NASA is striving to advance orbiting fuel depot technology through a project called Cryogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer (CPST), which hopes to launch an 1,800-kg (4,000-lb.) demonstration mission in 2016.
Lawmakers and industry groups are seeking to block progress on LightSquared’s proposed ground-based broadband network until testing demonstrates that the network will not interfere with any type of GPS device. Their efforts come as the government begins additional testing of GPS receivers for interference from LightSquared’s broadband-wireless network.
FRANKFURT — Germany should proceed with the purchase of Eurofighter Tranche 3B aircraft while unloading older Tranche 1 models, according to one of the country’s main labor unions. In the first official statement since the German government confirmed plans to cut 37 Eurofighters and reduce purchase plans for Tiger and NH90 helicopters as well as other equipment, IG Metall representatives also bemoan the ongoing uncertainty regarding programs such as the Talarion unmanned aircraft.
NEW CHIEF: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Cornell University Astronomy professor Steven Squyres as chairman of the NASA Advisory Council. Squyres is the principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover mission, and participated in the Voyager, Magellan, and Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous missions. “His experience as a planetary science researcher with many NASA robotic missions will be of great value to the council,” Bolden says. “The knowledge and experience of the council’s members, such as Steve’s, is a vital component of the group.
NEW DELHI — The Pentagon is reiterating its enthusiasm for India to consider purchasing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, even though New Delhi already shut out U.S. providers from its fighter competition.
HOUSTON — Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has shelved plans to open a third U.S. campus at either Houston’s Ellington Airport or suburban Chicago Rockport Airport in favor of expanded graduate degree program offerings by its global classroom network in systems engineering and other disciplines where skilled personnel are in high demand.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are questioning whether the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is ready for nuclear war. The specific issue is whether or not the stealthy fighter is adequately hardened against the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) created by a nuclear explosion high in the atmosphere or in low Earth orbit. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on Tactical and Air Land Forces, raised the issue during a Nov. 2 hearing.
Click here to view the pdf Defense Appropriations: Points Of Agreement On Cuts ($ in thousands) Defense Appropriations: Points Of Agreement On Cuts ($ in thousands) No. Description Request House
A U.S. House-Senate conference committee working out differences in fiscal 2012 defense appropriations would start in complete agreement on $1 billion in cuts to investments, be very close on another $1.4 billion, and less than 10% apart on about $500 million.
The U.S. Air Force has completed the initial activation of its first jam-proof Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellite, and begun on-orbit testing. Ground terminals at Schriever AFB, Colo. and MIT/Lincoln Labs, Mass. logged in to the Lockheed Martin-built satellite as part of its startup process. The Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB plans to transfer responsibility for the satellite to 14th Air Force early next year.
BEIJING — The modified Long March 2F rocket that launched China’s Shenzhou 8 capsule on Nov. 1 performed with exceptional precision, space program officials say.
BELL RETIRING: Boeing Chief Financial Officer James Bell, 63, will retire effective April 1, and be succeeded by Greg Smith, 45, the corporate controller and finance vice president, on Feb. 1. Bell, who also is executive vice president and Boeing’s corporate president, has been CFO since 2003, stepping into that rank from being corporate controller. He joined Boeing in 1972 as a staff accountant at what was then Rockwell International. In 2005, he was interim chief executive for several months while Boeing searched for a permanent CEO, a post taken by James McNerney.
The size of potential budget reductions facing the Pentagon may put the U.S. Navy’s decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier from Virginia to Florida back on the table, according to the chief of naval operations. In a letter to Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), Adm. Jonathan Greenert says moving the carrier from Norfolk, Va., to Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla., remains a “sound” strategic decision. But that may not be enough.
In a bid to push down the cost of spare parts, speed their availability and broaden its shrinking supply base, the U.S. Defense Department wants to establish an electronic marketplace that helps small companies quickly identify spares requirements that match their manufacturing capabilities. Under the Connecting American Manufacturing project, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to award two 12-month contracts, each worth $800,000, to pilot new or enhanced web portals to provide better sourcing.
LONDON — Poland hopes to revive its advanced jet trainer competition in the spring after deciding to scrap the current version. The move could reopen the door for BAE Systems to offer the Hawk advanced jet trainer. The company had withdrawn from the competition, believing the requirement was tilted toward the high-end air combat role. Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 and Korea Aerospace Industries’ T-50 remained in the running for the 16-aircraft program.
SINGAPORE — Airbus Military is betting a new agreement with state-owned Indonesian Aerospace will revive the fortunes of its tactical transport business, by helping it to secure aircraft orders there and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region. Indonesian Aerospace already assembles the C212 and CN235 under license, but the C295, the largest tactical transport in Airbus Military’s product range, has always been made in Spain, although that is about to change.
NEW DELHI — India has about $10 billion worth of offset contracts in the pipeline, says a junior defense minister. “Since the introduction of the offset clause in our Defense Procurement Procedures [in 2005], offset contracts worth nearly 150 billion rupees ($3 billion) have been concluded so far and, I am told, that the total value of the offset contracts which are in the pipeline is estimated to be over 410 billion rupees,” M.M. Pallam Raju says.
LONDON — Finland could become an export customer for the stealthy Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) under a foreign military sales deal now under discussion with the U.S. Finland had previously expressed interest in the missile, but those talks stalled. The weapons package, valued at up to $255 million, would include 70 missiles as well as related equipment. Finland would use the weapon on its Boeing F/A-18C/Ds.
BUFFALO BUY: U.S. Army Contracting Command in Warren, Mich., has awarded Force Protection Industries, Inc. a firm, fixed-price contract modification worth $185.9 million for the purchase of an additional 167 Buffalo A2 Mine Protected Clearance Vehicles and 102 Buffalo A2 Bar Armor Kits. The work is to be performed in Ladson, S.C., with deliveries lasting through April 2014. Michael Moody, chairman and chief executive officer for Force Protection, says the award provides the company “important revenue visibility into 2014.
NEW DELHI — Pakistan has successfully conducted a test firing of the multi-tube, indigenously developed Hatf-VII cruise missile (aka Babur) to validate the design parameters of the weapon system and a new Missile Launch Vehicle (MLV). The low-flying, terrain-hugging missile has a range of 440 mi. with high maneuverability, accuracy and radar avoidance features, the country’s military said in a weekend statement.
