JSF SOFTWARE: In response to the recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report that calls F-35 Joint Strike Fighter software development “significantly behind schedule,” Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin says that the JSF Joint Program Office (JPO) “is continuing to refine the software development schedule for inclusion into a program-wide Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) later this year.
ARMY Jorge Scientific Corp., Arlington, Va., was awarded on April 5 a $54,932,051 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the operation and maintenance of Constant Hawk intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The work will be performed in Iraq with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Adelphi, Md., is the contracting authority (W911QX-10-C-0082). MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY
Global defense spending last year would have been largely flat if not for continued increases in U.S. military outlays, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) reports. The organization estimates that the $1.6 trillion spent on defense last year marked a 1.3% real-term increase; excluding U.S. figures, growth would have been a mere 0.1%. The slowdown reflects cuts in Europe, but also in other regions. “The slower increases in 2010 represent, to some extent, a ‘rebalancing’ with economic growth,” the think tank reports.
NEW DELHI — Private utility Tata Power has won a contract to modernize the capabilities of India’s airfields, giving a boost to private sector participation in the country’s defense sector.
The first Boeing F/A-18 to undergo a six-year Planned Maintenance Interval (PMI) at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Fla., has been delivered back to operators in a strike fighter training squadron in Virginia. Jacksonville is establishing the “fly-in, fly-out” PMI capability to handle overflow workload from Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., according to the center. The additional PMI site expands maintenance capability at a time when large numbers of Super Hornets near their required six-year inspection and maintenance period.
EXPORTING RAPTORS: Though Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the decision to kill the F-22 two years ago, lawmakers are still second-guessing the call. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), co-chairman of the House China Caucus, says he wonders whether it is smart to stop production of the Lockheed Martin-made Raptor when the Chinese are developing the J-20 and the Russians have stepped up production of their own fighter aircraft.
China’s answer to the U.S. Global Positioning System is ready to begin providing time and position data with the April 10 launch of the eighth Beidou (Compass) navigation satellite. Liftoff from the Xichang launch site came at 4:47 a.m. local time on a Long March 3A rocket, placing the new satellite in an inclined elliptical orbit designed to increase coverage over China, according to Chinese press reports.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Goodrich is preparing to ship the Operationally Responsive Space-1 satellite, which is designed to provide infrared intelligence to commanders in U.S. Central Command (Centcom), for delivery to the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Transfer of the satellite is slated for later this month, says Charlie Cox, special projects director for the company. Goodrich plans to transport ORS-1 on a truck to Wallops, with launch to take place as early as May on an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur I booster.
LONDON — The Dutch government intends to proceed with the purchase of a second F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that will be heavily involved in the operational test phase. The issue had been under review, with the Pentagon giving the Netherlands an extension until the end of April to decide. In a letter to the Dutch parliament, Defense Minister Hans Hillen says the aircraft will be purchased as planned.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden assured senators on April 11 that the James Webb Space Telescope is receiving top-level oversight and making technological progress. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee, pressed Bolden on the telescope’s price tag, which has soared $1.5 billion over budget, according to an independent report commissioned by the senator.
By year’s end, some U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan may head out on patrol accompanied by new allies: unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) that can carry more than 1,000 lb. of gear, recharge soldiers’ batteries and follow foot patrols autonomously. Thanks to a U.S. Army initiative begun in April 2010 called Project Workhorse, spearheaded by the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF), the service hopes to send UGV to Afghanistan for operational use by October, after a few months of stateside tests.
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — The U.S. Navy has decided that composite replacements for crack-prone aluminum superstructures on its cruiser fleet would be too costly, according to a Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) official.
Directed-energy weapons are being paired with traditional cannons to produce advanced shipboard defense against people, small arms, light boats and unmanned aircraft using non-lethal and low-power devices.
Virgin Galactic is looking for a few good pilots—very good pilots—to fly paying customers to the edge of space and back in its SpaceShipTwo rocketplane. The Virgin Atlantic space-tourism spin-off plans to hire another aviator by June to help David MacKay, its lone test pilot, get ready for the start of spaceflight as early as next year.
While U.S. Congress and Navy officials should certainly note that China’s anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)—which could prove capable of hitting moving ships like aircraft carriers—recently reached the Chinese version of initial operational capability (IOC), the Pentagon still could protect its fleet with countermeasures, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
DRAC COUNT: France is increasing its purchase of the hand-launched Drac unmanned aircraft. Defense armaments agency DGA says prime contractor EADS’s Cassidian unit was notified of the top-up order on April 5. The vehicles are to be delivered between this summer and the start of 2013. DGA would not say how many vehicles are being acquired. France first ordered the Drac UAV in 2004. The systems are now operational with the army in Afghanistan; they made their debut in October. So far, the army has received 60 systems. Drac provides 90 min.
JSF REWORK: Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of early production Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters could require additional work because of nascent manufacturing issues that make them less stealthy than expected, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the April 7 report, Defense Contract Management Agency officials have noted difficulties in manufacturing outer mold lines, resulting from tight tolerance specifications and multiple manufacturing methodologies among the different JSF parts suppliers.
BOEING DELIVERIES: In the first quarter of 2011, Boeing Defense, Space and Security delivered seven new-build CH-47 Chinooks, three C-17s, four F-15s and a total of 13 F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs. It also delivered a 767 tanker to Italy. Boeing Commercial Airplanes delivered 104 aircraft during the quarter, which was four less than the same period in 2010.
Consumer and commercial gear that uses the GPS signal, and direct-to-home television applications drove 7.7% growth in the international “space economy” last year, as measured by the Space Foundation in its annual report on the state of the space industry. Overall, the global space economy of government budgets and commercial revenue rose to $276.5 billion in 2010, according to Space Foundation analysts, who will release their findings at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs next week.
