NEW DELHI — India plans to build another indigenous aircraft carrier in addition to the INS Vikrant, which is expected to join the country’s navy in 2016. “The indigenous aircraft carrier [IAC] program is planned to be [a] continuing process over the next decade-plus, with the Indian navy’s medium-term aim being to have at least two fully operational and combat worthy carriers available at any given time,” says Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Nirmal Verma. The second planned IAC could weigh about 65,000 tons and is likely to be christened INS Vishal.
ARMY Harris Corp., Government Communications Systems Division, Palm Bay, Fla., was awarded a $47,050,513 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the sustainment and support services for the AN/GSC-52 modernization program’s family of satellite communications earth terminals and associated equipment. The work will be performed in Palm Bay, with an estimated completion date of March 11, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Alexandria, Va., is the contracting activity (W91QUZ-12-C-0013).
FORT WORTH — Lockheed Martin plans to conduct intercept flight tests with its Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system in the second half of this year, says Jonathan Crawford, international business development analyst for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. Lockheed Martin is under contract with the U.S. Army to develop EAPS as part of a competitive program. Northrop Grumman also is working on a concept.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — A heavily modified version of the Boeing X-48 blended wing body (BWB) remotely piloted research aircraft is set to begin a six-month flight-test program next week at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The X-48C is a rebuilt, twin-engine derivative of the three-engine X-48B tested between 2007 and 2011. In this new configuration the engines are mounted farther forward from the trailing edge and shielded between vertical tails that are moved inboard and replace wingtip-mounted tails.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — Boeing and its X-51A team partners are ready to attempt a third test of the scramjet-powered hypersonic demonstrator following modifications to avoid problems that cut short the last flight in June 2011. The missile-like vehicle is being prepared at Boeing’s Palmdale, Calif., facility and will be transferred to nearby Edwards AFB for the flight, which will take place over the Pacific test range after launch from a B-52H carrier aircraft. “The vehicle is nearly ready for shipping,” says Boeing X-51A Program Manager Joe Vogel.
DARK MATTERS: European scientists finally have agreed to start the $1 billion Euclid project, devoted to the study of dark energy. After months of delay in securing approval, Euclid still proved too compelling to set aside, despite far exceeding the funding allocated for what the European Space Agency calls its medium-class missions. The 2,160-kg (4,750-lb.) satellite is scheduled to launch to the L2 Lagrangian point in the second quarter of 2020 aboard a European variant of the Soyuz rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
ICY MOON: Mapping the floor of the Moon’s Shackleton Crater in what NASA describes as unprecedented detail, agency scientists and university researchers have calculated that unusually bright laser returns from the crater floor may be caused by ice mixed in with other material there. As much as 22% of the surface material in Shackleton could be ice, according to a paper published in the journal Nature, based on laser-mapping data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnnaisance Orbiter.
NEW DELHI — India’s government on June 22 approved acquisition projects for its armed forces worth $4 billion, ranging from aircraft and missiles to guns and command-and-control systems. The Defense Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defense Minister A.K. Antony, authorized the Indian army to receive 14 Dornier reconnaissance aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., and eight regiments of Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missiles (QRSAMs), a ministry official says. The Dornier aircraft order is worth around $200 million, he adds.
HOOD RIVER, Ore. — The U.S. Navy is moving to integrate the Harpoon anti-ship weapon on the P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, replacing the SLAM-ER previously slated for that role. The change is linked to weapons availability, says Fred Smith, director of business development for surveillance and engagement for Boeing. India also will receive the Harpoon. The P-8 also will be able to employ the Mk. 54 torpedo.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) june 25 - 28 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics 42nd AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference & Exhibit, New Orleans, La. For more information call (703) 264-7622 ext. 106, email [email protected] or go to www.aiaa.org/events June 25 - 28 — AIAA Atmospheric Space Environments Conference, Sheraton New Orleans, New Orleans, La. For more information go to www.aiaa.org
As U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) shifts its money from contingency war operations to its core budget, the command also is focusing more on training overseas partners to keep from spreading its operators too thinly across the globe.
HOUSTON — U.S. and Canadian Space Agency ground-control teams successfully advanced techniques outside the International Space Station (ISS) this week for extending the lives of aging satellites by refueling them, repairing damage or moving inactive spacecraft to prevent them from becoming collision hazards.
President Barack Obama may have reports due to Congress on the impact of a $1 trillion federal budget cut scheduled to take place at the beginning of 2013. That across-the-board reduction to the federal deficit is a penalty known as sequestration that Congress approved last year as a way to force lawmakers to address the toughest issues in deficit reduction. But so far, lawmakers have not reached a deal.
TECH TRANSFER: NASA has launched a new “technology transfer portal” where entrepreneurs, managers and others can look for new, publicly funded technology to commercialize. The site, at http://technology.nasa.gov, includes a searchable database of NASA patents available for transfer to the private domain, and links to agency specialists trained to help make the shift. “A priority of NASA is to get federally funded new technologies into the commercial marketplace,” said Mason Peck, the agency’s chief technologist.
Leaders of the congressional defense committees can agree on this much regarding the threat of steep budget cuts looming next year: it’s time to reach for a deal. Last August, Congress passed a law calling for $1.2 trillion in federal deficit reduction. In the absence of an agreement on how to reduce the deficit, the law institutes a $1.2 trillion across-the-board federal budget cut in January 2013.
Smarter strategies in spending, allocation and technology investments will be required to offset the coming reduction in U.S. defense spending, a new study argues. “Strategy in Austerity,” released June 21 by Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment (CSBA), also argues for exploiting better military technologies, solidly linked to new operations theories, which can allow the U.S. to field a more effective force for the same cost.
As the U.S. Navy invests more in biofuel development, questions are starting to arise about just how important — or affordable — that effort might be. “An important policy question for Congress may be whether a domestic biofuel industry is necessary for national defense, and whether proceeding under the authority of the DPA (Defense Production Act of 1950) offers the necessary stimulus,” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says.
NEW DELHI — India is set to issue a global tender to buy air defense missiles for its army, with the contract expected to be worth 100 billion rupees ($1.8 billion). “A decision to procure Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missiles (QRSAMs) will be taken soon by the government to replace the age-old Russian Kvadrat systems,” a defense ministry official says. The proposed deal could also contain partnership and knowledge transfer clauses that would enable an Indian company to make certain major equipment for the missile, he says.
