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STAYING RELEVANT: Making sure a Pentagon, NASA or FAA program keeps on its budget and delivery schedule is just one thing managers will have to do to stay alive as U.S. budgets start to account for the 2011 Budget Control Act’s long-term spending reductions, according to participants at Aviation Week’s recent Aerospace and Defense Programs conference. According to several panel discussions, executives and analysts believe making sure a given program is relevant — but not redundant — to the customer agency’s de-scoped mission also will be increasingly important.
LONDON — Eurocopter’s Brazilian subsidiary Helibras has flown its first locally assembled EC725 Caracal. The helicopter, BRA17, believed to be destined for the Brazilian navy, took to the air at the company’s facility in Itajuba, Minas Gerais, on Nov. 21 and represents the beginning of the third stage of the H-XBR program, which will see 50 EC725s enter service with the Brazilian air force, navy and army, as the country modernizes its helicopter forces.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 26 - 28 — Autonomous, Unmanned Systems & Robotics Conference, Exhibition and Demonstration, Rishon Lezion, Israel. For more information go to ausrexpo.com
HOUSTON — The capture phase of NASA’s proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM) sparked great interest during a Nov. 21 workshop in Houston, with outside experts saying they want to shape a grand strategy to find and corral a 5- to 10-meter, 500-metric-ton near-Earth object for a journey to a stable orbit around the Moon, where it could be accessed by future U.S. astronauts.
Frozen igniter fluid lines were to blame for the failure of an upper-stage restart during the first Falcon 9 v1.1 launch on Sept. 29. Officials at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), manufacturer of the rocket, did not detect the problem during ground tests because “ambient air kept the lines warm,” says Emily Shanklin, a spokeswoman for the company. It is unclear whether thermal testing was conducted. “We’ve added insulation and made sure that cold oxygen can’t impinge on the lines” in future missions, she says.
DUBAI — The consortium of European aerospace manufacturers building the Eurofighter Typhoon has started trials to integrate MBDA’s Storm Shadow cruise missile onto the combat aircraft. Flight trials with the weapon are due to begin soon using Alenia Aermacchi’s flight-test aircraft IPA2. Ground tests to ensure the 1,230-kg weapon fits onto the second inner-most under wing pylon have already been carried out, according to Eurofighter officials, speaking at the Dubai air show on Nov. 20.
A new White House space-transportation policy stresses public-private partnerships and “responsive” military space capabilities, and allows the commercial launch of foreign rockets from U.S. soil on a “case-by-case” basis. “The U.S. space transportation sector is undergoing a period of change as new actors and capabilities emerge and nontraditional public-private partnerships are established,” the eight-page document notes. “At the same time, the sector faces challenges, to include increased proliferation concerns and international competition.”
DARMSTADT, Germany — The European Space Agency (ESA) orbited its Swarm Earth-observation mission atop a Russian Rockot launcher Nov. 22, sending a trio of research satellites 500 km (300 mi.) above the planet’s surface to study the magnetic field that protects it from cosmic radiation and charged particles in the solar wind.
DUBAI — A U.S. Navy notice for the purchase of 36 Super Hornets posted on a federal procurement website in October was nothing more than an error, according to the Navy’s Hornet program manager. Speaking at the Dubai air show on Nov. 19, Capt. Frank Morley, Naval Air Systems Command program manager for the Boeing-built F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18 Growler, said that the notice, which went up on the FedBizOps.gov website on Oct. 17, was an “administrative error” and had no effect on the current program of record.
AEGIS AWARD: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon a $406 million multi-year contract to provide AN/SPY-1 radar transmitters and MK99 Fire Control Systems for Lockheed Martin’s Aegis combat system. The components of the weapon system perform the search, track and missile guidance functions for Aegis, which the U.S. Navy is upgrading to provide greater ballistic missile defense as well as enhanced ship-defense.
TEL AVIV — The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) held a successful test of the David’s Sling air defense system on Nov. 20 in which a ballistic missile was intercepted and destroyed. Barring unexpected delays, the system, also known as Magic Wand, is expected to be operational within two years. It has been in development since 2006
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (Darpa) goal with its new Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program is to demonstrate a reusable capability that can transition to industry for low-cost military and commercial satellite launches and hypersonic technology testing. The agency usually hands off successful programs to one of the U.S. military services, but “Darpa’s XS-1 transition partner is you — industry,” Program Manager Jess Sponable told attendees at a proposers’ day briefing earlier this month. (See charts p. 8.)
PARIS — Mounting budget pressure is forcing France to curb defense spending, slowing deliveries of major military programs rather than killing them outright. Under the nation’s new military program law – a €190 billion ($256 billion) budget for the period 2014-19 – key aerospace platforms that will see reduced or delayed orders include Dassault Aviation’s Rafale combat jet, Eurocopter’s Tiger and NH90 helicopters and Airbus Military’s A400M tactical airlifter.
HOUSTON — Interrupted by the U.S. government shutdown in October, NASA’s Asteroid Initiative Idea Synthesis Workshop reconvened late Nov. 20 as a second opportunity to influence the agency’s efforts to resume U.S. human deep space exploration, while addressing the impact hazards posed by near-Earth objects.
U.S. Navy officials are examining the results of a third — and previously unplanned — round of sea trials for the stealthy, unmanned X-47B after the team returned to port Nov. 19.
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation this month urging intelligence agencies to relax resolution limits on commercial radar and electro-optical satellite imagery after U.S. companies requested the move. In a Nov. 13 report accompanying passage of its version of the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act (S 1681), the committee said it is concerned that commercial imagery providers outside the U.S., notably EADS Astrium Services, may soon be able to provide satellite imagery sharper than the currently allowed U.S. limit of 50 cm.
NUKED: A move by the Democratic leadership of the U.S. Senate to curb the minority Republican party’s ability to filibuster has sidelined passage of the chamber’s version of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill. Consideration of the so-called nuclear option, in which Senate rules are changed to lower the vote threshold for taking action, preoccupied the upper chamber’s agenda on Nov. 21. While Senate passage this week of the defense policy bill was always tenuous, the nuclear option debate appears now to have pushed a final vote on the bill into December.
BEIJING — China’s forthcoming DFH-4S satellite bus will introduce new technologies for the country’s spacecraft industry, including advances in avionics and batteries, and a plasma propulsion system (PPS).
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier deactivations may come as close as it gets to guaranteed future defense contracts. The U.S. Navy cannot simply park a nuclear reactor-equipped carrier somewhere. “You have to do the inactivations,” says Chris Miner, vice president for in-service aircraft carrier programs at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding unit.
LONDON — The Netherlands is to become the fourth European country to purchase the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. The Hague announced plans on Nov. 21 to introduce four MQ-9 Reapers and an unknown number of ground stations into full operational service by 2017, not only for use on deployed operations but also to support civil authorities in disaster relief and counter-narcotics operations. The ministry estimates the deal will cost €100-250 million.
