Traditional Pentagon weapons — particularly many U.S. Navy ships — would likely become less useful in an escalation of hostilities with China, according to a recent Rand Corp. report.
ARMY BAE Systems, U.S. Combat Systems, York, Pa., was awarded a $270,825,641 cost-no-fee contract. The award will provide for the procurement of material for 245 Operational Desert Storm Situational Awareness vehicles. The work will be performed in York, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 30, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-10-G-0003).
POLITICAL INVESTIGATION: Rep. Lamar Smith, the third-ranking Republican on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, says he wants NASA’s inspector general to look into the supposed politicization of the space and aeronautics agency. “We should not play partisan politics with our nation’s space program,” Smith says in a statement from aides.
SINGAPORE — Airbus Military now has a C295 on a tour in Indonesia, part of its sales campaign to win over the nation’s air force and government. Reports in Indonesia show Deputy Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin inspecting the aircraft at Jakarta’s Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport. Indonesia is in the market to buy military transports to replace the air force’s Fokker F27s.
LONDON — BAE Systems has beat out rivals to supply the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with night-vision goggle capabilities after developers discovered problems with the stealth fighter’s Vision Systems International (VSI) helmet.
SINGAPORE — Australia is allowing flight operations of its CH-47D Chinook helicopters to resume after grounding its fleet Sept. 30 in response to the ongoing investigation of the crash of an Australian Army Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan. According to a statement from the Australian defense ministry, Australian Army chief Lt. Gen. David Morrison lifted the precautionary suspension following airworthiness advice from the Technical Airworthiness Authority.
The U.S. Coast Guard has improved the management of its information technology (IT) systems, but the service still needs to make more progress, a recent Homeland Security Department Inspector General (IG) report says.
The Netherlands plans to join the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) program to increase its satellite communications capacity. The U.S. Air Force’s WGS program also includes participation from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg and New Zealand, and will have nine satellites providing worldwide coverage in 2018.
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NEW DELHI — India’s defense ministry on Oct. 7 approved the offset proposals of the two short-listed vendors in its $11 billion Medium-Multi-Role Combat Aircraft program, paving the way for the opening of commercial bids. According to a defense ministry official, bids should be opened in the next few days for the Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale, though no specific time frame was given. The original tender was issued by the defense ministry in August 2007.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) OcT. 12 - 13 — Aviation Week 5th Edition, Lean Six Sigma for MRO Forum - Americas, Crowne Plaza San Francisco International Airport Hotel, San Francisco, Calif. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
LONDON — As Norway sets a slightly increased level of defense spending for 2012, it also is allocating the first tranche of funding to finance an initial batch of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to be used for training. Norway expects to see defense spending increase 1.3 billion Norwegian kroner ($224 million) over 2011 levels, with the top line reaching 40.6 billion kroner ($7 billion).
NEW DELHI — On Oct. 7, an Indian air force (IAF) MiG-21 combat aircraft went down, marking the sixth crash of the fighter for the IAF this year. The aircraft crashed in India’s western state of Rajasthan during a routine sortie around 11.30 a.m. local time while the pilot was preparing to land, a defense ministry spokesman says. The pilot ejected to safety. The IAF first purchased MiG-21s in 1961 and has operated more than 400 of the aircraft. More than 100 of the fighters were lost in crashes from 1993-2002.
HOUSTON — NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) A and B spacecraft are on course to maneuver into lunar orbit on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, following initial course-correction maneuvers carried out over the past week, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports. The identical Grail spacecraft began their $496 million, nine-month mission to probe the Moon’s internal structure on Sept. 10, with a launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives put together a list of recommendations for protecting the nation’s computer systems that range from common-sense tips on good “hygiene” to providing incentives for businesses to improve their cyber-defenses.
NEW DELHI — India is set to ramp up its fighter and transport bases near the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir to augment its military strength along its borders with neighboring countries such as Pakistan and China. The Indian air force (IAF) plans to transform Nyoma — located in eastern Ladakh within 25 km.(16 mi.) of the Sino-Indian border — into a fighter base and augment Kargil base in Indian-administered Kashmir to enable operations by fighter jets and heavy transports, according to Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne.
SHIP TO SHORE: Both F-35Bs slated for service in shipboard trials onboard the U.S. Navy’s USS Wasp are operating on the amphibious ship. They are expected to test integration between the ship and the stealthy, single-engine fighter. Testing is slated for 2-3 weeks and preliminary results should be ready at the end of the month, barring unexpected discoveries. Meanwhile, the F-35As at Eglin AFB, Fla., are expected to get the nod within a month to begin flight operations with unmonitored aircraft there; this is the site of the international F-35 schoolhouse.
As U.S. interest wanes in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon also is starting to wean itself from fuel expenses—and the Defense Department is going to turn a keener eye on the petroleum contracts it does award, thanks to the findings of two recent Pentagon Inspector General investigations.
PARIS — Eutelsat’s W3C telecommunications satellite was launched atop a Chinese Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Centre Oct. 7, the first Western-owned commercial communications satellite to be lofted from the communist country since a crackdown on exports of U.S.-made satellite technology to Beijing in the 1990s.
TEL AVIV — While Alenia Aermacchi and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) vie for Israel’s advanced trainer, a growing spat among the competitors and their national backers is beginning to mar what was widely seen as a rehearsal for the larger U.S. Air Force T-X competition. South Korea is threatening to suspend all defense contracts with Israel, claiming that the highly contested tender for Israel’s advanced trainer was already decided in favor of Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 Master over KAI’s T-50 Golden Eagle.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Engineers at Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) are “very close” to finishing their analysis of the orbital and radio-interference implications of their company’s plans to piggyback two Orbcomm data-relay satellites on the upcoming Falcon 9/Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — China plans to attempt a remotely controlled docking in November between its new Tiangong-1 space lab and the unpiloted Shenzhou-8 crew vehicle, followed by two manned missions to the miniature space station next year.
