The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser CG-68USS Anzio conducted a Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) launch Sept. 21 and live-fire gunnery practice during a drone exercise supporting Unitas Atlantic 53-12, a regional drill including the U.S. and its South American allies hosted by the U.S. Fourth Fleet.
The U.S. Air Force is beginning to sift through all the exotic weapons, materials and electronics in development and prototype programs and find a place for the most promising of them as operational tools in as little as 3-5 years. The focus of the work will be to develop, in parallel, the materials, tactics and training to make the weaponry effective in combat. The effort is being designed to counter foes who are themselves fielding a new generation of weapons that include advanced jamming, stealth and cyberattack capabilities.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may be winning support from hawks in his party with a call to spend 4% of GDP on defense. But Democrats including former President Bill Clinton are hammering away at the fact that the plan would increase federal spending more than $2 trillion over 10 years at a time when the rest of the government is shrinking.
The Pentagon this month awarded fuel contracts potentially worth up to $5.1 billion to 16 companies out of a field of 27 contractors that competed for the deals. All of the awards feature fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts. The contracting authority is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy of Fort Belvoir, Va.
UAS CAUCUS: As concerns about privacy and security begin to weigh on the launch of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in civilian airspace, the Senate is forming a bipartisan UAS Caucus to help smooth the industry’s takeoff. Aviation enthusiast Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are leading the effort to move the industry out of the civilian world and into the hands of businesses and state and local governments across the U.S.
The newly formed LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) Council will help fill in any gaps hampering fleet development and deployment, according to the organization’s charter, released this week by the U.S. Navy. One of the council’s main missions will be to ensure the deployment of LCS-1, the USS Freedom, to Singapore this coming spring.
Scientists examining data from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover have concluded that imagery from three sites on the floor of Gale Crater represents rocks deposited there by water flowing down from the crater wall, probably billions of years ago.
FIRST FLIGHT: The first modernized Ilyushin Il-76MD-90A military heavy lifter, also known as Il-476, made its 40-min. first flight at Ulyanovsk on Sept. 22. The prototype, bearing the tail number RA-78650, was rolled out on July 5 and has already performed ground tests. According to industry sources, after several flights in Ulyanovsk the aircraft will be flown to Zhukovsky, near Moscow, to continue flight trials. It is the first aircraft of this type assembled in Russia, as all earlier Il-76 modifications have been manufactured in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
HOUSTON — The already delayed departure of the European Space Agency’s ATV-3 cargo capsule from the International Space Station has been reset for Sept. 28 at the earliest to accommodate a potential station maneuver to steer clear of Russian satellite and Indian rocket debris. The avoidance maneuver of the station and its three-person crew was scheduled for Sept. 27 at 8:12 a.m. EDT, or about 2 1⁄2 hr. ahead of the projected closest approach of the satellite debris.
An industry team says that a protected satellite communications family of terminals has been developed at no cost to the U.S. Defense Department and is ready for production once a government agency certifies its cryptological system.
MOSCOW — Irkut Corporation has begun flight tests of the twin-seat Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighter. The first aircraft made its 2-hr. first flight on Sept. 21; the second fighter joined the flight tests on Sept. 25, says Irkut, a subsidiary of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation.
TOULOUSE, France — With the proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems facing serious opposition by the German government, which has indicated it may block the deal if its conditions are not met, EADS CEO Tom Enders is offering to negotiate further details of the transaction.
QUANTICO, Va. — The U.S. Navy is still interested in the platform concept and technology behind the Sea Base Connector Transformational Craft (T-Craft), but the service apparently has decided for now to skip buying the prototype. The T-Craft, proponents say, can serve as an inter-theater logistics connector, traveling at high speeds with significant payloads and capable of operating in austere ports and areas where there are no facilities available.
TOURS, France — The European Space Agency remains on the hunt for an alternate method of launching the Experimental Re-Entry Testbed (Expert) followin...
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) can focus more on taking care of business and less on the possible effects of sequestration thanks to the company’s shipbuilding portfolio, Citi financial group says. “Thanks to its long-cycle business, HII is focused on executing what we’re calling its 5x5 plan as opposed to being too distracted by sequestration,” Citi says in a recent note to investors.
NASA’s Langley Research Center, Mitre and several partners have completed the first in a series of inflight evaluations of cooperative automatic sense and avoid (SAA) algorithms for unmanned air systems (UAS), in large part to validate a new testbed that will be used for more advanced trials next year.
The U.S. has confirmed that Indonesia is seeking to buy eight Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters and has also disclosed the weapons the Indonesians want. In a statement to Congress, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says Indonesia has put in a request to buy eight Boeing AH-64D Apache Block III Longbow attack helicopters, a deal worth $1.42 billion.
