NAVY Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a $51,342,168 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-10-C-2203) for life cycle engineering and support services for Landing Platform Dock 17 class integrated shipboard electronic systems. The work will be performed in Pascagoula and is expected to be completed by December 2012. Contract funds in the amount of $104,981 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Like its sister services, the U.S. Navy has learned its lesson from recent overseas conflicts and humanitarian efforts: logistics planning and execution count just as much as military operations. The Navy is concentrating more on the logistics component in its important Bold Alligator (BA) exercise scheduled for the beginning of next year. “Logistics will be squarely at the center of nearly everything we do during Bold Alligator 2012,” says Adm. J.C. Harvey Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, in a recent blog to sailors and officers.
MISSILE WORK: California-based Aerojet has been selected by Raytheon Missile Systems to complete the development of the Throttling Divert and Attitude Control System (TDACS) for the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA program. The solid-fuel TDACS provides propulsion and maneuvering control for the missile’s kinetic warhead once it has detached from the three-stage rocket, and is a scaled-up version of the system used on the SM-3 Block IB.
LOS ANGELES — A summer-long review of U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities is pointing to a growing need for systems able to operate in contested airspace, greater integration with space-based and cyber-assets, and more collaboration with other services and intelligence components.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Mission Control called off plans for the three-man International Space Station crew to take shelter in their Soyuz transport spacecraft early Nov. 23, when new tracking information indicated a 4-in. piece of debris created by China’s 2007 anti-satellite weapons test no longer posed a collision threat.
If the U.S. Navy and the nation stay on course for the proposed 30-year shipbuilding plan, then amphibious warfare ships will have to go to sea more often, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). “The Navy’s latest 30-year shipbuilding plan (known as the “2012 plan”) has a force of 33 amphibious warfare ships as its objective,” notes the CBO in its report, released earlier this month. “A force of 33 ships represents a fiscally constrained compromise from the Marine Corps’ objective of having 38 amphibious ships.”
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 — Certification Together International Conference, "An initiative to create exchanges between all kinds of companies involved in airborne projects, facing certification challenges, and to provide expert solutions," For more information go to www.certification-together.com/
Whether or not there is a draconian budget cut, the U.S. and its allies will need additional aircraft with a reduced radar signature, or the ability to carry standoff weapons with enough range to penetrate sophisticated air defenses. Requirements to improve legacy aircraft upgrades include the ability to carry conventional and directed energy weapons, advanced electronic warfare capabilities and a price tag that is a fraction of a specialized stealth design.
Prospects for wrapping up the defense spending bill for fiscal 2012 by the Dec. 16 deadline are dimming. Defense is currently being funded through a continuing resolution along with much of the rest of the federal government. “It’s likely that the continuing resolution will be extended further, perhaps into January,” says Todd Harrison, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Human Spaceflight Architecture Team members will be among those watching closely as the agency’s ambitious $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission unfolds, hopeful the long mission delivers a bounty of scientific and engineering findings that improve their understanding of the environmental challenges confronting the first human explorers of the Red Planet.
PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed his government’s commitment to the space and defense sectors Nov. 22, despite tremendous pressure to cut government spending. Faced with the loss of its Triple-A credit rating on sovereign debt and the need for sizeable budget cuts, Sarkozy said continued investment in the areas of space and defense technology should be viewed not as a drain on the budget but a down payment on the country’s future.
NEW DELHI — Warship projects in India are being delayed due to lack of high-quality steel and slow delivery of major weapons, sensors and propulsion equipment from both indigenous and foreign sources, junior Defense Minister Pallam Raju told the Indian parliament Wednesday. Two out of three stealth frigates — INS Shivalik and INS Satpura — have been delivered and the third — INS Sahyadri — is scheduled to be delivered in India’s current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2012.
As LightSquared wraps up another round of testing on its new approach to deploy a broadband-wireless network, lawmakers are pushing measures to prevent the plan from moving forward until they are satisfied that the network would not interfere with GPS use. U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) attached an amendment to the financial services and government affairs appropriations bill prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using any funds to permit LightSquared to build the network until concerns regarding GPS interference are addressed.
Fred Strader, president and CEO of defense contractor Textron Systems, held out hope to the end that a congressional Super Committee would strike a bipartisan deal on how to cut $1.2 trillion from the U.S. budget deficit during the next 10 years. Under a law passed earlier this year, failure to agree to a plan would trigger automatic cuts equal to that amount, with $600 billion coming from defense funding. “It’s illogical that they would allow it to get to that point,” Strader says.
GENOA, Italy — An investigation into the crash of the first prototype of the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master advanced jet trainer should be relatively swift, since both crewmembers survived and the aircraft’s wreckage has been found in fairly shallow waters. The M-346, serial number X615, was the first prototype and flew for the first time on July 2004.
After a lackluster performance in recent ship suitability trials, Lockheed Martin is redesigning the F-35C tailhook mechanism in preparation for a return to testing early next year, says Steve O’Bryan, vice president of business development for the Joint Strike Fighter.
PARIS — A tracking station operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) in western Australia made contact Nov. 22 with Russia’s stranded Phobos-Grunt spacecraft after the agency modified a 15-meter-dia. antenna at the facility, according to ESA officials. As a result, engineers at Russian space agency Roscosmos were able to send commands to the Mars probe via ESA ground controllers at the European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, turning on the spacecraft’s transmitter and receiving a signal.
RAPTOR SUPPORT: The U.S. Air Force’s Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, has awarded Lockheed Martin an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $7.4 billion for future capability upgrades to the company’s F-22 Raptor.
GENOA, Italy — Finmeccanica plans to hold a previously unscheduled board meeting as soon as next week, following news leaks concerning a corruption inquiry that involves one of its high-level executives. Lorenzo Borgogni, group external relations director and one of the closest advisers to company Chairman Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, is accused of bribing an Italian politician using company money. He has stepped aside for now, but not resigned.
While Hawker Beechcraft has lodged a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the U.S. Air Force’s decision to exclude the company from the Light Air Support (LAS) competition, the rival team of Sierra Nevada Corp. and Embraer say they have heard nothing from the service about the status of their proposal.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Boeing is offering a line of upgrades for international variants of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and F-15C/Es that the U.S. military is likely to envy and may well adopt as defense budgets shrink.
Nov. 30 – Dec. 1, 2011New York, NYJoin a powerful exchange of A&D’s top CEOs pitching to Wall Street! Hear about business development, investment opportunities and growth strategies from leading companies. Be part of the only investor event that is open to industry. RegisterToday! www.aviationweek.com/events
Nov. 30 – Dec. 1, 2011 New York, NY Join a powerful exchange of A&D’s top CEOs pitching to Wall Street! Hear about business development, investment opportunities and growth strategies from leading companies. Be part of the only investor event that is open to industry. Register Today! www.aviationweek.com/events Click here to view the pdf
