HELPING HAITI: The U.S. Air Force’s 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, 720th Special Tactics Group, is directing air traffic at Haiti’s Port au Prince airport, guiding in aircraft loaded with relief supplies for the devastated city. Lt. Col.
Heavy-lift launch vehicles of the type many believe will be a part of President Barack Obama’s long-awaited space policy — and in-space assembly techniques based on lessons from the Hubble Space Telescope — could enable NASA to deploy telescopes large enough to answer the eternal question “Are we alone?” in the coming decades.
A new poll by Morgan Stanley finds investors deeply divided about whether defense stocks will track, beat or lag the S&P 500 index in 2010. Respondents were bullish on General Dynamics Corp., bearish on Northrop Grumman Corp. and split down the middle on Lockheed Martin Corp. But a thoughtful new analysis by Boenning & Scattergood analyst Michael F. Ciarmoli suggests that investors’ best prospects for success lie down the industry’s food chain.
DETECTING DEFECTS: The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has fielded a system to image nuclear weapon components to find defects in the warhead stockpile. The Confined Large Optical Scintillator Screen and Imaging System is an X-ray computed tomography system and was developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NNSA’s Pantex Plant. Use of the system should eliminate the need for some destructive tests. Lawrence Livermore is due to start using the system on U.S. Air Force B61 bombs.
EMALS PALS: London is continuing to keep abreast of Washington’s development of an electro-magnetic aircraft-launch system for carriers. The latest meeting according to Quentin Davies, the British minister for defense equipment and support, occurred in November 2009. The meeting took place between the U.K.’s Capital Ships project team and the Pentagon’s Program Executive Office Carrier Team. Meanwhile, the U.K. Defense Ministry continues to spend significantly on its next-generation aircraft carrier program.
I.T. UP: The Pentagon is expected to spend almost $34 billion in information technology (IT) spending this fiscal year, although even more growth will come under civilian federal agencies, possibly up to $42 billion, according to consultancy IDC Government Insights. The Pentagon’s figure is up roughly $1 billion from 2009, while civilian agency spending is up $2 billion.
An Su-27SM doing advanced aerobatic maneuvers at Dzengi air base in the Far Eastern Command crashed Jan. 14 with a senior pilot aboard. The base is home to the GAZ-126 Sukhoi plant and the 23rd Interceptor Aviation Regiment, which flies the Su-27. A search for the wreckage and pilot continued after dark with temperatures expected to reach minus 42 F. The Su-27SM is a Flanker-B Mod.1 upgraded to an advanced single-seat, multirole derivative of the Su-27S.
PARIS — European Space Agency (ESA) head Jean-Jacques Dordain says the agency does not plan any program rollbacks due to cash flow problems that are afflicting the agency, and will move aggressively to define a concept for a new heavy-lift launch vehicle that would succeed the Ariane 5.
In observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish an issue on Monday, Jan. 18. The next issue will be dated Jan. 19.
NASA Presolicitations NASA Presolicitations Date of Posting Response Date Opportunity Segment Procurement Office Solicitation Code Contact E-Mail 12-Jan-10 NA SEMSS- Safety Environmental and Medical Support Services Operation of Government-owned facili
One of the two Soyuz lifeboats in the International Space Station (ISS) will be relocated to the newest module on the Russian end of the orbiting laboratory next week, following a spacewalk Jan. 14 to prepare the combination research module/docking port to receive it. The two cosmonauts on Expedition 22 — flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Maxim Suraev — spent five hr., 44 min. outside in Orlan spacesuits finishing preparations on the Poisk mini-research module.
LONDON — Using delay as a tool in managing the U.K.’s defense procurement program costs the Defense Ministry hundreds of millions of pounds every year — with the average monthly cost working out at around 0.5 percent of the overall program cost, according to the author of a government-sponsored report.
In a bid to advance work on renewable energy, the U.S. Navy will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Agriculture to establish a joint venture.
Gen. James Conway, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, said Jan. 14 he is concerned about the amphibious fleet after reviewing the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), due to be made public Feb. 1.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is an elegant small battle network combatant, according to Robert Work, undersecretary of the U.S. Navy, who said he is convinced the ship will also lead the way technologically in international navies.
DATE SLIDES: Quentin Davies, the British minister for defense equipment and support, told Parliament earlier this week that a decision on the design of a next-generation ballistic missile submarine was now “a matter of a few months away.” Only a few weeks ago the government had said this decision would be taken early in the new year. The so-called initial gate decision on the design for the replacement to the Vanguard-class of ballistic missile submarine was originally intended for the third quarter of 2009, but the date has now been pushed back at least three times.
The U.S. Army’s Jan. 11 cancellation of the Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment (MULE) robotic vehicle, once a part of the defunct Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, is only a partial termination.
Northrop Grumman announced this week that its industry team won a $577 million U.S. Army award to develop the armed service’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) program — an apparent victory over a Raytheon-led effort. The five-year award — once expected last year, and previously valued at more than $1 billion — comes after the two companies had formally competed since 2008 over the system, which is supposed to integrate several systems from other agencies and even countries for soldiers.
GENOA, Italy — Italy’s 2010 defense budget is €20.3 billion ($29.5 billion), only 0.3 percent more than 2009. Excluding money for the Carabinieri police, pensions and administrative expenses, the true budget is €14.3 billion — 0.4 percent less than 2009.
BETTER BUSINESS: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has continued to expand his mark on Pentagon advisory panels this month, with the Defense Dept. announcing Jan. 13 the appointment of its 2010 Defense Business Board. Michael Bayer, head of Dumbarton Strategies, a Washington provider of merger and acquisition counsel, will continue to serve as chairman, with John Goodman, managing director of consultancy Accenture’s U.S. Defense Group, as vice chairman.
Space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) managers have decided to keep Feb. 7 as the target launch date for the shuttle Endeavour on the STS-130 mission to the ISS, despite a problem with ammonia jumper hoses for the Tranquility pressurized node the mission will deliver to space. The launch date was cast in doubt when a hose designed to link the node’s cooling system with the station system failed in a pressure test. Now managers have decided to fabricate a replacement out of shorter lengths of hose that have already been certified and tested.
GENOA, Italy — Italy will deploy additional air assets in Afghanistan to support its forces deployed in the western region of the country, which are to be boosted by almost 1,000 troops, topping at 4,000 in the second half of this year.
