Lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee recommend an $8 billion cap on the development of the troubled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program, which covers the latest projected cost to finish and operate the huge infrared telescope.
SINGAPORE — No Singaporean has gone into space and the government has no desire to be part of the space race, but Singapore has succeeded in becoming a center for the space industry in the Asia-Pacific region. Astrium Satellite Services, Arianespace, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Intelsat and Iridium are just some of the global players that have Singapore offices, which in most cases are their Asia-Pacific headquarters.
LONDON — AgustaWestland is preparing for the next-generation Lynx, the AW159 Wildcat helicopter, to undergo its first at sea trials on the U.K.’s RFA Argus training ship. The exercise, involving TI-3, the third development prototype, is part of the service release program, says the helicopter maker’s program manager, David Hillcoast. The flights are planned for next month.
NASA is set to publish its plans for procuring the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) on Sept. 23, in the hopes its hard-pressed contractors can use the information to retain space shuttle and Constellation engineers and other workers with the hard-won skills and experience that will be needed to build and fly “the most powerful rocket built.”
The health of the U.S. classified satellite fleet is solid, as are the development programs under way now to produce the next generation of spacecraft, says the director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). U.S. Air Force Gen. (ret.) Bruce Carlson, however, declines to speculate on how the secretive organization, which designs and operates classified U.S. spacecraft, will fare in upcoming budget talks as Washington sorts out a national debt reduction plan.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee will be pushing to spend up to $524 billion on defense in fiscal 2012 – more money on defense than his Senate counterparts are recommending. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Sept. 15 approved a bill that removes nearly $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s request, providing $513 billion. That is a far steeper reduction than the $9 billion trim the House passed earlier in the year. But the House acted long before the summer’s all-consuming budget debate.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is developing faster, cheaper ways to process the millions of signals, communications and images it handles. But despite massive improvement in data fusion over the last three years, progress is still about “five orders of magnitude below what it needs to be,” the agency’s chief says.
CHINESE UNEASE: Speaking about the Chinese government, “I would be a lot happier if I knew exactly their intent,” says U.S. Air Force Gen. (ret.) Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. “They are an incredibly modern society, with a military philosophy that goes back 4,000 years,” he said during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington Sept. 15. “They believe in deception, so I remain concerned. “I also wish I knew North Korea’s intent,” he continues. “They are very clever and work hard to deceive us.
NEW DELHI — Swedish defense firm Saab and India’s Wipro Ltd. will jointly manufacture, market and sell active protection systems for ground vehicles on the Indian market. “The Land Electronic Defense System [LEDS] provides active protection to light and medium combat vehicles as well as to main battle tanks against engagement by weapons like rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, mortars and artillery shells,” says Pratik Kumar, president of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Ltd.
Additional testing for GPS interference is required before a decision can be made on whether to allow LightSquared to deploy its revised broadband wireless network, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decreed. After testing showed widespread interference with GPS receivers, LightSquared modified its proposed terrestrial network to operate at lower power and only in the lower of its two frequency bands, the one farthest from GPS satellite signals.
VIRTUAL UMBRELLA: The U.S. and Australia are adding cyberspace to their Anzus Treaty, marking the first public pledge of allied cyberdefense outside of NATO. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the focus on cyberspace “is in large measure a recognition ... that cyber is the battlefield of the future, and that we are all going to have to work very hard not only to defend against cyber-attacks, but to be aggressive with regard to cyber-attacks as well.” The move came via the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations in San Francisco this week.
UAV DIVIDE: U.S. Homeland Security Department officials plan to expand their fleet of unmanned aircraft to 24 that will be operational by fiscal 2016, including 11 on the southwest border, according to a Sept. 12 report to congressional Armed Services committees. The department now has seven. Meanwhile, a report by the Government Accountability Office says it is impossible to compare costs and benefits of the DHS and the Pentagon in providing UAVs for U.S. border enforcement.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry has named three bidders for the Project Marshall military terminal area control air traffic management services program. The effort to provide 22 years of service is valued at more than £1 billion ($1.58 billion). The three winning teams are one dominated by BAE Systems, Indra; another by Lockheed Martin and Selex Systems Integration; and a third involving Thales U.K. and NATS.
September 28, 2011 IFEMA Madrid, Spain Mark your calendar! MRO Military Europe returns to address continued military sustainment in a market that is constantly in flux. Europe represents 23% of the $85 billion global military sustainment market. How will military and defense agencies cope with the current challenges and changes facing maintenance and sustainment, including:
NEW DELHI — The Indian government’s auditing watchdog is slamming the defense ministry’s arms procurement process for its long, unexplained delays. “In high-value capital expenditure cases, the acquisition process lacks proper planning, effective price negotiation, proper monitoring etc.,” the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India says in its latest report, which was tabled in parliament last week.
AUSTRALIAN AIRLIFTER: The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) took delivery of its fifth Boeing C-17 airlifter during a ceremony at the program’s final assembly facility in Long Beach, Calif., Sept. 14. Australia announced the closing of the deal to receive a fifth aircraft in April. Australian C-17s were part of the relief mission to Japan following its devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. The fleet delivered more than 1 million lb. of cargo, Boeing says, including water cannons to help cool the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
LONDON – Kongsberg is looking to expand the missiles on offer under its Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (Nasams) program, with the Raytheon AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missile and the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) for ship self-defense next on the drawing board. Nasams, which began as a program to launch Amraam missiles from the ground, has since evolved, with the latest move a midyear demonstration of the surface-launched IRIS-T SLS fired from the system. The Norwegian air force is an IRIS-T customer, using it on F-16s.
PARIS – Globalstar’s upcoming launch of six next-generation satellites aboard a Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket, currently planned for mid-October, will be delayed while Russian space agency Roscosmos thoroughly inspects its fleet following a recent launch failure, the mobile satellite services provider announced Sept. 12. An Aug. 24 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan failed to put an unmanned Progress M-12M cargo vehicle destined for the International Space Station into the correct orbit, resulting in the spacecraft falling back to Earth.
LONDON – Most of the big European NATO allies – along with the U.S. and Canada – are currently developing their own unique soldier modernization programs, using a variety of technologies akin to the American Nett Warrior suite of wearable, networked sensors and communications gear.
Indian state-run shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd. has entered into a joint venture with Pipavav Defense and Offshore Engineering Co. to build warships for the Indian navy and the export market. The equal joint venture, announced Sept. 12, will create an independent company to be named Mazagon Dock Pipavav Ltd. “This company will be executing the existing orders of Mazagon Dock worth 1 trillion rupees [$21.69 billion] and bid for future defense orders jointly,” says Nikhil Gandhi, chairman of Pipavav Defense.
RAD DANGER: NASA is assigning $12 million to research institutions from eight states to study the effects of cosmic radiation on human space explorers, an effort that will focus on exposure hazards to the heart and central nervous system. The studies also will examine cancer risks and the underlying influence of genetic factors. In all, NASA selected nine lead researchers for the funding, according to a Sept. 9 agency announcement. A full list of the winners can be found at http://go.nasa.gov/rbPIvJ.
