Scientists plan to use the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC 3) on the Hubble Space Telescope at least twice more to image the ugly bruise left near Jupiter’s south pole by what probably was a passing comet July 19.
NAHA, OKINAWA — Japanese military officials continue to maintain that only the F-22 Raptor can meet their country’s pressing defense needs, notwithstanding recent U.S. congressional action and anti-Raptor rhetoric from the White House and Pentagon that indicate the window of opportunity is closing quickly. The nation’s requirements were spelled out in an exclusive interview with Aviation Week by Lt. Gen. Hidetoshi Hirata, the Japan Air Self Defense Force’s (JASDF) Commander, Southwestern Composite Air Division.
The seven astronauts onboard the space shuttle Endeavour could return to Earth as early as the morning of July 31, wrapping up their 16-day mission to service and continue assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). Mark Polansky, the STS-127 commander, will have his initial shot at a deorbit burn at 9:42 a.m. EDT Friday, to set up a landing at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 10:48 a.m. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, there is a second KSC landing opportunity at 12:22 p.m. EDT, following a deorbit burn at 11:26 a.m. EDT.
A U.S. Air Force fleet management board is reviewing the KC-10 aerial refueler’s viability to stay in the fleet until 2045, and the study should be complete in December. The Fleet Viability Board will provide recommendations on what maintenance actions, service-life extensions and inspections will be needed for the aircraft in the coming years. The 2045 date should stand unless the forthcoming KC-X refueler replacement program is delayed again.
With the passage of an amendment in the House July 30, $368 million previously appropriated for F-22 procurement would instead be used to maintain the current fleet and shut down the production line. “We’re doing the best we can with what we have politically,” said Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chair of the House defense appropriations committee and a proponent of keeping the line open longer. “We have no alternative.”
LONDON — For a company that posted a first-half loss, BAE Systems’ management remains sanguine about its outlook for the year, even in the turbulent economic environment. The first six months ending June 30 saw the company record a loss of £70 million, ($115.6 million) rather than the £599 million profit for the same period in 2008. Sales for the period grew by 28 percent, totaling £9.941 billion pounds.
POWER STRUGGLE: Advocates of the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are focusing lobbying efforts on reversing Senate support for canceling the program after the House of Representatives voted 400-30 on July 30 for a fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill that includes $560 million for continued development of the engine. Senate appropriators have yet to mark up the budget, but the full Senate last week voted 58-40 to strip out $439 million in authorized funding for the F136 (Aerospace DAILY, July 24).
FORT WORTH, Texas — Lockheed Martin briefed U.S. Defense Department cost estimators July 29 as they reassess projections for the F-35 amid concerns that continued disagreement between higher independent and lower program office development cost figures could spell trouble for the Joint Strike Fighter.
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LONDON — Thales is emerging as the winner for the South African air force’s Gripen fighter reconnaissance pod program, having fended off competition from Goodrich and Zeiss. The air force started a procurement in the latter half of 2008, though some South African industry sources had suggested that simply awarding the project to Zeiss, with the Rafael Reccelite as the system, would have come as no surprise. The Rafael Litening targeting pod is already in the air force inventory.
The U.S. Army may not yet have a clear picture of what its future Armed Aerial Scout helicopter is going to look like, but industry continues to test its own concepts in preparation for new requirements from the service. EADS North America spent the July 4 holiday weekend flight-testing its UH-72A Lakota at high altitude in hot temperatures in Alamosa, Colo. The goal was to prove the aircraft could operate to the standards in the Army’s Sources Sought document for the canceled Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH).
Latvia has been forced to reduce its commitment to the Baltic Battalion due to the country’s severe economic crisis, which has required Riga to reach out to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance. The Latvian move is the first clear indication of how economic problems are starting to affect military funding.
A trio of Pentagon Inspector General (IG) reports released this week about accidental lethal electrocutions in Iraq and improperly wired military housing in Afghanistan have raised serious questions about electrical safety in both combat zones. The most damning report concerns the January 2008 death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted while showering in his quarters at the Radwaniyah Palace in Iraq. “Maseth … came in contact with water pipes that had been energized when an ungrounded water pump failed,” the IG says.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) passed another significant milestone on the way to first flight of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle by completing qualification testing for the first stage tank and interstage at the company’s structural and propulsion testing facility near Waco, Texas.
ISRAEL F-35: Lockheed Martin has begun working on a F-35 proposal for Israel after the country submitted a formal letter of request (LOR) for up to 75 aircraft. The proposal is planned to be submitted for negotiation by year’s end, with a letter of agreement anticipated in the first quarter of next year. Signing of the LOR followed lengthy talks on how the F-35s could be tailored to meet Israel’s requirements. “We think we broke the code on unique modifications,” says Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program general manager.
“All options are on the table” for U.S. Air Guard officials struggling to fill a gap in the number of fighters available for units in the near term to fly missions protecting the homeland, says Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, director of the Air National Guard (ANG). “I am basically platform agnostic,” Wyatt says. “I don’t care.”
The STS-127 crew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour performed their final inspection of the orbiter’s thermal protection system (TPS) on the morning of July 29 in preparation for returning home July 31. The crew used the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) extension to the shuttle’s robotic arm to ensure no micrometeoroid impacts or other damage occurred while the shuttle was docked to the International Space Station (ISS). The crew departed from the ISS July 28, following a busy assembly mission that completed Japan’s Kibo laboratory.
The Pentagon’s plan to reduce the buy of C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft from 78 to 38 will force the Air National Guard to increase the crew ratio for its aircraft, the Guard director says. Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt says that at least 16 of the 38 C-27Js to be bought by the U.S. Air Force will be supporting wars abroad at any time. This means that more crews will be needed to support those operations and to provide support for U.S.-based missions.
A main assumption of the Pentagon’s sweeping Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is that the Defense Department will experience no real budget growth in the coming years, and this outlook is driving the services to consider what offsets are needed to size the force as dictated in the forthcoming study.
PARIS — New development program writedowns and a slowdown in commercial aircraft demand, particularly for the Boeing 787, has caused Thales to report the worst first half-year results since it was formed out of Thomson a decade ago.
PALMDALE, Calif. — A NASA airborne science flight using the agency’s McDonnell Douglas DC-8 flying laboratory had to be cut short on July 24 after the aircraft suffered two bird strikes while conducting air sampling at around 1,000 feet altitude over central California.
