Threatened by the specter of future submarine system cuts and burdened by increasing demands, the U.S. Navy is looking to improve maintenance, enhance sensors, bolster payloads and solidify the posture of its undersea force.
CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s Juno, an innovative and ambitious mission intended to resolve some long-standing mysteries about the formation of Jupiter and the Solar System, headed to the launch pad in Florida July 25 in anticipation of launching Aug. 5.
Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are using a $1.7 million, 1-million-gal. basin to test a mockup of the planned Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) for its performance in the water landings that will be common to many of the next-generation U.S. crew vehicles in development. Testing of the MPCV article in the new Hydro Impact Basic at Langley started this month, and will continue in September with a higher-fidelity mockup of the Orion, which is the basis of the four-seat capsule NASA is developing to take crews beyond low Earth orbit.
Spatial Technology Ltd. of Hong Kong has tapped Astrium Services to provide high-resolution radar satellite data to monitor surface movement before and during construction of the Wan Chai Bypass tunnel on Hong Kong Island, the companies announced July 25.
LONDON — Embraer has confirmed that the International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 will power its KC-390 transport, after prolonged negotiations with several engine suppliers. The aircraft maker says the IAE joint venture will supply the first of the V2500-E5 turbofans in 2013, to support flight trials a year later. IAE will deliver four complete engines (with nacelles) for the two flying prototypes and two more spare engines to support the flight test campaign.
Pentagon program cancellations – while based on solid rationale – may represent a basket of missed opportunities for the Defense Department to modernize its forces, a recent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report says. “Over the past decade at least a dozen major programs were terminated without any operational systems being fielded,” CSBA says in its recent analysis of the fiscal 2012 U.S. defense budget.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 31 - AuG. 3 — 47th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, San Diego, Convention Center, San Diego, Calif. For more information go to http://www.aiaa.org July 31 - Aug. 4 — AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, The Hotel Alyeska, Girdwood, Alaska. For more information go to www.space-flight.org/docs/2011_astro/2011_astro.html
Scaled Composites is exploring potential development options for a twin-fuselage, hybrid-powered aircraft that could prove to be a practical solution to the long-held dream of a flying car. Aside from longer-term potential roadable commercial aircraft projects, Scaled believes the project may attract interest from military users.
No U.S. aircraft can remain in Iraq after this year’s drawdown under the 2008 security agreement between the two countries, U.S. defense officials tell Aviation Week, but that does not mean all of the equipment is returning to U.S. forces.
JUICED UP: The Pentagon spends about $200 million a year toward technology that will help conserve, develop or better use energy, a defense official said last week during a U.S. Army and Air Force forum on energy. Another official said the issue is gaining more attention in Washington, for both financial and national security reasons.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has been selected over Lockheed Martin for a $109 million contract to develop a new missile, laser and hostile-fire warning system for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps rotorcraft. The Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (Jatas) is planned to replace the AAR-47 missile approach warning systems on the Bell Boeing MV-22B, which is the lead platform, as well as the Bell AH-1Z and UH-1Y and Sikorsky MH-60R, MH-60S and CH-53K.
A task force charged with eliminating illegal drug trafficking is installing new data analysis software technology developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) is deploying the Command-and-Control Rapid Prototype Continuum (C2RPC) system, a software application designed to fuse and integrate data for rapid analysis and support time-sensitive decision making, according to ONR.
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will take advantage of its precision-landing capabilities to touch down in a 20-km (12-mi.) circle next to a 5-km-tall mountain that scientists believe contains a good portion of the planet’s water history in its layered rocks.
LONDON — The U.K. and Australian defense research organizations will work more closely together in a bid to avoid duplicative spending. The memorandum of understanding involves the sharing of facilities between the Defense Science & Technology Organization in Australia and Britain’s Defense Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL). The move is only the latest of several cost-sharing efforts the U.K. has embarked on as it tries to trim defense spending and identify efficiencies.
After nearly nine months of protests over the selection of Boeing to build a new fleet of intelligence-collecting aircraft, the U.S. Army has revalidated the contactor’s role and begun work on project. The company won the $323 million development contract in late November 2010 over bids from Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications and a Lockheed Martin/Sierra Nevada team. Raytheon and SAIC were winnowed out earlier in the program.
ISRAEL SUPPORT: A House Foreign Affairs Committee markup of fiscal 2012 authorization legislation for the State Department would make it U.S. policy to “promote deployment as soon as is possible of effective missile defense systems capable of defending against ballistic missile attack from Iran, Syria and other potential missile threats to Israel.” The bill further calls for the U.S.
LONDON — After more than a year of deliberations, the French government has set its near-term medium-altitude/long-endurance unmanned aircraft plan, signing up to an updated proposal from Dassault Aviation to supply the Israel Aerospace Industries Heron-TP for the role.
HOUSTON — Shuttle Atlantis knifed through darkened Florida skies to a landing at Kennedy Space Center early July 21, dropping the curtain on NASA’s long-running space shuttle program. The 226,000-lb. winged orbiter touched down at 5:57 a.m. EDT in fair weather and rolled to a stop as the stirring final act of a spirited 30-year program still in search of an encore.
The U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command needs to get a better handle on the way it documents its expenditures, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “The command did not have effective controls over recording and processing 35,699 transactions using baseline and contingency funds valued at $131.8 million in obligations and $54.1 million in expenditures from October 1, 2008 to October 16, 2009,” the IG says.
There’s no doubt about it — the U.S. Navy is starting to get plenty of mileage out of its Virginia-class attack submarines. Aside from the very successful recent deployment of the Virginia itself, the sub’s design is proving fertile ground for new configurations, missions or even different classes. As everyone knows now, the Navy has reconfigured the next flight of Virginias for different bow tubes that can be used for an assortment of weapons, modules and mission equipment, making the vessel one of the most flexible in the fleet.
