The German air force will start operating Heron unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan in March 2010 under a newly signed fee-for-service agreement. The German defense ministry has signed a contract with Rheinmetall — which is working with Heron maker Israel Aerospace Industries — to provide the medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aircraft. The contract calls for two Heron systems to be used, each comprising three air vehicles.
NETWORK TO WIN: To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched the Network Challenge to explore how Internet communications and social networking can quickly assemble and mobilize teams over a wide area to solve a time-critical problem. DARPA will award $40,000 to the first person to identify the locations of 10 red balloons tethered in undisclosed locations across the U.S. during the daylight hours on Dec. 5, 40 years after the first message was sent across Arpanet, the precursor of the Internet.
LONDON — Scotland’s main enterprise, innovation and investment agency, Scottish Enterprise, has launched an industry-led strategy for its aerospace, defense and marine industries to encourage greater collaboration between the public, private and academic sectors. The initiative aims to increase research and development activity, particularly among Scotland’s small- to medium-sized enterprise sector, and to develop its highly skilled work force. More than 22,000 people are employed in the sector, which supports the jobs of a further 30,000 within Scotland.
Halfway through the comment period for a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X aerial refueling tanker competition, the top civilian overseeing the armed service says it is open to making changes where needed.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTIVES: The White House on Oct. 27 issued 13 pages worth of “Guidelines for Increasing Competition and Structuring Contracts for the Best Results” to civilian and military agencies in support of the Obama administration’s pronounced goal to rein in waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting.
PHOENIX — The U.S. military is grappling with decreased budgets and a much different operational reality than during the Cold War, which calls for a new paradigm for maintenance, according to Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, U.S. Army deputy chief of staff for logistics. Stevenson predicts the United States is not going to return to a pre-2001 military strategy, or posture. “We’re probably going to have a portion of our forces deployed somewhere — always,” he said Oct. 28 at the DOD Maintenance Symposium here.
Fresh from the success of its Ares I-X development flight-test launch Oct. 28, NASA is putting renewed efforts into studies of whether or not to incorporate a real Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) J-2X engine in the upper stage of the follow-on Ares I-Y suborbital test.
McLEAN, Va. — The first female officers to deploy aboard a submarine could do so as early as late 2011, according to U.S. Naval Submarine Forces senior commander Vice Adm. Jay Donnelly. The Navy is preparing an official notification to Congress that will effectively terminate restrictions on women aboard submarines. Women “represent a rich resource of talent for the submarine force,” Donnelly told the Naval Submarine League here on Oct. 28.
ROME and GENOA, Italy — Italy is adding another two General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAVs to the order it placed for an initial four air vehicles. Vehicles under the original order were expected to start appearing by the end of this year or by February 2010 at the latest.
IRIS-T: For the first time, Diehl BGT Defense has test fired the ground-launched version of the IRIS-T infrared guided air-to-air missile. The so-called IRIS-T SL (for surface launched) is being developed for Germany as a plug-in adjunct to the Medium Extended Air Defense System that Lockheed Martin and MBDA are developing for the U.S., Germany and Italy. The IRIS-T SL test launch occurred Oct. 9 at the OTB Test Range in Overberg, South Africa.
NASA is poring through flight data following the successful Oct. 28 launch of the Ares I-X demonstrator from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., after delaying liftoff by a day because of a series of frustrating weather issues with high upper-level winds and static-laden clouds.
The Defense Department’s release of Northrop Grumman/EADS pricing data from its 2008 KC-X refueling tanker competition win to the loser, Boeing, broke rules governing such disclosures, Northrop officials assert, and their company is considering a variety of options, including legal action.
Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod is generating international interest as the company wraps up deliveries on the 410 pods it will eventually produce for the U.S. Navy. By early spring of 2010, Raytheon will have completed its deliveries of ATFLIR for U.S. Navy F/A-18s and Super Hornets and will be preparing to start deliveries of 14 pods to the Swiss. The Navy awarded Raytheon a $62 million contract to provide the Swiss and Australian air forces with ATFLIR pods.
DAUNTING BUT DOABLE: Resetting equipment and drawing down in Iraq are two recurring themes at the DOD Maintenance Symposium in Phoenix. And to illustrate how big of a logistics undertaking it is to wind down operations in Iraq, the head of U.S. Army Materiel Command, Gen. Ann Dunwoody, said her group is tasked with moving 31 million items, 100,000 rolling stock, 34,000 tons of ammunition, 51 brigade level equivalents, 143,000 personnel and 147,000 contractors.
McLEAN, Va. — Adm. Kirk Donald, director of U.S. Naval Reactors, cast a self-critical eye on the submarine force he leads during a presentation at a submarine symposium here Oct. 28, addressing challenges the force is facing.
DATA CENTER: The U.S. intelligence community (IC) plans to build a data center at Camp Williams, Utah, to provide “critical” support to national cybersecurity priorities, government officials announced last week. The center, chosen after a competition involving 38 sites, will support the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, which was started under the George W. Bush administration. Once operational, the facility will employ between 100 and 200 individuals. It is one of the largest development projects that Utah has seen, according to Gov. Gary R.
The British defense ministry, before year’s end, plans to issue a full response to an independent finding that an in-flight explosion of a combat-deployed MR2 Nimrod surveillance aircraft that killed all 14 onboard was preventable, but military officials did not challenge the basics of the assessment. The review, led by Charles Haddon-Cave, concluded that financial pressures led to “a dilution of the airworthiness regime and culture” inside the ministry.
NUMBERS GAME: Airbus is not ruling out that some A400M partners may reconsider purchase numbers amid French press reports that the U.K. has cut its order by six aircraft. Tom Williams, Airbus executive vice president for programs, said it was conceivable that as part of the ongoing discussions between industry and the partner nations, some countries could revise their planned buy of the military airlifter.
An SM-3 Block IA ballistic missile interceptor launched from the Japanese destroyer JS Myoko successfully destroyed a medium-range target during a test Oct. 27 in the Pacific, according to U.S. defense officials and Lockheed Martin executives. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says the missile intercepted its target at about 6:04 p.m. local time. The target was detected and tracked by crew onboard the Myoko; the crew also developed the firing solution. The intercept took place in space, roughly 100 miles over the Pacific Ocean.
General Dynamics beat analysts’ expectations with strong third-quarter results, as the company’s defense businesses continued to pull up its overall results.
The Dutch defense ministry is planning to proceed with the upgrade of its Apache attack helicopters and simulators to bring the equipment to the Block 2 standard. In a letter to parliament, State Secretary J.G. de Vries says the goal is to have the first test modifications completed in 2012, with the production run to take place from 2013 to 2015. The work will affect 21 Apaches home-stated in the Netherlands and eight of the rotorcraft based in the U.S. Simulators should be upgraded in 2013 to allow crew to prepare for the new standard.
PHOENIX — President Barack Obama is expected to sign the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill into law Oct. 28, including a section about changing the way industry and government manage major weapon system support, according to Lynn Williams, a staff member of the House Armed Services Committee.
