Sometimes a second look is a good idea, as evidenced by NASA’s surprising discovery of ice in freshly made craters on Mars. As they pored over mid-latitude images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), scientists using its Context Camera saw dark smears on the surface that often are evidence of new impact craters from meteors.
CAPODICHINO, Italy The first refurbished Italian G-222, bound for the Afghan National Army Air Corps, was delivered to the U.S. Air Force during a Sept. 25 ceremony here at Alenia Aeronautica’s facility. The Afghan corps will begin operating the G-222s, designed as the C-27, in April. Initial operational capability, which includes the first three aircraft and maintenance support, is expected in November.
USCG AUTHORIZATION: The U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act for fiscal 2010 and 2011 (S. 1194) would authorize appropriations totaling nearly $16.4 billion through FY ’14, primarily for ongoing operations during 2010 and 2011. Implementing title V, which addresses the service’s acquisition practices, could result in future savings in discretionary spending, says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in a Sept. 24 cost estimate.
ITAR ENDING?: American satellite manufacturers are convinced that U.S. technology export rules are in for a change. “I see a strong interest in ITAR reform in the Obama Administration,” Space Systems/Loral CEO John Celli says. “It could even happen overnight,” he suggests, expressing confidence that one of three reform bills currently before Congress will be passed. “I believe responsibility [for supervising the rules] will return to [the Dept of] Commerce, which did a good job before [it was shifted to the State Dept.],” says Orbital Sciences Corp. CFO Garrett Pierce.
FURTHER FLANKERS: Sukhoi has begun work on airframes for the additional 12 Su-27SM Flanker aircraft ordered by the Russian air force in August. These aircraft are being re-manufactured from unfinished Su-27SK aircraft that were intended for export. They will be delivered in 2010-11. A total of 60 aircraft have been ordered. The Su-27SM is an improved version of the Flanker with upgraded avionics and the ability to use air-to-ground weapons.
President Barack Obama let known his continuing opposition to unrequested Boeing C-17 airlifters Sept. 25, but the White House did not raise the ante on veto threats in its response to expected Senate defense appropriations for fiscal 2010. In the official Statement of Administration Policy on the Senate’s pending bill, to be considered this week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said it “strongly objects” to the addition of $2.5 billion in funding for 10 unrequested C-17s in the Senate version of the spending measure for the Defense Department.
A small leak in a kerosene fuel line discovered late Sept. 23 during turnaround operations prompted NASA to scrub a second planned attempt to launch a dual-payload missile defense warning satellite mission from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sept. 24. The leak has been fixed, and the team is now targeting Sept. 25 from 8-9 a.m. EDT to launch the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Demo mission, which will orbit two missile warning satellites.
SETTING SAIL: Australian officials said they expect the launch of the country’s new Landing Helicopter Dock 1 ship in Spain in March 2011, with its Australian debut at the Williamstown dockyard in 2012. LHD 2 will arrive in 2014. BAE Systems Australia Defense is the prime contractor for the $3.3 billion Project JP2048 Phase 4A/B. Spanish shipbuilder Navantia is subcontracted to BAE as the design authority and is required to construct and fit out the hulls of two large amphibious warships for the Australian Defense Force.
MADRID, Spain — Airbus says it has come to an agreement in principle with A400M launch customers to restructure the contract for the airlifter, and is keeping to its objective of performing a first flight this year. “We have agreed to a new program baseline, and have an agreement in principle on a revised technical schedule,” Rafael Tentor, the A400M program head at Airbus Military, said here at briefings Sept. 22. “We are now working on the details,” he said, with the aim of signing an addendum to the existing contract by the end of the year.
The unequivocal and unexpected discovery of widespread water in the uppermost layer of the moon’s surface means a whole new set of challenges for engineers working on methods for future astronauts to extract lunar resources.
