Lockheed Martin will integrate five additional legacy waveforms with its Airborne Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS), prompted in part by the recent successful execution of the program’s critical design review (CDR), according to company leadership.
Lockheed Martin is preparing for a May live fire test of its Nulka decoy from its Extensible Launch System (ExLS), which has the potential to be fielded aboard U.S. Navy ships in the future. The ExLS is a launching system developed to adapt certain missiles and munitions in an All Up Round canister configuration into both the MK 41 and MK 57 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) or in a stand-alone configuration.
NEW UAV: France has ordered a fourth Harfang medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle from EADS. The 33.7 million euro ($49 million) purchase, which includes a third control system, was made under a procedure put in place to accelerate critical weapons procurement. The new Harfang — officially known as the Interim MALE UAV (SIDM) — will be delivered this summer to the Adour squadron in southwestern France for training and national air defense duty.
All three of the finalists for NASA’s 2018 New Frontiers space science mission would reach out and touch a nearby heavenly body. NASA will spend about $3.3 million on each of the finalists for mission-concept studies that will help in the final selection of the agency’s third New Frontiers spacecraft by mid-2011. That mission will be capped at $650 million, plus launch costs.
COLLISION AVOIDANCE: The U.K. Royal Air Force should consider “fitting a suitable [collision warning] system to the Tutor aircraft as priority,” according to the findings of the board of inquiry into a fatal crash released last week. Two Grob G115E Tutor primary trainer aircraft were involved in a mid-air collision in February 2009, resulting in the death of four people. The report also recommends that the aircraft’s “canopy frame and handle should be modified to introduce a less intrusive design.”
NO LUCK: Arianespace Chairman/CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall says efforts to penetrate the protected Russian satellite market have gone for nought. Le Gall says Gazprom Space Services, which picked Arianespace to launch two Yamal 400 spacecraft, has let the agreement lapse, and instead will orbit the spacecraft with a Russian launcher, presumably the Proton. International Launch Services, which operates the Proton for commercial use, declines to comment.
U.S.-built sensors that detect enemy sensors searching for allied aircraft targets is one of several new technology twists being developed for combat use in Afghanistan and Iraq. Others involve using targeting sensors to let helicopter pilots see through dust “brown outs” and find the source of dumb small arms or unguided weapons fire.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 19 - 22 — Soldier Technology US, “Developments, Trends and Opportunities in North America’s Infantry Modernization Community,” Hyatt Regency, Crystal City, Va. For more information go to www.soldiertechnologyus.com Jan. 20 - 21 — Strategic and Tactical Missile Systems Conference, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calf. For more information go to www.aiaa.org
It did not take long for Wes Bush to make his mark on Northrop Grumman Corp. Three days after he became CEO on Jan. 1, the 120,000-employee military contractor announced that its headquarters will move to the Washington region in 2011, decamping from Los Angeles, where Jack Northrop founded the company 70 years ago.
TOTAL VACUUM: The White House has gone dark on its new space policy as President Obama and his top aides wrestle with the airport-security issue, and it’s unclear when NASA will get clear guidance on what to do.
GPS UPGRADE: The Global Positioning Systems Wing and the 50th Space Wing at Shriever Air Force Base, Colo., will bring improved ground systems software for telemetry, tracking and command to support the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System on Jan. 11. The upgrades include new navigation signals for civil users, encrypted military codes, crosslink enhancements and improved navigation signal accuracy. They anticipate the mid-2010 launch of the first of 12 GPS-IIF satellites from Boeing. Boeing also built the ground system upgrades.
LONDON European defense research and development (R&D) investment has fallen by nearly 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) according to the European Defense Agency (EDA), a finding that only serves to bolster industry fears of a continuing downward trend. The recently released EDA figures reveal that total R&D spending dropped by 9.5 percent among the 26 member states. European spending continues to fall far behind that of the U.S., with Washington spending almost seven times as much in this area.
STILL INTELLIGENT: While the Christmas Day airline bomb plot highlighted flaws and needed improvements in the U.S. intelligence community’s coordination, it did not expose weakness in the concepts of intelligence reform, the director of national intelligence (DNI) says. Retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair’s comments came late Jan. 7 after several days of news reports and public discussions questioning whether post-9/11 changes — like the creation of the DNI — have helped or hurt.
NAME CHANGE: Boeing says a reorganization and leadership changes in its Integrated Defense Systems unit will “reposition the company for growth in the current business environment.” Effective immediately, the unit will be called Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDSS) in response to anticipated “flattening defense budgets and shifting customer priorities,” according to BDSS President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
STARTING OVER: Republican senators and their occasional ally Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, warn President Barack Obama they might not support a follow-on deal to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) unless he commits to improvements in nuclear infrastructure and possibly even a new nuclear-warhead design.
BERLIN German defense expenditures in 2010 are unchanged from 2009. The previous coalition government, led by the Christian Democrats, approved a €31.1 billion ($45.2 billion) budget, an annual allocation that is expected to remain at this level until 2013. Although defense spending is not growing, troops on deployment have increased to 7,600 from 7,100 in November 2008, and efforts are under way to modernize their equipment.
ROTARY VISION: The U.K. is considering modifying surplus AgustaWestland Merlin Mk1 helicopters as the basis of a replacement airborne search and control (ASAC) platform for the navy’s current Sea King Mk7, which is due to be withdrawn from service in 2016. A decision on whether to pursue converting spare Merlin Mk1s for the ASAC role is “subject to the [Strategic] Defense Review and investment approval,” Bill Rammell, the minister for the armed forces, told Parliament last week.
SWEET HOME: The U.S. Army plans to relocate the headquarters of its Army Contracting and Expeditionary Contracting commands from Fort Belvoir, Va., to Redstone Arsenal, Ala., by August 2011. Both contracting commands will co-locate with Army Materiel and Army Security Assistance commands, which are landing there under the 2005 base realignment and closure process (BRAC).
NEW FLECHETTE: In the first time the U.S. Navy Department has produced a new flechette warhead since the Vietnam War, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR is introducing a new design for use by Marine Corps helicopters in Afghanistan. Vietnam-era flechette warheads — smaller munitions used against personnel and light-armored targets — were near depletion and becoming unreliable, officials say, so they have tapped General Dynamics for the 149 Mod 0 Flechette Warhead.
BIG DAY: Aerospace & defense companies are tallying up their sales and earnings as they prepare to issue their fourth-quarter and full-year 2009 results later this month. Boeing, General Dynamics and United Technologies should roll out their earnings on Jan. 27. But Wall Street analysts will be really busy the next day, when Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, Goodrich, Rockwell Collins and Teledyne Technologies are all expected to report. “January 28th,” says Jefferies & Co. analyst Howard A. Rubel, “is as crowded as a security line at an airport.”
Engineers at Johnson Space Center (JSC) have scheduled four days of testing with three different versions of NASA’s planned new spacesuit to begin melding the suit with the Orion crew exploration vehicle that is also under development there.
NEW DELHI — India’s Defense Ministry has sent a letter of request to the U.S. government for 10 Boeing C-17 strategic airlifters, via the foreign military sales (FMS) process. Boeing’s Jan. 8 statement follows immediately after the United Arab Emirates announcement of plans to purchase six C-17 Globemaster IIIs. The U.S has been in discussions with the Indian government and Boeing recently completed a series of C-17 demonstration flights in India. In November 2009 the U.S. Air Force flew the C-17 in Agra in a joint lift exercise.
