PAYING BILLS: Congress passed a bill Sept. 30 that would keep salary payments going to active military personnel and civilian Defense and Homeland Security department employees and contractors “providing support to members of the armed forces.” The bill comes as everyone else in the U.S. government faced the consequences of a federal shutdown, which loomed Oct. 1 unless lawmakers and President Barack Obama reached an agreement on fresh appropriations overnight.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) oct. 2 — U.S. - Finland Defense and Security Industry Seminar, "For Stronger and Closer Cooperation," Embassy of Finland, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/4470/Pages/default.aspx oct. 7 - 10 — Insensitive Munitions and Energetic Materials Technology Symposium, Loews Coronado Bay, San Diego, Calif. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/4550/Pages/default.aspx
Eurocopter is shoring up work at its Columbus, Miss., plant by opening an assembly line for the AS350 Ecureuil/Astar light helicopter. Work on AS350 assembly will begin during the fourth quarter of 2014 in a bid to offset the impact of the U.S. Army’s decision to reduce the number of UH-72 Lakota light utility helicopters it plans to buy. The factory will initially build 50 AS350s, with plans to expand by 2016 by producing up to 60 additional helicopters annually by 2016, the company announced on Sept. 20.
Orbital Sciences’ unpiloted Cygnus resupply craft will make a second attempt to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station early Sept. 29, management teams from NASA and the Dulles, Va.,-based company decided Sept. 27. The latest operations plan would position Cygnus, with its 1,543-lb. cargo of crew provisions, about 35 ft. below the orbiting science lab at 7:15 a.m. EDT, for an astronaut-commanded robot arm grapple.
Chinese Confusion: Ma Xingrui, administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), tells the 64th International Astronautical Congress that his country is ready to join the International Space Exploration Group, a multinational organization of space agencies developing road maps for human exploration of the Solar System. But according to the ISEGC Terms of Reference, CNSA is “automatically” a member because it helped draft the 2007 framework document on which the organization was based.
The U.S. Coast Guard received approval this week to move forward on the production and eventual deployment of up to 30 fast response cutters (FRC) after the cutter-class vessels completed their initial operational test and evaluation phase this past month. Coast Guard officials say this means the service may continue to acquire the FRC as the budget allows and that the equipment and shore side infrastructure is in place to support new cutters as they are commissioned.
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Most large weapons and systems contractors for the Pentagon should be relatively unaffected by a looming federal government shutdown that would start Oct. 1, especially if it is short-term, according to a press briefing by the defense comptroller. But roughly half of the Defense Department’s civilian workforce, or fewer than 400,000 non-uniformed employees, may face unpaid furloughs, and it will be up to Congress whether to ever pay them for the unplanned time off.
MD Helicopters is making performance enhancements to its MD540F as it prepares to move toward certification in 2015. The new aircraft, an updated and modernized variant of the MD500 family, will get a new anti-torque system. Engineers are studying a number of options including a four-bladed tail rotor to improve the aircraft’s performance in conjunction with the new Rolls-Royce M250-C47E turboshaft, which the company announced it had selected for the MD540F during Heli-Expo 2013 in Las Vegas.
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China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, Long March 7, is very likely to fly in 2014, says an industry official, confirming a delayed target announced six months ago.
RADAR SUPPORT: Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., has been awarded an $85,300,000 multiyear contract to provide the U.S. Army with small tactical radar - lightweight (STARLite) synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) system support, the Pentagon has announced. The contract was a noncompetitive acquisition, with one bid solicited and one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-13-D-C118).
Defense analysts continue to raise concerns that the U.S. Pacific pivot could lead to a possible confrontation with China in the region, and a recent think tank report says the two global giants need to take pains to avoid military tensions. “Military competition between the United States and China can have no positive outcome for either country,” says the report, “China-US Cooperation: Key to the Global Future,” released recently by the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
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Milestone decisions needed to move procurement programs forward are either on hold or slipping due to uncertainty about the fiscal 2014 budget and beyond and the Pentagon is establishing cost caps for new efforts, according to Richard Lombardi, the deputy assistant secretary of acquisition integration for the service. The establishment of cost caps is a new effort in line with the Pentagon’s Better Buying Power 2 procurement guidelines. Thus, caps have not yet been established for any Air Force programs.
Officials from Norway’s Andøya Rocket Range have suspended until further notice all launches using the S-30 booster following the failure of the Brazilian-made first stage during the Australian Scramspace hypersonic flight experiment last week.
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Chinese engineers are working on a hydrogen-fueled rocket engine almost three times the size of their current largest powerplant in that category. But the work is only at an early stage. The engine, which would develop thrust of 200 metric (440,000 lb.) thrust, exists as a concept or preliminary design. So far, developers are tackling critical technologies and have not built parts of a serviceable engine, says Zhang Nan, president of the Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Institute.
