The top Joint Strike Fighter official says he unequivocally supports President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget request, which does not seek funds for a second JSF engine — but he is still planning for the F136 and suggests Washington consider the risk otherwise.
Sen. Chris Bond (R-Mo.) is demanding a detailed cost and benefit analysis from the U.S. Navy on the Boeing Super Hornet procurement before the service decides to stop purchasing the aircraft in preparation for delivery of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) carrier variant in 2015.
ENERGY DIRECTED: Boeing Phantom Works has nabbed a $38 million contract to build an airborne high power microwave (HPM) weapon that can fry electronics and attack computer memories under the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Counter-electronics High-power microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP). The three-year CHAMP project is to be the first demonstration of an HPM counter-electronic aerial weapon capable of killing, damaging or temporarily disabling enemy electronics without collateral damage. Boeing will provide the aerial platform, Ktech Corp.
BITING EDGE: The U.S. Army chief of staff continues to predict years of “persistent conflict” against terrorists and insurgents and says technology, like globalization, has now become “another double-edged sword.” Computer technology that can connect people and businesses across the world also is employed by terrorists to export their ideology and expedite their plans, Gen. George Casey said last week at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
GATR LAUNCH: Elbit Systems and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) have conducted flight-tests of the Guided Advanced Tactical Rocket (GATR) in Israel. A GATR was deployed from a helicopter to engage a target at a range of 3 kilometers. The GATR is driven by an ATK propulsion system and equipped with an Elbit guidance and control system. GATR supports lock-on before or after launch as well as autonomous or remote laser designation and is compatible with existing 2.75”/70mm launcher hardware.
AIR FORCE Raytheon Co., of McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a firm fixed price contract for an amount not to exceed $87,327,441. The action will provided 35 Multi-Spectral Targeting Systems Model A, 25 Preproduction Units including one retrofit gyro and one retrofit imager, and associated replaceable unit spares and containers to support the predator/reaper. At this time, $14,094,649 has been obligated. 703rd ASG, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-06-G-4041).
A military engine program aimed at Mach 4-plus applications could have major fuel-saving potential for future commercial airliners. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vulcan program is focused on integrating a new propulsion concept called a constant volume combustion (CVC) engine with a turbojet to power a full-scale vehicle from rest to beyond Mach 4. Although aimed at possible long range strike and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as missiles, the same technology could be used in future commercial engines, DARPA says.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a firm fixed-price contract with Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., for $6,289,303. The contract action will exercise the third three-month storage option for the third wideband global satellite communication. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. HQ SMC/PK, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-00-C-0011, P00182). ARMY
The vice chiefs of the U.S. Army and Air Force are expected to brief Undersecretary of Defense William Lynn on a plan for transferring the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program from Army to Air Force management by the end of this month, according to Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau.
PLAN PLEASE: A group of House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members is trying to force the U.S. Navy and the Defense Department to submit a long-term shipbuilding plan, as required by law, they say. Rep. Randy Forbes, a ranking HASC Republican who represents Virginia’s naval-heavy 4th District, said he filed a resolution of inquiry to try to pry the information from the Pentagon.
The senior official running the U.S. Defense Department’s future vertical lift capabilities-based assessment (FVL CBA) hopes the initiative will result in a technology development effort similar to that which led to the Joint Strike Fighter. But the technology effort would not be aimed at a specific rotorcraft program, and industry executives question whether it would attract funding anywhere near the billions of dollars spent on the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program that led to JSF.
NASA on June 1 announced the full membership of the blue-ribbon panel chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine that will deliver an assessment of NASA’s human spaceflight options to the White House by September.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Malaysia’s Astronautic Technology have set July 13 as the first launch window opportunity for the delayed Falcon 1 Flight 5, carrying the RazakSAT Earth resources satellite.
Joint Strike Fighter officials are refocusing the program on delivering test-ready aircraft following further delays to completing F-35s for development flight-testing. The shift will delay the first flight of aircraft still in production by up to three months, but is expected to enable faster flight-testing to recover some of the slippage. Aircraft were previously being flown once, then grounded for modifications to incorporate design changes resulting from analysis and testing.
PARIS — Eumetsat and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are discussing extending their cooperation in the fields of meteorology and operational oceanography. Under the proposed scheme, Eumetsat could allow ISRO to access its EumetCast data dissemination system and provide a near real-time processing and dissemination service for the Altika Ka-band altimeter on India’s Saral oceanography satellite, to be orbited next year, pending approval by the Eumetsat summer council.
A way forward to mitigate potential gaps in the air sovereignty alert (ASA) mission, which calls on U.S. Air Force fighters to protect air space over U.S. territories, appears not to be making much headway in the Pentagon.
NEW DELHI — India’s ministry of defense has invited the six prospective Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) vendors to inspect the three sites where field trials for the aircraft will be held. Starting June 7, three teams comprising up to ten personnel each from SAAB Gripen, Lockheed Martin and Boeing will visit Bangalore for two days, then Jaisalmer and Leh for one day each to check out the locations. They will be followed by teams from EADS, MiG and Dassault.
IN POSITION: China will launch about 10 Beidou positioning satellites in 2009 and 2010. Chinese media emphasize that the Beidou (or Compass) constellation will help end the dominance of the U.S. Global Positioning System system and, especially, avoid the risk of Chinese military and civilians depending on that foreign service.
EPS EXPECTATIONS: The Pentagon is expecting to approve the Enhanced Polar System (EPS) to begin development early next year, according to Air Force officials. EPS is the polar-orbiting piece of a new secure, high-data-rate satcom architecture for the United States. It will consist of two payloads on classified host satellites, a “gateway” segment to connect the system to the rest of the Pentagon’s communications infrastructure, and a mission control segment.
