DARK PARTNERS: NASA will join the European Space Agency’s effort to learn more about mysterious dark matter and dark energy in the Universe, supplying hardware and scientists to ESA’s planned Euclid mission. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will deliver 16 advanced infrared detectors and four spares for one of the two instruments planned for Euclid, a space telescope designed to operate at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), following launch in 2020.
Lockheed Martin executives are expecting to finalize negotiations for multibillion-dollar contracts with the Pentagon for the next two lots of F-35s in the first half of 2013, after the last two thorny sets of production discussions each took a year or more to close.
The U.S. Air Force is studying how to gain better insight into the true cost of weapon systems produced year over year, with an eye toward reducing “windfall profit” for companies at the tail end of a production cycle, says Lt. Gen. C.R. Davis, The ultimate goal is to allow the government to share in the benefits when production processes and personnel become most efficient in building a weapon system and prices tend to substantially drop.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) plans to show that a robotic vehicle can remove the antenna from a retired spacecraft in graveyard orbit, and attach systems to it to rebuild a functioning geostationary communications satellite, in an orbital demonstration planned for 2016.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is reinvigorating the debate over providing military assistance to Syrian rebels, saying it is running out of time to intervene in the ongoing civil war.
The U.S. Navy could seek congressional approval to purchase 25 Australian Seabird Seeker surveillance aircraft for Yemen’s transitional government, a U.S. official tells Aviation Week. The manned surveillance planes would supplement four RQ-11 Raven UAVs that Washington procured last year for Yemen, a key ally in the ongoing battle against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and a local affiliate that overtook large swaths of territory during Yemen’s Arab Spring-inspired uprisings in 2011.
BEIJING — China estimates it will account for about 30% of the world’s space launches for the rest of the decade, more than doubling its recent launch pace, according to national space group CASC.
FIRST OF TEN: Boeing has delivered the first of 10 C-17 Globemaster III airlifters destined for the Indian air force (IAF). India’s first C-17 will now enter a U.S. Air Force flight test program at Edwards AFB in Palmdale, Calif., a senior Boeing official said Jan. 23. India signed a $4.1 billion contract with the U.S. in 2011 to acquire the aircraft, making the country the largest C-17 export customer. The two governments finalized the Foreign Military Sales contract for the aircraft last June.
Nearly two dozen former top U.S. Coast Guard officials received compensation from contractors who did work with the Coast Guard after those officials left the service, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “A total of 22 of the 39 former high-ranking officials (admiral-level and SES Senior Executive Service officials) who separated from the Coast Guard from 2006 through 2010 were compensated at some point from 2006 through 2011 by contractors that received obligations from the Coast Guard in calendar year 2011,” GAO reports.
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ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy brass is on a quest to find out why it costs so much more money to buy military equipment than it does to buy similar commercial equipment or systems. For example, it costs about three times more to buy a military-grade generator offering the same rate of power, says Rear Adm. Dave Lewis, program executive officer for Navy ships.
LINTHICUM, Md. — The U.S. Navy’s choice of which contractor to develop and build its Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) very likely will come down to which company team offers the best price, according to officials from Northrop Grumman, one of the competitors for the prized program. The Navy has made it clear what kinds of capabilities it wants for AMDR, Northrop officials say. Now it becomes a matter of which contractor can meet those needs at the lowest price.
NEW DELHI — More than 600 defense and civil aircraft makers from across the globe are expected to display their products at the ninth edition of Aero India, which begins Feb. 6 in Bengaluru in southern India. “The five-day biennial air show provides an ideal window of opportunity to companies to not only network with Indian industries but also benefit from the sharing of expertise in research and development and product support with other global players,” says Indian Defense Production Secretary R.K. Mathur.
In a Jan. 21 brief, a U.S. Marine Corps official misstated the name of the program that is expected to achieve $1 billion in cost avoidance once Congress approves a multiyear procurement. The Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey is the program expected to garner these savings. Negotiations for the deal, expected to cost $1 billion over five years, wrapped up late last year but the contract cannot be signed without congressional approval.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station program is looking to a late March launch of a Russian Soyuz capsule with three crew as its first opportunity to demonstrate a much-abbreviated, four-orbit crew transfer to the orbiting science laboratory, NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said Jan. 17. The planned March 27 launch of the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft would carry NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force has stood up an Expeditionary Air Wing in the United Arab Emirates, as the air arm plans a greater presence in the country. Based at Al Minhad Air Base, just south of Dubai, the 906 Expeditionary Air Wing will support the air bridge between the U.K. and Afghanistan as well as deployments of RAF aircraft taking part in regional exercises. But the creation of the air wing hints at a more permanent presence in the country.
LONDON — The Spanish air force plans to retire three aircraft fleets this year in a bid to reduce costs in the face of Spain’s ongoing economic crisis. The air arm is also planning significant cuts in its flying hours, from around 100,000 per year down to 65,000 during 2013.
Do not expect a major public policy battle over the use of UAVs in foreign airstrikes and reconnaissance in President Barack Obama’s second term, according to the sentiment expressed by his former director of national intelligence (DNI).
LONDON — AgustaWestland and Embraer are examining the potential of helicopter production in Brazil. The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) looking at establishing a joint venture that could lead to the production of AgustaWestland’s helicopters in Brazil for both military and civil use.
