Intelsat 15, a high-power Ku-band spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences Corp., is beginning several weeks of in-orbit checkout after launch Dec. 1 on a Land Launch Zenit-3SLB from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Based on Orbital’s Star spacecraft bus, the 2,484-kilogram (5,477-pound) satellite will relay video and data to Intelsat users in Russia, the Middle East and Indian Ocean regions. Liftoff came at 4 p.m. EDT, and the mission lasted about six and a half hours before spacecraft separation.
IED TEST: The U.S. Army and Boeing announced Dec. 1 that a September test was completed during which a laser system mounted on an Avenger combat vehicle destroyed 50 improvised explosive devices (IEDs). During the laser firings Sept. 22-24 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., Laser Avenger neutralized multiple types of IEDs, including large-caliber artillery munitions, smaller bomblets and mortar rounds. The system operated at safe distances from the targets and under a variety of conditions, including different angles and ranges.
SWISS ARMS: Swiss voters have massively rejected a proposal to ban weapons exports. The Group for a Switzerland without an Army had gathered the necessary 100,000 signatures to force a referendum on the issue, but 68% of those voting Nov. 29 were against such a ban.
AIR GROUNDED: Australian military forces have marked the formal end of the army’s fixed-wing aircraft fleet. A ceremony at Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Townsville Nov. 20 noted the handover of three King Air 350 aircraft from the army to the air force. The aircraft, formerly operating under Army Aviation’s No. 173 Air Surveillance Squadron, will now be flown by RAAF’s No. 38 Squadron.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed Nov. 30 that an additional 500 U.K. personnel will be sent to Afghanistan, and said that another eight coalition nations – besides the U.K. and the U.S. – are willing to provide further military support for the operation.
OMAHA, Neb. – Goodrich and ATK are beginning to manufacture a one-of-a-kind reconnaissance satellite that will be launched by the end of next year to support urgent needs from military leaders overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Called Operationally Responsive Space-1 (ORS-1), the spacecraft is needed to provide a new layer of electro-optical and infrared reconnaissance to airborne collectors, such as unmanned aerial systems and high-altitude aircraft, as well as to the sophisticated national intelligence satellites overhead.
Seven NASA astronauts rode the space shuttle Atlantis back to Earth after spending 11 days in space getting the International Space Station (ISS) ready for the day when shuttles will no longer be flying. Atlantis touched down on the shuttle landing strip at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 9:44 a.m. EST Nov. 27. The orbiter has one more mission to go — STS-132 next May — before it is retired for good as NASA wraps up the shuttle program.
ARMY GM GDLS Defense Group LLC., Sterling Heights, Mich., was awarded on Nov. 20, 2009 a $42,555,068 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to fund the Stryker modernization program, which will bring it to Milestone B/preliminary design review. The work is to be performed in Sterling Heights, Mich. (81 percent); and London, Ontario, and Canada (19 percent); with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. TACOM LCMC Stryker, Warren, Mich., was the contracting activity (W56HZV-07-D-M112).
OSPREY UPGRADE: Bell Boeing’s V-22 Osprey benefitted from several contract announcements Nov. 30, including a $105 million contract modification to perform a Block C upgrade of 91 MV-22 and 21 CV-22 aircraft. The modification also provides for the engine particle separator upgrade and installation of a shaft driven compressor inlet barrier filter. The work is expected to be completed in October 2014.
The U.S. Army is coming up short in securing the right tenants for its manufacturing arsenals, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report (GAO) says. “The Army has determined that, of the 44 tenants, only four are engaged in activities that have helped to strengthen the arsenals’ core manufacturing capabilities or related work force skills,” the GAO says in its report.
Japanese controllers are checking out a new optical reconnaissance satellite designed to monitor North Korea and other potential military threats after its launch on an H-IIA rocket Nov. 28. The optical information-gathering satellite (IGS) lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Southeast Japan at 10:21 a.m. local time (8:21 p.m. EST Nov. 27). The spacecraft separated nominally 20 minutes later, according to Japanese press reports.
The new-generation fighter that China will field in 2017-2019 will be an improved J-10, the Chinese air force says, seemingly ruling out a genuine competitor to the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35. The clarification, citing an unnamed official, has appeared in a report published in English by the country’s most prestigious newspaper, the People’s Daily—which means that it is an announcement and that China wants foreigners to notice it.
SES has ordered four multimission satellites from EADS Astrium in a move that will expand its broadband and broadcasting capacity while underscoring satellite operators’ increasing reliance on bulk orders.
HOLIDAY RULING: The sanctions committee of the French stock market regulator, the AMF, is expected to issue its ruling on alleged insider trading charges against before the end of the year. Last week saw formal hearings into the accusations that EADS executives at the time sold shares knowing of A380 problems that later depressed the company’s share price once they came to light. The AMF’s case investigator exonerated EADS shareholders Lagardere and Daimler, as well as ten executives, including Airbus CEO Tom Enders.
DAMAGE CONTROL: Chinese Gen. Xu Qiliang’s recent remarks on the “inevitability” of military competition in space (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 9) don’t sit well with the mandarins at China’s foreign ministry. “I want to point out China has all along upheld the peaceful uses of outer space,” says Ma Zhaoxu, the ministry spokesman.
An apparent blockage in the system that vents waste water from a tank below the middeck of the space shuttle Atlantis shouldn’t be a problem if the orbiter lands on Nov. 27 as expected. The normal waste-water venting after Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) early Nov. 25 didn’t go as quickly as expected — a problem noted on earlier missions — and controllers in Houston directed the crew to check the vents to see if they were frozen.
MOSCOW Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has approved a plan to restart production of an upgraded version of the giant An-124-100 freighter at the Ulyanovsk Aviastar-SP plant, although the funding of the effort is still in question. United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) is prepared to build at least 70 An-124s through 2014-2015 if the government will invest $500 million in the plant for re-tooling and manufacturing restoration.
COIN — Defense Department shorthand for counterinsurgency operations — is once again in vogue with military leaders as they battle “irregular” forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the focus on COIN is far from a new one. The resurrection of COIN has occurred every time U.S. forces have faced an unconventional enemy over the past eight decades. The reason for the resurrection — or at least the need for it — is because the military establishment refuses to take COIN seriously over the long term.
For small wars, military officers need to go back to basics. The U.S. Marine Corps’ Small Wars Manual, first issued in 1935, is considered to be the bible for irregular warfare. While it offers an array of techniques and tactics for fighting insurgents, what sets the manual apart from DOD’s current counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy is the philosophical approach to such conflicts.
