HOUSTON — SpaceX retrieval crews began recovery of the company’s Dragon CRS-2 resupply craft from Pacific waters off the coast of Baja, Calif., on March 26, following its departure from the International Space Station and a successful plunge through the Earth’s atmosphere. Slowed by three parachutes, the unpiloted capsule splashed down 200 mi. west of Baja at 12:34 p.m. EDT, with a nearly 2,700-lb. cargo of research gear and equipment for distribution to scientists, refurbishment or disposal.
The U.S. Navy recently started at-sea testing and data collection of the Rapid Prototype Torpedo Warning System (TWS) and Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo (CAT) system. The tests are being conducted aboard the CVN-77 USS George H.W. Bush by the Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) Surface Ship Torpedo Defense (SSTD) team. The aircraft carrier is currently completing training qualifications. This marks the first aircraft carrier to use the TWS, Navy officials say, which was installed during the ship’s recent planned incremental availability period.
PRYING EYES: Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is joining other lawmakers in drafting legislation to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens from being invaded by loitering UAVs, specifically UAVs operated by private citizens. “The only way to truly embrace these innovative, job-creating technologies, is to assure the public that these technologies will not compromise Coloradans’ basic privacy rights,” says Udall, who is supportive of a bid from his home state to become one of six test sites for civilian-use UAVs.
MUHU ISLAND, Estonia — Estonia unveiled the first of two new long-range air defense radar posts March 26 as part of an effort to modernize the former Soviet-occupied country’s air surveillance capability in support of NATO air policing missions. Produced by ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS), Estonia’s first Ground Master 403 (GM 403) radar was delivered to the Baltic nation last December under a 2009 contract valued at €25 million ($32 million), including options.
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The U.S. Forest Service is in search of six or more high-fidelity networked aerial firefighting simulators for initial and recurrent training of fire management officials and contract pilots flying a wide variety of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft for the agency.
Engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock recently released software that provides the U.S. government, industry and academia a standardized method of analyzing ship testing data that is expected to improve high-speed craft design, Navy officials say. The software — called Standard G — uses a physics-based approach to analyze data recorded during wave-impact testing on watercraft and was developed in partnership with the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Naval Academy and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
GROUND FORECAST: The West’s simultaneous withdrawal from Afghanistan and fiscal austerity efforts at home will eat into the MRO business for ground combat vehicles, according to one consulting group, but the industry may not see its worst fears realized. Visiongain sees the global military ground vehicle MRO market at $5.66 billion this year, and it should continue to achieve “strong and stable” growth.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia’s air force chief is still optimistic that his country will eventually order 100 Lockheed Martin F-35s, even though the government is currently looking at ordering 24 additional Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets in light of delays with F-35 development.
It will take another year for export control reforms aimed at easing the path for the U.S. satellite industry to take effect, which is time enough for manufacturers and others affected by more than a decade of onerous International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to push for additional changes.
The U.S. Navy’s first Mobile Landing Platform MLP-1 USNS Montford Point successfully completed builder’s sea trials March 20 in San Diego, proving the vessel’s propulsion, ballasting, communications, navigation and mission systems, as well as related support systems meet requirements. The milestone is not only an accomplishment for the program of a new ship concept, but also for the Navy itself, which has had some issues lately with developing other new first-of-class vessel concepts.
ARMY BAE Systems – Ordnance Systems Inc., Kingsport, Tenn., was awarded a $780,802,473 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the manufacture and supply of Insensitive Munitions Explosives. The work location will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 29, 2017. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-12-D-0037).
Success in the Army’s growing catalog of work in linking manned and unmanned aviation assets could lead the service to reduce is reliance on helicopters, potentially impacting the planned buys of Boeing Apache AH-64Es and future Armed Aerial Scouts.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) closed the hatches on the SpaceX Dragon CRS-2 supply capsule March 25, after preparing a near 2,700-lb. cargo for a weather-delayed splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja, Calif. The splashdown under parachute is scheduled for March 26 at 12:34 p.m. EDT. Over the weekend, a forecast for rough seas in the recovery zone 200 to 300 mi. offshore prompted NASA and Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX to call for a one-day postponement in the unpiloted capsule’s ISS departure and descent.
Lockheed Martin is planning additional air- and ground-launched tests of its stealthy Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm) under development for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Office of Naval Research.
