ARLINGTON, Va. — While the U.S. Navy continues to enhance its existing radar systems — and develop new ones — for ballistic missile defense (BMD) using maneuvering interceptors, the service’s research arm is focusing on developing hypervelocity projectiles and directed-energy technologies for the mission.
LONDON — Airbus Military has completed the first flight of its C-295 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) prototype, but there are signs the already-crowded marketplace for such a system will only get worse.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A bill pending before Florida Gov. Rick Scott would count severance pay for laid-off workers when calculating unemployment benefits, a policy that could affect thousands of NASA contractors sidelined by the space shuttle’s retirement. If Scott, a Republican who supported earlier versions of the bill as it wound through the legislative process, signs the new law, known as HB 7005, the double-pay benefits would stop effective Aug. 1.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking developing of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover mission down to the wire, and probably will need another shot of funding before the mission’s launch window opens Nov. 25 to avoid a costly delay until the next planetary window in 2013.
PHILADELPHIA — With industry waiting to hear from the U.S. Air Force in the coming months about detailed plans for its T-X trainer modernization program, Boeing officials believe the program could slip a few years owing to budget constraints. Boeing still is keeping its options open over whether to partner with an existing training aircraft provider or offer a clean sheet design, but Darryl Davis, head of Boeing Phantom Works, suggests the program could be delayed around two years due to financial constraints on the USAF.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — As Huntington Ingalls Industries moves into the assembly phase of the next-generation CVN-78 Ford-class aircraft carrier, company CEO Michael Petters stays awake at night focused on one worry: CVN-79 and beyond. “The thing I’m a little concerned about with carriers is: what’s going to happen to the follow-ons?” Petters tells Aviation Week.
SEATTLE — Boeing P-8 program managers have not yet determined how the company’s deliberations over its 737 commercial strategy will affect the maritime patrol aircraft. It’s not yet clear whether the P-8 program will change if the company decides to reengine the 737, one of the options Boeing Commercial Airplanes is studying as part of its review of its single-aisle strategy. Options would include keeping the production of regular 737s open, or perhaps working with customers to switch to the new version if it is offered.
PLAN AHEAD: Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III says that despite the shrinking U.S. defense budget, the military must still plan for a series of “long-range commitments” and maintain an “adequate force structure” to engage in long-term conflicts against enemies using “asymmetric” tactics like the Taliban or Hezbollah.
ST. LOUIS — Boeing understands that the main reason for the elimination of the Super Hornet from India’s Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft evaluation was a decision by Indian officials not to give the fighter credit for a more powerful engine offered by General Electric. “That’s the customer’s prerogative,” Boeing Super Hornet Program Manager Mike Gibbons said in St. Louis on June 8 during the company’s pre-Paris air show media briefing tour.
PHILADELPHIA — V-22 program officials are taking another run at bringing down the tiltrotor’s price tag and also hope to further slash operating costs.
Lockheed Martin is to produce another 29 tethered aerostat surveillance systems for the U.S. Army, taking the total ordered to 66, the majority for deployment to Afghanistan to provide base security. The $184 million contract calls for delivery of the additional Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS) aerostats, each carrying dual L-3 Wescam MX-20 electro-optical/infrared sensors, by May 2012.
JPSS ANTENNA: The first ground antenna that will receive data from the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) has been installed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A team from Raytheon recently installed the antenna receptor at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. It is designed to capture up to five times more environmental data than current polar-orbiting satellites, NOAA says.
SINGAPORE — Mongolia is moving ahead with plans to purchase its own Earth-observation satellite, according to Mongolia’s defense minister, Luvsanvandan Bold.
BEIJING — China’s Tiangong 1 orbital module and Shenzhou 8 spacecraft have entered the prelaunch preparation phase ahead of their mission to demonstrate docking technology needed for future manned flights. The two are to be lofted separately in the second half of this year, according to a schedule announced in March.
NEW DELHI — French naval defense company DCNS has signed a contract for an Indian firm to assist with the indigenization of the Scorpene submarine. The contract was signed between Flash Forge India Pvt. Ltd., based in Visakhapatnam, and DCNS India Pvt. Ltd. on June 7. The six Scorpenes that comprise “Project 75” (P75) are under construction at the Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Ltd. (MDL) in collaboration with DCNS, at a cost of $4 billion.
ST. LOUIS — Boeing says it is one of the companies bidding for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Reusable Booster System technology risk-reduction effort. The program will initially run three-four years to fully assess technology readiness for the concept and then could lead to an actual technology demonstration. Darryl Davis, head of Boeing Phantom Works, notes the effort is one of the Air Force’s top science and technology priorities.
HOUSTON — Russia’s Soyuz TMA-02M/27S spacecraft lifted off from Central Asia on June 7, initiating a two-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) for a three-man multinational crew prepared to transition the orbiting science laboratory from the shuttle dominated assembly/outfitting era to the utilization phase.
ST. LOUIS — With the U.S. Air Force remaining tight-lipped about the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker program, Boeing says the program will benefit from lessons learned on previous troubled tanker developments and that program risks are manageable. One of the biggest questions hangs over the decision to, for the first time, apply a Boeing 787-type cockpit system to the 767.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force plans to fold operations, maintenance, systems engineering and sustainment work at the Eastern and Western Test Ranges and the Space and Missile Systems Center into a single contract, estimated to be worth about $3.8 billion over 10 years.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (Melco) will spend 3 billion yen ($37.4 million) to double its annual satellite-production rate, reflecting government policy and a growing satellite market. Under plans announced June 6, the company will enlarge its Kamakura Works facility to 7,700 sq. meters (83,000 sq. ft.), which will support production of eight large satellites a year instead of four. Work on the factory is expected to be complete by March 2013.
