LOS ANGELES — While details of NASA’s congressionally mandated heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) still remain unannounced, Boeing says it expects to get a clearer picture of the work scope this fall, and will bid “aggressively” for a share when requirements are revealed.
CANADIAN VEHICLES: With Canada in the middle of the selection process for three different ground variants for several thousand vehicles, companies are ramping up related bid announcements. General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada says it will offer the Piranha 5 vehicle, with Rheinmetall’s Lance 30mm Modular Turret System, for Canada’s Close Combat Vehicle. Meanwhile, Oshkosh Defense says it delivered its Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle to the U.S. Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland where Canadian defense officials will conduct mobility, survivability and weapons testing.
AIR FORCE General Dynamics C4 Systems, Taunton, Mass., is being awarded a $900,000,000 maximum indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to allow the Global Broadcast Service Joint Program Office to acquire about 1,500 new receive suites, and about 1,100 retrofit kits, for fielded systems. ESC/HNSK, Hanscom Air Force B ase, Mass., is the contracting activity (FA8307-11-D-0005). NAVY
A congressional analyst foresees a continuing resolution that would keep defense spending at the fiscal 2011 level in fiscal 2012 – effectively cutting military accounts $40-50 billion from what President Obama had requested.
ENGINE TRAINING: Sikorsky Helitech, a Sikorsky Aerospace Services company based in Australia, is teaming up with FlightSafety International to provide maintenance training for customers in the Asia-Pacific region. The three-year agreement is the first of its kind to offer Pratt & Whitney Canada Aircraft Engine maintenance training in the region, according to the companies. The program will launch with an initial offering of 16 courses per year for maintenance training on four different P&WC engine types.
NEW DELHI — India is considering a proposal to permit civil air operations at a naval airport in the southern state of Karnataka. The Karnataka state government has approached the Indian defense ministry to give permission for civil operations at the naval airport at Karwar, Defense Minister A.K. Antony says.
Russia’s new Skolkovo Foundation has joined forced with RSC Energia to do engineering research on advanced space technology at a site near Moscow dubbed the “Russian Silicon Valley.” Backed by the Russian government, the Skolkovo research center was established last fall to advance work in energy, information technology, telecommunications, biomedical and nuclear technology. Now, according to Russian press reports, it will add space technology to the portfolio, with Energia’s long-standing expertise in spaceflight as its basis.
A small Earth-imaging satellite built by Nigerian engineers returned its first image only three days after launch, according to Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), which worked with Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) to build the spacecraft. NigeriaSat-X, launched Aug. 17 on a Russian Dnepr rocket from Yasny, in southern Russia, delivered an image of Auckland, New Zealand, with its 22-meter wide-area multispectral imager that demonstrated its utility for mapping, crop monitoring and disaster mitigation.
NEW DELHI — Few programs underscore the strategic industrial relationship between Russia and India as strongly as the BrahMos missile. Now, the two countries are ready to take the next big step and develop the hypersonic version under the BrahMos-II program.
BEIJING — Chinese missile and space group Casic is claiming significant but unspecified advances in titanium-aluminum intermetallics, a form of metallurgy used in gas turbines, such as aircraft engines. The No. 159 factory attached to the state company’s Third Institute began researching the smelting and casting of titanium-aluminum intermetallic compounds at the beginning of the year, Casic says in a statement.
With pirates bearing down on tankers and terrorists targeting offshore energy platforms, the onus is on the U.S. Coast Guard to better protect the ships and other energy-related resources. While the Coast Guard is doing a better job with these missions, the service still needs to improve, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). “Pirate attacks against tankers have tripled in the last five years, and the incidence of piracy against tankers continues to rise,” notes GAO in its recent report.
GLONASS POSTPONED: Russia has postponed the planned launch of a Glonass-M position, navigation and timing satellite, following the Aug. 24 failure of a Soyuz U rocket that claimed an unmanned Progress resupply vehicle bound for the International Space Station. The launch was to take place Aug. 26 from the Plesetsk launch facility on a Soyuz 2.1b using the Fregat upper stage. Russian officials are removing the launcher from the pad for closer inspection. A new launch date may be set for early September.
International interest has picked up steam for an export version of Lockheed Martin’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) in the wake of the successful deployment of LCS-1 USS Freedom, according to Joe North, vice president of littoral ship systems at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors business. “Over 21 countries are interested,” North says. “From deployment on, it easily has doubled.”
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 30 - 31 — Technology Training Corp. Military Vision Systems Conference, Holiday Inn, Alexandria, Va. For more information call 310-563-1210, fax 310-563-1220, or go to www.ttcus.com Aug. 30 - Sept. 1 — Unmanned Aircraft Systems Conference, Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Paris. For more information call 310-563-1210, fax 310-563-1220, or go to www.ttcus.com
While most sensible people take steps to eliminate, or at least limit, spam in their e-mail inbox, one Internet security company has actually created 2.5 million separate e-mail accounts in the hopes of attracting as much malicious spam as possible.
In Washington, it is now widely accepted that cuts to U.S. security spending will go well beyond the $330 billion, 10-year haircut approved by Congress early this month. If bitterly divided lawmakers cannot agree this year on a way to cut another $1.5 trillion from the U.S. budget deficit, the Pentagon’s baseline budget will automatically be returned in 2013 to its fiscal 2007 level — and remain there for another eight years.
The U.S. Air Force has completed an interim baseline review (IBR) for the KC-46A aerial refueler, clearing the first major schedule milestone for the program.
Presenting a snapshot of China’s current maritime military might is one thing. But figuring out what the country has in mind for that growing power is quite another. As noted in the Pentagon’s recently released “Annual Report to Congress Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” there is little doubt that the powerful Asian nation and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plan to flex their maritime muscle in the regional arena. But just how far the country expects to project that force is still unclear.
John Elbon, Boeing’s Space Exploration division vice president and program manager of Commercial Crew Programs, will succeed Brewster Shaw as vice president and general manager for the division, Boeing announced Aug. 25. Shaw, who has led all of Boeing’s civil space programs since 2006, is retiring, effective Aug. 26.
