As the U.S. migrates away from the ground-war mindset that colored most of the Pentagon thinking through the past decade, the Navy sees a potential resurgence in submarine programs similar to what the service enjoyed during the Cold War. That king of renaissance should help provide support for future, relatively expensive Navy submarine programs, such as the SSBN(X) ballistic missile sub replacement fleet.
Documents released after the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corp. to prevent the U.S. Air Force recompeting its Light Air Support (LAS) contract depict a shambolic source selection and potential bias toward Sierra Nevada, offering the Embraer Super Tucano.
Engineers reached a milestone in the development of the parachute recovery system for NASA’s Orion deep space crew vehicle on Dec. 20, as a 21,000-lb. spacecraft simulator floated to an intact landing at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, following an intentional drogue chute failure. Drop tests of the four-person capsule are scheduled to resume in February with an intentional main chute failure.
An engineering board has cleared the first element of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) for preliminary manufacturing, keeping the big new government-owned rocket on track for a first flight with the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle in 2017.
One of the toughest aspects of making laws is balancing the needs of the federal government while staying true to the voters at home. Such is the case in this year’s fight to maintain the Air National Guard (ANG) and Reserve, the force lending a hand to the active duty military while serving all 50 states.
Two of the leading contenders for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize have merged, pooling their technical and marketing resources to push for a robotic mission to the Moon’s surface early in 2015. Moon Express Inc., a Silicon Valley startup going after the X Prize as its first step toward a commercial payload-delivery business, acquired the Rocket City Space Pioneers team in an acquisition agreement with Dynetics.
LONDON — AirTanker, the consortium providing the U.K. with new aerial refueling tanker aircraft, has secured its Civil Aviation Authority Air Operating Certificate (AOC) and taken delivery of its third aircraft. The organization received the Airbus A330 Voyager tanker on Dec. 19 from Cobham in Bournemouth, which had converted the A330 into the tanker configuration. The arrival now means AirTanker has three aircraft — two tankers and a single standard A330 that is being used for transport or trooping flights.
With negotiations over the nation’s debt and deficit ongoing, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a memo on the matter of across-the-board spending cuts due to take place at the start of the new year that should relieve some anxiety among department personnel. He issued guidance to the Pentagon’s civilian workforce reminding them that sequestration will not be a government shutdown and that workers should still report for duty on Jan. 3.
At company facilities in Seattle, Boeing has made an on-site delivery of the first P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the Indian navy. “India will receive this aircraft and two more of its eight contracted P-8Is in 2013. The program is progressing on schedule as Boeing assembles the fourth and fifth P-8Is,” the company said in a statement Dec. 20.
MOSCOW — The revenue of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation in 2012 is expected to reach 180 billion rubles (about $5.8 billion), the corporation’s CEO Mikhail Pogosyan said Dec. 20. By the end of the year UAC will have delivered 20 commercial aircraft and 35 military aircraft for the Russian Defense Ministry. For the first time in UAC history, deliveries to the Russian military will outnumber exported combat aircraft, Pogosyan said.
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 Click here to view the pdf
A system developed to provide precise positioning in areas denied signals from navigation satellites is to be deployed to enable testing of military GPS receiver performance during jamming. The ground-based non-GPS positioning system from Locata is also being looked at as a backup at critical national infrastructure sites that use GPS for precise timing, such as mobile communications, electronic commerce and power-grid synchronization.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense has signed a £258 million ($419 million) contract for support of its Sea King fleet in its final years of operation. The deal with AgustaWestland secures a three-year extension to the Sea King Integrated Operational Support (SKIOS) contract that covers technical and maintenance support for the 90-strong fleet of Sea Kings operated by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
Government satellite operators in the U.K. and Mexico are taking delivery of two large telecommunications satellites following the night launch of the 10th Ariane V mission this year. Liftoff of the big European rocket came at 4:49 p.m. EST (6:49 p.m. local time) Wednesday from the European launch center at Kourou, French Guiana. On board were Skynet 5D and Mexsat Bicentenario.
ANOTHER TRY: The U.S. Air Force is planning to use the RL10B-2 engine for a late February flight of the fifth Wideband Global Satcom satellite on a Delta IV rocket, according to Dave Madden, who directs the Air Force’s military satellite communications system program office. The Delta IV, which uses the RL10B-2 to power the upper stage, malfunctioned during an Oct. 8 GPS IIF launch and has not flown since. Air Force officials have yet to find a root cause for the low-thrust anomaly.
LONDON — NHIndustries has set a trio of milestones as it steps up deliveries of the land-based and naval versions of the NH90 helicopter. NHIndustries — the joint venture of AgustaWestland, Eurocopter and Fokker — is set to deliver the first Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) variant to the Belgian Air Component on Dec. 21 following the first flight of the aircraft on Sept. 18. On the same day, the consortium will also deliver the first NH90 in the “Step B” NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) configuration to the French navy.
ISTRES, France — French defense procurement agency DGA is in talks with the U.S. Air Force to acquire the General Atomics-built MQ-9 Reaper as a possible interim solution to its medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV requirement. Speaking to reporters here Dec. 19, DGA chief Laurent Collet-Billon said he is discussing the option of purchasing the drones through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
BEIJING — Selection of an aircraft for South Korea’s F-X fighter Phase 3 competition will not be made until the first half of next year. The country’s Defense Industry Committee, chaired by the defense minister, says negotiations are stuck on the point of offsets and other conditions, rather than price. The decision to order heavy attack helicopters, almost certainly Boeing AH-64 Apaches, has also been deferred until the first half of 2013.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), fearing FAA is failing to address privacy concerns involving UAVs, is taking steps to mandate privacy protections and public transparency as the agency begins to facilitate the introduction of UAVs into the national airspace system. Markey on Dec. 18 introduced a bill, H.R.6676, the Drone Aircraft Privacy Transparency Act, calling for disclosure about the use of UAVs and for warrant requirements for law enforcement use.
Doubts still hang over the military utility of small satellites, holding back progress on low-cost, quick-reaction systems that could be launched at short notice to fill gaps in space coverage. To prove their viability, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has begun a program to demonstrate that small satellites produced and launched on demand can provide imagery on request directly to individual soldiers.
