R&D CREDIT: A group of House lawmakers have launched the latest salvo in the elusive, seemingly endless effort to make permanent a U.S. research and development tax credit — a major priority of the aerospace and defense industry, as well as others. Reps. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and John Larson (D-Conn.) are introducing the so-called American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2011 (H.R. 942), which also would boost the tax credit amount from 14% to 20%. Several companies and trade associations immediately promoted the bill, but its fate is nonetheless uncertain.
NASA engineers will help Ad Astra Rocket Co. mature the design of a flight demonstrator for its 200-kw Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr) under a new support agreement between the Houston-based company and Johnson Space Center.
The U.S. Navy did a poor job of estimating costs to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Mayport, Fla., according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO estimates much lower costs than the Navy did. “Our independent cost estimate suggests that the total one-time cost of homeporting a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Naval Station Mayport will be between $258.7 million and $356 million, in base-year 2010 dollars,” the report says.
The U.S. and South Korea have reached a handshake agreement for the sale of the Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft, according to program sources. The sale, which could take place as soon as this year, will include four of the high-flying UAVs. Though the Global Hawk is designed to carry a variety of payloads, including imagery sensors, radars and signals intelligence collectors, South Korea has been approved for the Block 30I version, which includes an electro-optical/infrared system.
May 24-25, 2011 Washington Marriott - Washington, D.C. Managing Cybersecurity, from Policy to Protocol Find out where opportunities exist for the industry and how to effectively thwart potential cyber threats. www.aviationweek.com/events Click here to view the pdf
The U.S. Navy says it prohibits its Virginia-class submarines from operating near diesel-electric submarines during exercises with allied forces for fear that some of the Virginia’s stealthy characteristics could be compromised. The service acknowledged the prohibition in response to concerns raised recently by the Pentagon Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) about the Virginia sub’s ability to operate in waters with diesel-electric submarines, known as SSKs.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian air force (IAF) recently introduced a new squadron of Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft at Chabua air base in Assam in northeast India, on the border with China. The IAF hopes to have 18 Su-30 MKIs once the base becomes fully operational in the next few months. It is the second squadron being raised in the region, following one at Tezpur in 2009.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, predicted by the U.S. Navy to cost about $132 million each, could escalate to $450 million per aircraft for the newly truncated Canadian fleet of 65 stealthy fighters if new cost calculations from Canada’s Office of the Parliamentary Budget Office are correct. The office estimates that the total program cost will be $29 billion. “It is not immediately obvious, given the available evidence, how the cost can be reduced to estimates predicted by Lockheed Martin over 10 years ago,” the report says.
SAN FRANCISCO — The first production P-8A Poseidon U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare fuselage has entered final assembly on the special security line Boeing has established for the program at its 737 factory in Renton, Wash., south of Seattle.
HOUSTON — Shuttle Discovery returned from orbit for the final time on March 9, rolling onto the runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where the 27-year-old spacecraft and her six astronauts received a spirited homecoming. The fleet-leading orbiter touched down on Runway 15 under mostly sunny skies at 11:57 a.m. EST, ending her 39th trip to space with just over 148.2 million mi. on her odometer and an accumulated 365 days in orbit.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing says it currently has no plans to integrate newly acquired military electronics specialists Argon ST into the main Boeing structure, and conversely is actively moving some of its own network and space payload work into the Fairfax, Va.-based operation.
Boeing has completed the preliminary design review (PDR) on the first of three Inmarsat-5 high-power Ka-band spacecraft it is building for the London-based mobile satellite services provider. Boeing is a longtime provider for Inmarsat, having built its Marisat and Inmarsat-2 series; but the new Inmarsat-5 series are the first in which all 89 transponders are dedicated to Ka-band. The spacecraft are based on the Boeing 702HP satellite bus and form the backbone of Inmarsat’s Global Xpress network, which is to provide broadband speeds of 50 mbps.
