BENGALURU, India — The Defense Research and Development Organization’s (DRDO) Aerial Delivery Research & Development Establishment (Adrde) has successfully tested and flown some critical technologies on aerostats developed for surveillance. Adrde Director Balraj Gupta tells Aviation Week that his Agra-based lab has completed testing of electro-optical payload and communication intelligence systems onboard the aerostat, which is called “Akashdeep.”
The congressionally passed 2011 defense authorization bill approves full funding for most of the U.S. Navy’s high-profile programs, including the Carrier Replacement Program, Virginia-class submarine, DDG-1000, DDG-51, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), LHA(R) amphibious assault ship, Joint High Speed Vessel and Mobile Landing Platform. The legislation provides $18.9 billion for aviation programs for the Navy and Marine Corps and another $16 billion for shipbuilding and conversion to fund Navy ships.
PARIS — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked two top executives involved in the Dec. 5 Proton Block DM launch failure that destroyed three Glonass M spacecraft. The firings, which were accompanied by an official reprimand to Anatoly Perminov, head of national space agency Roscosmos, reflect Medvedev’s fury over the incident, which prevented him from meeting a promised deadline of having a full 24-satellite Glonass constellation in place by the end of 2010.
HOUSTON — Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency’s robotic manipulator, has been certified for future duties aboard the International Space Station. The designation followed an exercise last month in which the two-armed manipulator moved a 972-lb. external cargo transport carrier in response to commands from NASA’s Mission Control, a task that would otherwise have been assigned to spacewalking astronauts.
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Now that the U.S. Navy has moved on its shipbuilding plan for its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the service can start eyeing a possible common combat system for the fleet.
U.S. VISIT: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano continued her international tour on Dec. 31, touring the Torkham Border Crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan. She was briefed at the Afghan Border Coordination Center at Torkham and given an aerial tour of the crossing point. About a dozen U.S. agents are based at Torkham, representing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They are providing training to Afghan border agents. Additional U.S. personnel will be assigned there this year.
NEW DELHI — The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale of 22 AH-64D Block III Apache helicopters to India, along with related equipment and training. The complete package would be worth about $1.4 billion.
PARIS — An Intelsat spacecraft that wreaked havoc around the world since it went out of control last spring has been shut down, removing an interference hazard that had threatened communications satellite operators worldwide.
The Pentagon needs to do a better job enforcing its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance contract, a recent Defense Department Inspector General (IG) report says. “DOD officials did not have the proper controls to validate the contractor charges and performance for the BAMS contract,” the IG said in its report, released late last month. The Navy BAMS contract with Northrop Grumman, valued at $1.8 billion, is in the third year of a seven-year contract, the IG notes, and is part of a major acquisition program worth more than $19 billion.
HOUSTON — NASA shuttle managers called for the installation of a “radius block” on the stringer section of Discovery’s external tank (ET) during a Jan. 3 meeting, a modification that will strengthen areas that experience primary launch forces and are susceptible to cracks like those that formed during an early November launch scrub.
PARIS — An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M booster has orbited a novel, high-throughput Ka-band satellite for Eutelsat, marking the rocket’s return to service after a three-week hiatus due to a Proton Block DM failure on Dec. 5.
NEW DELHI — The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says the Dec. 25 failure of a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06) carrying the GSAT-5P satellite was caused by the untimely and inadvertent snapping of a group of 10 connectors located at the bottom portion of the rocket’s Russian-made cryogenic upper stage.
BLUE BUY: Heico says its Flight Support Group is acquiring 80% of Blue Aerospace, a military parts and support services provider. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merger should boost Heico’s earnings within the first year, the company says. Blue Aerospace’s management team, which will remain in place, will retain the 20% of the company not acquired by Heico. Heico reported $617 million in sales in the year that ended Oct. 31. The company’s share price rose 3.35% on Jan. 3 on news of the merger.
MOSCOW — The Russian air force is starting to field the Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopter and also is augmenting other elements of its rotorcraft fleet. On Dec. 28, the air force’s 334th Tactical Deployment Center in Torzhok received three Ka-52s, the first from the preproduction batch of 12 helos being produced by the Arseniev-based Progress facility. The twin-seat Ka-52 is based on the single-seat Kamov Ka-50 Black Shark coaxial-rotor assault helicopter and will serve in the air force as a special mission rotorcraft.
ARMY The Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Penn., was awarded on Dec. 22 a $241,957,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for 11 CH-47F Chinook remanufactured aircraft. The work will be performed in Ridley Park, with an estimated completion date of Sep. 30, 2013. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Contracting Center Aviation and Missile, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0098). AIR FORCE
NEW DELHI — Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony will open two coast guard stations during a visit to the Lakshadweep Islands to facilitate closer coordination among maritime stakeholders and enhance coastal security.
The U.S. military services have been failing to follow Defense Department acquisition rules for work done under a Department of Energy (DOE) interagency buying program, according to the Pentagon Inspector General (IG). “DOD has significant contracting problems when using DOE,” the IG says. “DOD requesting activities continue to use DOE for assisted interagency acquisitions while DOE has not certified that it will comply with Defense procurement requirements.”
NEW DELHI — Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) has delivered the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Interrogator to Boeing for installation on the Indian navy’s P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft. Boeing will install the system during P-8I final assembly at its facility in Renton, Wash. The P-8I is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon developed for the U.S. Navy.
International Launch Services is preparing for a Dec. 27 liftoff of a Proton Breeze M with Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat high-throughput broadband satellite, following a go-ahead from the Russian State Commission investigating the Dec. 5 Proton failure on a Glonass launch mission.
NEW DELHI — As international defense providers look to honor their offset commitments in India, partnerships to help tap the country’s vast titanium reserves could emerge as an attractive proposition. The main sources of titanium in India are beach sands in its southern and eastern states that contain monazite and ilmenite. But despite these resources, titanium still must be imported because of a lack of indigenous capability to convert titanium ore into metal.
