HOOD RIVER, Ore. — The U.S. Navy is moving to integrate the Harpoon anti-ship weapon on the P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, replacing the SLAM-ER previously slated for that role. The change is linked to weapons availability, says Fred Smith, director of business development for surveillance and engagement for Boeing. India also will receive the Harpoon. The P-8 also will be able to employ the Mk. 54 torpedo.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) june 25 - 28 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics 42nd AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference & Exhibit, New Orleans, La. For more information call (703) 264-7622 ext. 106, email [email protected] or go to www.aiaa.org/events June 25 - 28 — AIAA Atmospheric Space Environments Conference, Sheraton New Orleans, New Orleans, La. For more information go to www.aiaa.org
As U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) shifts its money from contingency war operations to its core budget, the command also is focusing more on training overseas partners to keep from spreading its operators too thinly across the globe.
HOUSTON — U.S. and Canadian Space Agency ground-control teams successfully advanced techniques outside the International Space Station (ISS) this week for extending the lives of aging satellites by refueling them, repairing damage or moving inactive spacecraft to prevent them from becoming collision hazards.
President Barack Obama may have reports due to Congress on the impact of a $1 trillion federal budget cut scheduled to take place at the beginning of 2013. That across-the-board reduction to the federal deficit is a penalty known as sequestration that Congress approved last year as a way to force lawmakers to address the toughest issues in deficit reduction. But so far, lawmakers have not reached a deal.
TECH TRANSFER: NASA has launched a new “technology transfer portal” where entrepreneurs, managers and others can look for new, publicly funded technology to commercialize. The site, at http://technology.nasa.gov, includes a searchable database of NASA patents available for transfer to the private domain, and links to agency specialists trained to help make the shift. “A priority of NASA is to get federally funded new technologies into the commercial marketplace,” said Mason Peck, the agency’s chief technologist.
Leaders of the congressional defense committees can agree on this much regarding the threat of steep budget cuts looming next year: it’s time to reach for a deal. Last August, Congress passed a law calling for $1.2 trillion in federal deficit reduction. In the absence of an agreement on how to reduce the deficit, the law institutes a $1.2 trillion across-the-board federal budget cut in January 2013.
Smarter strategies in spending, allocation and technology investments will be required to offset the coming reduction in U.S. defense spending, a new study argues. “Strategy in Austerity,” released June 21 by Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment (CSBA), also argues for exploiting better military technologies, solidly linked to new operations theories, which can allow the U.S. to field a more effective force for the same cost.
As the U.S. Navy invests more in biofuel development, questions are starting to arise about just how important — or affordable — that effort might be. “An important policy question for Congress may be whether a domestic biofuel industry is necessary for national defense, and whether proceeding under the authority of the DPA (Defense Production Act of 1950) offers the necessary stimulus,” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says.
NEW DELHI — India is set to issue a global tender to buy air defense missiles for its army, with the contract expected to be worth 100 billion rupees ($1.8 billion). “A decision to procure Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missiles (QRSAMs) will be taken soon by the government to replace the age-old Russian Kvadrat systems,” a defense ministry official says. The proposed deal could also contain partnership and knowledge transfer clauses that would enable an Indian company to make certain major equipment for the missile, he says.
EYES ON THE SKY: The Pentagon’s largest ground-based telescope and a smaller cousin are back online at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex in Hawaii after a two-year modernization effort by Boeing. The U.S. Air Force declared initial operational capacity on the 75-ton, 12-ft.-dia. Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) and a 1.6-meter telescope at the same complex on Mount Haleakala. Both are used to track and image satellites and manufactured space debris in near-Earth and deep-space orbits, according to Boeing.
XCOR Aerospace will use its planned two-seat suborbital Lynx spaceplane to train crewmembers for missions that the Excalibur Almaz startup hopes to fly to low Earth orbit and beyond with surplus Russian hardware. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding during the third Royal Aeronautical Society European Space Tourism Conference in London June 20.
MOD TRANSPORT: The U.K. defense ministry has awarded BAE Systems a £15.5 million ($24 million) contract to convert two BAE 146-200QC (Quick Change) aircraft to military aircraft for passenger and freight transport to offload more mundane tasks from airlifters. The aircraft were previously operated by TNT Airways. The work is to be completed by March 2013.
The European Commission has called on the U.K. and other European Union members to make good on their commitment to implement new rules to ease arms trading among EU members. The U.K., as well as Belgium, Luxemburg, Poland and Finland, have so far failed to put forward any measures to implement so-called Directive 2009/43/EC. The implementation deadline was June 30, 2011. Denmark has also been called on the carpet for moving forward only with partial implementation of the rule.
The ultimate goal for U.S. military planners is to field a networked system that can break down or overcome any foe’s anti-access and area-denial (A2AD) capabilities. They need the ability to penetrate, avoid or punch through enemy defenses that include long-range, anti-ship missiles — both ballistic and cruise — long-range air-defense weapons, extended-range radars for small target identification, and cyber and electronic attack capabilities.
