HOUSTON — NASA is equipping itself with a flexible strategy to push the development of cross-cutting technologies identified by a National Research Council panel as essential to the space agency’s strategic pursuits, including deep-space human exploration, according to the agency’s chief technologist. The strategy will allow NASA to adjust to the budget pressures Congress is likely to face as it considers the 2013 budget that President Barack Obama unveils on Feb. 13, according to Mason Peck, who took over the two-year-old chief technology post in January.
Claims by Hawker Beechcraft that the U.S. Air Force’s choice of Embraer’s AT-29 Super Tucano over its AT-6 to equip the Afghan air force is “fundamentally flawed” and will cost U.S. jobs are being dismissed as misinformation by winning bidder Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC). The normally closed-mouthed SNC has issued a public rebuttal of the claims as Hawker Beechcraft’s (HBC) lawsuit challenging the Air Force’s decision works its way through federal court, accusing its rival of using delaying tactics.
LONDON — OHB Systems has reinforced its position as the dominant satellite industrial player in the Galileo system, securing a deal to build eight more of the precision navigation and timing satellites after having already beaten out Astrium once for the initial batch of 14 spacecraft.
The U.S. Air Force is proposing to cut 123 fighters and 133 airlifters as it manages spending reductions triggered by a flattening defense budget and declining operational demands. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, at an Air Force Association event in Washington on Feb. 2, previewed more details of the USAF portion of the fiscal 2013 budget request that comes out Feb. 13.
The Pentagon’s ongoing budget rollout has members of Congress scrambling in all different directions as if trying to gather up pieces of a broken puzzle. The list of items against which some lawmakers are pushing back is long and growing. There’s a steeper round of budget reductions, force structure cuts, base realignment, reductions to the Air National Guard, the cancellation of the Global Hawk Block 30, delays to the Joint Strike Fighter and more.
HOUSTON — NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini extended a vote of confidence to the Russian space agency on Feb. 2, as officials in the partner nation sort through the recent ground test failure of a Soyuz capsule that will force a six-week delay in the launch of the next three-person crew to the orbiting space laboratory. Crew returns and future launches will likely slide throughout 2012 as well to ensure the briefest interruptions in sustained six-person station operations to keep research activities at the highest levels.
SPECIAL STRESS: With the Obama administration’s newly planned decrease in overall ground forces and increased reliance on Special Operations Forces (SOF), congressional researchers are warning that there could still be limitations to SOF growth no matter how much the White House, Pentagon and Congress are willing to spend. “While DOD maintains that it is willing to increase its investment in SOF, there are limitations on expansion because of stringent qualification and training standards,” a Jan. 11 report to lawmakers says.
HELP WANTED: Australia is starting to outline the workforce it thinks it needs to match up against a plan for more than $200 billion in defense spending over the next decade, starting with the Future Submarine Project, slated to be Australia’s largest-ever single defense project. “A steady supply of steelworkers, welders, electricians and mechanics is needed, among many other trades. And we also need engineers, systems analysts, accountants and specialists in air and marine transport,” says Sen. Kim Carr, minister for defense materiel.
The U.S. Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle office is teaming up with the armed service’s Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) effort at Fort Bliss, Texas, this spring to test several non-developmental vehicle technologies as part of its larger analysis of alternatives/non-developmental testing and evaluation program.
Sikorsky has issued five technology challenges to entrepreneurs, offering winners access to a new innovation incubator in Stamford, Conn., where the helicopter manufacturer will provide technical and business mentoring. Sikorsky Innovations, the company’s technology development organization, is the first corporate sponsor of the Stamford Innovation Center, which opened on Feb. 2. with the goal of incubating new businesses in Connecticut.
Boeing has been awarded a $277 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to support flight tests of the Raytheon Advanced Aerial Sensor (AAS) radar on the P-8A Poseidon maritime multimission aircraft.
MANILA — Philippines President Benigno Aquino has reignited the debate about whether the country should get fighters. Following the U.S. agreement to give 24 second-hand F-16s to Indonesia for free, Aquino is now calling for the U.S. to give the Philippines a similar deal, and has tasked the Philippines Air Force (PAF) to look into it. The Philippines has had no fighters since 2005, when it phased out its last Northrop F-5s.
THINK TWICE: Foreign military sales, financing and other U.S. defense exports will help the U.S. industrial base in years to come, but do not expect a rising tide that lifts all boats, regardless of how companies promote their growing international revenue, says a Wall Street analyst. “While we think there will be winners in the quest for international growth, it will not be as robust as some investors may expect,” says Michael Lewis of Lazard Capital Markets.
Rocket-engine testing for U.S. human spaceflight is getting off to a roaring start in 2012, with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announcing the first hot-fire test of its SuperDraco hypergolic engine, and NASA preparing to begin testing the powerpack of the J-2X cryogenic upper-stage engine for its planned Space Launch System (SLS) heavy lifter.
MANILA — The Philippines Air Force (PAF) plans to buy more military transports, light attack aircraft and helicopters to help in the country’s ongoing fight against Muslim insurgents in the south.
HOUSTON — NASA faces a lengthy, cash-strapped catch-up period in acquiring the range of technologies needed to achieve the agency’s strategic objectives, according to a National Research Council report released Feb. 1. “Success in executing future NASA space missions will depend on advanced technology developments that should already be under way,” says aerospace consultant Raymond Calladay, the former Lockheed Martin Corp. executive who chaired the 18-member panel that produced the report.
LONDON — The U.K. on Feb. 1 unveiled its long-awaited defense industrial white paper, the first time the Defense Ministry addresses key sectoral issues since severe budget cuts were imposed and program adjustments put in place in the 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review.
NEW DELHI — With French firm Dassault Aviation on the brink of signing a multibillion-dollar order to supply 126 Rafale fighter jets to the Indian air force (IAF), the Indian government may choose to enlarge the contract by adding 60 more aircraft. The size of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract could eventually increase, as there is a provision for boosting the order by 50% without any increase in unit price, a defense ministry official says.
The modification of the U.S. Navy’s aging Austin-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Ponce into a floating home base for mine hunters provides a road map for how the service and the rest of the military are going to have to do business in decades to come. With budget constraints pinching resources to develop, buy and deploy new vessels for emerging or increasing mission needs, the services will need to take their old equipment — even a four-decade-old warship like the Ponce — and alter it for new and novel uses.
The U.S. Army has stayed with experienced laser missile-jammer suppliers for the technology development phase of its Common Infrared Countermeasures (Circm) program, awarding contracts to BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. ITT Excelis and Raytheon, both of which had hoped to enter the market through Circm, did not win contracts. Lockheed Martin was eliminated from the competition last year.
