With the consequences of the 1993 “Last Supper” meeting between Pentagon and industry leaders still reverberating, the U.S. Defense Department’s new procurement czar says improving the relationship with aerospace contractors and shoring up program management are among his top priorities.
POLICE FORCE: Germany’s first foreign operational deployment of its Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft — performing the Baltic air policing task — is underway as of the start of September. The German air force took over from the Czech air force to fulfill the NATO mission to provide air policing for the Baltic states. The German deployment at Siauliai air base in Lithuania will be split between the Eurofighter and the F-4F. The NATO commitment has now been extended at least until the end of 2014, with the Baltic states hoping this will extend to 2018, if not beyond.
DEVELOPMENT DONE: The U.S. Navy has completed the final developmental test of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM), leading up to the planned delivery of the first production unit to the service in January. During the eighth and final test Aug. 7, the missile was launched from an F/A-18C and flown against heavy countermeasures. The missile destroyed the air defense target. AARGM is being developed by the Navy for its use and for Italy.
Scientists are covetously eyeing the suborbital seats being built for wealthy space tourists by Virgin Galactic, XCOR, Blue Origins and others, and plan a major conference in Boulder, Colo., next February to discuss what to do with them. The Next-Gen Suborbital Researchers Conference will bring together specialists in atmospheric, microgravity, planetary and space life science, solar physics and other disciplines for two days of meetings on the new vehicles’ capabilities and the researchers’ requirements.
OCEANS OF FUEL: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was instrumental in breaking the code for turning plants such as jatropha and camelina into jet fuel — and which is now working with cellulosic and algal feedstocks — is looking for ideas on how to turn the abundant carbon and hydrogen in seawater into liquid fuels.
The 13 astronauts and cosmonauts on the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station (ISS) took some time off Sept. 4 before plunging into preparations for the third and final spacewalk of the docked portion of their mission.
A high-level, independent Joint Assessment Team (JAT) has been formed by the Pentagon’s chief procurement executive to investigate concerns about a surge in the projected cost of the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) — even as the Pentagon and White House move to shut down the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine and eliminate the engine competition that has been an integral part of the program since 1996.
GREEN LIGHT: Thales Air Defense has developed a lightweight laser dazzle system to meet a British urgent operational requirement (UOR) for Afghanistan. The Less Than Lethal Effect UOR provides the army with a rifle-mounted laser that can be used at vehicle check points. During development tests were carried out to verify that the system was eye safe. The British Defense Ministry is continuing to support research into laser systems across a breadth of applications.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense is considering the feasibility of extending the nominal 6,000 flight-hours fatigue life of its Eurofighter Typhoons. Utilization of U.K. Eurofighters is more than double that of the other partner nations. According to the ministry’s figures, the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) frontline Typhoons fly an average of 30 hours per month, clocking up a total of 25,000 flying hours through the end of 2008, while the fleets of France, Germany and Spain had each accumulated 10,000 hours or fewer.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) 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/ Sept. 14 - 16 — Air & Space Conference and TEchnology Exposition 2009, Gaylord National Hotel, Washington, D.C.. For more information go to www.afa.org
HIGH PRESSURE: Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are using lunar-gravity algorithms developed during the Apollo era to measure pressure levels at the bottom of Earth’s oceans. By applying the “masscon” — for mass concentration — calculations to data collected by the twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft in Earth orbit, researchers have been able to tweak out ocean bottom pressure measurements.
OBSERVING EARTH: Paris-based Euroconsult reports that commercial satellite Earth observation revenues will pass the $1 billion mark for the first time this year and quadruple by 2018. Some 260 imaging, weather and other Earth-observation satellites worth $27.4 billion will be launched over the next decade, Euroconsult says, which is almost 25 percent more in value terms than the past 10 years and more than double in unit terms.
WHITE KNIGHT: Scaled Composites is reactivating the WhiteKnight One (WK1) mothership in readiness for another flight test program. The aircraft has been in mothballs for around a year since flight testing an anti-shoulder-fired missile infrared countermeasures pod under contract to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security as part of Project CHLOE. Scaled Composites test pilot Pete Siebold took the WK1 for its first shakedown flight from the Northrop Grumman-owned company’s base in Mojave, Calif., on Aug. 24.
GOOD TIMING: Brazil celebrates its independence day on Monday, Sept. 7, which officials say could provide an opportunity to announce the winner of its fighter competition being contested between the Saab Gripen, Boeing F/A-18, and Dassault Rafale. French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be in Brazil for the festivities. Brazil is looking to buy 36 aircraft.
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IMPROVED HEADCOUNT: The British Defense Systems and Equipment International show begins Sept. 8, and the local industry is hoping for a better turnout from the British military than that of two years ago. A guidance note from a senior civil servant is believed to have been circulated providing greater leeway for British military officials to attend the event compared to those issued in 2007.
SCHOOLED: The Chinese military appears to be systematically targeting weaknesses in the U.S. way of waging war, especially U.S. power projection in the western Pacific and dependence on space systems, according to independent analysts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington. A more confrontational or hostile China will be just one of many complicated threats challenging the United States this century.
In a report due to be released this week, Anthony Cordesman and Erin Fitzgerald of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) take full aim at what they see as the Quadrennial Defense Review’s (QDR) historical failings, while outlining what Pentagon planners need to do to avoid the fate of previous reports that “have done nothing to change whatever trajectory the Pentagon’s leadership has pre-decided.”
FATAL CRASH: The Chief Minister of India’s southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reedy, was killed on Sept. 2 in a Bell 430 helicopter that crashed into a hill 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Hyderabad while en route to Chittoor. All five occupants of the 10-year-old twin-turbine helicopter, operated by Andhra Pradesh Aviation, were killed. A Bell 430 owned by Ran Air Services crashed into a hill near Hyderabad in August 2008, killing all four on board (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 3).
PAN LAUNCH: United Launch Alliance is proceeding with plans to launch the classified U.S. military “PAN” satellite on Sept. 8 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., during a launch window of 5:35-7:45 p.m. EDT. A Launch Readiness Review for the Atlas V mission was held Sept. 4, and the readiness poll resulted in a “Go for Launch” order. There is currently a 40 percent chance of acceptable weather, with the primary concerns being cumulus clouds, anvil clouds and lightning. If the launch scrubs, a second attempt could be made on Sept. 9 in the same launch window.
Officials are planning a series of operational concept trials beginning next month to pave the way for the introduction of the C-27J into the fleet next year. At issue is how best to conduct the intratheater airlift/direct support mission, which means delivering urgently needed cargo directly to ground commanders at their locations. Army officials use their C-23 Sherpas to transfer goods directly, and this mission will transfer to the C-27J beginning in November 2010, when the first of the so-called Spartan airlifters is expected to arrive for duty in Iraq.
FALCON FLIGHTS: SpaceX has been selected to launch 18 satellites for Orbcomm’s second-generation mobile telecom satellite system, which will provide enhanced position locating and voice/data offerings as well as automatic identification services. The spacecraft, under construction at Sierra Nevada Corp., will be launched starting in late 2010 and extending through 2014. They will be orbited by the Falcon 1e, an upgraded version of the Falcon 1 equipped with an extended strorage tank, larger and lighter fairing, reinforced structure and improved avionics systems.
