BENGALURU, India — The Indian navy is nearly ready to order 500 Submarine Escape Sets (SES) designed and developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization’s Defense Bioengineering and Electro-medical Laboratory (DEBEL). The Navy cleared SES in March 2008 after a series of rigorous trials. Kolkatta-based Bengal Waterproof Ltd. (BWL) will produce the sets under transfer of technology agreement from DRDO. Bangalore-based DEBEL has issued a proprietary certificate to BWL to manufacture the sets.
Oshkosh Defense shipped its first Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) trucks and trailers to the U.S. Army on May 26, slightly ahead of schedule despite months of acquisition program delays caused by last year’s bid protest by losing competitors BAE Systems and Navistar. The key to beating — or even maintaining — schedule was to continue the contract work through the bid protests, despite an Army stop-work order, said Mike Ivy, vice president and general manager for Army Programs at Oshkosh Defense.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., was awarded a $23,228,863 contract which will support the sensor advancements for experimental ground and air research demonstrations technical area three, flight tests and integration. At this time, $5,626,975 has been obligated. AFRL/PKSR, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-10-C-1890).
Handling qualities of the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter “exceeded expectations” on its June 6 first flight, Lockheed Martin test pilot Jeff Knowles says. Handling with landing gear down was a key focus of the first flight as the F-35C has a 30% larger wing and uprated flight controls to reduce takeoff and landing speeds compared with the other F-35 variants.
SCHOOL’S IN: Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin is promising an initial $3 million, three-year arrangement with the University of Maryland to pursue business opportunities, research and development and joint centers for logistics and sustainment, cybersecurity and climate change. The university and the company, the largest federal contractor, already partner in work on laser plasma filaments for high-power laser beams and research in cultural modeling for military personnel.
September 29-30, 2010 ExCeL • London, UK Learn to maintain military assets longer; sustain aircraft beyond forecast; recover from budget cuts, delays and program cancellations, and develop new strategies required to deliver and support equipment. Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/events
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) June 8 - 13 — ILA Berlin Air Show, Berlin-Schoenefeld Airport, Berlin, Germany. For more information go to http://www.ila-berlin.coms june 13 — Royal Air Force’s Cosford Air Show. For more information go to www.cosfordairshow.co.uk/
MAKING MAPS: Germany’s Infoterra GmbH will begin selling the first element of its TerraSAR-X Elevation digital surface model (DSM) product line, based on its exclusive commercial rights to high-resolution satellite radar data from the TerraSAR-X spacecraft. The DSM features 10-meter grid space and an absolute height accuracy of up to 5 meters. Users can access a 500 sq. km DSM in about one month and an area of 500,000 sq. km within a year, the company says.
NASA is canvassing industry for ideas on advanced “green” airliners that could enter service by 2025, with the goal of building a subscale, unmanned demonstrator that could fly in 2015. “The concepts must incorporate technologies enabling large, twin-aisle passenger aircraft to achieve ambitious environmental goals,” the agency says. These include reducing fuel consumption and nitrogen oxide emissions by 50% and airport noise by 80% relative to today’s 777-class airliners.
SCANEAGLE: Boeing subsidiary Insitu is to provide the FAA’s Technical Center with two ScanEagle small unmanned aircraft systems under a cooperative R&D agreement to help develop recommendations for integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace. ScanEagle started life as a commercial UAV, but found success in the military, with Boeing and Insitu providing surveillance services to U.S. and allied forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. A ScanEagle has been purchased by the University of North Dakota for civil UAV research.
NEW DELHI — Boeing says it has applied for federal clearance to enter into a Technical Assistance Agreement to work with India on space projects. India has indicated it would like to partner with NASA on the International Space Station (ISS). Recently, Boeing Defense, Space and Security officials talked about possible areas of cooperation for building India’s capacity for manned space missions, echoing Indian ambassador to the U.S. Meera Shankar’s words on the importance of space exploration.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Overcoming a main engine pad abort, a Flight Termination System communications glitch and a boat that strayed into the launch danger zone, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched its debut Falcon 9 rocket June 4 on a test flight prior to a demonstration mission for NASA this summer.
