NEW DELHI — India has fast-tracked the field trials for its Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program, which is aimed at buying 126 new fighters. Vendors have given their preferences for the month they wish to participate. Trials are being held in Leh for altitude testing, Jaisalmer for hot operations and Bengaluru (Bangalore) for humidity. The cost is estimated to average $35 million, which will be paid by the vendors (Aerospace DAILY, June 2).
The decision by U.S. House defense overseers to authorize continued funding for Next Generation Bomber studies has buoyed the hopes of Senate bomber advocates, even though Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to wait before spending more.
A letter from Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to Japan’s ambassador in Washington lists an estimated average unit cost of $290 million per aircraft for a theoretical export sale of 40 F-22 Raptors. Both Inouye and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, and other lawmakers in both chambers are pushing both in public and behind the scenes to allow export of the stealthy, fifth-generation fighter.
CHINOOK TRAINER: L-3 Link Simulation & Training is to build the U.S. Army’s first CH-47F Chinook full-motion simulator, to enter service with the Flight School XXI training center in Fort Rucker, Ala., in November 2011. Link has already delivered CH-47D, OH-58D, UH-60A/L and AH-64D training devices to the school, and is developing the first UH-60M simulators for the center.
Training is a key shortfall in Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), according to the U.S. Navy’s MDA director, Rear Adm. Stewart O’Bryan, and MDA training will be worked into the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). O’Bryan said June 24 in a Capitol Hill speech that the Navy was reluctant at first to accept MDA as a concept because of concerns over budget. “I think we’ve turned that corner,” he said during a seminar hosted by the National Defense University Foundation. “We need to articulate our fair share, what our piece is.”
CYBER OFFICIAL: The Defense Department is officially establishing a new unified subcommand under U.S. Strategic Command to deal with cyber issues, with the National Security Agency’s uniformed director to lead it. The moves, as expected, were set in motion this week and eventually should entail Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander gaining a fourth star and taking over the so-called cyber command at his Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.
Every time North Korea launches one of its larger Taepodong missiles — 1998, 2006 and last April — it has spurred a growing effect on Japan’s actions, according to U.S. observers. The pacifist country, legally and culturally since World War II, has been forced to debate its national security stature in light of the region’s dynamics. In turn, the Japanese public has had to adapt to new threats exhibited by its neighbors, particularly North Korea.
A June 24 DAILY article miscategorized evolving legislative language concerning cyberwarfare. That language is moving through the fiscal 2010 defense authorization process.
Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are using the Landing and Impact Research Facility to test the seat pallet that will protect astronauts in the planned Orion crew capsule from the shock of landing. Requirements call for Orion to be able to parachute-land anywhere on Earth after returning from space, although the nominal spot would be in the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, Calif.
Another senior U.S. congressman says he supports production of 20 more F-22s for the U.S. Air Force, and maybe Japan too, keeping the Lockheed Martin production line functioning for another few years. Such an extension would allow Japan to raise the money for design of a version of the Raptor that can be exported, says Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
PARIS — A longtime goal of EADS NV CEO Louis Gallois has been to lessen the company’s reliance on Airbus by expanding its defense business — emulating arch-rival Boeing — but ironically, the current economic downturn is forcing the European aerospace giant to shelve plans for major acquisitions in the U.S. defense market.
NASA, NOAA: The Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA has approved a total fiscal 2010 budget for the agency of $18.68 billion, which matches the Obama administration’s request and is $903 million above the agency’s FY ’09 level, the subcommittee says. The bill includes $3.16 billion for the space shuttle, $2.27 billion for the International Space Station, $3.5 billion for the Ares and Orion vehicles, $4.5 billion for science and $507 million for aeronautics research.
PARIS — The U.S. Navy is attempting to get a handle on payload interface and development issues with its new ultra high frequency mobile telecom satellite system so the first unit can be available to military users as soon as possible.
Amid renewed controversy over the performance and handling characteristics of the V-22 Osprey, U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is working to upgrade the tiltrotor’s capabilities. Software to be released to the fleet this summer will increase the maximum level flight airspeed of the V-22 from 250 knots to 270 knots, according to Maj. Scott Trail, V-22 department head at NAVAIR’s Air Test and Evaluation Office at Patuxent River, Md. “That will further increase the speed, capability and defensive maneuvering,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has not dropped his opposition to splitting the replacement refueling tanker procurement between Boeing and a Northrop Grumman-EADS team, a Pentagon spokesman said June 24. “The secretary has been, and continues to be, opposed to a split buy,” said Geoff Morrell, adding, “It doesn’t matter what you call it, he believes in a sole-source provider.”
PEAS & CARROTS: The Obama administration has taken the position in Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) follow-on negotiations with Russia that the issues of missile defense and nuclear weapons reductions should be dealt with independently, according to the State Department. “We’ve made no final decisions regarding basing missile defense in Europe, which will be based on an assessment of the threat to the United States and its allies,” a spokesman told reporters at headquarters June 22.
SIX SHOOTER: The U.S. Navy is looking to counter the threat posed by swarms of small boats by modifying the sensor balls on its manned and unmanned rotorcraft to track and designate multiple targets for simultaneous engagement with laser-guided weapons. Current electo-optical/infrared sensors can only laser-designate one target at a time.
ABORTED LAUNCH: U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced her decision to end the National Applications Office (NAO) program June 23 following a review of the George W. Bush administration’s proposal. “This action will allow us to focus our efforts on more effective information sharing programs,” Napolitano said. Under Bush, the Homeland Security Department opened the controversial office in February 2008 to coordinate sharing classified satellite imagery with nonfederal law enforcement agencies (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 12, 2008).
Boeing is slipping the first flight-test for the F-15 Silent Eagle prototype about six months to allow time to add inputs over features desired by interested international customers. First flight for a preproduction version of the Silent Eagle was slated for the first quarter of 2010 as of March, when the company unveiled the concept at its St. Louis facility (Aerospace DAILY, March 18, June 11). The early flight-tests were to focus on operation of the conformal fuel tanks, which are being redesigned to house weapons internally.
BALLISTIC UPGRADE: Lockheed Martin announced June 23 that it has installed the latest upgrade to the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system aboard the cruiser USS Lake Erie. The latest generation of Aegis includes a new ballistic missile defense signal processor, which will be tested aboard the Erie over the next year, leading up to full certification of the upgrade in early 2011. According to Lockheed, the new processor improves the system’s ability to detect, track and target ballistic missiles and associated countermeasures.
The Pentagon’s apparently willful omission of certain company names from last year’s contracting information was apparently a marked departure for the Defense Department, according to an analysis of contracting data.
PARIS Sea Launch has been forced to enter Chapter 11 after failing to resolve mounting losses and cash problems. In particular, the company apparently was unsuccessful June 22 in an attempt to secure $250 million in refinancing to restructure debt. In the court filing, the company listed assets of $100 million — $500 million and liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion.
After three deployments in Iraq, the V-22 Osprey is facing heat from lawmakers again for reliability, maintainability and operational limitations, with the chairman of a House committee calling for a halt to production. House Committee on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), issued a statement after a June 23 hearing on the tiltrotor aircraft, saying “It’s time to put the Osprey out of its misery.”
