LONDON — As Raytheon continues its push for European navies to embrace the Standard Missile SM-3 Block 1B for missile defense roles, it says it has largely validated the dual-mode data link that would be key to the concept.
HOUSTON — NASA lacks an adequate system of controls to administer and manage its grant program, which in 2010 awarded $570 million for scientific research, scholarships, fellowships and other educational activities, according to an audit from NASA Inspector General (IG) Paul Martin. The awards to educational, nonprofit and commercial entities have totaled $3 billion over the past five years, with nearly 75% directed to educational institutions.
PARIS — The anomaly that caused an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M/Breeze M rocket to deliver a Russian telecommunications satellite into the wrong orbit last month has been attributed to a workmanship error, according to ILS President Frank McKenna. McKenna says officials knew within a week that the Aug. 18 launch mishap, which dropped the Russian-owned, Astrium-built Express-AM4 satellite into a useless orbit, was caused by a worker who fed a faulty parameter into the rocket’s flight software system.
BAE Systems plans to flight test improvements to its radar-based anti-brownout system in anticipation of the U.S. Army launching a program to equip its helicopters with an active sensor to improve safety when operating in degraded visual environments. The company’s Brownout Landing Aid System Technology (Blast) system is based on a 94ghz millimeter-wave radar that can see through blowing dust, a digital terrain database and special display symbology to help pilots land when sand stirred up by the rotors obscures their view.
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — As part of efforts to extend the life of the Gripen’s RM12 engine program, Volvo Aero has revealed details of a multiphase upgrade plan that could see overall thrust increased to more than 20,000 lb.
Boeing says it will adapt a touch screen interior control panel that flight attendants use on the 737 for the 767s it is adapting for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A tanker program. BAE Systems, which developed the touch panel for the Boeing Sky Interior product improvement package now being implemented as an upgrade option for the 737NG family, will produce the controls for the tankers at its Johnson City, N.Y., and Fort Wayne, Ind., facilities.
LONDON — British Defense Secretary Liam Fox warns the government may soon issue a list of programs of concern to put pressure on contractors to improve performance.
REPORTS DUE: The National Academies in Washington are expected to issue several reports this fall of interest to the missile defense and nuclear weapons communities. Reports due include an assessment of concepts and systems for U.S. boost-phase missile defense in comparison to alternatives, reviewing the management and science of the national laboratories, metrics related to cooperative threat reduction abroad, and technical issues over the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. More information is available at www.nationalacademies.org.
NO EASIER: Managing the U.S. Navy through another continuing resolution (CR) will be just as difficult in the coming years as it was through the last go-round, says Adm. Gary Roughead, who is set to step down as chief of naval operations at month’s end. Indeed, it may be even harder to navigate through such a clampdown because a CR could disrupt Navy plans to accommodate budget cuts with increased multiyear buys. A CR could cap those types of acquisitions. “It depends on what quantities are affected,” Roughhead said Sept.
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) considers it his job to ensure that House Republican leadership knows the consequences of cutting defense spending more deeply than the amount to which Congress has currently agreed.
ARMY The Boeing Co., St. Louis, was awarded a $181,663,400 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for system engineering support and field service representatives for the Early-Infantry Brigade Combat Team low rate initial production. The work will be performed in St. Louis; Bedford, Mass.; Bloomington, Minn.; and Vienna, Va., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-C-0452).
THE SIMS: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is looking at advanced simulation technology for effective training and combat capabilities. “The present requirement of advanced simulators for providing effective training to Indian armed forces in a cost-effective manner is significantly high,” IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal K.K. Nohwa said on Sept. 12. “The use of simulators will significantly reduce both flying and fuel costs and most importantly, reduce the loss of life and equipment,” he says.
PARIS – Russia’s Express-AM4 satellite is fully functional and is sending and receiving signals following its Aug. 18 launch, but the Astrium-built spacecraft remains in the same useless orbit that its faulty Proton M/Breeze M rocket dumped it into shortly after liftoff.
HOUSTON — NASA’s 20-year-old Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), a school bus-sized sentry that pioneered the observation of high-altitude interactions between man-made chemicals and the life-shielding ozone layer, is expected to crash back to Earth in late September or possibly early October with a one-in-3,200 chance of a human casualty, according to orbital debris experts from U.S. Strategic Command and NASA.
BEIJING – South Korea will receive four Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial systems in 2015 and 2016 under an order that is in the final stages of negotiation. The U.S. State Department is likely to advise Congress within a few weeks of the proposed sale, which also will include the ground infrastructure for the surveillance aircraft. A U.S. official says that the contract will be worth about $850 million. Two of the aircraft will be delivered in 2015 and the other two in 2016.
LONDON – NATO members at their next summit meeting are expected to consider a range of multinational cooperation projects to help spend money more efficiently as defense procurement throughout the alliance comes under pressure.
NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) spacecraft got under way Sept. 10 with launch on a Delta II rocket, kicking off a mission that planetary scientists hope will give them highly accurate measurements of the Moon’s gravity.
MORE LIFE: Honeywell says a five-year, $450 million contract with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to provide ground systems and mission operations services for the agency’s fleet of scientific research satellites will focus on extending their life. “Today, our technologies will re-set the operational life and value of NASA research satellites, enabling the agency to continue to meet commitments on a wide range of missions of vital importance to humankind,” says Charles Harvey, president of Honeywell Technology Solutions.
Aviation Week MRO Military Europe 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:
LONDON – Northrop Grumman is pushing forward on its counter-improvised explosive device Cutlass unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) along with an export derivative called Cobra. Although exact fielding time lines for Cutlass are not being revealed, Nigel Essenhigh, chairman of Northrop Grumman U.K., says the first production-standard vehicles are about to be delivered.
Though U.S. Air Force officials are hailing the forthcoming launch of a military payload hosted on a commercial satellite, funding could be an obstacle to a future Pentagon satellite infrastructure that relies heavily on hosted payloads for service. SES-2 is slated to launch Sept. 17 on an Ariane 5 rocket. The satellite, made by Orbital Sciences Corp., will carry the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (Chirp) made by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).
AIR FORCE M1 Support Services, Denton, Texas, is being awarded a $10,039,809 firm-fixed-price with reimbursable line items contract modification to maintain mission-capable helicopters 24/7 at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.; Minot Air Force Base, N.D.; and Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, as well as performing helicopter aircrew flight equipment support at Warren AFB and Malmstrom AFB. 21 CONS/LGCZB, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., is the contracting activity (FA2517-10-C-8002, P00028). NAVY
