HOUSTON — U.S. and Russian experts prepared Sept. 28 for a possible maneuver of the International Space Station to avoid orbital debris from an aging Russian rocket body.
MADRID — The severity of the current defense budget environment in the U.S. and Europe suggests spending on military maintenance, repair and overhaul is likely to contract in the next few years. In its latest market forecast, Michael Howard, a principal at ICF SH&E, suggests the size of the global market will shrink by $23 billion, or a 1.2% annual decline. That is a reversal from the 1.7% growth projected just a year ago.
FIRE SALE: The global recession may have dampened worldwide weapons sales in 2010, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, but competition is only getting fiercer. “As new arms sales have become more difficult to conclude since the global recession began, competition among sellers has become increasingly intense,” the Sept. 22 report says. The 2010 total of $40.4 billion was a “significant” decline from $65.2 billion in 2009, falling 38.1%. U.S. marketshare nonetheless grew from 34.7% in 2009 to 52.7% in 2010.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Growing budget pressure is driving the U.S. space industry to seek greater cost savings from commercial-like block buy contracts for military programs, increase the use of hosted payloads for U.S. government requirements and focus on better risk management and production efficiency.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Scientists are expressing disbelief at inaction by the U.S. government over accepting more than $1 billion of funding on offer from Europe to collaborate on a Mars sample-return mission. Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2011 meeting here, Stanford University professor and NASA adviser Scott Hubbard says the funding issue threatens the start of the project, which is aimed at a Mars landing in 2018.
Parliamentary approval for Norway’s purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35s could be jeopardized if the U.S. does not agree to share the cost of integrating Norway’s Joint Strike Missile (JSM) on the F-35, warns the weapon’s developer. The JSM is a derivative of the anti-ship Naval Strike Missile (NSM) developed by Kongsberg for the Norwegian navy and sold to Poland. The air-launched version is designed to be carried internally by the stealthy F-35.
INDIAN MRO: Pipavav Defense and Offshore Ltd., India’s largest shipbuilder by market value, has signed an agreement with Airbus SAS and SKIL Infrastructure to develop aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities for both civilian and military applications in India. “The first phase [of] MRO facilities and associated infrastructure are likely to cost $100 million,” a Pipavav Defense official says. Initially, Airbus parent company EADS will have a 26% stake in the project and may raise it to 49%. Pipavav Defense will hold 51%, the official says.
Responding to reports about missing shoulder-fired missiles, or Manpads, in Libya, a California senator is asking the U.S. government to start a program in fiscal 2013 that would protect commercial aircraft from potential attacks. The program would follow a Homeland Security initiative started in 2003 under which BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman created systems that completed more than “16,000 flight hours aboard cargo and passenger aircraft,” according to a letter sent Sept. 27 by Sen.
MADRID — The French government will see a real-term drop in defense spending, although the top line will increase slightly in 2012 from 2011 levels. Excluding pensions, French defense spending in 2012 is slated to reach €31.7 billion ($43 billion), about €500 million above the current year’s level. Equipment expenditures are planned to grow around 3% to €16.5 billion.
OWN UP: Top House science appropriator Frank Wolf (R-Va.) wants the White House to suggest budget offsets to continue NASA’s beleaguered James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program, or else the congressman is suggesting he may not be able to help the Hubble successor or other NASA science efforts in House-Senate budget negotiations. “For us to make a truly informed decision ... we must have the offset information,” Wolf wrote President Barack Obama’s budget director Sept. 28.
NATO missile defense officials are awaiting approval of a plan to lay out guidance for unified alliance missile defense in advance of a key interim operational capability declaration for the system slated for May.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Orbital Sciences is “30 days out from accepting the pad complex” at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, according to Mike Hamel, the company’s senior vice president for corporate strategy and business development.
MILITARY AID: Look for the U.S. to ramp up foreign military sales and financing to Southeast Asia, as Washington expects military aid to do for it there what it did in the Middle East. “Our funding helps tie a country’s security sector to the United States, creating strong strategic and financial incentives for the recipient countries to maintain close relations,” Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, reminded a Washington think tank audience Sept. 27.
LAKEHURST, N.J. — The U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye carrier-based airborne early warning and command-and-control aircraft should be ready to begin its six-month operational testing phase this December, program manager Capt. James Gahagan says.
LAKEHURST, N.J. — The U.S. Navy’s proposed electromagnetic aircraft launch system (Emals) — one of the linchpin technologies for the service’s next-generation aircraft carriers — continues to make waves this week with the first test launch of an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. The Navy launched the E-2D Sept. 27 following a press briefing to provide an Emals update. After a few trial runs of the Emals catapult, the Hawkeye zipped down the test strip and took to the air cleanly after hitting about 125 kt.
LOS ANGELES — Virgin Galactic is close to finalizing the initial flight crews for its space tourism and science operations. Three pilots will make up the first crew who will fly both the SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle and WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) mother ship. “There were 550 applicants, and we downselected to the finalists this summer,” says Virgin Galactic President and CEO George Whitesides.
Iraq has sent its first payment to the U.S. for the purchase of 18 F-16 fighters, according to Pentagon officials, marking a major a step toward rebuilding the country’s air force. Baghdad is buying the Block 52 variant of the Lockheed Martin single-engine aircraft in a deal worth $3 billion, adding roughly one more year of work for Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth assembly facility. Company officials recently voiced concern that slow activity on the Iraq sale as well as a pending deal with Oman was forcing the company to fund some of its suppliers.
L-3 Unmanned Systems is upgrading its Viking 400 medium-endurance tactical unmanned aircraft, which is flown by U.S. Special Operations Command and other unidentified customers. The company has flight tested the Block 1A aircraft with an improved electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor and digital data link and is working on extending endurance and expanding multi-payload capability.
BEIJING — Australia is moving to buy a sixth Boeing C-17 Globemaster, barely six months after deciding to order a fifth, which has just arrived. The country’s request for information on cost and availability for another C-17 follows the discovery that its first four aircraft, ordered in 2006, have been more useful than expected. The Royal Australian Air Force could exploit scale economies in operating a larger fleet of the type, says Defense Minister Stephen Smith.
LONDON — South Africa’s Paramount Group and Aerosud are hoping to piggyback the growing interest in reconnaissance and light attack aircraft with the launch of the Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC). The aircraft is designed to have a maximum cruise speed of 300 kt., payload capacity of up to 800 kg (1,760 lb.), and range of 1,150 nm on internal fuel alone. It also is supposed to be able to take off within 550 meters (1,800 ft.) with a full payload to take advantage of remote airfields.
Orbital Sciences Corp. launched the TacSat-4 spacecraft on a Minotaur IV rocket flying from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska on Sept. 27, placing the U.S. Navy satellite in its highly elliptical polar orbit. Liftoff from the launch site on Kodiak Island came at 11:49 a.m. EDT, and the satellite separated about 28 min. later into its targeted 115-by-7,415-mi. orbit. From there, it will be able to provide 2 hr. of coverage three times a day over a warfighting theater 2,000 nm in diameter, according to the Office of Naval Research.
UP AND DOWN: Forecast International says that 1,877 light military rotorcraft will be built between now and 2020, with production estimated at $24 billion in constant 2011 U.S. dollars. Growth will continue through 2012, but then yearly production “will enter a period of gradual, though erratic, decline through the 2018/2019 time frame.” The U.S.-based consultancy projects production will total 193 units this year and 215 next year, dropping to 186 units in 2013. It then increases to 204 units by 2015, but dips to just more than 165 units in both 2018 and 2019.
SINGAPORE — The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress about the request for equipment to be included in Taiwan’s upgrade of Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs, which includes active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars.
