TEL AVIV — Israeli intelligence planners are trying to predict how and when Syria’s government will fall, and who will be there to protect or loot the country’s military equipment, particularly Syria’s stock of chemical weapons, ballistic missiles and long-range, anti-aircraft missiles. “What will happen to Bashar [Assad, Syria’s president] is very interesting to us, but it is also a great mystery,” says Col. Erez Viezel, a conceptual planner for Israeli Defense Intelligence (IDI). “We want to know how much control he has over the things that threaten us.”
GALILEO DELIVERY: Manufacturer Astrium has delivered the third and fourth Galileo navigation and timing satellites to the European Space Agency’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, following an acceptance review. The two spacecraft will be launched aboard a Soyuz rocket, joining two satellites already in space to complete the initial Galileo In Orbit Validation system. In February, Astrium received a contract from ESA to adapt the Ariane 5 launcher to be able to launch four Galileo satellites in a single mission.
TAKING REINS: Giorgio Zappa, newly appointed chairman of Italian aerospace company Vitrociset, is targeting a revenue increase despite Europe’s financial downturn. Zappa, 67, boasts a long history in Alenia Aeronautica and Finmeccanica, where he departed as COO in May 2011. In his new position he has operating powers, including responsibilities for audit, strategies and business development. Current CEO Antonio Bontempi, another Finmeccanica veteran, will remain in charge of company operations.
LOS ANGELES — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is modifying its manufacturing flow at Hawthorne, Calif., as part of plans to boost production of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket cores to 40 per year. The re-modeling is required to ramp up the rate to meet the existing and expected launch demand, says SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. “Next year we need to build one core per month, and then ramp up 50% year-over-year to be where we want to be.”
Switzerland is to lease 11 Saab JAS 39C/Ds from Sweden to bridge the gap until its 22 single-seat JAS 39E next-generation Gripen fighters are delivered beginning in mid-2018. The eight single-seat Cs and three two-seat Ds will be leased for five years from 2016-20 for SFr 44 million ($46 million) a year — SFr 10 million more than the annual cost of the F-5Es they will replace.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) has come up with a new twist on proven borescope engine-inspection technology. While previous engine-inspection borescopes used by the Navy detected engine debris with a rigid probe and generated low-quality, black-and-white pictures, Naviar’s Common Video Borescope Set, or CVBS has a 2-meter long, flexible, insertion tube that captures photos and video images on a 3.7-in. color screen. Technicians will use a joystick to maneuver the device’s insertion tube, giving them a 360-deg. view of hard-to-see places.
MOSCOW —The Russian air force is nearing the end of its testing program for the new Sukhoi Su-35S multirole fighter. Preliminary approval for deliveries to regular units is expected in October, according to the air force.
GALILEO DELIVERY: Manufacturer Astrium has delivered the third and fourth Galileo navigation and timing satellites to the European Space Agency’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, following an acceptance review. The two spacecraft will be launched aboard a Soyuz rocket, joining two satellites already in space to complete the initial Galileo In Orbit Validation system. In February, Astrium received a contract from ESA to adapt the Ariane 5 launcher to be able to launch four Galileo satellites in a single mission.
Switzerland is to lease 11 Saab JAS 39C/Ds from Sweden to bridge the gap until its 22 single-seat JAS 39E next-generation Gripen fighters are delivered beginning in mid-2018. The eight single-seat Cs and three two-seat Ds will be leased for five years from 2016-20 for SFr 44 million ($46 million) a year — SFr 10 million more than the annual cost of the F-5Es they will replace.
LOS ANGELES — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is modifying its manufacturing flow at Hawthorne, Calif., as part of plans to boost production of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket cores to 40 per year. The re-modeling is required to ramp up the rate to meet the existing and expected launch demand, says SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. “Next year we need to build one core per month, and then ramp up 50% year-over-year to be where we want to be.”
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is revealing energetic, previously unobserved supermassive black holes, including a new mega-powerful class of objects that appear to have influenced the transformation of galaxies, astronomers reported Aug. 29. Observations with a range of space- and ground-based observatories over the past decade have revealed the presence of supermassive black holes at the center of every galaxy.
TAKING REINS: Giorgio Zappa, newly appointed chairman of Italian aerospace company Vitrociset, is targeting a revenue increase despite Europe’s financial downturn. Zappa, 67, boasts a long history in Alenia Aeronautica and Finmeccanica, where he departed as COO in May 2011. In his new position he has operating powers, including responsibilities for audit, strategies and business development. Current CEO Antonio Bontempi, another Finmeccanica veteran, will remain in charge of company operations.
The Republicans’ 2012 platform, approved during the party’s presidential nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., this week, lashes out at President Obama on many fronts, including the U.S. Air Force’s aircraft reductions.
TEL AVIV — Israeli intelligence planners are trying to predict how and when Syria’s government will fall, and who will be there to protect or loot the country’s military equipment, particularly Syria’s stock of chemical weapons, ballistic missiles and long-range, anti-aircraft missiles. “What will happen to Bashar [Assad, Syria’s president] is very interesting to us, but it is also a great mystery,” says Col. Erez Viezel, a conceptual planner for Israeli Defense Intelligence (IDI). “We want to know how much control he has over the things that threaten us.”
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) has come up with a new twist on proven borescope engine-inspection technology. While previous engine-inspection borescopes used by the Navy detected engine debris with a rigid probe and generated low-quality, black-and-white pictures, Naviar’s Common Video Borescope Set, or CVBS has a 2-meter long, flexible, insertion tube that captures photos and video images on a 3.7-in. color screen. Technicians will use a joystick to maneuver the device’s insertion tube, giving them a 360-deg. view of hard-to-see places.
MOSCOW —The Russian air force is nearing the end of its testing program for the new Sukhoi Su-35S multirole fighter. Preliminary approval for deliveries to regular units is expected in October, according to the air force.
With the upcoming widening of the Panama Canal catching the attention of the U.S. Navy brass—particularly Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations—the annual regional exercise featuring the U.S. and its Latin American partners is taking on greater importance. This year’s Panamax-12 exercise, which wrapped up earlier this month, attracted even more attention with the debut of the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (Centrixs) command-and-control suite, a first for the Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility (AOR).
TEL AVIV — Following its withdrawals from South Lebanon, Gaza and some of the West Bank, Israel must stretch its intelligence-gathering to leverage new technological capabilities that partly offset the loss of traditional human intelligence (humint). All of Israel’s top-tier defense companies are involved in this national effort, including Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems and Rafael, as well as smaller companies specializing in sensor development, data fusion, information access and retrieval.
