interested party: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) would like to replace the late Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, a congressional aide and industry source tell Aviation Week. If he is appointed, it would be a somewhat surprising move, as Durbin has not been a forceful voice on the committee, although he represents a state where Boeing has a strong presence.
PARIS — European launch services provider Arianespace says it generated sales of €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) spread across 10 launches in 2012, a 30% increase over 2011 and a record that will see the company break even for the year, with the help of annual price supports financed by the European Space Agency (ESA) to keep the commercial launch consortium from operating at a loss.
BEIJING — China has declared its Beidou satellite navigation system fully operational, although the service remains limited to most of the Asia-Pacific region. The operating office says it is “accelerating” construction of the system, but repeats its longstanding commitment to achieve global coverage by about 2020; no earlier possibility is mentioned.
The key to making the next generation of ballistic missile submarines survivable and even more valuable in future decades will be to design the vessels with enough flexibility for later technological improvements, says Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, director of submarine warfare. Bruner likens the effort to the commercial industry for everyday transportation.
LONDON — The British government is to spend £160 million ($256 million) on the Thales Watchkeeper UAV over the next three years, but is unable to say when the much-delayed system will finally enter service. The British army is buying 54 Watchkeeper WK450 air vehicles, a modified variant of the Elbit Hermes 450 UAV along with 15 ground control stations as part of its Tactical UAV requirement. As part of the procurement, the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MoD) is spending £73 million, £59 million and £28 million, respectively, over the next three financial years.
After years of buying its small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) from AeroVironment, the U.S. Army has qualified four additional companies to compete for future procurements. Indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) umbrella contracts have been awarded to Altavian, Elbit USA, IATech and Lockheed Martin, in addition to incumbent AeroVironment.
Final prelaunch tests will begin Jan. 11 for NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission now that Lockheed Martin Space Systems has completed integrating the science instruments with the spacecraft at its Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
Aviation Week Events - Defense Technology And Affordability Requirements March 5-6 2013 Hilton Arlington Arlington, VA Join senior defense officials and discover where priorities and opportunities exist beyond the FY 2014 budget and hear First-hand how programs are implementing affordable and effective designs! Register now at www.aviationweek.com/events/dtar
As the U.S. Navy battens down for stormier financial seas, the service is looking for ways to reduce the total ownership costs for its vessels and bolster ship maintenance as a way to save money and retain its fleet force, says Vice Adm. William Burke, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems. The service also needs to rely more on simulations to train and prepare its personnel while cutting cut costs, Burke said Jan. 8 during a Navy League breakfast briefing.
U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) delivered two 60-meter Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs) to the Iraq navy at the Umm Qasr naval facility on Dec. 19. The two OSVs were procured as part of the U.S. Navy’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. The vessels will help reconstitute Iraq’s ability to enforce maritime sovereignty and security in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Bolstering Iraqi naval capability has become a priority in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces and related military resources.
Democrats in the House and Senate have named the anticipated new members of congressional committees. In the Senate, Mark Begich (Alaska) joins the appropriations committee. Maize Hirono (Hawaii) is likely to join the armed services committee, along with other freshmen Tim Kaine (Va.) and Angus King (Maine).
Aviation Week Events - Defense Technology And Affordability Requirements March 5-6 2013 Hilton Arlington Arlington, VA Join senior defense officials and discover where priorities and opportunities exist beyond the FY 2014 budget and hear First-hand how programs are implementing affordable and effective designs! Register now at www.aviationweek.com/events/dtar
AIR FORCE FedCon/South Bay Joint Venture, San Antonio, Texas, (FA3089-13-D-0001) is being awarded a $75,000,000 multiple award construction contract for general construction category to include maintenance, repair, alteration, mechanical, electrical, heating/air conditioning, demolition, painting, paving and earthwork. The location of the performance is Randolph AFB, Texas. The work is expected to be completed by Jan. 4, 2018. The contracting activity is 902 CONS/LGCA, Randolph AFB, Texas.
The Pentagon wants to improve the way it audits closeouts of major contracts to curb financial risks to the Defense Department. The department has a large volume of contracts that have not been closed on time, confirms a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, noting that closing a contract includes tasks such as verifying that the goods and services were provided and making final payment to the contractor.
LONDON — Airbus Military has confirmed that it has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Indian air force’s (IAF) aerial refueling tanker program. India is discussing the purchase of six aircraft in a deal worth around $1 billion. India selected the Airbus A330 multirole tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft over the Russian-built Ilyushin Il-78 tanker aircraft, a variant of the Il-76 transport plane already in service with the IAF.
HOUSTON — U.S. and Russian medical experts will draw from seven broad areas as they establish a research agenda in early 2013 for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station flown by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, test cosmonaut from RSC Energia. The ISS veterans were selected in late November by the U.S. and Russian space agencies to train for the long flight expected to launch in March 2015 and potentially reveal health or performance concerns for future human deep space exploration.
ABOARD THE USS FREEDOM — At near 40 kt. the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom creates a “rooster tail” of water out of its stern strong enough to swamp small boats and knock people off the vessels. “The rooster tail is a weapon,” says Joe Shifflett, who manages the LCS Navy training center in San Diego. Cruisers and destroyers have used wakes to disrupt small craft in the past, but neither of those vessels — in fact, nothing else in the U.S. Navy fleet — creates the hydrant-like spray the way an LCS can.
planet candidates: NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered 461 new planet candidates, NASA announced Jan. 7. Four are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their respective stars’ “habitable zone” in which liquid water can exist on the surface, the agency says. The observations, gathered from May 2009 to March 2011, “show a steady increase in the number of smaller-size planet candidates and the number of stars with more than one candidate,” NASA says.
