TEL AVIV — Israeli officials are revealing new details of their national space program, including plans for a new spaceborne computer. During a recent international space conference, Menachem Kidron, manager of the Israeli Space Agency (ISA), said the computer should be operational in a few years. It will provide processing capabilities that are currently very hard to achieve in space, as a computer in space must withstand extreme cold and heat as well as powerful radiation. The computer’s development is budgeted at NIS 180 million ($45 million).
SINGAPORE — Satellite manufactures are responding to the challenge of tight fiscal budgets by adopting new business models, such as public-private partnerships, and looking further afield for partners.
House Republicans will meet Feb. 27 to discuss the budget, sequestration and a proposal to keep the government running after current legislation providing funding expires on March 27.
HAGEL CONFIRMED: The Senate on Feb. 26 confirmed former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as the next defense secretary, ending a long and controversial nomination process full of questions about his policy positions and financial past. Taking over at the Pentagon will be that much harder, as the military prepares itself for more than $40 billion in cuts to defense spending for fiscal 2013 to take effect March 1.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, is being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (FA8611-13-D-2850) with a ceiling of $6,900,000,000 for F-22 modernization. The locations of performance are El Segundo, Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; San Diego.; Nashua, N.H.; and Wayne, N.J. The work is expected to be completed by Feb. 20, 2023. This award is a result of a sole source acquisition. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WWUK, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
BRIGHT SIDE: Clark Murdock, a senior adviser for the defense group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the Budget Control Act’s sequestration penalty, which slices a set amount from each eligible program, is still better for the Pentagon than if officials were assigned the task of simply cutting to an overall topline amount. In that case, rational planners likely would have proposed harsher cuts up front.
Orbital Sciences Corp. hopes to launch its new Antares rocket on its first flight at the end of March or early in April, following a successful 29-sec. hot-fire test on its new launch pad at Wallops Flight Facility, Va. Orbital engineers believe they have dealt with a fairing-separation issue that cost NASA two Earth-observing satellites in back-to-back launch failures on the company’s Taurus XL rocket, and don’t expect similar problems with the frangible-joint separation mechanism on the much larger Antares fairing.
DESPERATE TIMES: It’s not new, and it’s not likely to go anywhere. Still, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) is proposing a bill that would remove military spending from sequestration and allow the remainder of about $500 billion in budget cuts over 10 years to fall on the rest of the federal government. But the proposal from Forbes — who chairs the House Armed Services sea power and projection forces subcommittee — is merely symbolic.
If sequestration takes place March 1, military furloughs are not expected to begin at that time. Rather, they would start around April 25, according to a proposed Pentagon timeline.
LONDON — BAE Systems is leading the Eurofighter consortium’s push to sell the Typhoon to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). RMAF officials are on the hunt for a new multirole combat aircraft (MRCA) to replace the country’s aging Mikoyan MiG-29 fleet. The Typhoon is up against Saab’s Gripen, the Dassault Rafale and Boeing’s Super Hornet. BAE is confident the U.K.’s ties with the country will give it an advantage.
LITTLE CREEK, Va. — While the U.S. Navy ponders canceling or delaying various deployments, repairs and other operations, the service plans to keep pace with the more robust inspection schedule that it recently implemented for a good part of its fleet. In order to do so, says Rear Adm. Robert Wray, president of the Board of Inspection and Survey (Insurv), the service may have to rely more on uniformed inspectors than civilian technicians to scrutinize the ships as well as the systems, equipment and components aboard.
A team of researchers from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has developed a shipping resupply computer program that aims to save the Navy millions of dollars in fuel costs. Called the Replenishment at Sea Planner (RASP), the program creates a schedule that minimizes the distance supply ships have to travel and identifies routes that allow vessels to travel at speeds optimal for fuel conservation, says NPS research associate Anton Rowe of Honolulu, who wrote the detailed code that makes RASP work.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $20,560,000 contract modification (FA8621-11-C-6288, P00020) for procurement of one C-130J weapon system trainer device for Air Mobility Command. The location of performance is Marietta, Ga. and Tampa, Fla. Work is expected to be completed by June 30, 2016. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WNSK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. NAVY
TEL AVIV — Israel’s defense ministry says it carried out a successful flight test of the Arrow 3 missile interceptor. The test was conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The interceptor was launched into space Feb. 25 at around 6 a.m. local time from a coastal military launching pad in central Israel. The missile flew for more than 6 min., testing Arrow 3’s fly-out capabilities at altitudes well more than 100 km (60 mi.). The test plan did not include an actual intercept, so no target was used.
NEW DELHI — In a clear confidence-building measure amidst chronic last-lap delays, India’s homegrown Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) will be deployed for the first time in an air force exercise, code-named Iron Fist, over the Thar Desert in western India. Set to begin Feb. 22, Iron Fist will see the Tejas for the first time fire air-to-air and strike weapons while flying in battlefield conditions with other Indian air force (IAF) aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, Mirage 2000H, Jaguar, MiG-21, MiG-27 and MiG-29.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Feb. 25 - 26 — Social Media Within the Military and the Defence Sector Europe, Movenpick City Centre Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. For more information go to www.smi-online.co.uk Feb. 26 - Mar. 2 — Australian International Airshow and Aerospace and Defense Exposition, Avalon Greelong Airport. For more information go to www.airshow.com/au/airshow2013
