NEW DELHI — After scrubbing the launch of its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) Aug. 19 due to a fuel leak in the rocket’s second stage, India may consider destacking the rocket and swapping for a backup engine. “We have the standby for the second-stage engine. It is similar to the one used for the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle [PSLV],” a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says. But “first we have to see what went wrong with the [GSLV] launch,” he says.
Autonomy and low-carbon propulsion are two areas likely to receive greater emphasis at NASA as it embarks upon its new strategy for aeronautics research. The new strategy aligns civil aeronautics research under six thrusts: safe, efficient growth in operations, low-boom supersonic and ultra-efficient subsonic commercial aircraft, low-carbon propulsion, real-time system-wide safety assurance, and assured autonomy.
LONDON — The U.K. National Police Air Service (NPAS) is launching a tender to standardize its fleet of Eurocopter EC135T2 helicopters based around the country. The NPAS operation, which is headed by West Yorkshire Police, has requested information from suppliers to provide mission equipment for several aircraft used by NPAS. The tender covers the installation and integration of the aircraft’s electro-optical camera system, communications and radio equipment, mission system workstations, searchlights and public address system.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps need more analysis of their simulation-based training to better gauge its costs and benefits vs. live training, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO recommends the services develop metrics and a methodology to compare live and simulation-based training costs. The Pentagon partially concurred, but noted that it “captures all relevant costs needed for decision making,” GAO says in its Aug. 22 report.
A South Korean government committee is due next month to decide the winner of the F-X Phase 3 fighter competition, in which the Boeing F-15SE is the only remaining candidate following an assessment by the Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA).
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Boeing officials say that they are not out of the precision timing and navigation business, despite having lost the $1.8 billion, winner-take-all development contract for the next generation of GPS satellites to Lockheed Martin five years ago.
Congressional auditors tell U.S. lawmakers that the Pentagon may have more work to do justifying its acquisition of the high-profile Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), given its overlap with other military efforts. “Redundancy in some of these areas may, in fact, be desirable,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in its Aug. 20 report to the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.
DORNHEIM AWARD: The National Press Club in Washington presented its annual Michael A. Dornheim Award to Bart Jansen of USA Today for stories on air turbulence, airport security and the widely different regulations on passenger cell phone use around the world. An honorable mention went to Alan Levin of Bloomberg News for articles about air traffic controller problems, errors that led to airliners taking off over weight restrictions and how leaded gas in general aviation accounts for the majority of lead emissions in the U.S.
PALM BEACH and PANAMA CITY, Fla. — The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission-module-and-package components are much further along than the U.S. Navy has publicly acknowledged. But government analysts worry the integration work for those systems will be more difficult than anticipated and operational testing could reveal problems that could prove costly and time-consuming, especially over the life of the ship class.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — While some defense and government analysts continue to doubt the survivability and firepower of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fleet, there’s one aviation asset that few question the need for: the MH-60 Seahawk. The LCS mission-module packages rely heavily on either the MH-60R (Romeo) or MH-60S (Sierra) models, depending on whether the ships are conducting surface warfare (SUW), mine countermeasures missions (MCM) or antisubmarine warfare (ASW) missions.
NEW DELHI — India’s Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has signed a contract worth 30 billion rupees ($475 million) with the country’s defense ministry to supply Invar anti-tank guided missiles to the Indian army. “The deliveries are expected to be completed over the next five years,” a defense ministry spokesman says. In 2011, India approved the purchase of 25,000 Invar missiles to be carried on the army’s T-90 tanks.
U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert is underscoring the U.S. Navy’s priorities, even under the cloud of possible further rounds of sequestration, with the release of his “navigation plan” for service acquisitions and operations in the coming years. The Navy, he says, “focuses in particular on deterring and defeating aggression and assuring access by implementing the Air-Sea Battle (ASB) concept.” The service intends to maintain a carrier strike group and amphibious ready group in both the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
LOS ANGELES and HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Boeing hopes by year’s end to secure its first sale of a new family of small satellites unveiled by the company this year and dubbed Phantom Phoenix. Executives declined to say whether this first customer would be commercial or supporting national security missions for the U.S. government. But Craig Cooning, vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, says talks could culminate in an announcement by the end of the year.
Recent shipboard tests of the Griffin missile prove that it will work with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) surface warfare (SUW) mission module package, but the U.S. Navy is still looking at alternatives that could provide a better weapon, says Capt. John Ailes, the Navy officer recently selected to be the admiral in charge of LCS integration efforts.
USAF COMMISSION: Members of the U.S. Air Force community continue to wrestle with tense issues being raised by the congressionally mandated National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force, which will next meet Aug. 27 in Arlington, Va. “It is both unfortunate and fortuitous that the Congress saw fit to establish this commission,” retired Gen. Ronald Fogleman, the 15th chief of staff, told the group last month.
