The U.S. Air Force is unlikely to be able to afford an all-new replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile “in the foreseeable future,” Boeing Network & Space Systems President Craig Cooning says. Although the service’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program envisages an all-new substitute for the much-upgraded missile, in service since 1970, the funds are not there to do it, Cooning says. “There is money in the budget, but it is very minimal,” he says.
“The Navy did not consider any formal alternatives to the original Phased Modernization Plan and revised the plan primarily to respond to congressional concerns that removing cruisers from the fleet would exacerbate existing capacity shortfalls,” GAO says.
Engineers at NASA Marshall have used a selective laser-melting machine to craft a copper liner with more than 200 channels in the walls for regenerative cooling with cryogenic propellant.
Boeing stresses that any such project depends on the U.S. Air Force retiring the aircraft, in the face of Congressional opposition, and releasing its inventory.
The U.S. Air Force is unlikely to be able to afford an all-new replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile “in the foreseeable future,” Boeing Network & Space Systems President Craig Cooning says.
The U.S. Navy says it achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the Block 2 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) earlier this month aboard the amphibious-transport dock ship LPD 24 USS Arlington.
The mission appeared nominal through first-stage separation and ignition of the Centaur upper stage’s RL-10 engine, but live coverage of the launch terminated at that point as the mission withdrew behind the veil of secrecy that has cloaked X-37B operations in the past.
SpaceX and Blue Origin appear increasingly confident they will be able to achieve their target of recovering booster stages for post-flight inspection and reuse, after analyzing the respective failures that occurred within 15 days of one another in April.
Boeing is in discussions with several big data companies about developing hybrid communications systems combining satellites with high-altitude, long-endurance UAVs derived from Boeing’s Phantom Eye technology demonstrator.
Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Eric Stallmer is calling on legislators from both sides of the aisle to put aside political differences and support moves to update the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA) that is working its way through Capitol Hill.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) reached another milestone during its refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) earlier this month with the installation of the ship’s AN/SPS-48 primary air-search radar antenna on Lincoln’s island, U.S. Navy officials say.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) program managers failed to fully implement U.S. Navy policy to request waivers and to certify program readiness for initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) on the P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Distributed Targeting System, and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft programs, according to the Pentagon Inspector General.
U.S. MARINE CORPS F-35B began first shipboard operational test phase (OT-1) aboard USS Wasp; testing to last two weeks. RCEVS (Elbit Systems of America/Rockwell Collins) has U.S. Navy contract to integrate Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System II on AC-130W. SAAB has SEK114m ($13.6m) Swiss contract for explosive training artillery ammunition to be delivered in 2015-16.
The House Appropriations Committee will consider a fiscal 2016 defense spending bill May 20 that would provide $578.6 billion for the military, including $88.4 billion for war efforts. The use of war accounts for additional defense spending is part of a budget deal that Congress has agreed on, but that agreement sets up a budget showdown with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill unless Congress also increases funding for other federal agencies.
“Customers are clear that they want to move high-end training into the T-X,” says Tom Conard, business development director for the company’ training and government services unit.
Winnefeld notes the Navy is developing programs for directed energy, rail gun weapons and similar technology that could apply to ballistic missile defense (BMD).
Both pilots ejected safely. According to a defense ministry spokesman, the twin-seater aircraft “was on a routine sortie when a technical problem forced the two pilots to abandon the fighter.”
NASA engineers have pared down the ablative Avcoat material that protected the unmanned EFT-1 Orion test article on its high-speed reentry, isolating samples that are being shipped to Ames Research Center in California for close analysis.
The House Appropriations Committee will consider a fiscal 2016 defense spending bill May 20 that would provide $578.6 billion for the military, including $88.4 billion for war efforts. The use of war accounts for additional defense spending is part of a budget deal that Congress has agreed on, but that agreement sets up a budget showdown with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill unless Congress also increases funding for other federal agencies.
The three nations have signed up to a declaration of intent that will see the leading defense and aerospace companies in each country—Dassault Aviation in France, Airbus Defense and Space in Germany, and Finmeccanica in Italy—carry out a two-year definition study of MALE systems, before a decision is made to start development and procurement of the system.
The crash of an Airbus A400M airlifter that killed four people on May 9 may have been caused by new software that cut off the engine-fuel supply, industry sources have said.
Japan will make another attempt to drop-test a low-boom supersonic aircraft model beginning on June 29, at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden, following on the August 2013 attempt that ended when the aircraft lost control and was destroyed.
