OPEN PREDATOR: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has demonstrated an open payload architecture for the Predator B unmanned aircraft, working with Selex Galileo and Cobham Aviation Services, which is responsible for through-life support for the MQ-9 Reapers operated by the U.K. Royal Air Force.
A House spending bill adds $5 billion to Pentagon procurement for fiscal 2013, with big increases for U.S. Navy ships and the National Guard. To a budget request of zero, the House Appropriations Committee defense bill adds $2 billion for National Guard and Reserve equipment. The House appropriators’ gift outdoes even House authorizers, who added $500 million. The appropriations bill was approved by the committee May 17.
Congressional language directing NASA to pick a single commercial crew vehicle to back during development threatens to boost the cost of commercial crew operations if it is adopted, according to a member of the presidential panel that recommended using commercial vehicles to transport U.S. astronauts to low Earth orbit.
A May 16 story incorrectly identified the communication unit that was replaced aboard the International Space Station in anticipation of the upcoming arrival of the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The unit is the Space Integrated GPS Inertial Navigation System, or SIGI, which is a piece of NASA hardware.
RAPTOR WATCH: All eyes are now on the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor. Given the Lockheed Martin fighter’s problems with its oxygen-delivery system, on May 15 Defense Secretary Leon Panetta placed restrictions on the jet’s operations. And Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is asking what kind of impact this will have on operation, training and ultimately the nation’s security.
Lockheed Martin has conducted target tracking tests in preparation for the first flight of a miniature hit-to-kill interceptor designed to shoot down rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds. The vertical-launch missile is being developed under the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) integrated demonstration program.
The House is expected to vote this week on a bill that calls on the Pentagon to start on an East Coast Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system site.
Sequestration and the uncertain future it portends could have a lasting impact on U.S. Navy shipbuilding, says Michael Petters, CEO for Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the nation’s largest military shipbuilder. The so-called “sequestration” cuts to the federal budget, which are due to kick in if the Congress fails in its efforts to rein in the deficit, would amount to $500 million in reductions for the Pentagon alone.
GENOA — Italy has confirmed its intention to acquire 90 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for its air force and Navy, with deliveries to start in late 2014 and extend through 2028-30. The air force put up a successful fight to buy at least a squadron of F-35Bs short-takeoff-vertical-landing (stovl) aircraft, against the wishes of the defense ministry, which wanted the air force to standardize on the F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) version, leaving the navy as the sole operator of the F-35B.
The concept of Air-Sea Battle — basically a tighter, but more flexible operational combination of the U.S. Navy and Air Force — is already creating some conceptual innovations, including submarines attacking air defenses without using explosives. Submarines, operating submerged, may be modified to conduct non-kinetic attacks of ground or ship-based integrated air defenses (IADs), says the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) is considering a plan to launch its next large-class science mission atop a Russian Proton rocket rather than an Ariane 5 to reap savings that would help the agency pay for its troubled ExoMars campaign.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has confirmed that one of the largest objects in the Main Asteroid Belt is actually a tiny planet-like body that formed around a molten interior.
Satellite operators in Vietnam and Japan will take on-orbit deliveries in June and July, respectively, of Lockheed Martin communications satellites launched in tandem on an Ariane V ECA Tuesday evening. Vinasat-2 and JCSAT-13, both based on Lockheed Martin’s A2100 satellite bus, lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, on time at 6:13 p.m. EDT May 15, and returned their first signals from geostationary transfer orbits by 7:20 p.m. EDT, according to the satellite manufacturer.
Industry organizations disagree on who should manage and operate unmanned aircraft system (UAS) test sites, but they all believe a UAS test program should be used to gather critical safety data, develop certification and training standards and ensure sense-and-avoid capabilities.
PENTAGON ROSTER: On May 15, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to approve several civilian nominations to Pentagon posts, including Frank Kendall to be under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics; James Miller as under secretary of defense for policy; Erin Conaton as under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness; Kathleen Hicks as principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy; and Jessica Lynn Wright as assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs.
In defending their prized new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program from recent congressional attacks and disparaging media reports, U.S. Navy officials note they have been able to get the ships out to sea more quickly than other warship fleets. But some defense analysts wonder if the Navy has pushed the LCS program along too quickly, relying on concepts and plans not fully developed.
ITT Exelis says it is making rapid progress in deploying the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) network in the U.S., with more than 60% of the required ground stations now completed. The manufacturer tells Aviation Week that it has constructed 428 ADS-B radio stations. The current plan is for 700 stations: 647 in the continental U.S., 41 in Alaska, nine in Hawaii, and one each in Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To deal with the problems witnessed firsthand by Aviation Week and other issues identified on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom, the U.S. Navy is paying more money than it had planned to repair and maintain the ship.
U.S. officials continue to demonstrate a balancing act between creating a closer, more interactive relationship with China — particularly its military — and expressing disapproval over a steady stream of cyber intrusions and increasing hostility in the South and East China seas with Washington’s allies. “The context in Asia is changing, [but] America’s interests in Asia have not,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in a May 14 address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “
Against the wishes of the U.S. Air Force, House lawmakers recommend continuing to buy three additional Northrop Grumman Global Hawk aircraft and 17 Alenia Spartan aircraft.
