LOS ANGELES — The Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office is pushing ahead with preparations for three more missions and continuing a key military utility assessment of the ongoing TacSat-4 tactical test spacecraft, despite uncertainty over its future after being zero-funded in the White House’s fiscal 2013 budget.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is pushing for a budget to acquire fixed-wing maritime surveillance aircraft on long-term wet-lease, since its existing agreement with Bombardier for maritime patrol has lapsed. The MMEA also is hoping to renew a customer support pact with Bombardier that lapsed a while ago, according to the agency’s director general, Adm. Amdan bin Kurish. “The Bombardier planes have not been flying for some time,” he says.
If U.S. lawmakers want to put back procurement funds for favored weapons programs, the U.S. Air Force’s top general says, then they should put back the operations and maintenance money too. To do otherwise, says Gen. Norman Schwartz, speaking May 1 at the Stimson Center, is the surest way to hollow the force.
GOES-R: Lockheed Martin has completed the spacecraft critical design review for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series (GOES-R) satellite system that the company is building for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. “The team demonstrated that the design and operations are understood and sufficiently mature to begin the build and integration phase,” Lockheed said in a May 1 announcement. The first spacecraft in the next-generation weather satellite series is due for launch in 2015.
SINGAPORE — China is trying to woo the defense establishment of Thailand, one of the very few Southeast Asian nations with which it has no conflicting claims in regard to the South China Sea.
NUCLEAR DYAD?: It may be time for the U.S. to reconsider its questionable insistence on three different nuclear delivery vehicles, the Cato Institute’s Christopher Preble tells a Capitol Hill audience April 30. Preble quoted former Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke as saying, “You very seldom see a cowboy in the movies carrying three guns. Two is enough.” Preble, who has been funded by the Ploughshares Fund to study the history of the triad, says it’s time for lawmakers to start asking hard questions about the Obama administration’s nuclear weapons posture.
Saab says it will implement a far-reaching command-and-control upgrade to the Royal Thai Navy’s aircraft carrier to allow the system to be more interoperable with the country’s relatively new fleet of Gripen fighters and Saab 340 airborne early warning aircraft.
SINGAPORE — Last year’s devastating floods in Thailand and this year’s renewed fighting in the south by Muslim insurgents are starting to register in some of the country’s military procurements.
AIR FORCE ITT Corp., Clifton, N.J., is being awarded a $47,530,000 firm-fixed-price contract to procure 15 AN/ALQ-211(V); four airborne integrated defensive electronic warfare suites; and two sets of antenna couplers for support production. The effort is in support of the Royal Air Force Oman F-16 C/D model production aircraft. The location of the performance is Clifton, The work is to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014. WR-ALC/GRWKB, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8540-12-C-0014).
LOS ANGELES — Lockheed Martin is ramping up final assembly work on the flight test version of the Orion crew module as workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) begin verification checks on the Orion ground test vehicle.
NEW DELHI — India plans to launch dedicated communication satellites for the Navy and Air Force between 2012 and 2014, Defense Minister A.K. Antony says. The naval satellite is planned to be launched in 2012-13, while the air force communication satellite is planned to be launched in 2013-14, Antony said in a written reply to a question in parliament on April 30.He also says that the tri-services defense communication network (DCN) is progressing as per India’s defense procurement procedures.
LONDON — Despite growing indications that the U.K. will reverse its decision to retire the Sentinel R1 ground-surveillance aircraft in 2015, the government says it will take its time in determining whether to retain the capability.
CAE is preparing to fly a prototype miniaturized magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) in an Aeronautics Dominator XP unmanned aircraft, anticipating use of autonomous platforms for anti-surface warfare (ASW). The Canadian company also sees potential civil uses of the sensor, which detects minute variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, for unmanned power- and pipeline-monitoring and mining-survey services.
PARIS — French aerospace engine supplier Safran has finalized the merger of two subsidiaries, energy materials specialist SME and solid-propulsion-motor manufacturer Snecma Propulsion Solid (SPS), Paris-based Safran announced April 30.
SAN FRANCISCO — Far-infrared astronomy is not done from ground observatories and has only been possible from a few orbiting telescopes, so the addition of the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC) to NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) will allow astronomers to fill a void. On April 19, NASA said it had selected two additional instruments to expand HAWC’s research range.
MBDA is upgrading its Viper Strike munition as a result of operational lessons learned during last year’s NATO-led air war in Libya. The enhancement allows the munition to more effectively engage fast-moving ground targets through updates to the guidance and control software, enabling the weapon to fly a different attack profile, says Jerry Agee, head of MBDA’s U.S. operations. The capability was demonstrated during a series of test shots at the Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, Calif.
