AFGHANISTAN AGENDA: Top U.S. soldiers, policy wonks, analysts and government officials have begun a discussion about Afghanistan that is expected to take weeks. What do we know so far? Things are worse in Afghanistan and Defense Sec. Robert Gates remains squarely on the fence about what to do. Gates has so far expressed opposition to “a limited offshore, remote counter-terrorism operation,” but he also is concerned about sending too many U.S. troops, says Geoff Morrell, Gates’ top spokesman.
ANTI FOUL: The U.S. Navy’s USS Port Royal will be the first guided-missile cruiser, and second ship overall, to sail with a new fuel-saving underwater hull coating. The ship left dry dock Sept. 24 and is expected to rejoin the fleet later this year. The special anti-fouling hull coatings, which will eventually cover all 70-plus active ships across the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, will help reduce marine bio-fouling, as well as the build-up of barnacles and other shell organisms on ships’ hulls.
In a parade redolent of the Soviet Union in its heyday, the Chinese military on Oct. 1 displayed a raft of systems — both tactical and strategic — celebrating the 60th anniversary of the creation of the People’s Republic of China.
Iran’s latest salvo of missiles and words has highlighted the outing of its second — and secret — uranium enrichment facility and its growing and more sophisticated arsenal of weapons. The flurry of militant activity follows a threat of new United Nations sanctions after the discovery of the new facility near the holy city of Qom in the north central part of the country.
MULLING MEADS: While Washington is engulfed in a debate about President Barack Obama’s proposal to cancel plans for 10 silo-based missile defense interceptors in Poland in favor of an SM-3-based architecture, a less prominent European ballistic missile defense effort is having its own problems. The U.S. vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not helping Lockheed Martin’s effort to push forward with the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), which incorporates a 360-degree radar and new, more capable missile than today’s Patriot systems.
The U.S. Senate has gone on record to support fully funding the Pentagon’s existing request for re-engining the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) intelligence collection aircraft. The chamber late Oct. 1 adopted an amendment to the fiscal 2010 defense spending bill proposed by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) that expresses the sense of that legislative body for Joint STARS.
NH90 DELIVERY: France will take delivery of its first four NH90 NFH frigate helicopters next year under a draft 2010 defense spending bill. The NFH is running several years behind the TTH transport version and is not scheduled to make its first delivery, to the Netherlands, until the end of this year. The French also anticipate delivery of seven Tiger attack helicopters in the “I” operational standard in 2010. France’s first operational Tiger squadron stood up in May and the attack helicopter entered service in Afghanistan last month.
AIRBORNE ASW: Despite economic doubts and uncertainties surrounding the global defense industry in the first decade of this century, aircraft remain the most dangerous threat to submarine fleets, according to Forecast International. In turn, the U.S. consultancy predicts the market for airborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) sensors will see production of more than 199,000 systems valued at $6.1 billion over the next 10 years.
PARIS — Germany is poised to become the fifth European country to operate its own dedicated secure military communications satellite network. The satellite, COMSATBw-1, was orbited by an Ariane 5 ECA during the night of Oct. 1, along with a civilian telecom spacecraft, Amazonas-2. The launch was the fifth of the year for the Ariane 5 and its 33rd success in a row.
SUB COOPERATION: The Australian minister for defense personnel, materiel and science, Greg Combet, is pressing Pentagon engineering and shipbuilding officials to cooperate on Australia’s Future Submarine program. “I was able to discuss future cooperation regarding the development of Australia’s Future Submarine with some of the key officials in the Obama administration,” Combet said after his visit last week.
Problems with government furnished equipment for the Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV launcher will delay liftoff of the first Boeing/Ball Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch, the first for the Minotaur IV from Vandenberg, had been tentatively set for Oct. 30.
THALES WIN: APT Satellite Co. of Hong Kong has ordered an 11.4 kW 56-transponder Ku-/C-band spacecraft, Apstar VII, from Thales Alenia Space for launch in the first quarter of 2012. Like four previous Chinese satellites built by Thales Alenia — including Apstar VI — Apstar VII will be based on the manufacturer’s ITAR-free Spacebus 4000 C2 platform and will likely be launched by a Chinese Long March booster. It will replace Apstar 2R at 76.5 deg. E. Long.