The U.S. Marine Corps has managed to get ahead of what it feared last spring would be a capability gap due to higher than anticipated scrap rates on the rotor blades of its CH-53D Sea Stallion fleet. In May, program manager Capt. Rick Muldoon said the D-blade scrap rate had spiked more than 80 percent. “We’re in a bit of a tight spot,” he said. “We’re very diligently managing the inventory we have while we accelerate getting the aircraft to fly with [E model] blades (Aerospace DAILY, May 21).”
The U.S. Air Force’s new KC-X replacement tanker acquisition “is not a rerun of the last competition,” senior Pentagon officials assured lawmakers who were briefed the morning of Sept. 24 ahead of the next day’s release of the draft request for proposals (RFP).
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CHINA LAKE, Calif. — Customers coming to the U.S. Navy’s ranges here to test a sensor payload, a networking device or a weapon designed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can pick a platform from the Weapon Division’s stable of ScanEagle and Pioneer UAVs if they don’t have one of their own. The UAV facility at China Lake is easy to spot. It’s next to a B-29 that was rescued from the ranges here.
CHINA LAKE, Calif. — Targeting with the tiny video cameras on small unmanned reconnaissance aircraft had been impossible until a team of U.S. Navy engineers and scientists modified an arcane medical technology to produce highly accurate Video Correlation Targeting. Medical imaging had been developed to keep precise track of a camera moving through the maze of a human’s airways. It is now being used here to extract precise targeting information from low-quality video provided by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
RAFALES CRASH: Two French navy Rafale fighters crashed into the Mediterranean Sea Sept. 24 during flight trials off the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. One pilot was recovered near the crash site, roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Catalan city of Perpignan, and the other was missing. The Charles de Gaulle is preparing to return to service with a new complement of multirole Rafale F3 fighters after a more than 18-month shutdown for major overhaul.
NUCLEAR OPPORTUNITY: The next two years may represent the best opportunity to secure widespread ratification and adoption of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and bring it into force, according to the Arms Control Association. Nine more states — China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and the United States — must ratify it before the CTBT, which would ban all nuclear weapon test explosions, can formally enter into force.
MUM’S THE WORD: With the U.S. Army keen for its OH-58B Kiowa Warriors to receive video from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate has demonstrated manned/unmanned teaming with the armed scout helicopter using a dedicated computer and transceiver integrated with its existing cockpit controls and displays. Provided by AAI and L-3 Communications, the system received UAV video, transmitted video from the helicopter’s mast-mounted sensor to the ground and shared video between the Kiowa and an Apache.
Several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) complained Sept. 24 of their surprise over the Obama administration’s recent changes to European missile defense in a hearing with Pentagon officials, but it remains to be seen how significant opposition will be there and across Capitol Hill.
CASELLE, Italy — Alenia North America is building the case for why a jet-trainer, its M-346, should be the platform to host a forthcoming light attack aircraft, possibly for the U.S. Air Force and for foreign customers. This is the latest proposal in the company’s push into the U.S. market. Already, Alenia is proposing the M-346 as the T-38 replacement, and it is selling C-27Js to the Pentagon as part of a team with L-3 Communications.
HOT SPOTS: The U.S. Air Force expects to announce preferred U.S. basing locations for its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter force in late spring 2010. Final decisions are slated for calendar 2011, after environmental studies are performed. The Air Force will evaluate more than 200 Air Force sites against approved criteria, as well as other factors like combatant commander requirements, aircraft retirements and delivery schedules; aircraft maintenance and logistics support; and integration with the Air National Guard and Reserve.
LOSING A SUB: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 23 that London is studying whether it could cut its fleet of next-generation ballistic missile submarines from four to three. The potential cut is being portrayed by the British government as a move toward encouraging other nuclear states to similarly consider reducing their nuclear capabilities, while also offering an incentive to non-nuclear states.
TEXANS TOO: With deliveries under way to Israel and an order just booked for Iraq, Hawker Beechcraft has received a $37 million contract to supply 24 T-6C Texan II turboprop trainers plus simulators to Morocco. The company says it is pursuing potential sales to Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the U.K.
