As the U.S. Government Accountability Office zeroes in on the U.S. Navy’s decision to restart the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer line while truncating DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyers and killing the future proposed cruiser vessels, defense analysts say the service is bungling how to define the roles of either ship type. “There is no difference between a cruiser and destroyer,” says noted analyst and naval author Norman Polmar, a frequent contributor to the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine.
The defense units of Raytheon and Boeing are least vulnerable to further cuts in Pentagon spending, while those of Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications appear to be more exposed, according to a new analysis by Credit Suisse.
The trap of unreconciled demands has a grip on U.S. Strategic Command. Planners have to reduce spending on the nuclear triad of submarines, strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles while preparing to meet the new threats of offensive operations in space and cyberspace and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
PREFERRED PROVIDERS: The Australian Defense Department has selected five “preferred industry partners” to provide computer application services. “The change is a significant milestone in Defense’s strategy to improve the department’s performance in delivering information and communications technology (ICT) capability as part of the Strategic Reform Program,” a department statement said Oct. 18. Selected providers are the Australian subsidiaries of Accenture, BAE Systems, CSC, IBM and Hewlett Packard.
A U.S. and Japanese spacecraft collaboration has produced an enhanced global digital topographic map that spans 99% of the Earth’s surface for use in remote-sensing applications ranging from the identification of natural resources to the protection of regions with environmental or cultural significance. The high-resolution topographic map was produced using data gathered from NASA’s Terra spacecraft and the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, one of five onboard instruments.
Click here to view the pdf Top Aerospace & Defense Programs 2011-2020 — Rotorcraft Top Aerospace & Defense Programs 2011-2020 — Rotorcraft Top 10 Programs Per Category In Terms Of Total Value Of Production — 2011-2020 (In 2011 Dollars)
Click here to view the pdf Top Aerospace & Defense Programs 2011-2020 — DOD Electronics Top Aerospace & Defense Programs 2011-2020 — DOD Electronics U.S.
LOFTY AWARD: Lockheed Martin says a new, long-term U.S. Army contract to maintain, operate and sustain the Persistent Threat Detection Systems (PTDS) reaches $383 million. That comes on top of a $142 million award last year for 17 of the fully integrated, tethered aerostat surveillance systems (Aerospace DAILY, April 20, 2010). The aerostats have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to provide constant situational awareness for troops.
Tests of Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew vehicle in a supersonic wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center are focused on gathering data that will be needed to keep a four-person crew alive during a launch failure and return them to Earth safely.
The U.S. Navy will have to secure the fort as the nation starts to scale down its ground forces in its current military conflicts, the chief of naval operations (CNO) says. “As ground forces draw down in the Middle East, the Navy will continue to deter aggression and reassure our partners: We will have the watch,” CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert says in his recent “Sailing Directions,” a general guide for sailors and officers.
IC CUTBACKS: The U.S. intelligence community (IC) is headed for billions of dollars in budget reductions over the next decade. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Geoint 2011 conference in San Antonio this week that he wants half of the cost savings to come via information technology improvements. Other savings will come from cutting back contractors and overseas facilities. Clapper said Oct.
Click here to view the pdf Top Aerospace & Defense Programs 2011-2020 — Military Gas Turbine Engines Top Aerospace & Defense Programs 2011-2020 — Military Gas Turbine Engines Top 10 Programs Per Category In Terms Of Total Value Of Production — 2011-202
SINGAPORE — Sri Lanka’s air force has taken delivery of two Chinese-built Xian Aircraft MA60 turboprop passenger aircraft for its domestic commercial airline operation Helitours, which also plans to expand internationally. Sri Lanka is a political ally of China, which is understood to have facilitated the sale using “soft loans.”
As the U.S. Navy polishes the requirements for its proposed Aegis ballistic missile defense system upgrades, companies such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are cranking up production to support the combat system on the restarted DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer line. The Navy recently decided to restart the line to put more Aegis-equipped vessels into the fleet with tweaked combat systems for more enhanced ballistic missile defense capability.
The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is projecting a sense of confidence that despite the federal government’s focus on cutting the deficit, the agency’s signature programs—the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system and the Phased Adaptive Approach for Europe—are likely to escape major budget reductions.
The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is downplaying a recent test failure of Raytheon’s SM-3 IB missile interceptor as a typical rite of passage for early flight tests. For the SM-3 IB, part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, it was the first end-to-end test. And on that early trial in September, the interceptor failed to shoot down a target.
LONDON — Legislators from European Union member states are calling on the European Commission to sustain funding for the flagship GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) satellite program. The commission proposes to strip GMES from the multiyear budget in 2012 and rely on member states to carry the load, which the European Space Agency (ESA) estimates will cost around €834 million ($1.14 billion) annually to maintain and operate.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A fly-over by Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital vehicle and WhiteKnightTwo mothership marked the Oct. 17 dedication of the hangar at Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-designed launch facility for space tourism and sub-orbital science flights.
CST-100: Boeing says it is close to wrapping up wind-tunnel testing at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California for the company’s Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft. The test team is using a 12-in.-wide, 14-in.-long aluminum model that is about 1/14th the size of the operational capsule that Boeing is designing to ferry crew and cargo to low Earth orbit as one of the four competitors in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program. Testing is scheduled to conclude by the end of this month.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the U.S. Air Force’s plan to help stabilize the launch industrial base for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) could commit the service to buying more core boost vehicles than needed, perhaps at a higher-than-necessary cost.
HOUSTON — Robonaut 2 (R2), the legless humanoid developed by NASA and General Motors, has moved for the first time since its launch to the International Space Station in February aboard the STS-133 mission, the space agency reported Oct. 14. The arm motions a day earlier were made in response to commands from NASA’s Mission Control and payload control facilities here and in Huntsville, Ala.
HOUSTON — An international crew of astronauts, a prominent U.S. planetary geologist and support personnel have assembled in South Florida for an Oct. 20 descent to an undersea habitat off Key Largo, where they plan to spend 13 days addressing a range of challenges facing a future human mission to an asteroid.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems, Totowa, N.J., was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for a maximum $24,062,919 for installation of advanced radar warning receiver ship sets on C-130 aircraft. The other location of performance is New York. Using service is Air Force. The date of performance completion is Aug. 13, 2013. The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (SPM4AX-08-D-9416/XE02). AIR FORCE
