PASADENA, Calif. — The U.S. Air Force is about to enter the most intense period of fielding new space systems since the height of the Cold War almost 50 years ago, says Space and Missile Systems Center commander, Lt. Gen. John Sheridan. “We’re poised to deliver six brand new space systems in the next 24 months. Nothing as ambitious as this has been attempted since the 1960s,” says Sheridan who was speaking Sept. 17 at the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2009 conference here.
Pratt & Whitney says the “probable cause” of fan-blade damage during ground testing of the F135 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was a worn bushing — a part in the fan inlet case — causing an aerodynamic disturbance that led to a piece of the tip of a first-stage fan blade breaking off.
PURSE PRESSURE: While the U.K.’s Strategic Defense Review is to be launched immediately following the next general election — to be held no later than mid-2010 — it remains to be seen whether any elements of the near-term defense program may be caught up in the country’s savings drive. The British press was reporting at the end of last week that the government’s finance minster, Chancellor Alistair Darling, was holding meetings with other ministry chiefs to consider possible spending cuts.
CLEANUP NEEDED: With hundreds of thousands of man-made objects in space, from small particles to derelict spacecraft, posing a growing threat to the 900-odd operational satellites in orbit, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking concepts for systems that could cost-effectively remove significant amounts of debris from low-Earth and geosynchronous orbits.
MULLEN’S MUDDLE: The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, says the process the Pentagon uses to evaluate complex weapons programs is itself too complicated and needs more input from military officers. “The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System [JCIDS] is much too complex and needs to be revised,” he says.
PEN PALS: Letters from lawmakers are flying around and out of Capitol Hill over the U.S. Air Force’s pending KC-X tanker competition. The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) preliminary decision in the U.S.-Boeing case last week spurred Boeing boosters in Congress to write executive branch officials to at least consider the matter, although the Air Force and other Pentagon leaders have said it does not pertain to KC-X. “I want to ensure the actions of the Department of Defense do not unintentionally penalize our domestic industry,” Sen.
CLOSING SHOP: BAE Systems has begun the formal consultation process with staff that will lead up to the closure of one of its four main air system sites in the U.K. The Woodford manufacturing plant was identified as early as 2003 as facing closure following the completion of the Royal Air Force’s Nimrod MRA4 program. At the same time the company also announced job cuts at its Samlesbury and Warton sites, as well as at Farnborough.
INTELLIGENT RESTRUCTURING: The Obama administration is weighing in with its own official guidance for the U.S. intelligence community under a the 2009 National Intelligence Strategy, a blueprint that will drive the priorities for the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies over the next four years. The “post-9/11 world” blueprint entails all sorts of updated elements, including a focus on cybersecurity. But old-fashioned counter-intelligence also is re-emphasized.
Boeing is treading a tightrope over the future of the C-17 as it tries to clinch international sales that could extend production by more than a year without endangering last-ditch efforts to safeguard a further batch of sales to the U.S. Air Force.
HORNET CRACKS: The U.S. Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) will repair F/A-18 Hornet internal wing cracks using a solution developed by its workforce. The wings of F/A-18s are covered in a durable skin that can become damaged from corrosion, typically caused by water intrusion from condensation. Likewise, the wing’s internal structure — comprising a series of aluminum spars and held together by metal ribs — can develop cracks that require replacement of the structure. So the FRCSE has developed skin-on and skin-off repairs.
NO ALTERNATIVE: Top Pentagon civilians are still trying to ensure that the General Electrics/Rolls-Royce alternative F136 Joint Strike Fighter engine is dead. After the failure of a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 15), officials hurried to say it did not change their preference for a single engine program. “There is no wavering among anybody in a decision-making position here at the Pentagon,” says Geoff Morrell, a press aide for Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “The mishap…is unfortunate, but not unexpected.
