FATIGUE MANAGEMENT FORUM October 13-14, 2009 Crowne Plaza Miami International Airport Miami, Fla. Register today to prevent risk and achieve optimal safety in the air and on the ground. www.aviationweek.com/events
Boeing’s Space Exploration Division and Russia’s RSC-Energia will collaborate on a common docking system for future human-spaceflight missions, drawing on technology originally developed for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project by the late Russian engineer Vladimir Syromyatnikov. The companies, which are both major hardware providers for the International Space Station (ISS), will build on that experience and Syromyatnikov’s Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS) to “produce an international standard for docking mechanisms,” according to the U.S. company.
Missed opportunities, misjudged budgets, ignored technology and operational imperatives that whipsaw from the big war to the insurgent war to the pursuit of individuals on foot continue to prolong the sad upgrade saga for the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS).
Elbit Systems is introducing its SWORD (Surveillance and Warning Obstacle Ranging and Display) helicopter obstacle avoidance system to the U.S. military market. The company unveiled the system, developed by its El-Op division, at the Association of the U.S. Army symposium in Washington this week.
GREAT AND SMALL: Defense Secretary Robert Gates described the tension between having to prepare for both insurgencies and more conventional force-on-force wars during recent remarks in Washington. “There has been a concern that our force is too focused on counterinsurgency, and has lost its edge for complex, conventional operations involving multiple brigades or divisions,” he said earlier this week. “We have to recognize that the black-and-white distinction between conventional war and irregular war is an outdated model...
The U.S. Army will not rule out any option for its new ground combat vehicle (GCV) program, including wheeled and tracked variants, which could possibly lead to the service examining the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV). The Marines have been an integral part of the Army task force on ground vehicles since the beginning, said Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, or ARCIC. “We are very close in talking about capabilities and [which of those] are necessary for the GCV,” he said.
Congress looks increasingly set to take up a compromise over continuing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s (JSF) F136 alternate engine subtly offered in the careful wording of a White House veto threat this summer.
Final preparations continue for the Oct. 18 launch of the third of five latest-generation Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
STRETCHING PACOM: The U.S. Pacific Command is straining a bit in response to a slew of recent natural disasters and storms throughout the Asia-Pacific realm, U.S. officials acknowledge in public comments. Allies like Australia and New Zealand also have responded by providing airlifted and shipborne relief to Indonesia and elsewhere. Humanitarian operations have been promoted by the departing commander, Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, as vital to maintaining security in the vast domain and one reason the combatant command would like even more assets (Aerospace DAILY, July 1).
NEW DELHI — The Indian government has not yet decided on a venue for the biannual Defexpo scheduled to be held Feb. 15-18, 2010. There is a great deal of frustration being expressed by foreign exhibitors, who tell Aerospace DAILY they are unable to decide whether to book hotels, plan delegations and schedule meetings.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is preparing to conduct static fire testing of the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, following the completion of acceptance testing of the stages themselves.
Commercial applications of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine under development by Ad Astra Rocket Company may be possible as early as 2014, following the first full-power prototype test of the advanced space-propulsion system. Engineers at the company’s Houston facility reported a peak power output of 201 kw for the VX-200 test bed in a thermal vacuum chamber, which was 1 kw higher than the target. The Sept. 30 test marked the first time the two-stage plasma engine’s second stage achieved its full planned power rating.
Northrop Grumman announced Oct. 6 that its company-owned MQ-8B Fire Scout flew under the command and control of a new company-developed STANAG 4586-compatible ground control station (GCS). STANAG 4586 is the NATO interoperability standard for unmanned aircraft.
Boeing has flown the wideband networking waveform (WNW) on the AH-64D Apache for the first time in a large-scale exercise, using the IP-based network to exchange images and messages directly with soldiers.
GUN RUN: The U.S. Naval Gunnery Project Office conducted Advanced Gun Barrel Technology (AGBT) rapid fire tests in September at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. The tests demonstrated a new refractory metal coating for large caliber naval gun barrels. During the demonstration, 48 high-propellant rounds were expelled in rapid fire mode from the Navy’s 155mm Advanced Gun System Engineering Development Model gun mount for eventual installation on the Navy’s new Zumwalt-class destroyer, the DDG-1000.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued a call for proposals for an eighth Earth Explorer mission Scientists will have until Dec. 1 to submit initial letters of intent for the Opportunity mission, which is to be launched by 2018. Up to three candidates are expected to be shortlisted for subsequent evaluation.
Saab’s South Korean unit is under investigation, suspected of bribing officials at a government research institute in return for secret information about the KF-X fighter program.
PARIS — Astrium will build a pair of surveillance satellites for Kazakhstan and establish a joint venture that will enable the country to build and test its own satellites. The deal is the latest in a string of wins by European manufacturers in the remote sensing field, including an Astrium sale to Chile in late 2008 and a Telespazio/Thales Alenia Space order from Turkey early this year. Further sales to Australia, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates are up for grabs.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps’ long-term solution to their light tactical vehicle needs — the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle — is on track to hit all of its milestones, according to program managers who spoke with reporters Oct. 6 at the Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington.
SUB TEXT: Australian Minister for Defense Personnel, Materiel and Science Greg Combet said Oct. 6 that he has “finalized discussions” with U.S. industry giants General Dynamics Electric Boat and Lockheed Martin over Australia’s Future Submarine project to replace its six Collins-class submarines. Combet said U.S. technology is likely to be an important facilitator in Australia’s largest-ever defense acquisition, although the government promotes Australian submarine and shipbuilding company ASC too. “Any U.S.
MARIETTA, Ga. — The U.S. Air Force is weaponizing its MC-130W aircraft, which are used by special operations forces for infiltration/exfiltration, and Lockheed Martin has begun studying options to arm the new HC/MC-130J models now being produced at the company’s production plant here.
TIGER TESTING: Australia’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter project has achieved initial operational test and evaluation readiness, according to Greg Combet, minister for defense personnel, materiel and science. The milestone marks the point where the project transitions from individual flying, maintenance and support qualifications to focusing on training and development of Army aviation combat skills, according to a prepared announcement. “The integration of the U.S.
