NEW DELHI Rolls-Royce Defense Aerospace is exploring further opportunities in India as it awaits decisions in numerous pending bids in the military engine and civil nuclear arenas. “We wish to take advantage of India’s competitive edge [by] extending our relationship with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and in newer areas of value-added components,” said Anil Shrikhande, president of Rolls-Royce India.
PARIS The European Space Agency and Eumetsat have inked a framework agreement that will enable the two agencies to work together on the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative as they currently do in Europe’s weather satellite efforts.
PARIS Government stakeholders in the Airbus Military A400M transport have agreed to formally start talks with industry to renegotiate the contract and keep the program alive. During a meeting in southern France, defense ministers from the seven core A400M customer countries have said they will remain committed to the program, rather than exercising the option to cancel the deal owing to program delays.
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SBIRS CERTIFICATION: U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) is expected to formally certify the second Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO-2) payload and ground system modifications for the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) in August after they were accepted for operations by the U.S. Air Force last week. Orbited as a payload on a classified mission, HEO-2 has been undergoing in-orbit checkout. The HEO-1 payload was accepted last November and certified in December by STRATCOM. Lockheed Martin is under contract to build a third HEO; its launch date is classified.
TANKER RFP: The Pentagon has notified prospective bidders that the long-awaited draft request for proposals for the U.s. Air Force’s KC-135 replacement competition is now planned for release in mid-September — with a formal draft likely to follow in October. If this schedule holds, selection of the winning replacement refueling tanker design could be in mid-2010. That is roughly a six-month slip from earlier plans for the program. A previous Air Force attempt at a KC-X competition included a purchase of 179 tankers worth an estimated $35 billion.
BATTERY SWAP: Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn were able to finish replacing the oldest set of batteries on the International Space Station July 24, catching up on a task that was halted abruptly on July 22 with the carbon dioxide level in Cassidy’s spacesuit started rising during the third extravehicular activity (EVA) of the STS-127 mission. The two NASA astronauts replaced four more batteries in an EVA that lasted 7 hours, 12 minutes, leaving the station’s P6 truss element with a total of six new batteries.
LOWERING EXPECTATIONS: Flir Systems is revising downward its full-year earnings outlook due to financial results from the first half of the year. The company revised its outlook down by $100 million to between $1.1 billion and $1.15 billion, and expects net earnings to be between $1.40 and $1.44 per share, down from the previous outlook of $1.40 to $1.47 per share. Flir reported second-quarter revenues of $278 million, up 7 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income was also up, to $55.7 million, compared with $44.6 million in 2008.
Estonia is looking at upgrading its air defense capabilities in the coming years, but is shying away from developing an air defense capability through at least 2018. The near-term priorities are on ground-to-air systems. For instance, a limited mobile, medium-range anti-aircraft system is included in the 10-year development plan. Estonia also plans to upgrade its close-in air defenses.
TOKYO In Japan there has always been the discussion of whether to focus on an expeditionary military or one that is focused on the defense of Japan and what the budget could afford. That discussion could be swayed by political and policy decisions concerning anti-piracy operations that require the Japanese military to deploy to the Indian Ocean. It also would provide justification for aerial tankers, maritime patrol aircraft and long-range transports.
Industry is concerned about the Future Vertical Lift Initiative (FVLI) in light of recent changes inside the Pentagon resulting from the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act. A letter signed by the leaders of six helicopter manufacturers — Boeing Rotorcraft, Sikorsky, Bell Helicopter Textron, AgustaWestland, American Eurocopter (EADS) and Lockheed Martin — is being sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reiterating the importance of the FVLI.
U.K. IS GO: The U.K. intends to drop its traditional opposition to involvement in manned spaceflight activities, says Paul Drayson, Britain’s minister in charge of space. Though he gives no indication of whether additional funding will be forthcoming, European Space Agency head Jean-Jacques Dordain welcomes the move. “At least now there’s a clear interest, and that [in itself] is already a change,” Dordain says. ESA will wait to see what emerges from the Augustine committee in the U.S. before deciding on a manned exploration strategy, according to Dordain.
CLUSTER SAT: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to award Orbital Sciences a sole-source contract for the second phase of its System F6 program to develop a “fractionated” satellite architecture in which clusters of modular spacecraft flying in loose formation and wirelessly networked would perform the same mission as a large monolithic satellite. Modules could be launched individually to replace failed elements or upgrade the “virtual” satellite.
EXPERT LAUNCH: A Russian submarine-launched Volna rocket is due to loft the European Space Agency’s Experimental Reentry Testbed (Expert) next year under an 18 million euro ($25 million) full-scale development contract to Thales Alenia Space for the atmospheric reentry demonstrator.
SWITCHING RIDES: The first Hylas broadband telecommunications satellite will launch on either an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher, rather than a SpaceX Falcon 9 as originally planned. Avanti Communications Group and Arianespace signed the launch contract last week. Liftoff is anticipated in the second quarter of 2010. Delays in the Falcon 9 program prompted the switch.
CHINA LAKE, Calif. A mini-synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-equipped variant of Boeing-Insitu’s ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is being demonstrated for the first time in Afghanistan-like arid conditions at the Empire Challenge 09 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exercise in California.
QDR INPUT: Combatant commanders are having more of a say in this year’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), according to Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command. “[They] just didn’t have as significant a role in previous QDRs. [By contrast] I’ve been back [to Washington] three times for the singular purpose of participating in a two-day session chaired by the [defense] secretary and the [Joint Chiefs of Staff] chairman. I can see changes as the QDR unfolds. [Changes in] day-to-day operations in the Pacific have not been significant.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense has contracted Miro Technology for the first phase of an integration project to link the WRAM (Work Recording & Asset Management) Online system and the health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) for the Apache Attack helicopter program operated by the British army.
REDEPLOYMENT PLANNING: House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) says the Pentagon needs to consider the equipment needs of the National Guard as it plans to redeploy troops and materiel from Iraq. In a July 24 letter to Gen. Craig McKinley, head of the National Guard Bureau, Skelton expressed concern about what will happen to the equipment deployed with National Guard units when the U.S. begins drawing down its force in Iraq and sending equipment to Afghanistan. Skelton asked McKinley for an operational assessment of U.S.
HAWKEYE UPGRADE: Northrop Grumman will upgrade six E-2C airborne early warning systems aircraft from Group II to Hawkeye 2000 configuration for Taiwan via the U.S. foreign military sales program. Work should be completed in June 2013 under the $154 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. Taiwan has four E-2Ts and two other Hawkeyes that already are in a more advanced configuration.
After having remained mum on recent builder’s trials for the nation’s second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), General Dynamics revealed July 24 that there were challenges during testing, but they should not affect the ship’s planned delivery date.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. has cleared two new Earth observation satellites for a twin launch next week aboard a Russian Dnepr booster. The launch, on July 29 from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will orbit Britain’s UK-DMC2 and Spain’s Deimos-1, intended to form the nucleus of SSTL’s second-generation disaster monitoring constellation (DMC).
