The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead with pathfinder efforts to certify biofuel blends in its aircraft following the March 25 feasibility demonstration flight by an A-10 using a 50:50 blend of biomass-derived and conventional jet fuel. Full certification of a 50% biofuel blend will begin late this summer with the Pratt & Whitney F117-powered Boeing C-17 airlifter, representing the mobility fleet, according to Jeff Braun, director of the USAF Alternative Fuels Certification office.
Pentagon procurement chief Ashton Carter says that as the Defense Department studies what its “family of systems” for future strike options will be, it is keeping in mind that a “family of industry” must be supported to underpin it. The Air Force-led Next-Generation Bomber was halted last year in favor of a review of what systems — including aircraft or long-range strike missiles — would be needed for this future mission.
LONDON — London’s strategic relationship with Washington is in a state of flux, faced with the more pragmatic approach of the Obama administration in the near term, and fundamental questions over the necessary military capability and investment in the medium-to-long term, British parliamentarians argue.
SANTIAGO, Chile — A law reforming Chile’s ministry of defense, approved last month under the Bachelet administration, appoints a joint chief of staff and will create two undersecretaries to encompass all three services, instead of one responsible for each. The new joint chief of the defense staff is the army’s chief of staff, Gen. Cristian Le Dantec, who assumed the role two weeks ago.
ARMY QinetiQ of North America, Reston, Va., was awarded on March 19, 2010, a $19,533,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the Man-Wearable Gun Shot Detection Systems. The work is to be performed in Cheswick, Pa., with an estimated completion date of March 19, 2012. Bids were solicited on the World Wide Web with one bid received. Research, Development & Engineering Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-10-D-0021).
SUPERCOMPUTING: NASA is extending by one year its contract with Computer Sciences Corp. of Lanham, Md., to provide support services to the Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The $57 million extension begins April 1 and will continue to March 31, 2011. The contract has a maximum value of approximately $597 million if all options are exercised.
ARMY AM General, LLC, South Bend, Ind., was awarded on March 22 a $317,961,404 firm-fixed-price contract to add 2,122 high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles to contract. The work is to be performed in Mishawaka, Ind., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2010. One bid was solicited with one bid received. TACOM Warren, AMSTA-AQ-ATCA, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
The communications hardware that will allow International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers to monitor and command SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has been activated aboard the orbital outpost. Space shuttle Atlantis delivered the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Communication Unit to the ISS during mission STS-129 in November. Checkout began in late January, when ISS Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams worked with ground teams at Mission Control-Houston and SpaceX headquarters in California to power the system up.
LONDON — British aerospace and defense lobbyist ADS is pushing for a clear industrial development element in the upcoming Strategic Defense Review, which has far-reaching implications for the U.K. sector. Setting out its agenda on March 29 for the political parties in the run up to a national election, ADS argues both the military and wider economic benefits of sustaining a broad range of military development and manufacturing onshore. The election must be held no later than June.
BLEAK HOUSE: Just how deep funding cuts may be is the question on the U.K. defense and aerospace sector’s mind following some dire prognostications by the Labour government’s finance minister, Alistair Darling. In an interview with the BBC last week Darling appeared to suggest funding restraints on government departments over the next few years could be worse than during the Margaret Thatcher-era. Labour faces a general election no later than June.
STATION POSSIBILITIES: Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Thales Alenia Space’s Italian arm, says the U.S. decision to agree to prolong the life of the International Space Station (ISS) at least through 2020 may open up more opportunities for international partners than initially thought.
SHUTTLE SET: NASA has set a launch time of 6:21 a.m. EDT April 5 for space shuttle mission STS-131 to the International space Station, following a flight readiness review March 26 at which mission managers concluded that all of Discovery’s equipment and support systems are ready. The second of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, STS-131 will deliver science equipment and supplies to the station. Led by Commander Alan Poindexter, the crew will perform three spacewalks.
LAUNCH BOOST: The U.S. Air Force is considering bulk buys of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) to stabilize the industrial base and reduce the per-unit cost, according to Gary Payton, principal deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space. Payton cited a European purchase of 35 Ariane rockets as an example of how the Pentagon could better conduct its launch vehicle buys during a March 26 luncheon speech hosted by the Space Transportation Association on Capitol Hill. “We don’t do that right now in the EELVs, and we are going to change that,” Payton says.
DISAGREEMENTS ASIDE: Amid a major political rift between Israel and the U.S., the Israeli air force is buying three Lockheed Martin C-130J transport aircraft. Under the $210 million contract, the aircraft will be delivered in 2013-15 and replace three of Israel’s C-130E/Hs, some of which are more than 40 years old.
TREASURY TROVE: The British government says it will allocate £4 billion ($6 billion) to support combat operations in Afghanistan over the coming fiscal year. The figure was revealed as part of the government’s spending plans, which also include a £700 million efficiency saving from the Defense Ministry in 2012-13.
Downsized military budgets are opening opportunities for private businesses to provide services such as supplemental airlift, aftermarket logistics and aircraft modifications. David Storch, CEO of AAR, recognizes this and hopes to grow his company’s revenues in these areas through the acquisition of Aviation Worldwide Services. AAR expects the $200 million purchase to close in April.
PARIS — Arianespace has once again pushed back its first mission of the year because of a subsystem issue on its Ariane 5 ECA booster. The delay will last a few days, allowing time to change out the part. No new launch date has yet been announced.
ATTACK SUB: The U.S. Navy’s sixth and newest Virginia-class submarine, New Mexico, will set sail soon after its March 27 commissioning. Upon entering service, New Mexico will directly enable five of the six Navy Maritime Strategy Core Capabilities: sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence. The boat is 377 feet long, has a 34-foot beam and will be able to dive to depths of greater than 800 feet and operate at speeds in excess of 25 knots submerged.
The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) that the Russian and U.S. presidents agreed to early March 26 still allows for U.S. development of conventional Prompt Global Strike capability, does not disrupt the strategic triad, and does not impinge on missile defenses, top U.S. national security leaders declare.
SPACE AWARENESS: The European Space Agency (ESA), European Commission, European Union Council and European Defense Agency (EDA) are hoping by next year to have a governance setup and data policy in place that could permit detailed definition work to begin on a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system capable of interfacing with and complementing similar capabilities in the U.S. and elsewhere. ESA executives say the agency’s determination of civil requirements is complete and the EDA’s survey of military needs will be finished by March 31.
BIOFUEL FLIGHT: A U.S. Air Force A-10 conducted the first flight of an aircraft fueled solely with a 50:50 blend of bio-derived and conventional jet fuel on March 25, from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Previous test flights, by airlines, have used a 50% biofuel blend only in one engine. The hydro-treated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel burned during the almost 90-min. flight was derived from camelina plant oil. The U.S. Navy plans to flight-test a 50% blend of algae-based HRJ fuel in its F/A-18 Green Hornet on April 22.
