PARIS — Science chiefs from the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos are scheduled to meet here Dec. 7 to discuss Russian participation in ExoMars. Alvaro Gimenez-Canete, ESA director of science and exploration, and his NASA and Roscosmos counterparts are expected to focus on working toward a Mars sample-return mission, in the face of U.S. budget uncertainty that threatens to upend the joint ESA-NASA effort. A working-level meeting of technical managers will follow Dec. 8, ESA spokesman Franco Bonacina said Dec. 2.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have finally agreed to share the cost of modifications for roughly 30 aircraft to be procured in the next lot of F-35 production.
LONDON and GENOA, Italy — Finmeccanica may have unveiled a financial turnaround plan and resolved its differences involving the board of directors with last week’s appointment of CEO Giuseppe Orsi as company chairman, but the moves were not enough to stave off a downgrade of the Italian aerospace and defense company’s debt rating. Moreover, Standard & Poor’s—which like Aviation Week is owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies—further indicates the government may unload some of its ownership in Italy’s industrial conglomerate.
PARIS — Mobile satellite services provider Globalstar will delay the early December launch of a third batch of second-generation satellites by three weeks as manufacturer Thales Alenia Space swaps one of the six spacecraft with a spare untainted by a momentum-wheel defect affecting other satellites already in orbit.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has issued a memo regarding future Pentagon spending that ignores the maximum penalty under a deal negotiated by President Barack Obama and Congress aimed at reining in the federal deficit. The move is no surprise. The Pentagon’s top moneyman told investors last week that the military did not have time to reflect the penalty of sequestration — about $600 billion in defense cuts over 10 years — put in place by the Budget Control Act in its fiscal 2013 budget request.
PARIS — After more than a week of unsuccessful attempts to communicate with Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, the European Space Agency (ESA) has ceased relaying orbit-raising commands to the unmanned Mars probe stranded in low Earth orbit since its Nov. 8 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to ESA officials.
DRAWING NIGH: House lawmakers are still trying to pass an omnibus appropriations bill before the end of the calendar year. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, says he wants to finish the fiscal 2012 appropriations bills so the panel can start dealing with bills for fiscal 2013 spending in January. The defense portion of the House omnibus bill has already been reconciled with the Senate version by the head of the defense appropriations subcommittee . “We basically just finished up our conference,” says Rep.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) approved plans for Europe’s Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution (ME) after the launcher upgrade successfully completed a preliminary design review under way since late August, prime contractor EADS-Astrium announced last week.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter cannot continue on its current path, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said on the Senate floor Dec. 5. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) cited potential cost increases on the fourth lot of jets, as well as recent comments by U.S. Navy Vice Adm. David Venlet, the program manager, saying the Pentagon needs to slow production of the stealthy fighter to learn more before the production rate increases.
Even if Iran has, as it claims, shot down a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 unmanned aerial system (UAS), the single-channel, full-motion video capability that made the stealthy flying wing so invaluable when it debuted in Afghanistan about two years ago is considered outdated, potentially limiting the intelligence fallout. For now, U.S. intelligence- and surveillance-related sources only will say the downed aircraft was “possibly” the RQ-170 Sentinel. One source tells Aviation Week there is a “50-50” chance it is the Sentinel.
What will the post-2013 U.S. defense budget look like? Big programs like the Lockheed Martin F-35 and USAF Long Range Strike (LRS) family of programs will survive, albeit with some cutbacks.
With defense spending getting so tight, submarine programs in the U.S. and other countries are likely to come under greater scrutiny, the Rand Corp. warns in a recent report that provides some recommendations on how to buy and build the vessels.
AERO SERVICES DEAL: GKN Aerospace is selling its £20 million aerospace engineering services business to Quest Global Engineering, but also has formalized an agreement for the company to provide long-term engineering support to the U.K.-based defense and commercial air transport Tier 1 systems and aerostructures provider. The engineering services operation already had some activities beyond GKN, and the disposal is expected to let those activities grow. The deal’s value, which requires no regulatory approval, is not being disclosed.
PARIS – The European Commission (EC) set the stage for a showdown with EU member states Nov. 30 when it formally proposed to finance Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program outside the EU’s multiyear budget.
NEW DELHI — Indian utility vehicles maker Mahindra & Mahindra and U.S.-based Telephonics Corp. will establish a plant in India to make airborne radar systems for the country’s defense sector. The joint venture intends to provide systems for air traffic management services, homeland security and other emerging defense surveillance requirements, as well as for the civilian applications, says Khutub Hai, chief executive of Mahindra Defense Systems.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) DEC. 6 - 7 — Shephard Group's Electronic Warfare Asia, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. For more information go to www.shephard.co.uk/events/73/ew-asia-2011 DEC. 6 - 8 — Technology Training Corp.'s Federal Cyber Security Conference, Hilton Crystal City, Arlington, Va. For more information call (310) 322-8110 or go to www.ttcus.com
General Electric and Rolls-Royce are ending the F136 program after deciding to discontinue self-funding the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
NEW DELHI – The Indian air force is attempting to recover and repair one of two Israeli Aerostat radar balloons that was damaged by bad weather in 2009, Defense Minister A.K. Antony says. “While one Aerostat system is working well, the other system was damaged due to [a] sudden strong gust of wind on May 27, 2009, and became nonoperational. Steps have been initiated for recovery of the system,” Antony told parliament Wednesday.
ALGERIAN ARRIVAL: Russia’s Irkut Corp. has begun deliveries of Yakovlev Yak-130 combat trainers to the Algerian air force. The first three aircraft arrived on Nov. 29. Irkut has already assembled all 16 trainers ordered by Algeria in 2006 and plans to complete the deliveries by the end of 2016. It also trained Algerian military pilots and technicians at its assembly facility in Irkutsk. The Algerian air force will use Yak-130s to train pilots for Sukhoi Su-30MKA fighters also supplied by Irkut Corporation.
In response to a Nov. 30 story on the SSGN conversion program, the U.S. Navy says, “This article refers to an October 2008 Congressional Research Service report on the SSGN Program. Due to the dated nature of the report, the information below no longer reflects the Navy’s requirements, priorities, programs of record, or budget.”
