Democratic lawmakers are trying to block the Obama administration’s proposal to sell a $53 million package of weapons to Bahrain. On Sept. 14, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency told Congress that Bahrain’s government was looking for equipment including 44 armored Humvees, more than 200 missiles, including bunker busters, and other gear. Congress has 30 days from the date of notification to object.
NEW DELHI — Impressed by early deliveries and the aircraft’s performance in recent operations, the Indian air force (IAF) is actively considering a proposal to acquire more than the 12 Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules tactical special mission aircraft already expected.
CYBER ACCUMULATION: Figuring out a company’s or agency’s vulnerability to cyberattack is more than just tallying weak points in one’s network, a new report from federal researchers says. Defenders also have to see how the vulnerabilities can be pieced together for an even greater threat. “To more accurately assess the security of enterprise systems, one must understand how vulnerabilities can be combined and exploited to stage an attack,” say authors Anoop Singhal and Ximming Ou at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
HOUSTON — NASA will make an $80 million, two-instrument contribution to the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, as well as provide launch services for the planned 2017 liftoff, the agency announced Oct. 6. The seven-year mission will circle about 21 million mi. from the Sun’s surface, gathering information on space weather that can affect terrestrial telecommunications and electrical power distribution during periods of high solar activity.
Amid congressional calls to cut U.S. forces in Europe as a way to reduce the deficit, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe is reluctant to make value judgments about the process. But Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling is clear about one thing — the requirements for his forces have not lessened. “Actually, it’s increased,” the three-star general said during an Oct. 6 speech on Capitol Hill. Over the last nine years, U.S. forces in Europe have been scaled back from 870 installations to about 22. But the demands, he says, are ever-changing.
STATE DEFENSE: The top five U.S. state recipients of federal defense contracts to firms in 2010 were Virginia, California, Texas, Maryland and Florida, according to a new report from Ball State University. Indiana, where the university is based, ranked 23rd. The university found that in 2010 about 9,400 defense-related contracts worth about $4 billion across Indiana supported more than 21,000 jobs.
The Arctic experienced an unprecedented depletion of high-altitude ozone during the 2011 winter and spring — similar to that measured annually over the Antarctic since the mid-1980s — because of a prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere, according to a NASA-led study based on satellite measurements. The findings, gathered by scientists from nine countries, were published Oct. 2 in the online version of the journal Nature.
Oct. 20-21, 201I Chicago, IL Join your peers for 2 days full of learning, information-sharing, networking, and technology demonstrations specifically designed to help you optimize your maintenance information systems. MRO I.T. will deliver effective maintenance technology solutions and systems to streamline critical operational needs. Learn how to deploy reliable intelligence to the right maintenance areas for optimal asset utilization and achieve greater revenue and profits
K-MAX ON: The U.S. Navy Department said Oct. 5 it plans to deploy the Navy and Marine Corps’ first-ever cargo unmanned aircraft system to Afghanistan next month — as was expected. The decision allows Lockheed Martin and Kaman’s K-Max unmanned helicopter to try a six-month deployment to augment Marine ground and air logistics operations in theater. Most associated personnel will operate the two unmanned rotorcraft from a central main operating base. Air vehicle operators will reside at smaller forward operating bases, where the cargo will be delivered.
The U.S. Navy has anchored more securely its so-called Phased Adaptive Approach to European ballistic missile defense (BMD) thanks to this week’s international agreement to base Aegis-equipped ships at Rota, Spain, about 60 mi. northwest of Gibraltar. The agreement between the U.S. and Spain comes about five months after the U.S. deployed the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterery as the first U.S. Navy ship with the enhanced Aegis system in the Mediterranean as part of Phased Adaptive Approach.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — NASA plans to open a competition in December for multiple, 30-month contracts to study strap-on booster upgrades for the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), including an upgrade for the five-segment, solid-fuel strap-ons baselined as the initial boosters for the big new rocket.
While the U.S. military’s focus remains trained on China and the Asia-Pacific region, changes in climate and international shipping patterns likely will create a more immediate naval concern and challenge, according to the last chief of naval operations (CNO).
HOUSTON — NASA has selected a second set of five technology demonstration payloads for flight on commercial suborbital launch vehicles tentatively set for early 2012 under the agency’s Flight Opportunities Program. The new payloads join the first set of two payloads selected in mid-May for flight under the nearly one-year-old initiative that is intended to foster the growth of a reusable, suborbital transportation industry in the U.S.
LONDON — The Indonesian air force may hold the keys to how successful the partnership between Airbus Military and PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) in military and commercial aircraft turns out. The two parties agreed during the summer to build on their long-standing relationship to help revive Indonesia’s aerospace ambitions. Now, more concrete details have been finalized. Airbus Military will offer PTDI the chance to market and co-produce the C295 tactical transport as long as the Indonesian government buys the aircraft as its Fokker 27 replacement.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) and other companies developing commercial crew transportation for the International Space Station (ISS) are applying the hard-won lessons of the space shuttle era as they develop their new vehicles, according to John Shannon, NASA’s last shuttle program manager. The reason, in part, is that the commercial companies have hired experienced shuttle engineers away from NASA to help with the new vehicles being developed under the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) seed-money effort.
Tea Party supporters may be conservative about U.S. government spending, except when it comes to spending on the military. Those are the findings of a study conducted by a conservative grassroots political nonprofit called Let Freedom Ring that were presented at a Capitol Hill event Oct. 5 dedicated to igniting opposition to cutting the defense budget.
November 2 - 3, 2011 Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel Istanbul, Turkey Engine maintenance at 35%, is the largest segment of total MRO spend. It is the biggest cost driver for operators and engine MRO requirements are likely to increase over the next decade. This forum will identify and help you develop a strategy for selecting your service provider and planning engine maintenance schedules that lead to effective planning and cost reduction. Learn more and register today at www.aviationweek.com/events
As the U.S. Coast Guard’s embattled Deepwater acquisition effort sails toward the $30 billion mark, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is again warning Congress that the service needs to get a better handle on the program. “The total Deepwater program could cost as much as $29.3 billion, an increase of more than 20 percent in four years,” John Hutton, GAO acquisition and sourcing management director, told the subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime transportation of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
The Lockheed Martin Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system has destroyed two targets launched seconds from one another during the first attempt to pit the ballistic missile shield against a so-called “raid” threat. The flight test was conducted Oct. 5 at 1:56 a.m. EDT at the Pacific Missile Range facility at Kauai, Hawaii.
NEW DELHI — India has agreed to train and equip Afghanistan’s security forces to help the strife-torn country fight terrorism and give New Delhi a major strategic edge in the region. In a move sure to annoy rival and immediate neighbor Pakistan, India formally expressed its intention to “assist, as mutually determined, in the training, equipping and capacity-building programs for Afghan National Security Forces.” However, neither country has provided details about the military training.
NEW DELHI — Russia has assured India it is cementing measures to avoid delays in the supply of defense equipment and spares. India has been upset with Russia for not sticking to the delivery schedules of contracted weapon systems, creating roadblocks in the transfer of technology, hiking costs midway through the execution of agreements and failing to provide uninterrupted supplies of spares or regular maintenance.
Lockheed Martin is testing winglets and other drag-reducing modifications to cut the fuel consumption of C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy airlifters. With large-scale wind tunnel testing completed, Lockheed is fabricating a shipset of winglets for flight testing on a C-130 in 2012. The modification could be available for both retrofit and forward-fit by early 2014.
