PARIS — Elbit Systems is not easing up on acquisitions, having just announced that it is adding military training and simulation systems company BVR Systems to its portfolio. Israel’s largest publicly traded defense company says it is paying $34 million for BVR, which reported $3.3 million in net profits in the first quarter and an order backlog of $48.4 million.
F-22 AMENDMENT: Now that the Senate has voted to add an anti-hate crime measure to the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill, it can take up an amendment to cap F-22 procurement at 187 aircraft. Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) the panel’s ranking member, are expected to re-introduce their amendment to strip out a provision in the bill authorizing $1.75 billion to be spent on seven more F-22 Raptors.
SUB UPGRADE: The team of Lockheed Martin and Granite State Manufacturing will design and build an upgraded Multifunction Mast Antenna System for improved submarine communications under a $6.9 million U.S. Navy contract. Like many other projects in the defense community, the mast-mounted OE-538 system is to allow the use of many disparate systems to improve communications and the gathering of navigation information. The MMAS will offer improved UHF, Link-16, Iridium and Mobile User Objective System UHF satellite communications.
UAV BOTTOMLINE: Financial analysts at Macquarie Capital expect global unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) funding to continue to grow from $4.5 billion per year now to about $10 billion within a decade. Over the past 10 years, funding for UAVs in the United States alone has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29 percent, according to the Wall Street advisors. “The low cost of these platforms has driven this demand and subsequently it tends to be the ‘cheaper’ mid-size and smaller UAVs that are targeted for international procurement,” the analysts say.
NASA’s failure review panel for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission that was lost Feb. 24 points to four suspected causes, all relating to the Taurus XL launcher’s payload fairing and separation systems, but draws no specific conclusions.
ROVER FATE: NASA could still kill its Mars Science Laboratory rover if cost growth in the troubled program continues, science chief Ed Weiler tells the NASA Advisory Committee (NAC) Weiler informs the NAC science panel he’s going to run his own “personal” milestone review in September, focusing on actuators and avionics with a small group that will include the program directors from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center. An agency review of the project is scheduled for November.
HYBRID HOVER: Aurora Flight Sciences has flown its Excalibur experimental high-speed vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft. The half-scale proof-of-principle aircraft is a testbed for a hybrid turbine-electric propulsion system that combines a tilting jet engine and battery-powered lift fans. The Excalibur completed a first hover flight lasting just under 2 minutes on June 24 at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Visit aviationweek.com for exclusive pictures and video of the flight.
BUFFALO SUCCESSOR: Canada has given industry two months to provide ideas on how the country’s search-and-rescue (SAR) mission could be performed, but has not furnished requirements, numbers or a timeline for a new fixed-wing fleet to replace its aging DHC-5 Buffalos and CC-130E Hercules. The Department of National Defense held an industry day for the long-delayed Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) program in Ottawa on July 14, and gave interested bidders until September 15 to submit their ideas on SAR concepts.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. July 21 - 23 — Shephard Group’s UV 2009, The Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, Wales, and West Wales Airport. For more information go to www.shephard.co.uk/events July 22 - 23 — Shephard Group’s UV Europe unmanned Vehicles Conference and Exhibition, The Celtic Manor Hotel, Newport, Wales. For more information go to www.shephard.co.uk/events
MOSCOW — The R-30 Bulava (SS-NX-30) solid-propellant ballistic missile experienced another test launch failure July 15, during its 11th test flight. Launch took place from the Borey-class flagship submarine Yury Dolgoruky in the White Sea. According to a Russian Defense Ministry statement the first stage of the missile malfunctioned and the weapon self-destructed. A special investigation commission has already been established to find the cause of the failure, a ministry representative told reporters.
LAUNCH ORDER: International Launch Services (ILS) will orbit QuetzSat-1, a Ku-band spacecraft to be launched in 2011 to serve Mexico and the U.S. QuetzSat, a joint venture of SES and Mexican media companies, earlier concluded a deal to supply direct-to-home TV capacity to Dish Mexico, an affiliate of EchoStar, and is also expected to supply EchoStar’s U.S. DTH unit, Dish Network Corp. It was the tenth deal of the year for ILS.
