New images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show geologically young cliffs on the Moon, indicating that it has shrunk due to cooling in the relatively recent past and may still be tectonically active today.
Boeing Defense, Space & Security President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg says the company will step across the Mississippi River to open its first manufacturing plant in Illinois in support of its St. Louis operations. Boeing is to open a 50,000-sq.-ft. plant to produce unspecified assemblies and subassemblies at MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Ill., late this year or early in 2011. The plant is about 30 mi. from Boeing’s main defense plant in St. Louis, where the F/A-18 and F-15 are manufactured and the C-17 and other programs are supported.
CONSOLIDATION: Kratos Defense & Technology has acquired DEI Services Corp., which provides full-scale technical simulation products for platforms such as the Tiger, Harrier and Prowler fixed-wing aircraft; Black Hawk, Chinook and Sea Stallion helicopters; and M1 Abrams main battle tanks and M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. DEI now is part of Kratos’ IT Solutions division, which supports network-centric operations for government and commercial customers. Kratos expects DEI to contribute $15 million-$20 million of revenue in 2011.
An ongoing trial of space-based ship detection by the South African Maritime Safety Authority demonstrated the ability to improve security during the recent World Cup soccer tournament, according to service provider ExactEarth. The Cambridge, Ontario-based company, a subsidiary of Canada’s Com Dev International, is demonstrating the provision of space-based automatic identification system (AIS) data using a microsatellite in low Earth orbit.
Indian Military Aircraft Crashes April 2007 – July 2010 Indian Military Aircraft Crashes April 2007 – July 2010 Date Aircraft Type Service Personnel Killed Civilians Killed/Injured April 05, 2007 Sea Harrier 1 0/0 May 08
The U.S. military is expanding its program to use Afghan companies to produce and sell equipment for the Afghan National Security Forces. Called “Afghan First,” the program helps develop a local manufacturing and procurement base in Afghanistan to provide equipment such as boots, uniforms and other military gear. Thus far the military has spent about $150 million for the program, according to U.S. Air Force Col. Larry Avery, director of the Security Assistance Office-Afghanistan. That amount is expected to grow to at least $500 million, he says.
NEW DELHI – Thirty-nine Indian military aircraft, including the MiG series, Sukhoi and various helicopters, have been lost in air crashes during the last three years, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony said in parliament. Of the aircraft lost, 21 were MiGs, including 12 MiG-21s. Thirteen service personnel were killed. The most recent crash was in July. (See chart p. 6.)
The Pentagon’s newly released 2010 annual report to Congress on military developments in China provides some clues about how the country is tackling its missile defense problem. It involves ships, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), electronic warfare and computer network attack (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 17). New People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ships reflect the leadership’s priority for an advanced anti-air warfare capability at sea, which has historically been a weakness of the fleet, the report says.
WASHINGTON and LONDON — The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is granting the U.S. Air Force an expedited decision on a protest filed by would-be KC-X competitor U.S. Aerospace earlier this month.
COLD FIRE: NASA and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) will conduct a full-scale test of a five-segment, first-stage solid rocket booster at 11:05 a.m. EDT on Aug. 31 at ATK’s facility in Promontory, Utah. The two-min. static firing will assess motor performance at low temperatures. The heavily instrumented motor will feature more than 760 sensors to measure 53 test objectives. The motor was built for NASA’s Constellation Program; the Ares I rocket would have used the five-segment modified space shuttle rocket as its first stage.
Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace are expected to deploy the K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter to Afghanistan under a U.S. Army program separate from, but supporting, U.S. Marine Corps plans to demonstrate an unmanned cargo resupply capability.
As the U.S. Navy took delivery last month of the DDG 107 guided missile destroyer, the service continued to leverage its long-term shipbuilding experience with the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class program to drive down costs and incrementally increase capability. Shipbuilder Northrop Grumman was able to deliver the destroyer with fewer sea trial issues despite having to revamp its yard in Pascagoula, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina, and having to put the ship through its final paces in the wake of the Gulf oil disaster.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station closed in on the full recovery of internal systems on Aug. 18, including the reactivation of power to science experiments, following a serious malfunction of the external cooling system on July 31. Expedition 24 flight engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson carried out the external recovery from a failure of the Loop A thermal control system pump with a series of three spacewalks that concluded on Aug. 16.
A former NASA contract worker pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Houston Aug. 17 to the theft of a NASA flight suit issued to Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, according to U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno with the Southern District of Texas. Calvin Dale Smith, 56, of Houston, faces a maximum imprisonment of 10 years and a fine not to exceed $250,000. Smith, who is free on bond, is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 2 before U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas.
BENGALURU, India — India has set its sights on the emerging field of micro- and nano air vehicles with the formation of a joint National Program for Micro Air Vehicles (NP-MICAV). The project is being sponsored by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Dr. Prahlada, chief of aeronautical research & development (R&D) at DRDO, told AVIATION WEEK that Rs 100 crore ($21.5 billion) will be pumped into the program.
A new program is using the 66-spacecraft Iridium constellation to provide continuous, global monitoring of space weather. Known as the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (Ampere), it is a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Iridium and Boeing. Ampere provides real-time measurements of Earth’s magnetic field, with up to 100 times greater sampling density than previously possible.
LONDON — The Estonian and Swedish governments have inked an accord that could see the two sides cooperate more closely on future arms procurements. Estonia says it is particularly interested in such cooperation after realizing significant savings by joining with Finland in the purchase of air surveillance radars. Working together “saved hundreds of millions of kroons,” says Martin Hurt, Estonian undersecretary for defense investment.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, says that Lockheed Martin is leading the redesign of a Moog switch on its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) interceptor after a failure to pass qualification testing prompted him to withhold approval for production of the $15 billion program. The problem has held up deliveries of the first Thaad capability by about a year.
Long-range destruction of enemy ballistic missiles during boost-phase — the first 2-4 min. of flight — may become possible with a small, powerful airborne laser that combines solid-state and chemical laser technologies, the Pentagon’s missile defense chief says. A small laser in a small aircraft — far different from the bulky chemical laser carried by the U.S. Air Force’s 747 testbed — is considered necessary for operational practicality. The mission envisioned is Boost Phase Intercept (BPI) of enemy ballistic missiles.
HEAD COUNT: Aerospace and defense (A&D) companies plan to hire 15,500 professionals this year, according to AVIATION WEEK’s 2010 Workforce and Young Professionals/Student Study. But companies apparently should focus on keeping their younger workers too, as 41% admit to looking for a new job. And while concerns over a so-called silver tsunami, or sudden loss of more experienced baby boomers, may have waned, they are not gone.
KENEDY SPACE CENTER — Competitive grants and an FAA-run center for commercial space would be the best use of $40 million in taxpayer money that President Barack Obama wants to spend in Brevard County, Fla., and neighboring regions affected by the space shuttle’s retirement, a Cabinet-level task force reports.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. and LONDON — A meeting of heads of state and top missile defense chiefs of NATO countries set for November in Lisbon will determine whether the alliance will adopt missile defense as a mission, and, if so, what it will look like. The meeting comes as NATO countries face mounting financial problems, and missile defenses do not come cheap. The topic is one of many issues being discussed at the Space and Missile Defense Conference 2010 in Huntsville.
LONDON — The Indian government has set an ambitious timeline for the development pace of the Light Combat Helicopter, with the goal of reaching initial operational clearance (IOC) in December 2011. The first prototype flew March 29 and it took another month for the helo to continue flight trials. The second prototype has yet to fly.
