ARLINGTON, Va. — As a first step in fleshing out a new operational concept, the U.S. Army is fielding a so-called “tool kit” of small UAVs to a single brigade based in Afghanistan. The service is responding to requests from the field for Ravens to fly higher and longer, and to have the flexibility to fly a smaller platform if necessary. As the Army works its way through the official acquisition process, it is testing the concept in the field first.
MORE UTILITY: The U.S. Army has awarded EADS a $247 million, five-year contract for its Lakota Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). The contract funds Fiscal 2010 production of 45 UH-72A Lakotas to be delivered through June 2011, bringing the total Army order to 178. To date, 93 Lakotas have been delivered to the Army. A total of 345 are expected to be acquired through 2015 for Army and National Guard operations.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he would like to formally seek his chamber’s ratification of export reform treaties with the U.K. and Australia, and that it would behoove the Obama administration to wrap up some lingering questions on the groundbreaking deals as soon as possible. “This has really kind of dragged on and is something we need to resolve, one way or another,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Dec. 10 to State and Justice Department officials in a hearing over the 2007 treaties. “This is overdue, in my judgment.”
Positive reports are streaming in from U.S. Marines flying newly remanufactured AH-1Z Cobra and UH-1Y Huey helicopters, but the program office is not losing focus on its substantial legacy fleet.
WASHINGTON and NEW YORK — The House and Senate have agreed on a plan to begin immediately funding a land-based Aegis missile defense test bed in Hawaii, and the U.S. Navy has stepped up to manage the mission. The so-called Aegis Ashore program was conceptualized to provide a land-based ballistic missile defense system for the protection of Europe from Iranian weapons. With a goal of flight testing the land-based SM-3 missile in Fiscal 2012 and fielding in Europe three years later, the program appears to be on the fast track.
The U.S. Coast Guard is slowly narrowing the gap between the time it spends on homeland security and other missions, according to data gathered by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General (DHS IG).
GENOA, Italy — Italy has emerged from the NATO force generation conference — which discussed partner contributions to the new effort for Afghanistan — with a commitment of up to 1,000 troops and as many as 200 Carabinieri military police trainers against an alliance total of around 7,000 and a U.S. effort of up to 33,000 more soldiers. The Italian government has decided to concentrate its international military efforts on Afghanistan and will reduce its presence in other theaters to offset the increase and limit strain on an already pinched budget.
Wall Street analysts and consultants are issuing 2010 guidance to investors regarding the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, and despite the global economic crisis and numerous major issues on Washington’s agenda, they expect the QDR to lead to major spending initiatives.
TAXING ISSUE: New momentum on Capitol Hill could help find a more permanent — and effective — research and development tax credit compared with the current regime. Nonpartisan auditors there recently released a report that suggested lawmakers consider eliminating the regular credit option while adding a minimum base to the alternative simplified credit. Last June, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (Iowa) pitched a legislative proposal to do as much, and make the credit permanent.
ADVANCED HAWKEYE: The U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Program is on track for initial operational test and evaluation in 2011, according to manufacturer Northrop Grumman. Ninety-four percent of the system development and demonstration program is complete and the company is on schedule to deliver three pilot production E-2Ds to the Navy in 2010. Manufacturing of the first two Low-Rate Initial Production aircraft is also progressing well, Northrop says. “We’re exceedingly pleased with where we are in the flight test program,” said U.S. Navy Capt.
KOUROU, French Guiana — A helium leak caused by a faulty valve on the Ariane 5GS rocket has forced a delay in the launch of France’s Helios IIB imaging intelligence satellite. The launcher, which was on the pad at the European spaceport here when the leak was detected, will be returned to the final assembly building to enable the valve to be changed out. This task, together with associated retesting and refilling operations, will take several days, Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall says. No new launch date has been set.
PARIS — The latest round of ground tests have led Airbus Military to confirm Dec. 11 as the planned first flight date for the A400M military airlifter. The A400M, with six flight test personnel onboard, is expected to take off around 10 a.m. local time from EADS’s Seville, Spain, facility. The flight is expected to last around three hours.
Two important new Earth observation satellites have advanced toward their upcoming launches by clearing major milestone reviews by U.S. government customers.
The U.S. Air Force’s recently revealed, stealthy, all-jet RQ-170 remotely piloted aircraft that has flown in Afghanistan has linkages to earlier designs from Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, including the stealthy DarkStar and Polecat UAVs. The RQ-170 is a tailless flying wing whose upper surfaces have conformal sensor and/or communications pods faired into each side outboard of the centerline fuselage (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 7).
NASA has set a Jan. 4 deadline for responses to a wide-reaching request for information (RFI) for commercial reusable suborbital mission services, as well as research projects to accompany such flights. The space agency’s Innovative Partnerships Program has established the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRUSR) at Ames Research Center in California and advises that a solicitation for reusable suborbital spaceflight services could come as early as 2010. It would be a prelude to a pilot program of suborbital flight operations.
GRAY BUTTE, Calif. — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems plans to start air vehicle and systems tests of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) first Guardian unmanned aircraft at Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Calif., as early as next week following its formal delivery to the service Dec. 7.
PARIS — The French defense ministry has placed an order for two EC225s with Eurocopter as a gapfiller owing to delays in the NH90 delivery schedule. The two rotorcraft, for maritime security, are to be delivered next March and June. They will replace SA 321 Super Frelons. The helos are to be based at the Lanveoc naval air station. The NH90s will take over the role in late 2011.
NEW YORK — U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says that the service’s forthcoming budget request, though pinched by the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will likely include money for a new bomber and a new space surveillance system.
MOJAVE, Calif. — Preparations for the start of captive carriage flight tests of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) are under way following the unveiling of the vehicle in a spectacularly staged event at Mojave, Calif., on Dec. 7. Despite biting winter winds that were gusting to gale force at times, the prototype SS2 was transported to the specially constructed unveiling site at a remote corner of the airfield in darkness beneath the WhiteKnight Two (WK2) mothership, marking its first taxiing captive carry test.
The Malaysian armed forces are looking for ways to fund an upgrade of their 28 Sikorsky S61 helicopters by the company that maintains them, Airod. The maintenance firm, part of National Aerospace and Defense Industries, says it can improve reliability and performance while lowering running costs by fitting the aircraft with a glass cockpit, composite rotor blades and an improved transmission, all commercially available.
PRESIDENTIAL PARDON: Union workers in Connecticut and their Democratic lawmakers are petitioning President Barack Obama to forcibly stop Pratt & Whitney from closing a pair of aircraft-related factories in the New England state. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers asked the White House to “use every measure at your disposal” to block the moves, saying it is both a national security and jobs issue. A Dec. 7 letter to Obama was signed by Connecticut Sen.
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry was challenged Dec. 8 during his House Armed Services Committee testimony with Gen. Stanley McChrystal about a leaked cable he sent to Washington, in which he appeared to dissent from the plus-up of more troops to the country.
