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.
JPSS MARK: Key U.S. Senate appropriators are recommending the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration get $920 million in fiscal 2012 for the Joint Polar Satellite System, $438 million more than it received this fiscal year and close to the House’s proposal of $901.3 million. JPSS is the civil successor to the canceled civil-military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The appropriators’ language must be approved by the full Senate before being reconciled with the House bill.
HOUSTON – Russia will aim for a Nov. 12 launch of its next piloted Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), its first since the Aug. 24 loss of a Progress cargo capsule that investigators are blaming on a third-stage propulsion system failure, according to a statement from Roscosmos and Russian press reports. The loss of Progress 44 delayed plans to launch the Soyuz TMA-03M mission with Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin and NASA astronaut Dan Burbank on Sept. 21.
LONDON — BBN Technologies is providing the U.K. Defense Ministry with a version of its vehicle-mounted Boomerang gunshot detection system, which has been in use by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004. BBN’s David Schmitt says no “major changes” have been made to the system, adding that a new software release is due in the fall, following several upgrades over the past few years. New software is uploaded either by using a USB stick, or with a laptop and an Ethernet interface, and takes less than 5 min., he says.
Many of China’s military exports to Africa – usually paid for with energy exports – are actually products that help the nations involved and are approved of by the U.S.
White House Budget Director Jacob Lew has cleared NASA’s plan for building a heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit – with a stop at the International Space Station if commercial spacecraft cannot do the job – after a final round of senatorial arm-squeezing on Sept. 13. Administrator Charles Bolden said at a hastily called news conference on Capitol Hill Sept. 14 that his agency will go ahead with plans he selected in June to build a big new rocket based on old technology dating back to the Apollo era.
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An elite U.S. Coast Guard unit has joined the visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team on amphibious dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) to conduct counter-piracy and maritime security operations in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Navy officials say. The Coast Guard formed the eight-man unit by combining members of a maritime safety and security team, based out of Seattle, with an advanced interdiction team from San Diego.
LONDON — Turkey has begun flight trials of its SOM air-launched cruise missile program, with plans to prepare the weapon for a production contract in 2013.
LONDON – With two flagship programs in the balance, EADS is awaiting formal government endorsement of both its Eurofighter Typhoon active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and Talarion unmanned aircraft endeavors.
James Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and former head of the company’s defense unit, fears the U.S. could lose its competitive edge in aerospace if the federal government abandons investment in next-generation platforms and technologies in defense and space.
Key U.S. Senate appropriators are recommending a $695 million reduction to the Defense Department’s fiscal 2012 request for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter – a move coordinated or checked with the Pentagon, to some degree – saying the funds are not needed with the program slowed as it is.
HOUSTON — NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will join forces to accelerate the availability of commercial crew launch services to the International Space Station using the Liberty rocket, a U.S. and European hybrid unveiled earlier this year, officials from the agency and the Minneapolis-based defense and aerospace contractor announced Sept. 13.
CAPE CANAVERAL – The Florida-based Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) has signed a $15 million-per-year, 10-year agreement with NASA to manage the U.S. portion of the International Space Station (ISS) not needed by the U.S. space agency, officials announced last week.
