FRENCH UAVs: Safran says its Sagem defense unit will supply three additional Sperwer Mk II tactical unmanned aerial vehicles to the French army. The sale, which includes five vehicles on option plus associated ground remote video terminals (RVTs), will reinforce France’s Afghan contingent and provide more systems for training. The aircraft will be equipped with Euroflir 350+ optronics suites. Sagem also will modernize a batch of RVT remote terminals ordered in 2009 under the deal. The French army has used the UAV in Afghanistan since 2008.
EUCOM COST: A new U.S. Government Accountability Office report to the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee says that Defense Department posture guidance for the U.S. European Command (Eucom) does not include comprehensive cost data, so “DOD lacks critical information that could be used by decision makers as they deliberate posture requirements.” The Pentagon in 2004 announced a reduced military posture in Europe, and current Defense Secretary Robert Gates has criticized the continued size of military leadership based there.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Northrop Grumman is scheduled to cut some of the first bits of steel Feb. 25 for the aircraft carrier now designated CVN-79, the second of the next-generation Ford-class carriers, formerly known as the CVN-21. The Ford-class carriers use essentially the same hull as their predecessors, the Nimitz-class ships, but with a series of ship-wide modifications that are meant to cut manpower and costs while making operations more efficient.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli thinks the M1 Abrams tank is a good model on which to base the service’s upcoming Ground Combat Vehicle, since the Abrams has remained relevant and useful across a range of scenarios even though it has been in service for more than 30 years. The Abrams “has had incremental builds” while remaining “a platform that still shows great potential for growth,” Chiarelli said Feb. 23 during a speech at the Association of the U.S. Army symposium here.
SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — Embraer is closely watching reaction to Boeing’s win of the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X tanker contest to assess whether there could be any political effect on its bid to win a significant Air Force contract over a U.S. competitor. The Brazilian manufacturer is competing against Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft for a potential $950 million Air Force contract to supply up to 55 light-attack/advanced-trainer aircraft for training and equipping foreign air forces.
The European Space Agency’s Johannes Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV-2) successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at midmorning on Feb. 24. The ATV-2, launched Feb. 16, linked with the station’s aft docking port at 10:59 a.m. EST, as the two spacecraft sailed 220 mi. over the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of the Liberian coast. The linkup was delayed several minutes to correctly align a video tracking device.
NEW DELHI — Israel’s defense industry is further cementing ties with India, with New Delhi’s decision to equip the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) with the Rafael Derby as the baseline beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (Bvraam). Opting for the Israeli Bvraam weapon is supposed to help the Tejas reach its full operational clearance by December 2012. Indian officials last year already gave up on the notion of using the indigenous Astra missile as the main Bvraam, due to development problems.
SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — Selection of the major suppliers for the Embraer KC-390 is expected in March, with the joint definition phase for the Brazilian tanker/transport program scheduled to begin in May. Embraer has issued reports recommending suppliers for the main systems, including avionics and engines, to the Brazilian air force, which is funding development of the KC-390 and has the final decision on selecting industrial partners and major suppliers for the program.
CHINESE MARINE ONE?: Following a Wall Street Journal report saying that China Aviation Industry Corp. was mulling a bid for the contract to replace the so-called Marine One presidential helicopter fleet, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) introduced a nonbinding resolution calling for the House to prohibit the next presidential helicopter from being built by a Chinese state-controlled company.
EGLIN AFB and FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — Lockheed Martin is revealing a few more details about the mysterious Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm), a project led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to develop two concepts for defeating heavily defended surface targets at long ranges. Lockheed Martin won both development projects from Darpa in July 2009 over nine competing proposals from rivals including Raytheon, Boeing and Alliant Techsystems.
LONDON — A high-level German government meeting over the future of the EADS shareholder structure has failed to resolve the question of how to deal with Daimler’s request to reduce its stake in the European aerospace and defense giant.