LONDON — The British government has examined — and rejected — the idea of accelerating planned deployment of the Merlin transport helicopter to Afghanistan, once eyed for December. It is continuing to examine whether the provision of additional Chinooks can be advanced. The government is under pressure from both the military and the political opposition over the support for British forces deployed in theater. The limited number of support helicopters deployed with the U.K. force — now totaling 9,000 personnel — has repeatedly been criticized.
MOONWALK: Forty years ago, on July 20th, 1969, Apollo 11 Mission Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on another planetary body when they stepped into the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. Armstrong descended the ladder from the “Eagle” Lunar Module at 10:56pm EDT, and he and Aldrin spent roughly 2.5 hours exploring the lunar surface while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins orbited above them. The mission achieved the late President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing U.S.
NEW RADAR: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are working on six-month concept studies for an Air and Missile Defense Radar, which is described as a “scaleable, solid-state radar suite” for combat surface ships. It eventually is to be a meld of S-band (mid-frequency for long range) radar, X-band (high-frequency for precise targeting) radar and Radar Suite Controller. It is to improve defenses against advanced anti-ship, stealthy cruise and ballistic missiles. The U.S. Navy awarded $10 million contracts to each of the companies.
An industry team developing ways to deliver Global Positioning System (GPS) augmentation signals through the Iridium low Earth orbit communications satellite constellation has passed two significant milestones on the way to a system-level demonstration later this year.
Oil giant ExxonMobil has launched a $600 million program to research and develop biofuels, including jet fuel, from photosynthetic algae. The company is a major supplier of petroleum-based jet fuels, including JP-5 and JP-8. ExxonMobil has formed an alliance with biotech company Synthetic Genomics (SGI), founded by genome pioneer Craig Venter, and expects to spend more than $300 million internally and potentially another $300 million with SGI over the next five to six years to develop the capability for large-scale production of biofuel from algae.
MICRO DRIVE: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is proposing establishing a center for collaborative development of bio-inspired micro air vehicles (MAV) with academia, industry and other Defense Dept. organizations, and has issued a request for proposals to identify potential participants. The collaborative center would design and build prototypes for flight testing on indoor and outdoor ranges. AFRL plans to demonstrate a bird-sized MAV by 2015 and an insect-sized vehicle by 2030.
FLYING AGAIN: The second Lockheed Martin F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) test aircraft, BF-2, is back to work following its return to flight on July 13. BF-2 had been in modification since its first flight on Feb. 25 and incorporates several hardware and software upgrades. Aerial refueling testing is planned to begin late this month. The first STOVL aircraft, BF-1, is expected return to flight by the end of July after completing modification and a propulsion-system checkout on the hover pit at Fort Worth.
A visit to Kennedy Space Center highlights the sense of dread that the space industry is feeling about the scheduled retirement of the space shuttle fleet next year. Contractors that have grown up around the program during the past 35 years are facing a huge drop in revenues, especially since a shuttle follow-on won’t be operational until at least 2015.
JAXA PLANS: Japan’s new space law mandates that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) begin discussing a future human spaceflight program this year, aimed at launching a piloted Japanese space vehicle by 2020. JAXA’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), scheduled for its first launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in September, is currently designed to burn up on re-entry. But the agency is exploring ways to backfit the vehicle with a thermal protection system (TPS), according to Shigeki Kamigaichi, program manager for JAXA’s manned space flight division.
ANTENNA DEPLOYED: TerreStar’s hybrid mobile telecom satellite service is inching closer to initial operation following deployment of the spacecraft’s 18 meter long unfurlable S-band antenna — said to be the largest ever deployed on a commercial satellite. TerreStar-1 was launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket on July 1 and is expected to enter service toward year’s end.
Space shuttle experts are evaluating the heat shield protecting Endeavour following what appeared to be the worst release of insulating foam from its external tank since the Columbia accident.
