Perhaps more than any other service, the U.S. Navy is facing an identity crisis as it tries to find the funds to support the fleet of ships it says it needs in the coming decades just as the Pentagon and Congress are tightening the budget belt. Navy officials and defense analysts disagree about what exactly the Navy needs to focus its investments on as the service looks to build and rebuild its submarine, destroyer, amphibious and aircraft carrier fleets nearly simultaneously.
SUN BLOCK: Preflight test layers for the sunshield that will protect NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are meeting performance targets during engineering tests, according to telescope prime Northrop Grumman. The tennis-court-sized sunshield is designed to keep the telescope cool enough in its Earth-trailing orbit for its sensitive infrared instruments to work. The membrane layers of the sunshield, each as thin as a human hair, are made of Kapton. ManTech International produces the sunshield.
GRIPEN OFFSETS: Saab is meeting with Swiss industry this week to help define the details of the offset program associated with Switzerland’s planned purchase of 22 Gripen NGs. The offset contract itself is not expected to be signed until 2013 or 2014, according to the Swiss defense armaments agency, armasuisse. But the meetings, taking place in Bern and unfolding through June 29, are designed to help intensify contacts between Saab and potential offset partners. The talks also involve other Gripen NG industrial stakeholders and Swiss companies.
The U.S. Army is evaluating AgustaWestland’s AW139 medium twin-turbine helicopter as the company prepares to propose the smaller AW169 for the service’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement. AgustaWestland North America is the first of five companies expected to provide available helicopters for evaluation in voluntary flight demonstrations as part of the Army’s AAS acquisition strategy.
James Albaugh, the Boeing veteran who has been a management leader in all of the company’s product markets — space, defense and airliners — will retire as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) on Oct. 1. Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney has named another company veteran to succeed Albaugh. Executive Vice President Raymond L. Conner joined Boeing 34 years ago as a mechanic and currently heads its global sales operations.
LOS ANGELES — Rolls-Royce confirms it is throwing its hat into the ring for the U.S. Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Technology Development program (AETD), which aims to demonstrate potential fuel saving features for sixth-generation fighters as well as future bombers and other tactical aircraft. Mark Wilson, chief operating officer of Rolls-Royce’s Liberty Works advanced development organization in Indianapolis, says “We did put in a bid for the adaptive engine technology program, and this is currently in source selection with the Air Force.”
The U.S. is already moving equipment out of Afghanistan, and soon will be spending less money to supply fuel, equipment and spares. Still, the head of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) wants to reduce spending on top of that, cutting $10 billion over the next five years.
A Bagram-based U.S. Army aviation support unit is slated July 2 to host Afghan helicopter mechanics to share aircraft repair methods and safety standards, marking their second visit after kicking off a joint training partnership earlier this month. If and when U.S. Army aviators — and their support teams — leave Afghanistan, Afghan forces will have to fly and maintain helicopters on their own, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade hopes to kick off a collaboration that will lead the Afghans to greater maintenance self-sufficiency.
LOS ANGELES — Anxious to avoid the problems that bedeviled Boeing’s 787 and other recent development programs, systems supplier Parker Aerospace is funneling extra resources into controlling its supply chain as production ramps up on several key air transport, business jet and engine programs.
FOUL WEATHER: The looming arrival of Tropical Storm Debby has prompted United Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force to delay the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite by 24 hr. The launch of NROL-15 is now set for June 29 at 6:13 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral. The protective Mobile Service Tower will remain around the Delta IV launch vehicle and is scheduled to be moved for launch on June 28.
SATCOM MARKET: The worldwide commercial communications satellite market will be worth $52.7 billion from 2012-2021, according to a new study from consultancy Forecast International. Demand will be especially strong in developing markets such as Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, the study says, driven by a lack of terrestrial networks and rapid growth in demand for communications in these areas. The top manufacturers over the next decade will be Space Systems/Loral, Thales Alenia Space, EADS Astrium, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The most powerful version of Space Exploration Technologies' Merlin rocket engine yet developed has completed its first full-duration mission firing test
LOS ANGELES — NASA is completing fabrication of the first Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule due to be tested in space, while at the same time starting key vacuum tests on the Alliant Techsystems (ATK)-built composite module that could form the basis for future crew transport to Earth orbit. Following final structural work, the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Orion will be shipped from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will undergo final assembly and checkout.
While the House overwhelmingly overturned the U.S. Air Force’s request to end funding for Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Block 30, the company’s bid to protect the high-altitude UAV faces a much tougher fight in the Senate. The Air Force wants to place 18 of the Block 30s in storage and says it can save $2.5 billion over several years by continuing to operate the manned U-2 spy aircraft. The House Appropriations Committee rejected that, keeping funding to operate the UAVs and adding funding for an additional three.
With a year or so to go before the closure of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, the focus is now on how the company will absorb the cost of ending operations there. “The company’s No. 1 risk is the Avondale closure, with closing costs still to be negotiated with the Navy,” Citi says in a recent note to investors. “Until the closure is complete, HII management is unwilling to discuss specific cash deployment plans.”
STEVENAGE, England — Having completed key development flight tests for the Meteor ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, MBDA is now preparing the final performance statement for customers on the weapon. The move comes as the company is also about to wrap up development of the program and begin first missile deliveries to the U.K. before year’s end; ground-handling test vehicles have already been delivered to the U.K.
