Vice Adm. David Venlet, the new director of the tri-service, nine-nation Joint Strike Fighter program, is not planning to attend the Farnborough Air Show during his first year in the high-profile post. Neither he nor his staff will attend the show, says Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Farnborough is the most high-profile, international aerospace event of the year. Venlet’s decision is a bit of a surprise, given the important role that allies play in achieving the goals of the F-35 program.
September 29-30, 2010 ExCeL • London, UK Increased pressure on defense budgets means that assets must be maintained longer. Sustaining aircraft for extended periods and prolonging lifecycle requires planning and forethought. Are you prepared? MRO Military Europe is an important event for anyone with a stake in this dynamic industry sector. Secure your place early and Save!
LONDON — Serbia has issued a request for information for a possible MiG-29 replacement, and the interest in buying something new is causing others in the region to raise eyebrows. Eurofighter officials note they have received the request, and it also is believed to have gone to Saab and possibly others. What the Serbs are actually looking for could become clear around the end of the year, when a request for proposals may be issued. The program is not expected to be huge, perhaps eventually for about a dozen fighters.
As Iraq transitions from a country of combat into a land of stability operations, the U.S. Army is parking its Bradleys and Abrams tanks to rely more on MRAP trucks for ground transportation while dialing up use of command and control (C2) capabilities and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment. “We still have tanks and Bradleys,” says Col. Thomas James, chief of staff for the Third Infantry Division and Task Force Marine in Iraq. “We still have mortar and artillery capability. But that has been much reduced.”
NASA has dealt adequately with most of the astronaut mental health issues raised by policy post-mortems in the wake of astronaut Lisa Nowak’s February 2007 arrest, the agency’s inspector general has found.
United Space Alliance (USA) anticipates that smaller layoffs in January and late March of next year will follow the 15% cutback announced July 6 by NASA’s Houston-based space shuttle prime contractor to align the company’s workforce with NASA’s requirements to fly out the remaining assembly and supply missions to the International Space Station.
A tactical weapon is emerging that is a fusion of a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a missile, and which developers claim could be a battlefield game-changer. Called an expendable micro-drone, it will provide new capabilities to soldiers in urban and other environments.
BENGALURU, India — India’s union minister of state for defense, M.M. Pallam Raju, says he has confidence in the ongoing projects being handled by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL). HAL and BEL are public sector undertakings (PSUs) managed by the Indian defense ministry. Speaking exclusively to AVIATION WEEK, Pallam says that during visits to HAL and BEL he was updated on the product lines of critical ongoing programs.
BATH BODY: The U.S. Navy awarded Bath Iron Works a $105.4 million modification to a previously awarded contract for procurement of long-lead-time material and engineering, production and support services associated with the construction of two of three Zumwalt-class destroyers. The U.S. Navy curtailed procurement of the DDG 1000 ships at three, all of which are to be built at Bath Iron Works, General Dynamics’ shipyard in Maine. Work covered by this latest contract modification is anticipated to be completed by February 2011.
ARSAT: Arianespace has been selected to launch Argentina’s new communications satellite. The spacecraft, Arsat-1, will be orbited in mid-2012 to ensure a continued domestic satcom capability and help local industry develop the skills to design and build its own telecom spacecraft. It will be managed by a new operator, Arsat. Arsat-1 will be built by Invap of Argentina using subsystems from EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. It will have 24 Ku-band transponders of varying bandwidth and replace Nahuel-1A, which was orbited in 1997.
EADS Military Aircraft Systems is in talks with India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to offer technology support for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) that originally was developed for the abandoned Mako trainer. A $20 million contract between EADS and India for consultancy on flight trials of the LCA is set to be finalized by the end of the year.
September 29-30, 2010 ExCeL • London, UK Increased pressure on defense budgets means that assets must be maintained longer. Sustaining aircraft for extended periods and prolonging lifecycle requires planning and forethought. Are you prepared? MRO Military Europe is an important event for anyone with a stake in this dynamic industry sector. Secure your place early and Save!
HOUSTON — A Russian Progress supply spacecraft, prompted to abort a docking with the International Space Station on July 2, carried out a successful automated July 4 linkup.
The first bidder for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Transformer (TX) “flying Humvee” program to unveil its offering is Logi AeroSpace, which describes itself as “a prototype shop” that has built a dozen or so flying vehicles, some of them manned. Their partners in the TX bid are ducted-fan VTOL developer Trek Aerospace, electric car manufacturer Zap, and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Together they are proposing the Tyrannos AT-TV.
AIR FORCE Carnegie Mellon University/Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., was awarded a $994,997,561 contract modification which will provide software research and development pertinent to national defense. At this time, no money has been obligated. ESC/PKE, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (FA8721-05-C-0003-P00108). NAVY
TOKYO — Japan’s Hayabusa team has found some small particles in its sample capsule, although it is too early to say whether these particles are from the Itokawa asteroid. “It’s good news that the capsule wasn’t empty, but we still need to examine whether these particles are from Earth or from Itokawa,” Project Manager Junichiro Kawaguchi says.
ARMY Oshkosh Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., was awarded on June 29 a $584,914,693 firm-fixed-price, requirements contract. This contract is for the purchase of 1,274 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT) variant trucks; 452 refurbished HEMTT trucks; and 98 palletized load systems trailers. The work is to be performed in Oshkosh, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2012. One bid was solicited with one bid received. TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-D-0024).
PARIS — Hispasat has selected Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to build a big new C-/Ku-band satellite to serve broadcasting and telecom customers in the Americas and Europe. Together with Amazonas-2, launched in September 2009, Amazonas-3 will give Hispamar, a joint venture of Spanish satcom operator Hispasat and Brazilian telecom operator Oi (formerly Telemar), one of the biggest and most advanced broadcasting/telecom capabilities in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. It is set to be orbited in 2012.
Lockheed Martin is offering voluntary separation packages to executives in an effort to reduce costs for the company and improve direct communication with its top customer, the Pentagon. The goal is to “reduce overhead and improve affordability by reducing the number of leaders at the director and vice president levels,” according to a company statement.
NEW DELHI — India’s Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) has developed a UAV weighing less than 1.5 kg. (3.3 lb.) dubbed “Netra,” according to a local press report. The UAV is the result of a collaboration between ideaForge, a company formed by alumni from the Indian Institute of Technology at Powai and DRDO’s Pune-based lab, the Research and Development Establishment. The UAV is designed for anti-terrorist and counterinsurgency operations and is expected to be inducted into the army by December.