ORLANDO and EGLIN AFB, Fla. — Industry officials are questioning the U.S. Air Force’s strategy to use the Economy Act — which allows the government to take unconventional actions to balance the federal budget — to bypass a competition worth around $3 billion for new helicopters. The Air Force plans to buy at least 66 helicopters for executive transport from Andrews AFB, Md., and to provide security for the nuclear ICBM fields in the U.S. The existing fleet of UH-1Ns is aging and lacks the range and speed needed to handle the nuclear mission.
While aircraft-related costs have consistently ranked at the top of U.S. Navy expenses during the past decade, other programs have been jockeying for money, reflecting the often-cyclical nature of spending for the service as it ramped up or down for such major projects as aircraft carrier construction.
An article Jan. 24 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launch should have said it was the most first-stage thrust for any U.S. expendable launch vehicle since the Saturn V.
CHINESE AIR POWER: A new Rand Corp. study declares that a “future Chinese air force campaign would, under most likely scenarios, seriously test the United States and its allies in a conflict.” According to a Rand statement, the authors find that Chinese military analysts are focusing on developing specific, practical concepts for its air forces, like attacking an enemy air force on the ground before it can take off.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA managers have cleared Discovery for launch Feb. 24 on STS-133, the 39th and final flight for the agency’s oldest surviving orbiter. “Everything is on track, going beautifully with the countdown and we are more than ready for tomorrow’s launch,” says Mission Management Team Chairman Mike Moses. “We’ve been ready from a mission standpoint for quite a while, and now our hardware is ready to go.”
ORLANDO and EGLIN AFB, Fla. — With the final U.S. Air Force buy of Boeing Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) planned in fiscal 2012, the company is now proposing a laser-guided variant similar to the 500-lb. Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM).
The bomber segment of the Long Range Strike (LRS) family of systems has yet to be defined, much less designed, but clues are accumulating about what the U.S. Air Force is asking for. The aircraft needs less than a day’s endurance, it has to be stealthy and it must be able to carry weapons both internally and externally. It also will likely have a large AESA (active, electronically scanned array) radar for surveillance and some sort of associated capability for defensive electronic attack of enemy aircraft and air- or ground-launched missiles.
NASA’s Glory climate-monitoring spacecraft remained on its launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., after a last-minute glitch forced a 24-hr. slip in its liftoff. An unexpected reading from the vehicle interface control console overseeing the Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus XL 3110 launcher forced the postponement shortly before the scheduled 5:09 a.m. EST Feb. 23 launch.
CAPE CANAVERAL — The three-day countdown for launch of space shuttle Discovery on its 39th and final mission is under way, with T-0 targeted for 4:50 p.m. EST on Feb. 24. The countdown began at 3 p.m. on Feb. 21 for the mission, designated STS-133, which has been on hold since Nov. 5 to resolve problems that led to cracking in the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The shuttle will carry a logistics module, an external spare parts stowage platform and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
HOUSTON — Russia’s Progress 39 has departed the International Space Station (ISS), clearing the aft docking port of the Russian segment for the arrival of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Johannes Kepler. The ATV is expected to make an automated docking on Feb. 24 at 10:45 a.m. EST, about 6 hr. ahead of the scheduled launch of shuttle Discovery on the long-delayed STS-133 assembly mission to the ISS from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
HOUSTON — NASA space station and shuttle program officials are assessing the risks associated with a one-time opportunity to shoot high-definition video as well as still photography of the International Space Station, while spacecraft from each of the major partner space agencies has a crew transport or a cargo vessel docked to the nearly assembled orbital outpost. The opportunity falls near the end of shuttle Discovery’s 11-day STS-133 station assembly mission, which is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 24 at 4:50 p.m. EST.
LONDON — The U.K., with the retirement of the Nimrod R1 on March 31, is approaching an airborne signals intelligence gap that will last more than two years. The replacement RC-135 Rivet Joints the U.K. is acquiring are not due for delivery until late 2013. T hree are being bought; the first KC-135 being modified into an RC-135 is now undergoing refurbishment. The U.K. is still using Nimrod R1s in Afghanistan and has recently switched their operational focus to support operations in Helmand Province from Kandahar.
