ANZAC AHEAD: Australian defense officials are claiming their Anzac-class frigates modernization effort is on track. “This challenging project has experienced delays, so it is pleasing to see this level of technical maturity and managed risk being achieved,” says Greg Combet, minister for defense personnel, materiel and science.
STIMULUS FUNDS: DOD has awarded 28 grants totaling $14.1 million as part of the fiscal 2009 Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR). The grants will enhance research and engineering capabilities at 20 academic institutions in 14 states, in scientific disciplines critical to national security, according to DOD. The list of projects selected for DEPSCoR funding is available online at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug 2009/DEPSCOR.pdf. The fiscal 2009 program solicitation received 131 proposals.
UNMANNED MEDEVAC: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is considering the purchase of an unmanned aircraft for evacuating injured people, with Urban Aeronautics’ ducted-fan Mule the leading candidate, according to the IDF’s Medical Corps. Urban Aeronautics is preparing a prototype for flight this year, with an operational version accommodating two stretchers and an attendant to be available in 2012. The Medical Corps says the Mule’s narrow width will allow it to land in urban areas inaccessible to helicopters.
WAAS UP?: Industry will be briefed on August 25 on U.S. Air Force plans for fielding wide-area airborne surveillance (WAAS) capabilities and invited to provide ideas on near- and far-term concepts to support a WAAS trade study. The Air Force is interested in a motion imagery-based system with the resolution and revisit rate to track vehicles and individuals day and night for forensic analysis and cueing of other sensors.
ASIASAT LAUNCH: AsiaSat 5, a Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) 1300 series, is set for launch Aug. 12 on an International Launch Services Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will replace AsiaSat-2 at 100.5 deg. E. and serve 53 countries spanning from Russia to New Zealand. Hong Kong-based AsiaSatellite Telecommunications has ordered AsiaSat-5C from SS/L to expand its network.
LAUNCH POSTPONED: South Korea is deferring the planned Aug. 11 launch of its first space rocket, KSLV-1, because of irregular performance of a secondary booster pump designed to pressurize oxidation agents. Data from project partner Russia show the pump’s output spiked during testing, behavior that could cause cavitation downstream and even explosion of the engines, says the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 4).
The U.S. Air Force’s official launch of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) signals the reinvigoration of the service’s nuclear enterprise, according to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz.
LET US IN: The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry is pushing hard for faster integration into the U.S. national airspace, and is planning a demonstration of how UAVs and manned aircraft can fly in harmony. A cooperative research and development agreement between UAV builder AAI and FAA will set up a technical center at the FAA facility near Atlantic City, N.J.
DENVER A newly-formed industry advocacy group will boost the case for operational hypersonic systems and a formalized high-speed development road map as the U.S. air-breathing hypersonic enterprise enters what researchers believe is the most pivotal period in its checkered 50-year history.
ProtoStar Ltd., a Bermuda-based company set up by a group of U.S. satellite and finance executives to acquire existing geostationary satellites and run them for profit, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware and plans to sell its spacecraft to cover its debts.
LONDON – The U.K. defense ministry will proceed with a major life extension program for the RAF’s Puma HC1 helicopter fleet that will equip the aircraft with new engines and avionics. The decision to approve the more than £300 million program was taken after the MoD decided it was “not feasible to advance the purchase of the (replacement) Future Medium Helicopter” at this time.
Against a backdrop of unanswered questions on the extent of potential program delays, Sikorsky celebrated the arrival of the first set of 8,500 supplier parts that will comprise the U.S. Marine Corps CH-53K Heavy Lift helicopter.
WEARABLE CONTROL: The U.S. Marine Corps awarded QinetiQ North America a $2 million contract to develop a universal wearable controller to operate a wide variety of unmanned ground and air vehicles and unattended ground sensors. The Common Robotic Controller will be lightweight and designed to fit in with other equipment that Marines are required to wear and carry.
NASA’s Kepler Exoplanet hunting observatory’s instruments are working so well that they have given astronomers their first image of the glow of a hot gasbag planet larger than Jupiter as it circles the backside of a star.
The Pentagon may supersede the Marine Corps’ ban on social networking sites, a DOD spokesman said. The Defense Department sets policy for the services and is studying the prohibition. “The deputy secretary has ordered this review by the chief information officer,” spokesman Geoff Morrell said. “It will be…the most exhaustive look that we’ve taken at this new phenomenon of social network [for] a better understanding of the pros and cons.”
For those trying to keep track, the Pentagon has agreed to split the duties of 9th Air Force, which has provided command direction for air war operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Now part of the organization has become U.S. Air Forces Central Command and will be based in theater, undoubtedly Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
DENVER – Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is testing modifications to the gas generator of the J-2X engine for the upper stages of the Ares I and V launch vehicles after discovering low-level instabilities in a ‘workhorse’ unit during proving runs at Marshall Space Flight Center.
The U.S. Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) will break ground on its new Ground System Power and Energy Laboratory in Warren, Mich., on Aug. 17. TARDEC describes the facility as a “one-of-a-kind research and testing laboratory complex” comprising eight different labs that will “serve as the cornerstone for the Army’s next generation of power and energy initiatives.
DEPLOYABLE REFLECTOR: Northrop Grumman said recently its deployable satellite reflector and boom assembly will help NASA’s Jet Propulsion Jet Laboratory (JPL) map soil moisture and the freezing and thawing cycles globally. The Astro-Mesh Lite configuration deployable reflector will be used on JPL’s Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission targeted for launch in 2014. The mission will use a combined radiometer and high-resolution radar to make direct measurements of soil moisture.
U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) needs to do a better job of managing the way it contracts for and operates maritime shipping to support current military conflicts, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “USTRANSCOM has no formal process to implement or document DoD requirements to annually size the United States sealift fleet in order to meet peacetime, contingency, and projected wartime requirements,” the IG report says in its July report.
