Revenues on the defense side of the U.S. aerospace industry are still growing despite high-profile program cuts by the Pentagon, according to the Aerospace Industries Association’s (AIA) latest annual forecast.
PARIS — France and Italy will jointly build a high-speed dual-use telecom satellite to help military and government agencies fill a growing need for high-volume communications. Construction of the spacecraft, Athena-Fidus, was approved Dec. 16 by Yannick d’Escatha, head of French space agency CNES, and Enrico Saggese, director of Italian space agency ASI. The agreement, which had been in the works for more than a year, followed a letter of approval issued in November 2007.
The U.S. Air Force will not be allowed to fund retirement of any aircraft until it provides Congress with a federally funded independent review of its plans to restructure combat air forces, according to the Fiscal 2010 defense spending bill being passed by lawmakers. In an official explanatory statement accompanying the final bill — formally unveiled Dec. 15 and overwhelmingly passed by the House the following day — appropriators said they found a USAF plan to retire 248 legacy F-15, F-16 and A-10 aircraft to be “concerning.”
CYBER RANGE: London is funding the development of a cyber test-range to examine threats to large-scale computer networks. The program is being led by telecoms company BT. A BT team has been selected by the U.K. Technology Strategy Board for the program. Industry partners include Northrop Grumman, Imperial College, Oxford University’s Said Business School, and Warwick University. Northrop Grumman U.K. will develop the test-range under the banner of the self-organizing adaptive technology under resilient networks (Saturn) project. The range is intended to give the U.K.
Dynetics, Inc., has purchased Orion Propulsion in a linkup intended to expand the capabilities of its space systems division. Both companies are based in Huntsville, Ala., near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal. Financial details of the transaction were not revealed.
Engineers at the Alliant Techsystems’ (ATK) facility in Elkton, Md., have completed another ground test of the solid-propellant attitude control motor (ACM) designed to steer the launch abort system for NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. Performed Dec. 15, the sixth test of the system appeared successful, although final results must await further analysis, ATK said.
The U.S. Air Force’s ISR chief says a new bomber design will be more about intelligence gathering and non-kinetic weapons than about bombing. The arsenal of this “long-range, ISR/Strike” aircraft may eventually include directed energy and network attack, says Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
U.S. defense officials on Dec. 16 claimed they were about a year ahead of schedule in developing a joint program that consolidates integrated air and missile defense training across all military services and levels of combatant command. In a teleconference with reporters, representatives from U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), Strategic Command (STRATCOM) and the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command declared success with tying together “75 percent” of command structures, from national security leaders on down.
Although the Defense Department eventually complies with most recommendations made by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the pace at which DOD implements change can be lethargic, according to GAO’s most recent findings.
ROME — Italy’s economic development ministry has approved allocating 480 million euros ($700 million) to finance 78 aerospace and defense electronics research projects.
LONDON — Responding to the critical Haddon-Cave report concerning the fatal crash of a Royal Air Force (RAF) Nimrod MR2, the British government is setting up a Military Aviation Authority to oversee safety standards. Secretary of State for Defense Bob Ainsworth told Parliament Dec. 16 that following the review led by Charles Haddon-Cave, the ministry is creating a “Military Aviation Authority to provide the leadership needed to deliver the highest safety standards.” Establishing such an agency was a key recommendation of the report.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied a request from Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky to make the U.S. Air Force reimburse the two contractors’ proposal expenses for the protested and canceled combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement program. Any program faces a risk of being canceled, GAO said, and in the case of the $15 billion CSAR-X program, “There is no showing that cancellation was improper,” the agency said in its Dec. 15 denial.
JOINT OVERSIGHT: U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) leaders late Dec. 16 said they remain “deeply concerned about the growing costs and apparent delays” in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the panel’s ranking Republican, issued the statement after a closed-door hearing on the JSF. “Today’s briefing is one step in continuing close oversight of the program, which is not only the largest acquisition program underway, but probably the most complicated and challenging.
GOP OUTCRY: Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are decrying an expected maneuver by leading Democrats to attach congressional approval for raising the nation’s debt limit to popular — and must-pass — defense appropriations. According to GOP leadership, 174 House Republicans wrote House Democrats on Dec. 14 urging them to produce a “clean” congressional conference agreement over House and Senate defense spending bills.
The V-22 Osprey has been plagued with mission readiness rates hovering at 62 percent, but operations in Afghanistan have seen those rates rising steadily through the 70 and 80 percent range, according to U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway. Conway said he would like to see the tiltrotor “climb the ladder to the 90 percent” range. “It’s on that trajectory,” he said, adding that any problems that have arisen so far do not involve the aircraft’s major systems.
PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled a plan for a multibillion euro bond issue that will benefit a range of key European aeronautics and space projects. Destined to benefit from the bond issue are a new launcher to replace the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket and new satellite designs, including a spacecraft constellation to monitor carbon dioxide emissions.
The U.S. Army has begun fielding 500,000 of a projected 7 million new 5.56mm 30-round Improved Magazines for the service’s fleet of M16 and M4 weapons that PEO Soldier says will deliver “a significant increase in reliability for the battle-tested M16 and M4 weapons systems.” The office says “the Improved Magazine effectively reduces the risk of magazine-related stoppages by more than 50 percent compared to the older magazine variants.”
LONDON — Squadron cuts, a base closure, early withdrawal from service, and slowing the pace of a replacement all form key elements of a U.K. Defense Ministry package aimed at freeing up funding from a budget that is under serious pressure. The ministry is cutting one squadron of Harrier strike aircraft, with a second squadron likely to follow. A Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 squadron is also in line to be cut.
BATTLE OVER: The historic USS Wisconsin (BB 64) will come to rest in the harbor of Norfolk, Va., U.S. Navy officials have announced. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Md.), a leading Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, tried unsuccessfully years ago to get Congress to maintain the World War II-vintage battleships Wisconsin and USS Iowa instead of retiring them in favor of so-called extended-range fire support programs — at least one of which was later canceled (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 12, 2006). But following direction in the 2006 defense authorization act, Vice Adm.
The most alarming revelation about the Oct. 21 commercial Northwest Airlines flight that overshot its scheduled Minneapolis destination and was out of contact with FAA for 77 minutes is that during that time the FAA failed to contact officials at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to tell them about the errant jet.
