The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom moved a step closer toward the U.S. Navy’s 2013 goal of a Singapore deployment by passing special operational tests that are atypical for a Navy warship. The Freedom — the first of the class for the new LCS fleet — in May passed a special trial (ST), which the Navy says is “basically a modified version of the final contract trials (FCT) that a ship undergoes prior to the end of the builder’s guarantee period.”
HOUSTON — NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is canceling the over-budget Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS) astrophysics mission, following the denial this week of an appeal from the Goddard Space Flight Center-led science team, the agency announced June 7. Congress is being formally notified that the 2009 mission selection, capped at $119 million, not counting launch costs, is being canceled, says Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics division director.
Faced with a huge shortfall of anti-tank missiles and the delayed induction of the indigenous Nag missile, India has been scouting for adequate offensive systems.
So now everyone knows: the Pentagon war budget is not immune from sequester. So says a May 25 letter from the White House budget office to the House Budget Committee. However, even if funding in the Pentagon budget category known as Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) is not protected outright, the law still makes OCO a fiscal shield of sorts, according to the letter written by Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)
Other federal programs should fashion themselves after the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program run by the Small Business Administration (SBA), says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who sees SBIR as a template for fostering national technological advancement while promoting small businesses.
SINGAPORE — Japan’s government has appointed Satoshi Morimoto as defense minister, the first time since World War II that a Japanese defense minister has not been a member of parliament. Morimoto is Japan’s third defense minister in recent months. His immediate predecessor was Naoki Tanaka, who served from January to June. Before Tanaka, Yasuo Ichikawa held the post from September 2011 to January 2012. Tanaka and Ichikawa were both ousted following pressure from the opposition party.
The U.S. Navy is considering technology to make its submarines or other undersea vehicles more maneuverable by patterning parts of the platforms after whales. Using funding made available through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Boston Engineering is developing the technology based on the shape and movement of humpback whale fins. “We’re taking lessons from nature,” says David Shane, the project engineer, noting that the leading edges of the fins of humpback whales are providing some valuable insights.
The financial belt-tightening is only going to get worse with the demands for U.S. Navy likely to grow greater, warns Adm. J.C. Harvey, Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. But the past may hold some lessons learned. “We [are] headed for permanent white water; that is, an environment in which our overall defense budget would very likely decrease, while our costs to own and operate the fleet [increase],” Harvey says in a blog from earlier this month.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s proposed fleet plan could still cost far more than the service anticipates, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. The Coast Guard completed a two-phased Fleet Mix Analysis that intended to eliminate uncertainty surrounding the future mission performance of the service’s fleet and produce a baseline for the acquisition of a majority of its assets, the GAO notes in a May 31 report.
HOUSTON — A multinational crew of four is scheduled to evaluate a range of asteroid exploration strategies following a June 11 descent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aquarius Reef Base undersea habitat off Key Largo, Fla., for a 12-day stay.
LOSING LUSTER: The global airborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) sensor market is due for a dip, according to consultancy Forecast International. The market has a projected worth of $429.42 million in 2012, but then drops in value to $238.85 million in 2016 — a roughly 44.37% ($190.57 million) drop, according to a new study that examines 50 of the leading airborne ASW sensor programs around the world.
With news reports saying that defense companies will begin issuing layoffs related to potential military budget cuts before the November presidential election, Republican senators interested in defense are building a legislative case for preventing them. If Congress fails to reach a deal to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion, then in January 2013 cuts of the same amount will be applied to the entire federal budget — with about half targeted at the Pentagon.
HOUSTON — The success of the SpaceX/Dragon resupply mission to the International Space Station has not been lost on Ad Astra Rocket Co., a seven-year-old venture focused on the development of advanced electric plasma propulsion systems for commercial in-space transportation. “That is the proof in the pudding,” says Jared Squire, Ad Astra’s senior vice president for research, of the nine-day SpaceX pathfinder mission nurtured by NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. “That type of relationship works.”
Aircraft Composite Repair Management Forum October 9, 2012 Amsterdam, The Netherlands Repair in New Generation Aircraft: Challenges and Opportunities Lightweight composites will soon rival metals as the primary material for airframes. Are you prepared? Aviation Week’s Aircraft Composite Repair Management Forum will highlight the latest developments, challenges, and best practices in aircraft composite repair and maintenance technology.
SINGAPORE — New Zealand’s air force plans to lease five used Beechcraft KingAir 200 aircraft from Australian company Hawker Pacific to replace five KingAir 200s it currently leases from another company. “We are currently in negotiations with Hawker Pacific to conclude a contract to lease five secondhand KingAir 200s to replace the fleet currently leased from Aeromotive,” New Zealand’s air force chief, Air Vice Marshal Peter Stockwell, says in an emailed response to a query from Aviation Week.
ARAB SUMMER: With the Egyptian presidential election close at hand, U.S. experts on the region see an opportunity to redefine the diplomatic relationship but are divided about what that means for the relationship with the Egyptian military — long a source of stability in the Middle Eastern center of influence. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has extended billions in military aid to Egypt. Frank Wisner, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, told the Center for American Progress on June 5 that the Egyptian military will remain critical to U.S. relations there.
The protracted pace of the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to replace aging firefighting air tankers is expected to come under renewed scrutiny following two accidents on June 3. Both events, one of which was fatal, involved Lockheed P2V Neptunes engaged in fighting wildfires in the Western U.S. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the loss of a 1962-built Neptune Aviation Services P2V while tackling a blaze in the Hamblin Valley area of western Idaho close to the Nevada border.
Beacons enabling autonomous aircraft to deliver cargo with greater accuracy, particularly at night and in poor weather, are to be deployed to Afghanistan, where two Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopters are resupplying U.S. Marine Corps remote forward bases. The K-Max conducted precision autonomous cargo drops using the electro-optical navigation beacon to guide the aircraft in April under a U.S. Army technology demonstration.
The State Department is wrestling with how to refresh a treaty that has governed peace in Europe since 1992. The Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) that limits the number of conventional weapons that can be deployed on the continent was signed in 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But participation in the treaty has gradually eroded. Russia suspended its implementation in 2007. By late 2011, the U.S. and 21 NATO allies ceased carrying out their CFE obligations with respect to Russia.
NASA will get a little slack from Congress on how it may procure commercial crew transportation for astronauts headed to the International Space Station (ISS), but apparently no more money.