Aviation Week recognized outstanding individuals and teams for their achievements in aviation, aerospace and defense March 8 during the 54th Annual Laureate Awards dinner in Washington. In addition to Laureates, two individuals were chosen for the Heroism award — Capt. Daniel Aufdenblatten of Air Zermatt and Swiss mountain guide Richard Lehner. The two performed the highest longline aerial rescue of three Spanish climbers on Nepal’s Mount Annapurna.
Airbus Military is setting a gradual production rate ramp-up for the A400M airlifter now that the industrial launch of the program has officially been approved by the project’s management.
As part of a CA$5 billion ($5.1 billion) program to buy three new ground vehicle types and reset its existing tactical vehicle fleet, Canada’s Department of National Defense (DND) has released a list of the prequalified bidders for the Standard Military Pattern Vehicle component of the Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) program. The companies that have emerged as prequalified bidders are BAE Systems, Daimler AG, Oshkosh, Navistar Defense Canada, Renault Trucks and Rheinmetall/MAN Military Vehicles Canada. There is no word on the other vehicle types yet.
Autonomous refueling of one high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft has taken a step forward with a close-proximity flight by a NASA-owned Global Hawk and an aircraft simulating another Global Hawk acting as a tanker. At 45,000 ft. Scaled Composites’ manned Proteus, simulating the tanker, flew to within 40 ft. of the unmanned Global Hawk, acting as the receiver. The flight was conducted to reduce risk for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) KQ-X autonomous high-altitude aerial refueling demonstration, planned for 2012.
KNOCKOFFS: The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) said March 9 it would start an investigation of the effect of counterfeit electronic parts on the Pentagon supply chain. “Counterfeit electronic parts pose a risk to our national security, the reliability of our weapons systems and the safety of our military men and women,” SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a joint statement about the investigation.
Northrop Grumman’s ZPY-1 STARLite unmanned aircraft radar will be installed on Lockheed Martin aerostats deployed to Afghanistan by April to enhance security at forward operating bases. The STARLite — which provides synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging and ground moving-target indication (GMTI) of vehicles when mounted on the Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft — has been modified to provide “dismount moving-target indication” (DMTI) of slow-moving individuals from the aerostat.
As Congress continues to flounder in debates over how to fund the federal government through this fiscal year, U.S. nuclear submarine builders warn that the tendency to rely on so-called continuing resolutions (CRs) extending funding at 2010 levels threatens to sink the Navy’s attack sub-building deals.
HONG KONG — Chinese fighter builder Avic Defense is seeking negotiations with all major Western business jet manufacturers as it looks to launch itself into the field. After China’s slow progress in independently developing commercial aircraft, Avic Defense has concluded that it needs to work with an experienced foreign company to get into business aircraft manufacturing, says one industry executive. Its ambition to build a large, high-performance aircraft has apparently underscored the need for outside help.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — As the U.S. Navy and contractors continue to test aircraft launching systems, radars and other subsystems on the CVN-78, the ship itself remains on schedule for a 2015 delivery, according to service brass and officials at shipbuilder Northrop Grumman. Indeed, the Northrop yard here is packed with large pieces of the lead ship of the Ford-class carrier, even as the yard starts work on the next carrier of the class, CVN-79.
HONG KONG — Russian Helicopters and Chinese partner Avicopter are in the technical definition phase of their proposed Advanced Heavy Lifter program, with no deadline set to move into full-scale development. Each of the two companies is likely to take responsibility for its own part of the proposed helicopter if and when the program is formally launched, says Victor Egorov, deputy director of marketing at Russian Helicopters.
BENGALURU, India — India’s high-profile Aero India show is under a cloud following media reports that an Indian air force (IAF) officer accepted bribes from foreign exhibitors in exchange for prime exhibit space. According to the popular South Indian daily the Deccan Herald, an IAF officer was caught accepting a bribe of $450 from an exhibitor during Aero India 2011, which was held in February.