BRAZIL BID #2: Boeing says its final bid for Brazil’s F-X2 fighter contest was an opportunity to “update and clarify” elements of its best and final offer for the F/A-18E/F. Support and maintenance would be performed in country and Brazil would have “visibility into” the F/A-18E/F’s operational flight program to interface locally developed subsystem software. Aircraft and engine final assembly and test would be performed locally and Brazil would lead integration of domestically developed weapons.
ALL MINE: Four Mine Countermeasures (MCM) modules will eventually comprise the MCM package aboard the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Remote Minehunting Module and Unmanned Influence Sweep Module were tested in August, while the Coastal Mine Reconnaissance and Organic Airborne MCM modules are slated for future testing. The next phase of End-to-End (E2E) testing, the first phase of which was run in August, is tentatively scheduled for summer 2010.
BRAZIL BID: Saab submitted an improved offer to Brazil as bidding for the 36-aircraft F-X2 fighter closed on Oct. 2, offering to join development of Embraer’s KC-390 tanker/transport, evaluation of the aircraft by the Swedish Air Force, and a proposal to replace Sweden’s Saab SK60 jet trainers with Embraer Super Tucanos. Saab says it has offered “complete technology transfer” through involvement in Gripen NG development, local production of up to 80 percent of the airframe, plus final assembly and a full engine-maintenance capability in Brazil.
On track to certify its aircraft fleet to use synthetic Fisher-Tropsch (F-T) fuel by 2011, the U.S. Air Force has launched a similar certification effort for hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) biofuels and is now becoming interested in fuels from cellulosic feedstocks. “We have a certification schedule for a 50:50 blend of HRJ [and conventional petroleum-based JP-8],” says Bill Harrison, deputy director of the Air Force’s new Energy Office. “We’ve learned a lot through the F-T effort and are hoping for a rather rapid and smooth certification.”
RECOVERY PLAN: The MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) science team is trying to recover as much observation data as possible after a safe mode transition that marred the NASA spacecraft’s otherwise successful third and final Mercury flyby last week. During the eclipsed portion of the Sept. 29 maneuver, when Mercury blocked sunlight from reaching the spacecraft’s solar panels and it had to switch to battery power, the carrier signal from the spacecraft was lost earlier than expected.
In the wake of questions raised by congressional investigators about audit work done by a regional office of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) has identified several issues with the agency’s work. The IG reviewed DCAA audit documentation and interviewed auditors for 13 cases at the three DCAA Western Regional Field Audit Offices identified in a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 24).
UP AND AWAY: Baldwin Technology has received its biggest contract yet, worth almost $1.5 million, to advance its Mono Tiltrotor (MTR) concept for an unmanned cargo aircraft. The multiyear Office of Naval Research (ONR) contract covers flight dynamics and control research, including small-scale flight models to refine the design of a scaled demonstrator. Working with Baldwin will be the Army Research Laboratory, National Institute of Aerospace and University of California at Berkeley. ONR already has funded studies on the MTR as a ship-based cargo UAV.
NEW DELHI — Following a spurt of crashes, India may soon purchase turboprops to replace its HPT-32 basic trainer, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik told Aerospace DAILY. Recent accidents include a crash in July that killed two instructors. The fleet of around 120 Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) HPT-32s, based at the Air Force Academy (AFA) in Hyderabad, will remain grounded until a committee appointed to look into the cause of the crash submits its report. Meanwhile, pilots will be trained on Kiran Mk11s.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 7 - 10 — Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress, Asia World Expo, Hong Kong. For more information go to www.asianaerospace.com Sept. 8 - 11 — DSEI 2009 (Defense Systems & Equipment International), Global Security in Defense, ExCel London, U.K. For more information go to www.auvsi.org/events/
PARIS — The French government aims to maintain overall defense spending in 2010 at 39.18 billion euros ($56.8 billion) — barely below this year’s budget, despite the economic crisis. Under a draft spending bill presented Sept. 30, procurement would dip slightly to 17 billion euros, from 18 billion euros in 2009. But Defense Minister Herve Morin notes that this year’s budget reflects a temporary spending peak and the proposed sum is fully in line with the multiyear spending plan approved by parliament at the end of July.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded Lockheed Martin a Phase III contract covering a new series of flight-tests of the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA), a heavily modified Dornier328JET. AFRL says envelope expansion under Phase III is “planned for a 20-month effort.”
