NEW DELHI — Even as trials for India’s 126 Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) draw to a close, the drama continues. The Gripen IN, Saab’s Indian proposed variant of the next-generation fighter, recently made an appearance in Bangalore, Jaisalmer and Leh for trials — but in the form of two twin-seat Gripen Ds.
GRAB SOMETHING: With funds for a Mobile Landing Platform in the U.S. Navy’s Fiscal 2011 request, the sea service is busy with risk-reduction efforts toward a cornerstone capability of its future, massive seabasing vision: the ability to transfer large numbers of people and amounts of material between large surface vessels in all kinds of sea states. The Navy said last week it completed an at-sea exercise Feb.
PARIS — The U.K. Ministry of Defense has decided to acquire a fourth Skynet 5 spacecraft and to extend the contract for supply of services from the Skynet constellation by two additional years, to 2022. The 400 million pound ($600 million) extension will bring the total value of the private financing initiative (PFI) to 3.6 billion pounds ($5.4 billion).
Boeing has won the U.S. competition to convert surplus Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters into drones to replace the QF-4s now used as full-scale aerial targets for weapon-system testing. The company has received a $69.7 million U.S. Air Force contract for the first phase of the QF-16 program, covering engineering, manufacturing and development. Most of that will occur in St. Louis, while flight testing and production will occur at Boeing’s plant in Cecil Field, Fla.
PARIS — EADS will not mount a solo bid for the U.S. Air Force KC-X tanker program, ending the company’s highest-profile effort to grow its footprint in the U.S. market. EADS CEO Louis Gallois ruled out a solo bid on March 9, a day after the Northrop Grumman-led team involving EADS and the Airbus A330 said it would not respond to the Pentagon’s request for proposals, saying the tender favored the Boeing-offered KC-767 (Aerospace DAILY, March 9). He also rejected the notion of partnering with someone else.
Foreign suppliers are turning to joint ventures with Indian manufacturers as one way to satisfy the country’s technology offset requirements, but they want caps on ownership levels loosened. India has about $50 billion in procurement contracts identified for the near term, although so far negotiations are under way covering some $2 billion. Thus far, offset levels for them are just $43 million, but more are expected.
Iran’s claim that the Nasr 1 anti-ship missile is entering series production is indicative of a continuing relationship between Tehran and Beijing in the tactical guided-weapons arena. The Nasr 1 appears identical to the Chinese C-704 anti-ship weapon unveiled at the 2008 Zhuhai air show. Mock-ups of several variants of the C-704 were on display, while brochure material gave basic performance parameters for the weapon, with imagery of a “production batch” of the missile.
The U.S. Navy took another step toward upgrading its shipboard networks recently by awarding two contracts for the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) of its Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program. The Navy’s goal with CANES is to create a secure afloat network, streamlining the current infrastructure. CANES also will be used at shore-based sites, in addition to being installed on the Navy’s 300-plus ship fleet.
After a disappointing test run earlier this year, the U.S. industry team pursuing the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS) is mapping out a new path forward, according to Raytheon Missile Systems. Plans should be unveiled within the next 60 days.
NEW YORK — A surge in long-range sniper accuracy is taking place, in part owing to the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where snipers play important roles.
LONDON and PARIS — Airbus Military is taking another step in the development of the A400M military airlifter, with the aircraft flying for the first time to Toulouse, France, its second flight-test home. Airbus is splitting flight testing between Seville, Spain, and Toulouse, in part to meet contractual workshare requirements between members. The ferry flight comes several weeks later than planned, with test conditions having been hampered by poor weather in Seville.
TEST FAILURE: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) engineers are examining data from a March 9 on-pad static test of the company’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle that apparently failed at ignition. Flames were briefly visible at the base of the kerosene-fueled rocket, and a cloud of black smoke wafted away from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., but the planned 3.5-second burn did not materialize.
LONDON — The U.K. is on the brink of adding a fourth Skynet 5 satellite to its military communications network, with an announcement anticipated March 9. Along with the three satellites currently in orbit — Skynet 5A, 5B and 5C — the ministry also procured the main subsystems for a fourth Skynet 5. Originally two satellites were intended to be orbited, with the third acting as a spare.
YAOGAN LAUNCHED: China has launched the ninth unit in its Yaogan series of remote sensing satellites. A Long March 4C launcher successfully placed Yaogan 9 in orbit on March 5, the Jiuquan satellite launch center says, adding that the spacecraft will survey land resources, forecast grain output and help manage disasters — the same tasks mentioned for earlier Yaogan satellites. The Pentagon lists the remote sensing satellites among Chinese military assets.
ARMY Northrop Grumman Corp., Apopka, Fla., was awarded on March 1, 2010, a $79,000,624 fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The contract is for the lightweight laser designator rangefinders. The work is to be performed in Orlando, Fla., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2014. Bids were solicited on the World Wide Web with two bids received. U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-09-D-0061).
Northrop Grumman’s announcement that the company will not support a joint bid with EADS North America for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X aerial refueler competition contained a parting shot for the Pentagon and Boeing: Don’t overpay with a sole-source contract. In his March 8 statement, Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush says that when his company’s bid won in 2008, the per-unit price was $184 million for the first 68 tankers, including the $1.5 billion development cost.
The first flightworthy primary mirror segment for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has passed its mission-readiness review, a milestone that confirms its operational performance in microgravity at temperatures of about 35K (minus 397 F). A contracting team spread across five states was involved in the process of turning powdered beryllium into a mirror polished to a tolerance of just 20 nanometers. For comparison, Ball Aerospace JWST Program Manager Mark Bergeland notes that a common sheet of typing paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
WEIGHING TANKER: Northrop Grumman decided to finally abandon its pursuit of the U.S. Air Force tanker replacement (See story p. 1) after the company’s tanker team spent a 10-day closed session in Melbourne, Fla., “to see if they could wicker a solution to how they could turn the tanker RFP requirements into a solution that they could make money on,” one former Air Force chief of staff says.
Detailed images collected over time from Mars orbit are giving scientists more clues to work with as they decipher what’s happening on the active surface. Data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, combined with in-situ imagery from one of the surface rovers, have produced at least a theory of why some dunes on the planet are moving and some aren’t.
AIR FORCE Wyle Laboratories Inc., West Huntsville, Ala., was awarded an $8,917,289 contract which will provide for the Reliability Information Analysis Center which will research, test, develop, and deliver data analysis and interoperability testing results. At this time, $273,000 has been obligated. 55 CONS/LGCD, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (HC1047-05-D-4005).
LONDON — Alongside doubling the number of MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles it operates, the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) also will increase its cadre of Reaper crews from 17 to more than 40 to accommodate the larger number of airframes. An RAF Reaper crew consists of a pilot and a sensor operator.
