LOS ANGELES — European Space Agency (ESA) researchers evaluating a hypersonic concept demonstrator called Hexafly are studying the potential of flight testing two different scaled versions of the same Mach 8 vehicle.
NASA’s fiscal 2014 budget request will include $100 million for a new mission to find a small asteroid, capture it with a robotic spacecraft and bring it into range of human explorers somewhere in the vicinity of the Moon.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Indonesia’s Air Chief Marshal Ida Bagus Putu Dunia, who was appointed in December, is open to the government’s decision to allow more commercial access to Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, which is a base for military transports. “We are supportive of the government’s decision. They are still working on that. There are some decisions [still to come] regarding operations at Halim. But we are happy for airlines to use Halim,” Ida Bagus told Aviation Week on the sidelines of this week’s LIMA Airshow in Malaysia.
Global climate change, increasing population and development are growing as national security issues, a U.S. State Department official said March 20. Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, says she is “seeing these issues now become more and more threats to stability. They’re foreign policy issues.”
CYBER GUARD: To counter the mounting number of cyber attacks, a group of senators led by Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are working on legislation urging the Pentagon to train members of the National Guard to respond to cyber threats. The bill would establish Cyber Guard units in every state that could be activated by state governors or the Defense Secretary and would draw on the private-sector information technology expertise of National Guard members. The bill is aimed at offsetting a shortage of cyber experts across government.
TILTROTOR DOWNWASH: Financial analysts at RBC Capital Markets recently met with Textron management and came away sensing “frustration” concerning the multiyear procurement (MYP) deal with the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) for V-22 tiltrotor aircraft. “If agreed in the currently proposed form then [subsidiary] Bell will see volumes come down from [around 40/year to about] 20 as the MYP procures 99 V-22s over a five-year period,” the analysts told investor clients.
Defense budget cuts in the U.S. and Europe have not crimped planned attendance at the 2013 Paris air show, according to show officials. The defense downturn is being offset by two key factors: an increase in the commercial market and an “economic war” to export defense products since domestic budgets are declining, says Paris air show Chairman Emeric D’Arcimoles. The U.S. Air Force is still planning to attend the show, but NASA, the U.S. Army and the Navy have canceled their participation, show officials say.
An International Launch Systems Proton rocket orbited Satmex 8 in a 9-hr., 13-min. mission flying from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan late March 26, putting the big Russian rocket back in business after a Dec. 8 anomaly left a Russian telecom satellite in a low orbit. Liftoff of the Proton/Briz M stack came at 3:07 p.m. EDT, and the upper stage placed the Space Systems/Loral bird in a geostationary transfer orbit after its standard five-burn flight profile.
The U.S. Air Force needs to improve the ways it justifies and manages its cost-reimbursable contracts, according to the Pentagon’s Inspector General (IG). “Of the 156 contracts reviewed, valued at about $10.5 billion, Air Force contracting personnel did not consistently implement the interim rule for 75 contracts, valued at about $8.8 billion,” the IG says in a report released earlier this month.
While most of the defense community has been expecting the U.S. Navy to reap the majority of the harvest from the nation’s Pacific Pivot and shift to Asia, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says all Pentagon forces will benefit. Speaking recently as part of a global panel at the third Jakarta International Defense Dialogue, or JIDD, Carter ticked off a series of programs and capabilities from the range of U.S. forces that will be needed to successfully accomplish the shift, the American Forces Press reports.
While the U.S. Navy still officially counts the Griffin missile as part of the Littoral Combat Ship’s (LCS) surface warfare (SUW) module package, the service is now testing the system aboard other ships to see if it is actually up to the task, even for the short term, says the head of the LCS Council of admirals overseeing the vessel.
LONDON — The Spanish army has begun transporting three Eurocopter EC665 Tiger attack helicopters to Afghanistan, kicking off the country’s first operational deployment of the type. The helicopters will be deployed to Herat in west Afghanistan beginning March 27. They will be used to support the pullout of Spanish troops, which is due to be completed in 2014.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Indonesia says it is open to the U.S. military’s “Pacific Pivot” and shift of focus to Asia, a stance that is in line with Indonesia’s efforts to procure more U.S. defense equipment. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter issued a press statement March 22 saying, “Asian defense leaders were eager for a U.S. presence and involvement in the region and will very palpably feel the U.S. rebalance in the Asia Pacific region.”
CANCELED: U.S. Fleet Forces recently notified several Navy commands that the Secretary of Defense approved cancellations of their upcoming deployments due to budget limitations imposed by sequestration. The April deployments of the Naval Station Norfolk-based USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), USS Kauffman (FFG 59) and the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-based USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51), along with their supporting units, have been canceled. Kauffman and Comfort were scheduled to deploy to the U.S.
NUCLEAR STUDY: Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, has named two members to a congressionally mandated advisory panel examining nuclear security: former Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) and T.J. Glauther, former deputy energy secretary. The “Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the National Security Enterprise” will eventually comprise 12 members.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — While Australia’s requirement to replace its aging F-18s captures much public attention, other military aircraft procurements in the country’s pipeline include a new primary trainer and advanced maritime patrol aircraft. Australia’s defense department publicly agreed last October to help with further development of the Boeing P-8A with the intent of eventually purchasing the aircraft. It has, however, yet to order the P-8A. These would replace the air force’s 19 Lockheed Martin AP-3C Orion aircraft.
