MELBOURNE, Australia — BAE Systems Australia says it is nearing completion of an autonomous navigation, guidance and control package that would allow precise localization of an unmanned aircraft without emissions, satellite signals or even preparatory mapping. The system also is intended to flexibly and autonomously guide the aircraft through its mission rather than forcing it to follow a line of waypoints, to reorder mission priorities as opportunities arise and to land the aircraft without external help.
BUDGET BRIEF: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will deliver his first major address on the Pentagon’s strategic and budgetary challenges at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair in Washington on Wednesday, April 3. The event will be streamed live at http://www.defense.gov. The speech is expected to preview in broad strokes the strategy behind the department’s fiscal 2014 budget request, which is expected to be released April 10 along with the rest of the U.S. government’s proposed budget.
U.S. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, San Diego, Calif., (FA8528-12-C-0003-PZ0001) is being awarded a $433,518,021 (estimated) cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contractor logistics support for the RQ-4 Global Hawk fielded weapon system. The location of the performance is San Diego, Calif. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2014. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WIKBA, Robins Air Force Base, Ga. U.S. NAVY
NASA installations are vulnerable to catastrophic loss of life and injury, damage to facilities, equipment and the environment as well as loss of mission capabilities due to lapses within the agency’s Explosives Safety Program, according to the agency’s Inspector General (IG). Problems stem from management complacency and a lack of resources, training and record keeping, IG Paul Martin cautions in a March 27 report.
U.S. Africa Command (Africom) is a great idea, but it should spend more time engaging with African militaries and less time painting schools and digging wells, according to a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa. Jendayi Frazer, the first woman appointed U.S. ambassador to South Africa and a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said she “very much supported” Africom when it was created by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, but thought it got its mandate wrong at first.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 8 - 11 — 29th National Space Symposium - Space Foundation, The Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colo.. For more information go to www.nationalspacesymposium.org Apr. 8 - 11 — Sea-Air-Space Expo 2013, Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Md. For more information go to www.seaairspace.org/
The U.S. Navy is getting set to renew its approvals for at-sea sonar and explosives testing, while trying to defuse concerns about the possible effects on marime mammals. “The Navy is renewing authorizations that will enable us to continue to train and test live sonar and explosives at sea for another five years [2019],” says Rear Adm. KevinSlates, director of the energy and environmental readiness division for the chief of naval operations, in a recent blog.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) is aiming to start manufacturing C295s in September 2014 and is speaking to Airbus Military about jointly marketing the CN235 and ensuring commonality. Airbus Military in Spain and IAe in Bandung both assemble CN235s, but there are some differences between the products and the two companies have had a tendency to compete against one another for CN235 sales.
Northrop Grumman’s AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) successfully detected multiple rocket launches during company-funded testing that the firm says demonstrates the radar’s ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability. The G/ATOR system detected multiple rockets launched by NASA from its Wallops Island, Va., test site, including three different rocket types. Data collected from the testing will be used to verify potential future theater ballistic missile algorithms and ballistic missile defense capabilities.
HOUSTON — Russia’s express crew mission to the International Space Station succeeded late March 28, as the Soyuz TMA-08M capsule carrying two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut docked to the orbiting science lab within 6 hr. of liftoff. A second Soyuz crew will attempt to duplicate the fast-track transit in May, as the ISS partnership assesses the merits and challenges of routinely expediting what is normally a 34-orbit journey over two days for ISS astronauts in the close confines of the venerable Russian capsules.
LONDON — State-owned consortium Russian Helicopters sold nearly 300 helicopters during 2012 and increased revenues by 21% to 125 billion rubles ($4 billion). The Moscow-based company delivered 290 aircraft, up from 262 during 2011. Nine models of rotorcraft were sold to operators from 19 nations. The company now has a backlog of 817 helicopters worth nearly 360 billion rubles ($11.5 billion).
GRIPEN DEAL: Saab and Swedish defense procurement agency FMV have signed a SEK 10.7 billion ($1.65 billion) contract for development work on the next-generation Gripen fighter. The contract follows on from a smaller SEK 2.5 billion deal contract in February. The development order, signed on March 22, accounts for operations on the Gripen E program from 2015-2023.
NEW DELHI — India’s Bharat Electronics (BEL) will manufacture sub-assemblies for the Boeing Super Hornet fighter. “Under a follow-on contract of 2011, BEL will deliver components for our F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft,” says Dennis Swanson, vice president of international business development for Boeing Defense, Space & Security in India.
The Pentagon’s 2012 portfolio of 86 major defense acquisition programs is estimated to cost a total of $1.6 trillion, reflecting decreases in both size and cost compared to the 2011 portfolio, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Indonesia, which will soon become a manufacturer and marketer of the Airbus Military C295, is considering off-loading its unwanted Indonesian air force Fokker F27s by offering the Dutch-made aircraft in conjunction with the sale of new C295s.
THE PENTAGON — While U.S. Navy and media reports continue to surface questioning the survivability and combat capability of the service’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fleet, the service’s leading admiral now overseeing the program says the vessel’s survivability is a package deal that combines aspects of ship design, operations and even paint scheme.
U.S. and Russian astronauts, strapped in Russia’s Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, lifted off late March 28 on the first “expedited” rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, a four-orbit, 6-hr. transit that mission managers will evaluate as a replacement for the standard two-day voyage.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force is exploring the possible use of a new Boeing C-17 Globemaster simulator opened by FlightSafety International at Farnborough. The new and yet-to-be-announced simulator, which was completed by the company in conjunction with Boeing at the end of 2012, is the second C-17 flight simulation facility outside the U.S. The other is owned by the Royal Australian Air Force and is located at Amberley, Queensland.
