INCORRECT ASSUMPTIONS: The extent of the gap between the U.K.’s recent military helicopter acquisition aspirations and available funding is clear in the government‘s response last week to a Parliamentary report on helicopter capability. The budget profile for the now-shelved Future Medium Helicopter project and its Puma and Sea King Mk4 fleet life extension programs would have resulted in a “substantial gap in lift helicopter numbers from 2012 until at least 2017,” according to the British government.
Lawmakers say funding the General Electric/Rolls Royce F136 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) alternate engine is “cost neutral” to pursuing a single Pratt & Whitney F135 model due to savings expected through the competitive process. “It costs no more on a net present value analysis basis to do a two-engine program that it does to execute a one-engine F-35 program,” says a House Armed Services Committee fact sheet on the issue.
WAR SERVICES: Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have introduced legislation that would, if enacted, phase out private security contractors in war zones. “The behavior of private contractors has endangered our military, hurt relationships with foreign governments, and undermined our missions overseas,” Schakowsky said in announcing the legislative push.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense expenditure has been raised four percent to $31.8 billion for 2010-11. The budget was presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Feb. 26 in parliament. Last year, the government provided a steep hike of about 34 percent for defense.
MULTIPURPOSE REPURPOSED: NASA and the Italian Space Agency are transforming the International Space Station’s Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), known as “Leonardo,” into a Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM). The Italian-built logistic modules have flown inside the payload bays of NASA’s shuttle fleet for nearly a decade, delivering hardware and supplies to the station during its construction. Leonardo will undergo modifications to ensure safe, long-term operation as the PMM, and to increase the amount of mass it can carry to orbit, according to NASA.
ROCKY COAST: The centrist leaders of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are calling on the Obama administration to reverse proposed cuts to the Coast Guard’s budget in Fiscal 2011, specifically by using money that has been proposed for U.S.-based terrorist trials instead. Sens.
Leaders of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) are voicing severe concerns with long-term maritime aviation and shipbuilding plans, as recently outlined in this month’s Quadrennial Defense Review and Fiscal 2011 budget request. The Pentagon has proposed a number of new initiatives designed to underpin strategic capabilities, such as a new SSBN submarine, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, ballistic missile defense and the Virginia-class attack submarine, but HASC leaders say the total planned air and surface assets still appears anemic.
WATCH THIS: U.S. Air Force planners aren’t keen on banning social networking among service members because those capabilities are proving to be good digital aids in combat. “Internet Relay Chat is a good example,” says Lt. Gen. William Lord, the service’s chief information officer. “You have an intelligence analyst in the U.S. who is looking at a live picture of the battlefield while chatting online with a Predator operator that can point [the UAV’s] sensors.
PRODUCTION READY: Boeing is set to begin assembly of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K/L spacecraft it is building for NASA following completion of system critical design review and production readiness review. Approval came Feb. 19 after a three-day review by NASA. Launches are set for 2012 and 2013.
GPS SHIFT: The U.S. Air Force is shifting the orbit of three of its Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to improve worldwide coverage and assist soldiers in areas such as Afghanistan, where the rugged terrain can block signals and reduce accuracy. Previously organized around 24 slots in six orbital planes in medium Earth orbit, the constellation is being adjusted to provide positions for 27 satellites. The shift is using only spacecraft that are already in orbit, and should not affect either satellite lifetimes or planned replenishment schedules.
TANKER TALK: Northrop Grumman is likely to forgo a bid on the KC-X tanker contract, JP Morgan analyst Joseph B. Nadol predicts, after a request for proposals released Feb. 24 failed to address concerns that the U.S. Air Force’s criteria favors Boeing’s 767 design over a Northrop/EADS offering (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 25). Such a move would provide a “much needed shot in the arm” for Boeing’s “growth challenged” defense business, Nadol says, while eliminating the threat of EADS’ Airbus unit establishing a U.S. production foothold.Oppenheimer & Co.
COMMERCIAL CONCERNS: Dyed-in-the-wool commercial space pioneer and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan admits he has qualms about the Obama administration’s plans to turn U.S. human space access over to commercial vehicles. “No question, it would be good to see commercial companies quickly succeed at orbital access and to take that capability beyond low Earth orbit,” he tells an aide to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) in an e-mail message. “However, I am fearful that the commercial guys will fail; i.e.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Feb. 25 that the initial operational capability (IOC) of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has slipped for his service to late calendar year 2015. Meanwhile, Navy officials may not stick with their earlier plan of a 2014 IOC.
LONGBOW RADAR: Longbow LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, was recently awarded an $86 million contract from AgustaWestland to support Longbow Fire Control Radar (FCR) systems on the U.K. Apache AH Mk-1 aircraft. The four-year contract includes engineering services, integrated logistics and an in-country repair capability. Support services will continue through March 2014 and will be performed in both the U.K. and in the U.S. at Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman facilities.
FINAL BURN: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) engineers will use results from the final ground test of a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor at the company’s Promontory, Utah, facility to continue work on the five-segment version of the motor they are developing as the first stage of the Ares I rocket. NASA’s Fiscal 2011 budget proposal cancels Ares I development, but for now the development contract is continuing with Fiscal 2010 funding. Among the 258 instrument channels on the Feb.
NASA has broken ground near Canberra, Australia, on a project to replace its three 70-meter Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas with a new generation of 34-meter antennas by 2025. The 70-meter (230-foot) antennas, located at the NASA DSN complexes at Goldstone, Calif.; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, are showing signs of wear after more than 40 years of continuous use, according to NASA.
Attribution of a computer attack — who is actually conducting the attack and from where — is at the heart of mapping out the responsibilities and capabilities of the newly founded 24th Air Force — the service’s cyber-warfighting organization. “Figuring out if [a cyber inquiry] is good, bad, allowed or should be shunted off someplace where we can study it are all decision processes that we’re building right now,” says Lt. Gen. William Lord, the service’s chief information officer, talking to Aviation Week in an exclusive interview.
LONDON — Defense ministers from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands have formally given approval for the establishment of the European Air Transport Command. The command will begin operations in September from its home in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The first personnel are to start arriving in July to help build up the organization.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The U.S. Army may have decided it does not have a requirement for Fire Scout in its Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) plan, but manufacturer Northrop Grumman has other ideas about the suitability of its vertical takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) for the service.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The failure of four of six shots from the U.S. Army’s Non Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS) during recent testing could spell trouble for the Raytheon-built vertical launcher, which also is supposed to be fielded aboard the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
INCREMENT ONE: The U.S. Army awarded Boeing a $138 million contract to equip the first Infantry Brigade Combat Team with Increment 1 capabilities. The contract for low-rate initial production (LRIP) follows a successful production review by the Defense Acquisition Board in December. Increment 1 of the Army’s Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) comprises the small unmanned ground vehicle, Class I UAV, unattended ground sensors and a network integration kit.
LONDON — European governments have reached an agreement in principle with industry over how to restructure the A400M military airlifter, and are provisionally targeting a signing ceremony for March 8 in Paris, according to the French defense ministry. Government officials met for two days in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of European Union defense ministers. However, adjustments are still possible and industry has signaled it wants to make sure some issues are properly clarified.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lockheed Martin celebrated a victory for its Airborne, Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) here Feb. 25 after the announcement that the U.S. Air Force and Army have requested 60 percent more engineering development models (EDM) than originally anticipated.
