LONDON — The French defense ministry has taken delivery of its first upgraded E-3F Sentry airborne early warning aircraft to be modified by Boeing and Air France Industries. The aircraft was handed over to the French defense procurement agency DGA, which will carry out ground and flight tests at Avord air base before handing the aircraft back to the French air force later this year, Boeing announced Feb. 17.
U.S. Army contracting officers made questionable contract changes for work involving the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV), a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
Satellite observations of unique, finger-like dark features on steep slopes of the mid-southern latitudes of Mars hint at dense briny water flows during the summer season, according to findings from 11 researchers associated with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey missions.
HOUSTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully completed its first NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station early Feb. 18, as the Dulles, Va.-based company’s “Orb-1” Cygnus capsule was unberthed from the U.S. segment Harmony module and released with Canada’s robot arm at 6:41 a.m. EST. The resupply craft is scheduled for a destructive re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 1:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 19.
The U.S. Navy has further bolstered its Asia-Pacific profile by moving another submarine — the SSN-754 USS Topeka Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine — to the region. The Navy detailed its plans this month to change the homeport for the submarine, now completing its Engineered Overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Portsmouth, N.H., to Naval Base Guam. Topeka will move to Guam as part of the U.S. Navy’s long-range plan to put the most advanced and capable units forward in the region, the Navy says.
Three prominent Republican congressmen are imploring Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to continue funding the U.S. Air Force’s U-2 spy aircraft as he puts the finishing touches on a fiscal 2015-19 budget plan likely to gut the program. Hagel’s staff is considering abandoning support for the Lockheed Martin aircraft and capitulating to pressure from other lawmakers to funnel its money toward continued operation of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS).
NEW DELHI — India’s first manned space flight program has received a major boost with a higher budgetary allocation and development of a crew module structural assembly. The federal interim budget, announced on Feb. 17, increased the allocation for the human space flight program from 92 million rupees ($1.5 million) to 170 million rupees. The increase comes days after state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) handed over the crew module to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Despite a need for ship modifications and other programmatic hiccups, the U.S. Marine Corps still plans to be operating Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35B models off amphibious ships within about three years, says Marine Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, director of Navy expeditionary warfare. Marines will be at the forefront of operating JSFs off Navy vessels, Walsh said at a recent U.S. Navy Amphibious Warship Forum sponsored by the Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition. “We will be flying F-35s on a big-deck amphib,” he said Feb. 11.
TEST BAN: The Obama administration still wants the U.S. Senate to ratify the long-standing Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), but officials are sounding increasingly sober in their expectations. “We are going to be patient, but we will also be persistent,” said Rose Gottemoeller, acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
The U.S. Navy needs to better equip a self-defense test ship (SDTS) to more accurately gauge Aegis combat system abilities for its proposed Flight III DDG-51 destroyers, the recent report from the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Tests and Evaluation (DOT&E) says.
The second Northrup Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout introduced into the test fleet will be used this spring for electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing, to ensure the unmanned rotorcraft can operate in the signal-rich U.S. Navy ship environment. The first MQ-8C conducted its initial flight Oct. 31, and it has flown 41 sorties culminating in 67 flight hours to date, says George Vardoulakis, vice president for medium-range tactical systems at Fire Scout prime contractor Northrop Grumman. The second of two MQ-8Cs conducted its first flight Feb. 12.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) feb. 19 - 21 — Air Warfare Symposium and Technology Exposition, Orlando, Fla. For more information go to www.afa.org/airwarfare/home feb. 19 - 21 — 2014 AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition, "America's Army: Sustaining, Training, and Equipping for the Future," Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Ala. For more information go to www.ausa.org
LONDON — The U.K. National Audit Office (NAO) says the country’s Defense Ministry has made great strides in its programs for new equipment required by the armed forces.
The U.S. Air Force and the United Launch Alliance are scheduled to launch GPS IIF satellite 5 Feb. 20 on a Delta IV rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 Cape Canaveral, Fla., the first of three planned launches through July 2014.
HOUSTON — The terrifying Chelyabinsk explosion over Russia one year ago has significantly altered the debate over efforts to detect and deflect asteroids that pose an impact threat to the Earth, according to one of the nation’s top experts in the field. “It was a wake-up call for the world,” said David Morrison, senior scientist at NASA’s recently established Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), at the Ames Research Center Feb. 14.
Rover drivers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are sending the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to explore north-facing rock layers, after discovering the source of a tiny rock fragment that triggered an unusual lawsuit. Dubbed Pinnacle Island, the 1.5-in.-wide red-and-white rock turned up in a rover image collected Jan. 8 in a spot where it had not been four days earlier. After collecting more images, JPL experts concluded that the rock had broken loose from a larger rock that was hit by one of Opportunity’s six wheels and rolled downhill.
SPACE SPENDING: Government spending on space programs worldwide dipped last year for the first time since 1995, according to Euroconsult, dropping $800 million total (1%). The consulting company said this was “a direct result of the cyclical nature of countries’ investment in space-based infrastructures, combined with governments’ belt-tightening efforts during tough economic times.” But the advisors said there are positive signs for industry, starting with growing international activity in space.
The Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace is considering adapting its miniature version of the supersonic BrahMos-M (Mini) to more platforms, and exporting it to friendly countries. The weight of other BrahMos missiles had blocked integration on other Indian air force (IAF) platforms, says Praveen Pathak, general manager for market promotion and export at BrahMos Aerospace. “That prompted us to develop the BrahMos-M.”
