U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) has formulated its requirements for a follow-on spacecraft to the initial Block 10 Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite, although the service still hasn’t decided whether it will take the form of another identical satellite or an updated version.
NIGHT VISION: The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a follow-on Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contract to support the Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) and Modernized TADS/PNVS systems on the AH-64 Apache helicopter. The contract has a potential value of $89 million for 2009. The original PBL contract, awarded in early 2007, established a system of continuous improvements supporting the AH-64 Apache TADS/PNVS and M-TADS/PNVS programs.
SECOND CHANCE: The Utah congressional delegation, which jumped the gun by announcing in March that Hill Air Force Base would become the depot for Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft, says the U.S. Air Force has now confirmed its decision to award the maintenance work to the base. Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill will be responsible for MQ-1 and MQ-9 airframe structural repair, maintenance of the Predator ground segment, and overhaul of composite structures, hydraulics and landing gear for the RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk.
Intelsat’s choice of the medium-sized 702B satellite bus helps Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems (BSIS) stabilize employment at its El Segundo, Calif., satellite factory by reopening commercial sales opportunities in fixed and broadcast satellite services. The opportunity comes as government contracts are drying up. Although not officially terminated, the latest casualty was the $15 billion-plus Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) program on which Boeing was competing with Lockheed Martin.
House defense appropriators, defying a White House veto threat, on July 16 included $369 million in the fiscal 2010 defense spending bill to build more F-22 Raptors. The Raptor appropriations, mirroring the actions of the House Armed Services Committee in its FY ’10 authorization bill, would fund parts acquisition as a down payment on 12 more of the stealth fighter aircraft.
The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey is poised to receive $30 million in upgrades as part of two Defense Department contracts issued late July 15. These could be coming at a good time because of concerns about the aircraft’s maintainability and poor reliability recently raised by some in Congress and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (Aerospace DAILY, June 29).
The U.S. Senate confirmed former space shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden as the 12th administrator of NASA late July 15, along with Lori Garver as deputy administrator. Bolden and Garver were expected to be sworn in either July 16 or July 17. Bolden spent 34 years in the Marine Corps — reaching the rank of major general — and 14 concurrent years with NASA’s astronaut office. He flew on the space shuttle four times between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions. His flights included the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope.
NEW DELHI U.S. defense companies are eager for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India July 17-21, with the prime focus on strengthening and broadening the two countries’ strategic partnership. Raytheon is one of these companies, as it strives for Patriot missile growth and to expand its presence in India.
TELSTAR: Telesat has picked Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to supply Telstar 14R, a Ku-band satellite intended to replace Telstar 14/Estrela do Sol, which was launched in 2004 but suffered a solar array failure that has limited its service life. The 46-transponder, five-beam Telstar 14R, is to be orbited in the second half of 2011 to 63 deg. W. Long., where it will serve Brazil, the continental U.S., the Andean region, the southern cone of South America and the North and mid-Atlantic Ocean regions. It was the fifth order of the year for SS/L.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is not planning to support a proposal from Northrop Grumman to fund the first flight-test for the high-speed Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program. MDA’s cost estimate for the first flight-test — the date for which had slipped several times and into next year — was about $120 million, according to the agency’s director, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly.
SIT-DOWN: Defense Secretary Robert Gates is planning to meet with some defense industry executives during a trip to Chicago July 16, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says. The secretary expects to emphasize his desire to overhaul the Pentagon acquisition system. “Business as usual simply will not do,” Morrell said during a July 15 press briefing. The meeting comes amid growing concerns in industry that dialogue between the senior levels of the Pentagon and its contractors has been lacking.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon a $12.8 million contract to provide engineering, material and test support for the Joint Multi Effects Warhead System (JMeWS) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD). The JCTD, one of 17 announced in July 2008 as part of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council’s selection for fiscal 2009, was deferred until further evaluation of “potential parallel efforts.”
United Space Alliance (USA) plans to cut its work force by 5 percent in October as part of a planned reduction in force as the space shuttle approaches retirement next year. “This should not affect our ability to safely fly the shuttle,” a spokeswoman said. The layoffs will occur across the company, in all locations, and will trim about 400 people, she said. USA’s employees were notified of the move earlier this week. “We’re trying to communicate the changes to staff as transparently as possible,” the spokeswoman said.
Business jet builder Cessna Aircraft Co. has jettisoned nearly half of its work force since last November, Boeing Co. and Airbus plan to slow down production of 777 and A320 jets, and defense companies face a leveling off of Pentagon spending after eight years of robust growth. These are difficult times for aerospace and defense (A&D) — until you consider the long list of other industries being pulverized by the global economic downturn. Measured against banking, automotive, construction, hospitality or retail, A&D is the picture of good health.
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii — New studies offer evidence that the 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia is a template for the next generation of aerial combat between advanced aircraft and air defense weapons. Still missing from the new formula is how to defeat the new generation of air defenses. U.S. combatants think they see the answer, even if it is not yet on the ramp.
A parliamentary dispute in the U.S. Senate sidelined a measure that would cap the number of F-22 Raptors the Air Force is authorized to buy at 187. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) on July 15 pulled his amendment to the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill that would strip out authorization for seven more Raptors that the Obama administration says it does not need or want.
Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems (BSIS) will formally introduce its first new satellite in a decade on July 16, the Boeing 702B, although initial details of the deal that is launching the system were revealed last spring by Intelsat.
NEW DELHI — The long-awaited request for proposals (RFP) to provide 99-125 engines for the Indian Air Force’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft is expected to be released this week. Proposals for the two candidate engines — GE’s F414 and Eurojet’s EJ200 — will be due by Oct. 12 if the RFP is released on July 17.
MOON SHOT: Forty years ago, on July 16, 1969, Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin lifted off in a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA’s Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Launch took place at 9:32 a.m. local time and the astronauts reached Earth orbit 12 minutes later. Apollo 11 was the fifth human spaceflight in the Apollo program, the third human trip to the moon, and the first to land astronauts on its surface.
AT LAST: Space shuttle Endeavour is on its way to the International Space Station, after finally making it off the pad at 6:03 p.m. EDT July 15. The STS-127 assembly and resupply mission had been scrubbed five times since June 13, twice for a gaseous hydrogen leak and then for repeated launch-rule violations from summer thunderstorms near Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
COAST GUARDING: MBDA has demonstrated the ability of its new vertical launch MICA to protect coastal areas against enemy attacks launched from the sea. The test firing, carried out July 8 at France’s missile launch test range at Biscarosse in southwestern France, registered a direct hit against a low-signature missile flying 10 meters above the sea at a distance of 15 kilometers (9 miles). Sponsored by the French air force, armaments agency DGA and MBDA, the test — the 15th for VL MICA — was intended to show the weapon’s capabilities in a coastal defense role.
