LONDON — The Norwegian government has kicked off the purchase of its F-35A Joint Strike Fighters after years of discussions and a recent budget move to adjust procurement plans. The deal also puts the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile (JSM) on a path to integration on the fighter, which Norway sees as key to achieving its industrial goals.
As Obama administration and Pentagon officials ponder when to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, another crucial question is whether to use bombs or bytes. A reason for not conducting a conventional bombing attack on Iran is the ease with which the attacker can be identified. Cyber attack, on the other hand, offers an offensive capability without removing the cloak of anonymity.
The U.S. Navy is looking for a better way to track and analyze wear and tear on gearbox components and life cycle costs for helicopters and other platforms through a program being developed with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding.
CYBER BUZZ: The recent revelation that the U.S. may have used cyberworms to infiltrate Iranian centrifuges has Washington abuzz with leak rumors, but also may spur a more public discussion of cyberwarfare. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described this week how the nation is constantly fending off attacks and needs to move quickly to protect its critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. And now lawmakers are in the process of approving new mandates to draw up offensive cyber strategies and develop rules of engagement.
U.S. defense community and administration officials point to 2013 as a likely window for bombing Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities. It could happen earlier, timed to use the chaos of the Syrian government’s fall to disguise such an attack, or later, if international negotiations with Iran stretch out without failing completely. But there is strong evidence that Iran is not going to shut down its uranium enrichment program. In fact Tehran officials contend a notional nuclear submarine program would add more requirements for enriched uranium.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) will negotiate a late 2013 launch window for the first Sentinel Earth observation satellite and continue funding the joint Euro-Russian ExoMars program through the end of this year, according to ESA officials. During a June 13-14 meeting of the ESA ruling council here, the 19-member agency was told it could secure a three-month launch window for the Sentinel 1A satellite beginning in October 2013, despite uncertainty over funding for the spacecraft’s operations.
The U.S. Air Force needs to do a better job of accounting for some of its most important assets, according to the Pentagon’s Inspector General (IG). A June 7 IG report identifies several areas where the Air Force had made accounting mistakes: The service classified certain aircraft as military equipment that did not meet the Defense Department definition of military equipment.
With the 2012 Olympics just a month away, the U.S. government is poised to set a new world record of its own — pulling in more than $50 billion in foreign weapons sales for the fiscal year that is not yet over. The previous record was set just one year ago at a little more than $30 billion, according to Andrew Shapiro, the assistant secretary of state for political military affairs.
Technicians at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center soon will begin integrating the first instrument received there for the James Webb Space Telescope. The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), assembled by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the U.K., will cover wavelengths of 5-28 microns from the Webb’s planned perch at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrangian point.
Whether the Navy’s first demonstration of a biofuel-powered fleet represents a one-off effort or the potential start of a new industry may now rest in the hands of the U.S. Senate. The Navy bought 450,000 gal. of fuel made from algae or other crops purchased for about $27 per gallon to power its “Great Green Fleet” in the Rim of the Pacific exercises scheduled to start later this month. But if the defense authorization bill passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee stands, the biofuel-powered fleet would run aground next year.
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While the U.S. Navy is now in the middle of a shipbuilding program that is augmenting the fleet with new submarines, destroyers, amphibious ships and other vessels, the midterm future of those programs is murky, despite the promise of greater naval needs for the nation’s priority shift toward the Pacific.
ORION DELIVERY: Lockheed Martin delivered the fifth P-3 Orion with new Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) modifications this week to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) more than 50 days ahead of schedule, according to the company. The MLU replaces certain equipment with enhanced-design components and incorporates a new metal alloy five times more corrosion resistant than the original material, reducing the cost of ownership for P-3 operators, Lockheed says.
TEL AVIV — Rafael, Israel’s leading missile development center, has quietly been working on an air-to-air derivative of the Stunner interceptor to be designated Python 6, also known as the Future Advanced Air-to-Air Missile (FAAM).
ARLINGTON, Va. — As the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy start to depend more on tiltrotor aircraft operations to conduct missions, the Navy is looking for ways to better understand and predict the effect of rotor downwash, especially with the expanded use of the aircraft on various ship classes. Of particular interest to the Navy is technology being honed by Advanced Rotorcraft Technology of Sunnyvale, Calif., which, according to company president Ronald DuVal, employs a viscous vortex particle analysis method to better ascertain the effects of downwash.
A $1 trillion reduction to defense spending over 10 years would put the Pentagon’s budget back in line with where it was relative to other government spending in 2001, says a top-ranking Democrat. The military is headed for an across-the-board budget cut that large if Congress fails to agree to $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by the end of the year. The penalty known as sequestration was designed to be so harsh it would bring lawmakers to the table for an agreement.
NUSTAR FLIES: NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is in orbit and sending back signals following its June 13 air-launch over the central Pacific Ocean aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of an L-1011 Stargazer aircraft that took off from Kwajalein Atoll. Ignition took place at approximately 12 p.m. EDT. NuSTAR separated 13 min. later, and the first signals from the spacecraft were received by NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System at 12:14 p.m.
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) has filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement of its $355 million U.S. Air Force contract to supply 20 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft to Afghanistan. The company says the Court of Federal Claims action is in response to a lawsuit filed by disqualified bidder Hawker Beechcraft (HBC), which led the Air Force to set aside the December sole-source award and reopen the competition.
