in flux, although Di Rita said the active Army still expects to go from brigades numbering in the low 30s now to the low 40s by the end of its transformation.
ACS DECISION: The Army is likely to announce its final decision on the fate of the Aerial Common Sensor program on Jan. 12 when the stop-work order issued to prime contractor Lockheed Martin expires, according to a service spokesman. The Army issued a 90-day stop-work order in September after learning that Lockheed Martin's chosen platform for ACS, the Embraer ERJ-145 business jet, was too small to carry the multiple intelligence-gathering payloads intended for it.
The U.S. Navy awarded another $25 million to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. for airborne mine countermeasures systems, this time for highly specialized engineering and design efforts associated with continued integration of organic systems with full-production level MH-60S helicopters to provide organic airborne mine defense for carrier and expeditionary strike groups. The work is expected to be completed by January 2011, the Defense Department said Jan. 4.
LAUNCH REBOUND: Launch rates at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are set nearly to double in 2006 compared to 2005. The U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing, which operates the Eastern Range and reserves mission slots for both Cape Canaveral and KSC, has at least 20 launches booked for 2006 compared with only about 12 missions flown in 2005.
SDD AWARD: The Marine Corps Heavy Lift Replacement helicopter program will sign an estimated $2.9 billion contract with Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. for the system development and demonstration phase of the CH-53K's development within the next few months, says the program manager. Marine and Sikorsky officials formally started the HLR program last week with an initial SDD award to Sikorsky (DAILY, Jan. 4, Jan. 5).
Jan. 9 - 12, 2006 -- American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics' Aerospace Sciences 44th Annual Meeting & Exhibit, Reno Hilton, Nev. Call 1-703-264-7500 or go to www.aiaa.org. Jan. 11 - 13 -- Aviation Symposium and Exhibition: "Army Aviation, Enabling Transformation Through Modernization," Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, Washington. Call +1 (800) 336-4570 or +1 (703) 841-4300 or go to www.ausa.org.
Astronomers using a network of radio telescopes stretching from Hawaii to the Caribbean have refined measurement of the distance to the Milky Way spiral arm nearest Earth, confirming that it is only about half as distant as previously estimated. "Our neighbors are closer than we thought," says Ye Xu of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, lead author of results first published at the Science Express Web site.
ACCREDITATION: China has accredited its first group of 121 national defense laboratories for standardized measures and tests for aerospace, aeronautics and nuclear technologies as well as dual technologies, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. Accredited labs include those from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., China National Nuclear Corp. and China State Shipping Building Corp.
The Jan. 6 Aerospace Daily article on the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser misstated the type of laser used to shoot down missiles. The actual kill is performend by the chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL). The deformable mirrors that correct for atmospheric distortion are elements of the beam control/fire control system, and not part of the COIL. The beacon illuminator laser has kilowatt-class power.
BRAZILIAN FIRST: Astronaut Marcus Pontes is making final preparations to become the first Brazilian in space with the planned March 22 launch of the Soyuz TMA-8/12S mission to the International Space Station. Pontes has been training in the U.S. and Russia to be a station astronaut since 1998, shortly after Brazil joined the ISS partnership. The Brazilian air force lieutenant colonel will join the 13th expedition to the space station - cosmonaut/expedition commander Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut/flight engineer Jeffrey Williams - in the third seat of the Soyuz.
PARIS - The French government has given the go-ahead to complete development of a new air defense system, while a comparable German effort has run into budget uncertainties that will likely keep the effort stalled for months.
Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev passed the halfway point in their six-month stay aboard the International Space Station last week, marking their 100th day in space on New Year's Day.
PURCHASE: Ducommun Inc. said Jan. 6 that it has purchased Huntsville, Ala.-based Miltec Corp. for $50 million. Miltec's 12-month sales ending Sept. 30, 2005, were about $42 million. Miltec provides missile and aerospace systems design, development, integration and testing. Ducommun provides engineering and manufacturing services for the aerospace and defense industries.
The U.S. Army is describing some of its requirements and acquisition plans for a synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) to be carried by the Extended Range Multi-Purpose and Future Combat Systems unmanned aerial vehicles. It says the sensor will give brigade combat team and division or corps battlefield commanders greater situational awareness by imaging stationary targets and detecting moving targets in bad weather and poor visibility.
Lockheed Martin's information technology unit's Application Development and Maintenance organization has received a top rating for process excellence for producing and supporting software applications used by civil government and defense agencies, the company said last week. The organization was given a Capability Maturity Model Integration Maturity Level 5, the highest possible rating, by the Software Engineering Institute. The evaluation was based on the SEI's Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement.
