Current spending plans for the U.S. Army’s Stryker vehicle have increased five times from what the Pentagon had estimated just a year ago. The 2014 budget request for the Stryker family of vehicles is $374 million, nearly three times what the 2013 plan estimated. Total estimated spending for the outyears (2015-2017) is now $1 billion, five times what planners estimated in 2013 for the same period. (See charts pp. 6-9.)
BEIJING — Chinese engineers are proposing a Moon rocket more powerful than the Saturn V of the Apollo missions and matching the payload of NASA’s planned Space Launch System (SLS) Block 2, the unfunded launcher that would put the U.S. back into super-heavy space lift.
I.T. SPENDING: Despite a decline in annual spending between now and fiscal 2018, U.S. government spending on outsourced information technology should be relatively stable, according to Deltek analysts. The relatively optimistic outlook comes as agencies look to benefit from cost savings on cloud computing, automation and data center consolidation, while having to continue to pursue new capabilities in cyberspace and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
While the U.S. Navy’s CH-53K development has gone reasonably well thus far, delayed testing of the helicopter program has made the effort riskier, a Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “CH-53K program officials generally managed and developed the CH-53K program in accordance with defense acquisition guidelines while preparing for the low-rate initial production decision,” the IG says in its report, “CH-53K Program Management Is Satisfactory, but Risks Remain.”
Although growing Chinese naval forces have thus far refrained from any major military engagements, the fleet is starting to be viewed as a significant political tool. “In the absence of conflict, China’s military forces, including in particular its naval forces, will be used on a day-to-day basis to promote China’s political position in the Pacific,” says a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, “China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities — Background and Issues for Congress,” released earlier this month.
SEVILLE, Spain — EADS CEO Tom Enders has urged European governments not to repeat the errors made during the procurement process of the A400M airlifter. Speaking at a ceremony marking the handover of the first A400M to the French air force in Seville, Spain, on Sept. 30, Enders told attendees that Europe urgently needs a joint military certification organization, like the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), rather than separate agencies in each country working to achieve their own certification.
NEW DELHI — India will make a fresh attempt to loft its GSAT-14 communications satellite aboard a Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) on Dec. 15, nearly two months after its launch was called off due to a fuel leak in the rocket’s second stage, a senior space scientist says. On Aug. 19, a leak was spotted in the fuel system of the second stage during the pre-launch pressurization phase on the vehicle. Propellants were drained and the GSLV was moved back to the vehicle assembly building to assess the cause of the leak.
LONDON – AirTanker, the company charged with providing air-to-air refueling capability to the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF), has been certified to refuel the air arm’s Eurofighter Typhoons.
LOS ANGELES — SpaceX says post-launch indications of a larger-than-expected debris field scattered in the orbital path of its recently launched Falcon 9 v1.1 upgraded launch vehicle do not represent a possible explosion of the rocket’s second stage.
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While U.S. Navy aviation mishap numbers and rates are in overall decline in recent years, the service’s concern for UAV and related mishaps is on the rise. “Unmanned Aircraft System mishaps are considered Class A, B or C mishaps under the same criteria as manned aircraft, but they don’t count against our mishap rates,” the Navy Safety Center notes in its fiscal 2012 annual report. “A major reason is that we do not have enough historical flight hours on them yet to weave them effectively into the manned mishap stats.”
NEW DELHI — India and Russia have agreed on a collaboration to jointly develop and manufacture civilian aircraft and helicopters, especially for emergency relief and medical purposes. Under the agreement, a joint venture company will be established in India for manufacturing and modifying Ka-226T light helicopters for medical, rescue and other purposes, a senior government official says.
Russia’s Proton M launch vehicle returned to flight Sept. 30, nearly two months after a July 2 mishap sent the heavy-lift rocket and three Russian Glonass M satellites crashing to the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Managed by commercial launch services provider International Launch Services (ILS) of Reston, Va., the Baikonur mission sent the Astra 2E commercial communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit for Luxembourg-based SES, the world’s second-largest fleet operator by revenue.
BEIJING — Top scientists here are citing China’s burgeoning population, growing energy consumption and severe pollution problems to press the case for more research in space solar power (SSP) technology, which would place large solar-energy collectors in orbit to beam gathered energy to Earth as microwaves or laser light.
BEIJING — Engineers in Russia believe the Zarya cargo module, the oldest pressurized module on the International Space Station (ISS), can last in orbit until about 2028 — twice its design service life — despite microcracking in the hull during pressure and loads cycling of a test article on the ground.
HOUSTON — Some of the brightest in global aerospace are poised to pitch their recommendations for NASA’s proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission and Grand Challenge. They will offer suggestions for an unbudgeted, multi-year demonstration of human and robotic strategies to thrust explorers out of low Earth orbit for the first time in 40 years, while assembling defenses against the collision threat posed by Near Earth Objects.
