To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 4 — 21st Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open – Charity Golf Tournament, Lansdowne Resort, Lansdowne, Va. For more information go to www.gwao.org
M-ATV PROGRESSES: The next step in the competition to win the bid for the M-ATV (MRAP All Terrain Vehicle) contract was taken late last week when bidders Navistar, Force Dynamics, BAE Systems and Oshkosh all received indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts from the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command to deliver three more production-ready vehicles each for further testing.
CRITICAL LIFT: Deputy Commandant of Marine Corps Aviation Lt. Gen. George Trautman tells Aerospace DAILY he will meet with the CH-53K program office May 6 to “talk through potential perturbations in the program.” Trautman declined to provide specifics on the issues to be discussed. The new helicopter has passed preliminary design review, and the service is “trying to get our arms around the critical design review,” which will provide a better picture of cost and schedule, Trautman says. “We’re going to sustain our energy with the 53K because we need it,” he adds.
Experts believe that steps already undertaken by the U.S. military and the world’s spacecraft operators probably will be sufficient to manage the growing problem of space debris, absent additional debris-producing events like the January 2007 Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test that shattered a defunct weather satellite and left a cloud of debris in orbit.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has issued a temporary grounding bulletin on six UH-1Y Hueys and one AH-1Z Cobra due to extensive damage to the main rotor gearbox on two of the new Hueys.
GALILEO PARTNERS: The Galileo Services Assn.. and Oregin, the Organization of European GNSS equipment and service industries, will join forces to develop the market for services to be provided by Europe’s Egnos GPS augmentation system and Galileo navigation satellite network. Egnos is scheduled to go into routine service this year and Galileo in 2013. Separately, EADS Astrium reported that the Giove B Galileo test satellite, which it supplied, has completed its first year in orbit without a hitch.
Industry experts are combining digital tools for cyber warfare that even an inexperienced government operator should be able to use. In the unclassified arena there are algorithms dubbed Mad WiFi, Air Crack and Beach. For classified work, industry developers also have a toolbox of proprietary cyber-exploitation algorithms.
CANES: Lockheed Martin is teaming with General Dynamics, ViaSat Inc., Harris Corp. and American Systems to pursue the U.S. Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program, which will consolidate and reduce the Navy’s afloat information systems networks. In late 2009, the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence will pick two teams for system design and development on the common computing environment portion of the contract. A single prime contractor will be chosen in 2011.
MISSILE MODERNIZATION: The vice commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command says Russia is taking a more comprehensive approach to modernizing its nuclear forces than the U.S. is. Russia “is going well beyond what we’re doing,” Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe says. Quoting his boss, Gen. C. Robert Kehler, Deppe says the U.S. effort is more like “service life extension,” noting that the U.S. is still using the same Minuteman silos, the same launch control centers and the same operational concepts.
It may be flying every mission in theater, but the MV-22 is still facing reliability issues due to inaccurate predictive modeling, according to Lt. Gen. George Trautman, U.S. Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation. “We’re working on it, but that’s one concern I have in the Osprey program,” Trautman told Aerospace DAILY April 30. Reliability and maintainability are “not meeting my full expectations yet.”
LONDON — The British Royal Air Force’s Sentinel R1 airborne stand-off radar aircraft and the Royal Navy’s Sea King Mk7 airborne surveillance and control helicopter will be deployed to support operations in Afghanistan as part of a force increase, at least during the embattled country’s national election.
The U.S. is looking to commercial satellites to enhance ship identification and communication as a way to battle piracy. Long before the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by pirates last month, a sister vessel, the Maersk Iowa tested a device that combines the information obtained from shipboard radar and identification transponders. The idea is to give authorities a better overview of who is on the water and what they are up to.
The way U.S. export controls work for space technologies could prevent commercial space operators from taking non-U.S. citizens on spaceflights, and the industry is urging reform of the system to prevent U.S. companies from being overtaken by foreign competitors.
SUPER GALAXY: Lockheed Martin has delivered the 50th C-5 Galaxy strategic airlifter upgraded with Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) improvements. The aircraft was delivered to Air Force Reserve Command’s 433rd Airlift Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex. The AMP modifications are scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2014. A total of 111 C-5s are scheduled to be modified. Phase 2 modernization will be under the Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program (RERP), which includes installation of GE CF6-80C2 commercial engines.
BEE LINE: In case there’s any confusion following Northrop Grumman’s acquisition and renaming of Swift Engineering’s KillerBee (now Bat) line of blended wing-body unmanned aircraft (Aerospace DAILY, April 29), Raytheon says it has purchased rights to the technology — and the name — and will still offer the KillerBee 4 for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS)/Tier 2 competition now under way. The company says it has the rights to produce, sell and improve the KB-4 for STUAS and other programs.
AIR DEFENSE: Finland plans to purchase the Nasams II ground-based air defense system to meet its medium-range air defense missile system program. The Nasams system is built by Raytheon in partnership with Kongsberg, and uses the former company’s ground launched variant of is AIM-120 AMRAAM radar-guided missile. The contract is worth 3 billion Norwegian Kronor ($458 million). MBDA and Denel also had been pursuing the Finnish deal.
Australia plans to spend A$100 billion ($70 billion) on military equipment over the next 20 years, including new submarines, warships, helicopters and cruise missiles, according to leaked details of its new defense white paper reported by local media. Defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon will unveil the white paper, “Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030,” on May 2. It is Australia’s first defense review in nine years and the first by prime minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor government.
C-17 TUSSLE: Efforts in Congress to block Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to end production of the F-22 stealth fighter and the C-17 cargo lifter appear to have stalled, in part because of White House intervention, according to an industry source. The White House called several lawmakers, including Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), to the West Wing last week, encouraging them to abandon efforts to save the C-17.
EUROFIGHTER GAP?: After nearly a year of some Eurofighter Typhoon partners crying wolf over a production gap if a Tranche 3 decision was not forthcoming, now it really is a possibility. As of last week a British funding decision still appeared stuck in the Treasury, the government’s finance ministry, while the German political process requires a decision likely in the first two weeks of May. A gap opening up between Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 — assuming the latter proceeds — would increase industrial costs.
COMMON UNMANNED: The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon a $16.5 million contract to migrate the current Tactical Control System (TCS) to a Linux-based operating system and add upgrades to the system software. The contract extension will add other key capabilities as well, including upgrading software to control the radar and adding a universal hand control. The contract also will provide support to TCS integration and testing that will lead to operational evaluation on the MQ-8B Fire Scout program, which the Navy intends to conduct with Northrop Grumman this summer.
Finmeccanica is confirming guidance on revenues and operating results for both 2009-2010, notwithstanding the economic environment and benefits from DRS Technologies contributions, while financial debt increases and research and development (R&D) investment remain at double-digit levels.
On the job for only four days, new Defense Department acquisition chief Ashton Carter laid out his priorities at a roundtable with select reporters at the Pentagon April 30, starting with a fresh look at DOD’s portfolio. A program-by-program review is “job one,” Carter said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on April 6 made his budget recommendations known. Now it is time for “spinning out the implications of those decisions,” Carter said.
