Boeing is betting that it will able to expand its already sizeable role in the satellite communications market by offering “hosted payload” capacity to military or commercial users.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — Lockheed Martin and its teammates plan to add resources to F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flight testing to ensure the program stays on a revised schedule that extends development by 13 months. At the U.S. Navy’s test center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., where four short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) F-35Bs are now based, the industry team is set to add 80 engineers, maintainers and test operations personnel to step up the pace of flying.
The Boeing 747-400-based Airborne Laser (ABL) Test Bed for the U.S. military is now firing its high-power chemical laser at three to four times the range seen in the original shootdown exercise, according to Boeing.
PARIS — EADS Astrium has orbited a second commercial X-band radar satellite, Tandem-X, that in combination with TerraSAR-X, launched in 2007, will provide 1-meter resolution three-dimensional radar imagery.
NEW DELHI — India is expected to release a request for proposals soon for outsourcing maritime air surveillance of the country’s coastline. “We are hoping the Request for Proposal will be out soon,” says Lee Griffiths, head of Cobham in India, which plans to bid on the work with an Indian partner.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — There is a huge hole in U.S. ballistic missile defenses that air-to-air weapons — fired from fighters or unmanned aircraft fitted with long-range sensors — may soon be able to fill.
PARIS — As the new Soyuz launch site at Europe’s South American launch center near Kourou, French Guiana, takes shape, Arianespace has signed a framework agreement to buy 10 more Soyuz boosters. The company has 17 Soyuz launches to perform, including five for Europe’s Galileo satnav system, but to date has only 14 of the Russian medium-lift rockets on order.
DIRECTV AWARD: Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has landed an award to build a 20-kw. satellite for DirecTV. The Ka-band/reverse DBS spacecraft, designated DirecTV 14, will position DirecTV to take advantage of surging demand for standard, high-definition and 3-D TV, the operator says. Work on the unit, to be launched on an undisclosed date, began in the first quarter under an authorization-to-proceed agreement. It was the third comsat award of the year for SS/L.
Developers at Hanscom AFB, Mass., have delivered a Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar sensor for integration on the Global Hawk Block 40. The milestone was reached June 15 when the developmental sensor reached Edwards AFB, Calif.; a production version will eventually be placed onto AF18, a Global Hawk Block 40 aircraft, says Col. Jim Shaw, Air Force MP-RTIP program manager.
The Indian military will spend $80 billion on acquisitions from 2011 to 2015, most of it for the army, according to Deloitte and the Confederation of Indian Industry in a study on the country’s defense market. The army will account for 53% of the spending, the air force 31% and the navy 16%, the authors project, basing their estimates on an analysis of official statements.
DECOY ORDER: BAE Systems has received a 12th order for Nulka hovering-rocket naval decoys from the Australian government. Production of an undisclosed number of rounds will run until 2013. Nulka, developed and made in Australia, is an active decoy designed to attract the attention of anti-ship missiles and lure them onto a harmless flight path by edging away from its launching ship.
COBRA TARGET: The U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded Lockheed Martin a $44 million follow-on production contract for 18 additional Target Sight Systems (TSS), the fire control system for the Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Cobra. TSS provides Cobra pilots with sensors that aid in acquiring, tracking and designating targets. The suite includes a laser designator, color TV and a third-generation, mid-wave, forward-looking infrared sensor with advanced image processing.
BENGALURU, India — India’s fifth limited series production (LSP-5) Tejas Light Combat Aircraft will fly in the first week of August. P.S. Subramanyam, program director for combat aircraft and director of the Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), tells AVIATION WEEK that designers, engineers and scientists from ADA and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. are working together to make the LSP-5 a complete, final configuration platform.
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Lockheed Martin is trimming its Orion spacecraft workforce by 20% as it works with NASA to redefine the vehicle as a crew rescue capsule for International Space Station crews. The cuts amount to 300 Lockheed Martin employees and 300 subcontractor personnel. While the company is working to find new positions for the displaced staff within the company, “layoff notices are probably inevitable, and that will happen shortly,” according to Linda Karanian, Lockheed’s Washington-based director of human space flight programs.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) june 21 - July 1 — White Eagle Aerospace’s 2010 Aero Institute: “Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics” and “Basic Missile Aerodynamics,” Palmdale, Calif. For more information go to www.whiteeagleaerospace.com June 22 - 24 — 2010 Joint CBRN Conference & Exhibition, Ft. Leonard Wood, St Roberts, Mo. For more information go to www.exhibits.ndia.org
BOEING INDIA: Bob Gower has been named vice president of Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA) India. “In this new position, Gower will expand and manage the BMA product line in India, including P-8I, F/A-18IN, C-17, and Apache,” Boeing says. Prior to this assignment, Gower served as vice president of F/A-18 and EA-18 Programs. Succeeding Gower will be Kory Mathews, who will serve as program vice president of F/A-18 and EA-18 Programs within Boeing’s Global Strike Systems division.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Prithvi-II, an indigenously developed, nuclear-capable ballistic missile, was successfully test fired on June 18, the country’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) says. The launch took place from Complex-III at Chandipur near the Orissa coast.
LEANER LOCKHEED: A Wall Street analyst says Lockheed Martin appears to have initiated a plan to cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars as it braces for a leaner U.S. budget environment. While the initiative has not been well defined publicly, CEO Robert Stevens and his team seem to recognize the company needs to change the way it does business, says Jefferies & Co. analyst Howard Rubel. “There is an urgency to reduce costs to maintain competitiveness,” he says.
