MUNICH — The first fuselage has been joined for India’s airborne early warning aircraft, according to Embraer. The fuselage join took place in March for the first of three EMB-145s to be fitted with the Indian-designed radar, the Brazilian aircraft maker says in reporting its first-quarter results, adding that the program “is moving ahead as planned.”
After discovering counterfeit parts in its own systems, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has developed a system for identifying and removing them that the Pentagon should consider using as a template to start its own counter-counterfeit program, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends.
LEAVING SOON: Astrium says it has completed pre-launch testing of the TanDem-X radar satellite, clearing the spacecraft for its transfer on May 11 to the Baikonur launch center in Kazakhstan. TandDem-X, which will complement TerraSar-X, is to be launched on June 21 on a Dnepr rocket.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian navy frigate INS Shivalik was commissioned at Mumbai on April 29. It is the first in a series of stealth-class ships the navy will receive in the next year. With the induction, India joins the U.S., the U.K., Russia, China, France and Japan in having homegrown stealth platforms for blue sea warfare.
LONDON — Dassault and Swiss partners are close to wrapping up study efforts on a potential human-rated suborbital vehicle, the so-called VSH. Study efforts into VSH, a six-passenger, 11-metric-ton, air-launched vehicle, have been underway since 2004. Two years ago Dassault partnered with Ruag, ETHZ and the Lausanne polytechnic to further refine the concept under the K-1000 project.
Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) contributed to the Big Bang experiment carried out by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) recently. One of India’s leading Defense Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU), BEL supplied 32-channel silicon strip sensors to the Large Hadron Collider to detect subatomic particles generated after high-energy particle beams collided.
TEL AVIV — Iran appears to be developing a further variant of the re-entry vehicle for its Shahab 3 liquid-fueled medium-range ballistic missile, with a revised design on display during the Army Day parade in Tehran this month. “This is the third design that we’ve seen of the Shahab 3’s re-entry vehicle,” says Uzi Rubin, former director of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization.
INTELLIGENT I.T.: As part of its CIA 2015 plan, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency will invest in technology to extend its operational and analytic reach and become more efficient, Director Leon Panetta announced this week. The five-year plan boosts the CIA’s potential for human-enabled technical collection and provides “advanced” software tools to help agency officers tackle the “huge” volume of data they encounter. More details were not provided in the CIA’s public announcement.
Congressional decisions on LPD-17 funding could shape the future capabilities for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as mold the shipbuilding industrial base, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Innovative funding arrangements could be crucial in securing a deal to sell advanced jet trainers to Iraq, with Baghdad beginning to consider an acquisition. Sources confirm there have been exploratory contacts with London over the BAE Systems Hawk trainer, though they add that other options are also in the mix. The Alenia Aermacchi M-346 is another candidate, while the Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50 is also a potential offering, possibly through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales mechanism.
GENOA, Italy — Italian defense and aerospace conglomerate Finmeccanica saw revenues grow for the first quarter of 2010, though net profit was down compared to the same period in 2009. Research and development investment was also down slightly. Revenue for the period was €4 billion ($5.3 billion), a 3% rise on the first quarter of 2009. Net profit fell by 15%, down from €108 million for 2009 to €91 million for the first period in 2010. Order intake also was slightly down, but so was debt, which was cut by 2% to €4.3 billion.
L-3 Platform Integration is preparing to start flight tests of the U.S. Navy’s first Spiral 3 configured EP-3E aircraft, following installation of the upgraded intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission avionics suite at its Waco, Texas, facility.
Selected DOD Presolicitations Selected DOD Presolicitations Date of Posting Response Date Authority Opportunity Segment Solicitation code Procurement office Contact E-mail 27-Apr-10 14-May-10 Navy Heat Exhange Plates for USNS Richard B
LONDON — Having recently taken delivery of its first NFH90 maritime helicopter, the French defense ministry projects to achieve operational entry into service in late 2011. After years of delay, France received its first NFH90 — the maritime version of the NH90 — on April 23. The helo will now be used for operational evaluation by the French navy, before deploying. France is the second recipient of an NFH90, after the Netherlands.
BENGALURU, India — Lockheed Martin will announce the winners of its India Innovation Growth Program in May. The aim of the project is to accelerate innovative Indian technologies into the global markets. A workshop is currently underway in Goa. An international panel of experts is expected to award seven gold and seven silver medals each to the winners, out of 30 selected technologies, at a function in New Delhi.
NEW DELHI — The Indian Space Research Organization has delayed the launch of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) scheduled for May 9, following a marginal drop in pressure in the second stage of the vehicle. The drop in pressure “was noticed during mandatory checks carried out on the PSLV-C15 vehicle,” ISRO says. A new date for the launch of the mission will be decided after the results of the analysis are in; the delay is likely to be weeks.
NEW DELHI — Two years after opening its liaison office in India, General Dynamics U.K., a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, will soon be announcing a series of partnerships with small and large Indian companies. A prime contractor and complex systems integrator, General Dynamics U.K. will be looking at opportunities in India in C4I solutions, Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) technology, deployable infrastructure and security.
After a week of program reviews, NASA says the contracting and instrument teams leading its James Webb Space Telescope mission are meeting all science and engineering requirements necessary to support a nominal five-year mission, starting in 2015. Called the mission critical design review (MCDR), the process was centered at prime contractor Northrop Grumman Space System’s plant in Redondo Beach, Calif.
About two-thirds through a highly successful production schedule for its 8,079 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs), Oshkosh Corp. is now pushing for M-ATV versions specially designed to carry cargo or work as ambulances. The cargo-carrying utility M-ATV variant also is specially designed to utilize legacy High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) shelters.
HOUSTON — When President Obama altered plans earlier this month to cancel NASA’s Constellation Program by announcing a new role for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, he made no mention of how the White House planned to pay for the spacecraft’s conversion into an escape capsule for the International Space Station (ISS).
BENGALURU, India — India has awarded Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) a contract worth Rs 500 crores ($112.7 million) to install surveillance platforms to protect the country’s coasts in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. BEL Chairman and Managing Director A.K. Datt said April 27 that 46 locations have been identified to install the eye-in-the-sea systems, mainly built around a radar platform. “The entire software for this project has been developed by BEL,” Datt said.
The search for life or evidence of past life in the Solar System is a major factor in the suite of missions being discussed for the upcoming decadal survey in planetary science, according to Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover missions.