UAV AVIARY: Flight testing of micro air vehicles (MAV) in a controlled urban environment is underway in the U.S. Air Force Laboratory’s (AFRL) new indoor flight facility at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The Air Force is interested in unmanned aircraft with wing spans of less than 2 ft. that can descend below rooftop level and operate in cluttered urban canyons. This requires flight testing in urban terrain, in a controlled environment, says Dr. Gregory Parker, MAV team lead.
IN ORBIT: Initial reports indicate that the launch of Arabsat’s BADR-5 satellite by an International Launch Services Proton-1/Breeze M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 3 was a success. The first three stages separated without incident. Built by EADS Astrium, the spacecraft will provide digital television services to the Middle East and North Africa.
To follow up on the release of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Operations Concept 2010 (NOC) last week, U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Montgomery, branch head for strategic concepts, is fleshing out where the document fits within the Navy’s doctrine hierarchy. In the “strategic continuum of Navy documents,” the Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Sea Power remains the end goal, while the NOC is meant to complement that document and “to ascribe in more detail how and where we’ll operate and what specifically the naval forces provide the nation,” Montgomery says.
THE ONLY WAY: The June 4 inaugural mission of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was closely watched by advocates and opponents of President Barack Obama’s plan to buy launch services for astronauts on a commercial basis, rather than fund government-operated hardware, such as NASA’s Ares/Orion system, which the administration wants to cancel. Prior to the launch, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the mission “should not be a verdict on the viability of commercial space. Commercial space is the only way forward.
Lockheed Martin Corp. is moving to “reshape” its portfolio of businesses as it braces for leaner U.S. defense spending, stronger conflict-of-interest regulations and a move by the federal government to take back thousands of jobs that had been outsourced to contractors.
As the U.S. works to harness nanotechnology potential and refine policy for developing it, international players are gaining ground in their own nanotechnology programs, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says.
OPEN SOURCE: The Pentagon is reaffirming a Reagan-era policy that the products of “fundamental” science research should normally be unrestricted. However, according to the Federation of American Scientists, the policy also says that if national security requires imposing controls on such research, then formal classification is the only permissible means of doing so — versus more nebulous control efforts like the “for official use only” designation seen often under the George W. Bush administration.
BOMBS AWAY: The U.S. Air Force has once again slipped the award date for the 250-lb. Small Diameter Bomb II, this time to August. Service officials offer little detail on why, but say it was necessary to gain approval for entry into development from Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter. Raytheon and a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team are vying to develop the small, precision-guided weapon, which must be able to attack targets that are on the move through weather.
VTOL UAV: Honeywell believes its RQ-16 T-Hawk ducted-fan micro air vehicle (MAV) will fare better in limited user tests now under way for Increment 1 of the U.S. Army’s Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) program. The tests are using the latest Block 3 version of the “hover-and-stare” T-Hawk, with fuel-injected engine, gimbaled camera and digital data link. Previous tests used refurbished Block 0 air vehicles, which had reliability problems, the manufacturer says.
FLIGHT HITCH: Lockheed Martin was thwarted in plans to fly the first F-35C carrier variant in the first week of June after a “minor” wiring installation problem was discovered. The aircraft, CF-1, has completed high-speed taxi trials, the last step before flying. Lockheed says the fix is “straightforward.” The first mission-system test aircraft, BF-4, has completed its endurance test flight, meanwhile, clearing the way for the short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft to be ferried to the NAS Patuxent River, Md., test center to join the first three F-35Bs.
GFO COMPONENT: Thales Alenia Space will supply a bi-frequency altimeter for the U.S. Navy’s Geosat Follow-on (GFO) mission, intended to characterize the global ocean and tactical battlespace and complement data from the U.S.-European Jason altimetry satellites. GFO-2 will be built by Ball Aerospace and launched in 2014. The altimeter will be derived from the Poseidon instruments used on Jason, which Thales Alenia supplies. The present phase covers definition, design and system compatibility; the final contract is expected to be signed toward the end of the year.
HIGH ORBIT: The highest-paying U.S. space industry jobs are in the Washington area, according to a new report from the Space Foundation. In 2008, there were 1,185 workers in federal space research and technology jobs listed under the district with an average annual salary of $114,642 — 62% higher than the local average private-sector wage. The next five highest-paying states for space workers were Colorado at $109,616, Maryland at $106,637, Massachusetts at $106,111, Virginia at $102,890 and finally California at $101,948.
