CHINA LAKE, Calif. — The U.S. Naval Air Weapons Center here is developing a small, cheap missile capable of striking a target at short range without giving away the position of the shooter.
Washington and Riyadh are close to setting the framework that could ease the way for the Royal Saudi Air Force to buy an additional 72 Boeing F-15 Strike Eagles. Saudi Arabia has been looking at how to replace its F-15C/Ds for some time, with one area of sensitivity believed to be what standard of Strike Eagle would be made available. There are indications that progress is being made on resolving this. It remains to be determined whether Saudi Arabia would commit to a single purchase or acquire the replacement aircraft in batches.
SWEDISH ENGINEERING: Brazil’s Ministry of Defense has selected Rockwell Collins to provide its Suitcase CCT120 quad-band satellite communication terminals. The Suitcase CCT120 supports Ku, Ka, X and C band communications, and recently received XTAR, Skynet and U.S. Federal Communications Commission approvals. The satellite terminals feature a 1.2-meter antenna and CommuniCase Technology based on a common modular architecture that enables users to switch out and plug in standard modems, amplifiers and other transmission and auxiliary components.
Florida weather appears to be the biggest obstacle to an on-time return to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for the crew of the space shuttle Discovery, with forecasters calling for a chance of thundershowers at the coastal landing strip. Initial results from the Sept. 8 final inspection of the delicate reinforced carbon-carbon thermal panels on the nose and wing leading edges were positive, although the mission management team was taking one more look at results late Sept. 9.
A&D Programs Conference November 2-4, 2009 Phoenix, AZ A&D Finance Conference December 2-3, 2009 New York, NY Defense Technology & Requirements Conference February 17-18, 2010 Washington, DC AVIATION WEEK Laureates Awards March 17, 2010 Washington, DC
BIO FUELS: Sustainable Oils has received a Defense Department contract to supply 40,000 gallons of renewable bio-jet fuel derived from camelina for certification testing by the U.S. Navy. The contract includes an option for an additional 150,000 gallons. Camelina is a drought-tolerant plant that can grow on marginal land and does not compete with food crops, the company says. Feedstock for the Pentagon contract was primarily grown in Montana. Sustainable Oils sourced the camelina for Japan Airlines’ biofuel demonstration flight in January.
Astronomers and astrophysicists are looking forward to several more years of advancing human understanding of the universe with the Hubble Space Telescope, including laying plans for near-infrared deep-field exposures that may image galaxies just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope is back online for scientific observations after a checkout and calibration period following the STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission in May.
Following up on 18 so-called “intentions” noted in last year’s guidance for the service, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead last week revealed his plans for ensuring U.S. maritime global dominance. Roughead said his primary focus areas remain the same — to build the future force, maintain the U.S.’s warfighting readiness and develop and support sailors, Navy civilians and families. “These focus areas will endure throughout my tenure,” he noted in his guidance for 2010. He added that this year he will place particular emphasis on five areas:
BAE Systems has secured a launch customer for its Q-Sight helmet-mounted display, the first defense application of lightweight holographic waveguide optics. The U.K. Ministry of Defense has ordered 12 systems for use by door gunners on Royal Navy AgustaWestland Lynx HAS.8 helicopters. As a key element of the Gunner’s Remote Sighting System (GRSS), the clip-on Q-Sight will allow the video image and aiming reticle from a weapon-mounted thermal sight to be projected remotely onto a monocular display mounted on the operator’s helmet.
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND General Dynamics Information Technology of Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a $10,116,177 contract. The contract has a 12-month base period and four 12-month option periods for the Trans Regional Web Initiative in support of U.S. Special Operations Command Joint Military Information Support Command. The work will be performed in multiple locations and is expected to be an ongoing requirement. The contract was awarded through full and open competition in accordance with FAR Part 15. The contract number is H92222-09-C-0045.
SPACEX WIN: Europe’s Astrium has hired Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to launch an Earth-observation satellite on the California company’s planned Falcon 1e rocket. The spacecraft, to be designed either by Astrium or its Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. small-sat subsidiary, will fly on an “enhanced” version of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle, with upgraded structures, avionics and propulsion. The 1e variant also is slated to launch Orbcomm’s next-generation satellites (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 4).
Raytheon is a little more than halfway through a company-funded effort to develop a new X-band radar system to guide the Evolved Sea-Sparrow Missile (ESSM) to its target. The device, called SPY-5, would replace existing target illuminating systems with a passive phased-array, continuous wave system able theoretically to guide 12 ESSMs to their target at the same time. Development began about 18 months ago and should be complete late next year, company program manager Richard Wayshville says.
NASA won’t be able to get human beings out of low Earth orbit (LEO) without about $3 billion a year more than it is getting for exploration, and even then it won’t be able to meet the ambitious back-to-the-moon goals of its current program, according to the presidential commission established to review U.S. human spaceflight.
SUPPORTING SOFIA: NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center has awarded a contract modification to L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, L.P., of Waco, Texas, for further developmental engineering on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) — the agency’s 747-based astronomical observatory. The option is valued at about $8.7 million, bringing the total value of the contract to about $37.7 million and extending the performance period through the end of this year. Two further option periods could extend the agreement another two years.
BEIJING — The China National Space Administration says it will produce a space launcher called Long March 6 by 2013, around the time that it had been expected to deliver the Long March 5. The timing suggests that the new rocket will be a relative of the Long March 5. In unconfirmed reports, the name Long March 6 has been associated with a lightweight launcher based on the side-mounted booster for the planned Long March 5.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded a $99,542,851 modified contract for the existing engineering, manufacturing, and development contract for the Space Based Infrared System High Component. At this time, no funds have been obligated. ISSW/PKS, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting authority (F04701-95-C-0017, P00583). NAVY
PARIS — Brazil will buy 36 Dassault Rafale fighters, giving France the first export order for the strike aircraft after years of trying. The deal cements a growing defense industrial strategic relationship between Brazil and France. Brazil is already buying 50 EC-725 transport helicopters and will develop, with French help, nuclear submarines.
AEROVIRONMENT LOSS: AeroVironment has posted its first quarterly loss as a public company as customers deferred orders for RQ-11 Raven small unmanned aircraft to await delivery of a new digital data link. The company, which went public in January 2007, says transition from development to production of the digital Raven is on schedule, and it expects deliveries of new systems and upgrade kits to support its revenue projections for the second half of its fiscal year ending April 30, 2010. Net loss for the first quarter ended Aug.
LONDON — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown used his Sept. 4 speech at London’s International Institute For Strategic Studies to lay out the U.K.’s strategy in Afghanistan, and to try to address the many criticisms leveled against the Labor Government. Only 24 hours before, one of the government’s own aides to Secretary of State For Defense Bob Ainsworth resigned — laying out a raft of concerns over the nature of British involvement in Afghanistan. Bad timing
Lockheed Martin has restarted the countdown to the first vertical landing by the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, with aircraft BF-1 returning to flight on Sept. 4 with an hour-long test sortie. The first short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) test aircraft, BF-1 had been on the ground for an extended period to incorporate modifications following earlier flight and hover-pit tests.
After using its primary reaction control system (RCS) thrusters to turn the International Space Station (ISS) around, the space shuttle Discovery undocked from the orbiting laboratory Sept. 8 to begin the trip back to Earth. Undocking came on time at 3:26 p.m. EDT, and was followed by the now-routine flyaround that took the orbiter out in front of the station, and then up and over it at a range of about 600 feet so astronauts could document its exterior condition.
