GENOA, Italy — The market downturn is not affecting Finmeccanica so far, with the company expecting to match its whole-year financial guidelines for 2009. U.S. subsidiary DRS Technologies’ contribution is becoming more and more important for the overall defense electronic segment. Financial debts increased in the third quarter, but are manageable after efforts to lengthen debt duration and reduce financial cost.
Qian Xuesen, a U.S.-trained rocket scientist who became the father of the Chinese space program, died on Oct. 31, aged 98. Qian, whose name is sometimes spelled as Tsien Hsue-shen, was born in Hangzhou, China, moved to the United States in 1935 and became an early researcher in rocketry. During and immediately after World War Two, the sudden importance of jet propulsion and rocketry in catapulted him to the highest levels of the U.S. military scientific establishment, even though he was a foreigner.
Six NASA astronauts will use the next-to-last mission of the space shuttle Atlantis to begin preparing the International Space Station (ISS) for the day when there will be no shuttles to keep the station supplied.
OMAHA, Neb. — Citing the resource-constrained U.S. Army budget, the general overseeing the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command says he would prefer the U.S. Navy to assume oversight and execution of the mission to land-base SM-3 Block IB ballistic missile killers in Europe for protection against an Iranian attack. “Today, we have a number of priorities that we have trouble meeting outside of missile defense,” Campbell said during a Nov. 3 interview with Aviation Week.
The years-long mentoring program that paired American Embedded Training Teams (ETT) with Afghan National Army units came to an end last month with little fanfare, even though it marked a major change in the way the United States and its allies are trying to stand up the Afghan armed forces.
Disabled/Injury Numbers for U.S. Army Aviation Accidents and Incidents, by Aircraft Type, Jan. 1, 2008 to July 28, 2009 Disabled/Injury Numbers for U.S. Army Aviation Accidents and Incidents, by Aircraft Type, Jan.
Fatality/Injury Numbers for U.S. Army Aviation Accidents and Incidents, by Aircraft Type, Jan. 1, 2008 to July 28, 2009 Fatality/Injury Numbers for U.S. Army Aviation Accidents and Incidents, by Aircraft Type, Jan.
NASA’s latest flyby of Mercury upset theories about the planet’s composition and volcanic history, even though the probe shut down about halfway through because of an unexpected power problem.
The Pentagon has systemic problems with operationalizing and even understanding the effect on warfighting of non-kinetic and digital attack capabilities, even when technology offers successful new weaponry.
OMAHA, Neb. — The first Space Based Infrared System (Sbirs) missile warning satellite bound for geosynchronous (GEO) orbit is on track for delivery to the U.S. Air Force by the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010, according to its manufacturer. This will be a major milestone for the $10.4 billion Sbirs program, which has undergone multiple restructurings, cost overruns and delays. Delivery of the first GEO satellite is at least seven years later than planned and cost estimates have exceeded predictions by billions.
LONDON — A former British Labor government minister is calling into question London’s strategy in Afghanistan. Kim Howells, previously a minister in the Foreign Office from 2005-2008, says that most of the U.K. forces now deployed should be brought back to the U.K., so the funding saved as a result could be used to bolster domestic security and intelligence activities.
PARIS — The French aerospace industry is looking to tap a planned public bond issue for billions of dollars worth of new projects, including a medium-lift helicopter and heavy-lift rocket technology. The projects, detailed by French aerospace industries association Gifas, would draw on the proceeds of a public bond issue the Sarkozy administration intends to put together next year as part of a plan to stimulate the sputtering economy. Other new aerospace projects could include a midsize business jet and engines and other hardware to equip them.
While U.S. Army data shows eight deaths related to aviation mishaps as of July 28 this year — compared to 10 for all of fiscal 2008 — the fatalities are still the lowest tallies since the beginning of the decade, according to an Aerospace DAILY analysis of service data provided by the Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center.
ULTIMATE TRAINER: Boeing delivered the 221st and final T-45 Goshawk trainer aircraft for the U.S. Navy during a ceremony at the company’s facilities in St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 20. The T-45 is the only jet training aircraft in the U.S. military inventory that enables undergraduate pilots to perform carrier takeoffs and landings. More than 3,600 Navy and Marine Corps pilots have flown the Goshawk, as they trained to convert to the Hornet, Super Hornet, Growler, Prowler and Harrier. The T-45 will continue to serve the Navy through 2035, the service says.
MARKED DOWN: Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn downgraded L-3 to neutral over concerns that a U.S. pullout from Iraq could affect the company negatively. Most “pure-play defense large caps” could face uncertainties before the fiscal 2011-2015 budget is released early next year, he noted. On the other hand, Spingarn upgraded General Dynamics to a buy, mainly on the strength of the company’s defense programs. General Dynamics’ commercial business is coming out of its trough and will see growth in the next quarter and year, Spingarn says.
W7, the biggest and most powerful satellite ever built for Eutelsat, has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is now in the final stages of preparation for a Nov. 23 launch aboard an International Launch Services Proton M rocket. It will be the fifth mission of the year for ILS, following the launch of Telesat’s Nimiq 5 on Sept. 18.
The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is focusing on semi-autonomous robotic systems to increase safety at border crossings and security checkpoints.
A flight trial for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program slated for this fall has slipped to early next year, according to an agency official. The test is to be the most complex to date, featuring a head-on engagement of the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) against a separating target with countermeasures, GMD Project Director Carlos Kingston said in August. It was slated for September, but is now expected by February, according to MDA spokesman Rick Lehner.
OMAHA, Neb. — U.S. Strategic Command Chief Gen. Kevin Chilton says satellite fleet management has shifted in the last 10 years from having operational spares on the ground ready to be launched in the event of a disaster to a risky posture of “gap management” that needs to be changed. “Multiple launches are going to have to go off perfectly for us to be in the position we want to be in,” Chilton told an audience at the annual Strategic Space Symposium here Nov. 3.
The U.S. Navy has combined its N-2 (intelligence) and N-6 (command and control) functions into a Directorate of Information, effective Nov. 2. With time, money, military manpower and civilian patience running out for the war in Southwest Asia, the move is part of a Pentagon effort to reorganize itself to make the greatest impact with less funding, fewer personnel and the accelerating growth of advanced technology.
The Australian defense ministry has awarded a contract to the Rand Corporation to help in defining the country’s next submarine. Rand’s report, due in February, supports the so-called SEA 1000 program, the Future Submarine Project. Rand will devise a “Domestic Design Study.”
DOD plans to ink an agreement with a vertical-lift consortium formed by industry and academia in a bid to stimulate innovation in the U.S. rotorcraft industry and accelerate development of new technologies and capabilities. Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter issued a memo Oct. 26 establishing “an initiative to improve the long-term state of military vertical lift aircraft and the U.S. vertical lift industrial sector.”
