The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency needs to do a better job of managing its Materiel Returns Program at the wholesale level, the Pentagon Inspector General says in a recent report.
The launch of an upgraded Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft with more than 7,000 lb. of supplies for the International Space Station moves the orbiting outpost back toward its normal stock of consumables and gives on-board scientific research a boost.
Mission managers scrubbed launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo vehicle carrying 7,300 lb. of supplies for the International Space Station for the third day in a row Saturday, setting another attempt for a 30-min. window that opens at 4:44 p.m. EST Sunday.
BOEING has $41m U.S. AIR FORCE contract for six-month integrated fleet support for C-32, C-40 aircraft; work expected complete June 30, 2016. RAYTHEON has $52m U.S. NAVY contract for repair of 41 different part numbers, repairs supporting F-18 aircraft; work expected complete by December 2017.
Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET) is building a new avionics system for a modernized version of Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber. The company will build new controls, a “gimballess” inertial navigation system, electronic warfare equipment, fuel monitoring and weapons control systems. The avionics suite will be completed by 2020, the company vows. The avionics package “will mean the creation of a completely new aircraft,” KRET says.
Weather forced a second delay Friday in United Launch Alliance’s effort to launch an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft with a load of supplies for the International Space Station.
The fallout from Turkey’s shootdown of a Russian combat aircraft may have a wider and unexpected impact on the U.S.-led coalition air power arrayed against the militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State/Daesh.
A constellation of satellite hosted payloads equipped with infrared sensors is being developed that could deliver almost-instantaneous warnings of wildfires, oil spills on dry land and other “thermal events” worldwide.
A demo showing that unmanned aircraft systems can be integrated into national airspace without the need for a major infrastructure program has been conducted by Lockheed Martin using its unmanned Kaman K-Max helicopter and fixed-wing Stalker XE.
Although the U.S. Air Force “remains committed” to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Secretary of the Air Force is not ruling out a potential slowdown in the production of the advanced fighter.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-INFORMATION SCIENCES INSTITUTE, LOS ANGELES has $11m DARPA contract for phase 1 of the DARPA Circuit Realization at Faster Timescales–FinFET Foundry/Design Aggregration Services program; contract includes options for phases 2, 3 not yet exercised.
FIRE SCOUT: The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman have wrapped up an operational assessment of the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, demonstrating endurance and sensor integration. The Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-1 flew the Fire Scout for 83.4 hr. over three weeks at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, California. The MQ-8C’s sensors and systems were tested at different altitudes and ranges to show their effectiveness.
Rain and thick clouds over Cape Canaveral forced mission managers to delay the planned Dec. 3 launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo vehicle with more than 7,300 lb. of supplies for the International Space Station.
South Korea’s KF-X indigenous fighter program will tread water again in 2016 but has at least survived a risk of cancellation that it has faced over the past few months.
NASA may have to focus its cost-constrained technology investments on human missions launched into an Earth/Moon proving ground through the 2020s rather than placing boots on the Martian terrain in the decade to follow, members of the NASA Advisory Council suggest.
A Colorado-based startup that hopes to use a constellation of small radio-occultation satellites to deliver weather data commercially has signed a contract with Antrix Corp. Ltd. to launch on India’s Polar Space Launch Vehicle beginning late next year.
India is hoping to soon activate its newest satellite tracker in Vietnam, which will help monitor satellites launched from India and receive data from them.
JAXA will spend a week assessing the trajectory of the Hayabusa 2 asteroid explorer mission spacecraft after a scheduled flyby of the Earth early Dec. 3.
Europe's LISA Pathfinder gravitational-wave-detection mission was successfully placed into orbit Dec. 3 after lifting off atop a Vega light launcher from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT CORP. has $833m U.S. ARMY contract for fixed engineering/program management/systems engineering; Army provisioning; Army technical publications; integrated logistics support; contractor manpower reporting; packaging-handling storage/transportation; and advance procurement funding. Work estimated complete Dec. 31, 2016.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp., Mission Systems and Training, Moorestown, New Jersey, a $49.1 million contract modification to exercise option year two for ship integration and test of the Aegis Weapon System for AWS Baselines through Advanced Capability Build 12, the Pentagon announced Dec 1. The contract provides for Aegis shipboard integration engineering, Aegis test team support, Aegis modernization team engineering support, ballistic missile defense test team support and AWS element assessments.
