U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told House defense appropriators March 24 that they were not yet aware of specific concerns within the Pentagon over ramifications stemming from proposed changes at NASA.
Denmark has delayed its decision on a new fighter, expected this year, after preliminary results of an analysis of the life remaining on its F-16s indicated the aircraft can be flown for two to four years longer than originally scheduled. The decision to delay a purchase by at least two years is a blow for Boeing with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and Saab with the Gripen NG, as they had hoped that delays and cost increases for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would prompt Denmark to leave the program.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to launch India’s first cryogenic rocket engine next month, marking the end of a long effort to develop an indigenous upper stage for its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
MOVE SOUTH: Sikorsky is to establish a UH-60/S-70 Black Hawk helicopter training center in Colombia, at Melgar air force base, to provide pilot training for the country’s armed forces as well as other military customers in Latin America. To be equipped with a full-motion simulator, the center is structured as an offset program and intended as the launching point for development of maintenance, repair and overhaul services and a training center for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, Sikorsky Aerospace Services says.
REALITY CHECK: Romania’s government has approved a defense ministry plan to buy 24 former U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16s, citing the lack of financial resources to buy new aircraft, and will forward the proposal to parliament for approval. The U.S. had offered 24 new Block 50/52 F-16C/Ds or refurbished and upgraded Block 25 F-16C/Ds under a government-to-government foreign military sales deal. If approved by parliament, the aircraft will replace the air force’s MiG-21 Lancers and make Romania the 26th operator of the F-16.
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Navy has issued a formal request for information (RFI) for a carrier-based, stealthy, unmanned strike and surveillance system that could be capable of integrating with manned aircraft as part of a carrier air wing by the end of 2018.
Plans to accelerate availability of biojet fuel are behind two new agreements involving leading feedstock candidates camelina and algae. Accelergy has agreed with Montana-based camelina provider Great Plains Oil & Exploration to blend the plant oil with liquefied coal to produce biojet fuel via gasification and liquefaction processes. Separately, Los Angeles-based OriginOil has formed an industry consortium to develop jet fuel from algae grown in bioreactors fed with wastewater.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has set an April 8 launch date for its CryoSat-2 ice monitoring mission. The third of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions, CryoSat-2 is intended to provide precise measurements of variations in marine and land ice sheets that can contribute to scientists’ understanding of global warming. It was built by EADS Astrium and includes a radar altimeter supplied by Thales Alenia Space.
LONDON — The U.K. is bolstering its space focus, establishing the U.K. Space Agency (UKSA) to replace the British National Space Center, yet the government has kept additional funding limited. London will back the new organization, to be formally established April 1, with some additional funding for a new innovation center, but not much more.
FRENCH UAVs: Two small, hand-launched unmanned aerial vehicles have been delivered to French special operations forces as a result of a quick-turn procurement effort, according to the French defense armaments agency DGA. The Elbit Systems Skylark 1s were ordered in October and augment the fleet already in service with the French military since 2008. The AeroVironment Wasp contract was signed in November. The system is the first to be used for operational trials to validate such micro-UAVs, DGA says. The system already is in use with U.S.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has issued its first finished report in the battle between the U.S. and Europe over subsidies being granted to Airbus and Boeing, giving both sides enough to declare they are prevailing in a long-running legal battle that is far from over.
Northrop Grumman has licensed Australian composites technology company Quickstep to make parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35, taking a step toward issuing a contract for the supplier to build the components. Quickstep, which has developed a non-autoclave process for curing composites, will receive technical information for making the parts.
GREEN HOG: On March 25, an A-10 will make the first flight under the U.S. Air Force’s program to certify a blend of plant-derived biofuel and conventional jet fuel for use across its fleet. The flight from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will use hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel produced from camelina oil. Certification test flights with the F-15, F-22 and C-17 will follow in the summer.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is halting its work with Coleman Aerospace, owned by L-3 Communications, due to quality control problems in preparing targets for the agency’s flight test program, according to a missile defense program source. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, MDA’s director, informed Coleman he would halt business shortly after the company supplied a faulty C-17-launched target for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) flight test in December 2009. The test was aborted after the target encountered problems.
TRAINING DEAL: Canada has awarded CAE a C$250 million ($245 million) contract to provide the aircrew training system for its new Boeing CH-147F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The Canadian company will deliver a weapon system trainer, two tactical flight training devices, a gunnery trainer and other desktop and laptop devices early in 2014. The contract includes 20 years of in-service support. In February 2009, CAE was awarded a C$345 million contract to provide the training system for Canada’s new Lockheed Martin C-130J transports.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is asking Congress to be patient as his agency grinds out the details of the turnabout space program embodied in the Fiscal 2011 White House budget request, telling a House Appropriations subcommittee March 23 that some more programmatic information will be released soon.
LONDON — British defense and engineering services company Babcock International has agreed to purchase VT Group in a cash and shares deal valued at £1.32 billion ($2.1 billion). VT initially rejected Babcock’s overtures, forcing it to increase its offer over nearly two months of talks. Babcock’s first offer was rejected by VT as not reflecting its value.
Triumph Group has struck a deal to buy Vought Aircraft Industries from private equity giant Carlyle Group in a $1.44 billion deal that analysts say could mark the start of a revival of aerospace mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Triumph announced March 23 that it will pay $525 million in cash and 7.5 million shares of stock to acquire Vought, which supplies aerostructures and wing components for aircraft such as the Boeing 747-8, 777, Airbus A330, A340 and Boeing C-17.
The U.S.-Australian HiFire Hypersonic demonstrator has completed a second flight test. The five-year, $56 million Hypersonic International Flight Research Experiment (HiFire) effort is led by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO). Aimed at exploring fundamental hypersonic characteristics, the goal is to test technologies that will pave the way for future air-breathing strike weapons, reconnaissance and responsive strike vehicles.
LONDON — The British government’s finance department — known as the Treasury — is complicit in the Defense Ministry’s failure to control the costs of its future equipment plan, according to a parliamentary committee.
The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says he continues to be disappointed by a lack of performance by contractors developing and fielding missile defense systems and he is proposing that some industry leaders be fired to foster a more productive culture among companies involved in the program.
A commercial Proton orbited the heaviest satellite ever to fly on the Russian launch vehicle March 21, placing the 6.3-metric-ton EchoStar XIV Ku-band satellite in its geosynchronous transfer orbit for the DISH Network. The launch vehicle’s Breeze M upper stage released the spacecraft after a nine-hour, 10-minute mission. Liftoff from Pad 39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan came at 2:27 p.m. EDT. The launch was the second arranged this year by International Launch Services, and the fourth Proton launch of the year.
AIR FORCE Boeing, Long Beach, Calif., was awarded a $272,581,553 contract which will exercise FY10 third quarter option contract line items for the C17 Globemaster III sustainment partnership contract. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 330 ASW, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8614-04-C-2004, P00525). ARMY
