HOUSTON — NASA and its longtime partner, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), are positioning themselves to fund and restart the production of plutonium-238 within “six to seven years” as a power source for a range of possible missions to the outer Solar System, including those assigned to support the search for extraterrestrial life.
GENEVA — The European Defense Agency (EDA) has elicited member-state support for the idea of pooling air-to-air refueling resources, although a concrete action plan remains to be defined. In a meeting of the steering group of member states for the Brussels-based organization, EDA secured a “political declaration” that countries have the “willingness to support further development of these capabilities and to better coordinate them,” according to an official statement after the gathering.
The U.S. Navy plans to test renewable jet fuel derived from butanol produced from biomass. The biobutanol is being produced by Cobalt Technologies, which has partnered with chemicals company Albemarle to produce the fuel using technology developed by Navy researchers.
GENEVA — Despite some big looming defense deals for the company, Dassault still predicts overall flat sales this year compared with 2011, as its results continue to be weighed down by the weak business jet environment of recent years. That said, there are signs of a business jet recovery, according to Chairman/CEO Charles Edelstenne.
The Pentagon’s procurement slowdown of the F-35 program reduces the concurrency risks that have plagued the effort, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), but larger affordability risks remain a major threat to the stealthy fighter. In a written statement presented to the House Armed Services airland subcommittee on March 20, the GAO’s Michael Sullivan points out that the fiscal 2013 plan is the third year in a row the Defense Department has cut procurement quantities.
Last year’s funding fight between Lockheed Martin’s Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) and Raytheon’s Patriot system has a sequel. Eight senators are asking their colleagues to shift funding from the U.S.-European missile defense system into upgrades for the current U.S. Army program.
FORT EUSTIS, Va. — As it prepares to launch a technology demonstration for the next generation of rotorcraft, the U.S. Army’s aviation research arm has a series of smaller programs getting under way that will feed technology into the Joint Multi Role (JMR) effort. From avionics to engines, and airframes to weapons, the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) at Fort Eustis, Va., has had an array of science and technology (S&T) programs ongoing since 2004 to lay the foundations for the Army’s next rotorcraft.
Two members of the House Appropriations subcommittee that sets NASA funding — a Democrat and a Republican — blasted the agency’s proposal to take a deep cut in its planetary-science accounts, and to drop out of its joint robotic Mars exploration effort with the European Space Agency (ESA).
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) is recommending a revamp of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency in charge of maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Turner, the top Republican on the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, also is blasting the Obama administration for failing to request enough money for missile defense.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is expanding the C-17 engineering workforce at Long Beach, Calif., by 10% over the next 2-3 years to support the commercial development of the Boeing 737 MAX and Boeing 787 family derivatives.
China has been preparing airborne and ground systems that can launch electronic- and cyberattacks on enemy aircraft. The targets are aircraft with large antennas, in particular the increasingly used active, electronically scanned arrays (AESA) that equip the latest fighters as well as long-range surveillance and command-and-control aircraft (Aerospace DAILY, March 19).
The Pentagon’s top cyberwarrior says that the risks the U.S. faces are growing faster than the country’s progress in creating the offensive and defensive tools and rules of engagement to defend cyberspace. “Our work and actions are affected by threats well outside the Defense Department’s networks,” U.S. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, chief of U.S. Cyber Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on March 20. “What concerns us is the shift from disruptive to destructive attacks. Attacks that can destroy equipment are on the horizon.”
Add two more to the list of unpopular aircraft decisions that U.S. lawmakers are grilling Pentagon officials on during fiscal 2013 budget hearings: ending the C-27 transport and reducing the number of A-10 attack aircraft. At a March 20 hearing, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and other members questioned the Air Force moves, connecting the programs to a staple of home district politics: the Air National Guard and Reserve, their bases and the number of reservists.
LONDON — Continued delays in fielding the Watchkeeper unmanned aircraft are linked to clearing the system for use in military and civil airspace, the U.K. Defense Ministry says.
START DATE: The French air force is projecting that the A400M airlifter will become operational in 2014. The service expects Airbus Military to deliver the first of the aircraft in March 2013, after which the 1/61 squadron will undergo a period of training and familiarization. Once that process is complete, the unit is to formally reach operational status in 2014, the service says in announcing progress on building up the base infrastructure for the aircraft. France plans to base all 50 of its A400Ms at the Orleans-Bricy air base.
NASA has selected 24 suborbital space technology payloads to fly this year and next on a mix of reusable commercial launch vehicles, high-altitude balloons and aircraft flying parabolas to briefly simulate weightlessness. Under the agency’s Flight Opportunities Program, 16 of the payloads will fly on the Zero-G parabolic aircraft; two will go on balloons from Near Space Corp. that fly above 65,000 ft.; five will fly on suborbital, reusable launch vehicles; and one will fly both on a balloon and a suborbital launch vehicle.
LONDON — European states need to quickly press ahead with a set of projects to preserve their defense aeronautics industrial base, an industry consortium urges. The Future Air Systems for Europe (or FAS4Europe) report calls for European Defense Agency (EDA) members to prepare an action plan this year and begin the first phase of their road map to preserve industrial skills in 2013. Moreover, the report, prepared by a Saab-led consortium, calls for the creation of an aeronautics working group to coordinate future activities, according to an executive summary.
Even though the U.S. and Russia are supposed to discuss an agreement on missile defense during the upcoming NATO summit in May, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicts that such an accord “is not going to happen.” The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee pointed to a March 19 statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the Russian military should develop plans to attack U.S. and NATO missile defense systems in Europe.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) has lost 33 combat jets in the last four years, 27 of them MiGs of various variants, mainly due to human error and technical defects, Defense Minister A.K. Antony reports.