SPICY RELATIONSHIP: Washington continues to bristle in reaction to declarations by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that he might borrow billions of dollars from Moscow to buy Russian weaponry. Chavez said a $2.2 billion line of credit would lead to 92 Russian-made T-72 tanks and an unknown number of Smerch anti-aircraft missile launching systems. “We have concerns in general about Venezuela’s stated desire to increase its arms buildup, which we think poses a serious challenge to stability in the Western Hemisphere,” a U.S. State Department representative says.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 22 - 24 — AVIATION WEEK MRO Europe 2009 Conference & Exhibition, Hamburg Messe und Congress, Hamburg, Germany. For more information go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences
Norm Augustine, the retired Lockheed Martin CEO who spent the summer reviewing NASA’s Constellation program of vehicles in development for a return to the moon, told the Senate Sept. 16 that the agency’s “program of record” isn’t viable at current funding levels, and the situation won’t improve much when the space shuttle fleet is retired.
CYBER PLANNING: U.S. Cyber Command is supposed to dominate the new digital battlefield, but how it will work is still a mystery as manpower, training and cross-agency coordination lags. “I’ve asked each of the service chiefs to consider as a first priority filling the billets in the cyber schools,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates says.
Wesley Bush will become CEO of Northrop Grumman at the beginning of 2010, ascending to a position he has long been groomed for. The second-largest U.S. defense contractor by revenue announced that Ronald Sugar will step down as chairman and CEO on Dec. 31. The 61-year-old Sugar, who has held the top job since 2003, will remain for six months as chairman emeritus of the 120,000-employee company before retiring on June 30, 2010.
Lockheed Martin is working with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to fly a version of the F-35’s stealthy electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) on the Avenger unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the latter part of 2010. Mounted behind faceted sapphire windows, the mid-wave infrared sensor would reduce the swept-wing, jet-powered UAV’s radar signature compared with the conventional external electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) turret on a Predator or Reaper.
PARIS — Astronomers have determined that a small extrasolar planet found by the French-led Corot planet-finding mission is a rocky planet like our own. The planet, Corot 7-b, was discovered last year but only confirmed in February. About 20 near Earth-sized planets, known as Super Earths, have been seen so far, but Corot 7-b was the first to be observed directly as it transited in front of its star, and not inferred from other measurements (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 4).
LONDON — The next British government — regardless of its political party — will face the challenge of carrying out a strategic defense review against the backdrop of uncertainty over its military alliances. At issue is whether Europe is willing and able to provide a credible collective defense, and the future of NATO’s credibility should the alliance fail in Afghanistan.
LAUNCH SUPPORT: Struggling Sea Launch says it has received letters of support from five satellite operators promising future launch business that it hopes will help convince the U.S. Bankruptcy Court handling its Chapter 11 proceedings that it has a viable recovery plan. The letters are from DirecTV, Eutelsat, Intelsat, SkyPerfect JSAT of Japan and Telesat.
KOREAN BUY: South Korea will buy Elta Systems Green Pine Block-B radars for its nascent ballistic missile defense system, planning to install them in central and northern parts of the country in 2012. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration says the Green Pine outperformed a rival system from Thales in a test in August. The French company offered the M3R radar derived from its Ground Master 400 system to South Korea. The administration has previously said it would buy ballistic-missile defense radars by the end of this year.
The U.S. Navy announced late Sept. 16 that it has canceled the solicitation for three Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for fiscal 2010 “due to affordability,” and will instead issue a new solicitation, leading to a downselect to a single design.
NASA Presolicitations NASA Presolicitations Date of Posting Response Date Opportunity Segment Procurement Office Solicitation Code Contact E-Mail 15-Sep-09 30-Sep-09 Increase the maximum order amount of contract related to water treatment program Utili
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA is close to finalizing approval for the launch of its Ares I-X suborbital flight-test demonstrator with range officials at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and currently expects to roll the 327-foot-tall vehicle to the pad on Oct. 29 for a planned launch two days later.
