LOADED FOR BEAR: U.S. Air Force and Pentagon officials are expected to get an earful from lawmakers about the holdup in buying more F-22 Raptors during a House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee hearing Nov. 19. Congress approved $140 million for advanced procurement of 20 more Raptors and upgrades in the fiscal 2009 defense bill, but authorizers and appropriators are steamed because Defense Department officials have only approved spending $50 million for four aircraft — with plans to get the rest through a supplemental war spending request next year.
LORAL ORDER: Loral Space & Communications says its Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) unit has landed a new satellite contract from an unspecified major satellite operator. Together with an order revealed last month, also from an unspecified operator, SS/L now totals seven spacecraft awards for the year.
U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) are facing numerous challenges in adapting to a future security environment dominated by violent Islamic radicalism and other threats, but there may be opportunities for development as well, a new report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) suggests.
LONDON — Britain launched the fourth of its Type 45 destroyers, HMS Dragon, on Nov. 17. The second of the class, HMS Dauntless, has just begun sea trials. The United Kingdom is now buying only six Type 45 air defense destroyers, rather than the 12 envisaged at the outset of the program. Budgetary pressures are behind the reduction in the number of hulls.
MERGER DELAYED: The European Commission has requested additional information on a planned merger between Astrium and U.K. small satellite specialist Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL). SSTL officials say the request is only a technicality and does not in any way call the takeover into question. Final approval, initially expected by mid-November, is still anticipated before Christmas, they indicate.
The battle over how many F-22 Raptors the U.S. Air Force requires is revealing some nasty infighting as the White House administration change nears. The Defense Secretary staff has told Air Force planners not to talk to congressional staffers and to work only through the offices of Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and acquisition chief John Young.
The U.S. Defense Department and the congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) still disagree on the best way to manage and integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to a Nov. 14 report from the congressional auditors. GAO reviewed DOD’s efforts to improve the management and operational use of UAVs and assess the extent to which those efforts provide a proper organizational framework for oversight. Where GAO found DOD wanting, DOD did not concur.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Nov. 17 - 20 — U.S. Coast Guard Innovation Exppo, Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/9230 Nov. 17 - 21 — Eleventh Annual Directed Energy Symposium, Honolulu, Hawaii. For more in formation call 505-998-4910 or go to www.deps.org
President-elect Barack Obama’s focus on ramping down the Iraq war and the record U.S. defense spending this decade continues to convince analysts that the next administration will curb – although not slash – the Pentagon’s access to the federal treasury. Continuously soaring budgets would have been unaffordable no matter which party entered the White House, they say in comments this week, but Obama’s election begins to make clear the potential winners and losers in the coming shakeout.
UAV POLICY: A national policy is needed to accelerate the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the U.S. national airspace, according to a Boeing executive. Neil Plazner, vice president of strategy for Boeing Air Traffic Management, says he’s heard “why [UAVs] are a good platform” for various missions, but “at some point, you’ll have to have a policy piece,” Plazner says. “Government agencies are reactive, not proactive. This needs to be national policy.”
South Korea is keeping alive its option on a second batch of three destroyers with Aegis air defense systems. The second ship of the first batch, Yulgok Yi I, was launched Nov. 14. The navy tells Yonhap news agency that building a further three ships remains under consideration. It is unclear whether the design would be the same.
ARH REVIVAL: Potential competitors for the Army’s revised Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) are surprised not to see a reference regarding the aircraft’s suitability for transport on the C-130 airlifter. The Army issued a “sources sought” notice earlier this month; the previous ARH program, won and lost by Bell, included a key parameter for the C-130. A C-130 requirement was thought to disadvantage options from AgustaWestland and EADS in the earlier competition.Both companies are considering bids to become prime contractors for the new effort.
BRIT LOGISTICS: The U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) has invited Boeing’s subsidiary in the country, Boeing Defence UK, to compete for the 10-year Future Logistics Information Services (FLIS) delivery partner contract. As many as six industry teams, including Boeing, will compete toward a further downselect to three competitors next summer and a final contract award in spring 2010. The FLIS contract provides for a partnership with the MOD’s Defense Equipment and Support organization to sustain, develop and integrate information systems products.
SPREADING OUT: Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle builder Navistar is expanding its business around the globe. The company has been asked by the U.S. military to accelerate production and vehicle enhancements for its International MaxxPro Dash to meet requirements in Afghanistan, it was awarded a $24.8 million contract for MaxxPro gunner restraints and has sped up its production schedule for its lighter-weight Dash MRAP variant. The company has more than $3 billion in MaxxPro contracts under its belt since May 2007.
STILL WAITING: Two key incumbent Republican senators are still waiting to learn if they’ll be back on the job come January when the 111th Congress opens for business. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who sits on the defense appropriations subcommittee, trails his Democratic challenger by less than 900 votes with about 30,000 ballots still to be counted. Even if he wins, Senate Democratic leaders and some Republicans are calling for Stevens’ expulsion for his felony corruption conviction last month. Alaska Gov.
GATES GOING?: The latest gossip about President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet has it that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is declining to stay on at the Pentagon when the new administration takes over, according to at least two sources who cite Democratic insiders. What isn’t clear is whether the former CIA director and Texas A&M president has simply had enough of Washington, or has policy differences with the Obama camp, which has criticized the troop surge in Iraq.
India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter sent a 34-kilogram (75-pound) probe to the lunar surface Nov. 14 in a test of technology the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hopes to use later to soft-land rovers there. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) hit the surface at 8:31 p.m. Indian Standard Time (10:01 a.m. EST), 25 minutes after separating from Chandrayaan-1 in its operational orbit 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the lunar surface.
NASA’s Apollo-heritage J-2X cryogenic rocket engine is moving into the manufacturing and full-scale testing phase after completing a day-long critical design review at Marshall Flight Center Nov. 13. Based on the Rocketdyne J-2 engine that powered the upper stages of the Saturn V moon rocket, the J-2X is an upgrade that will be installed on both the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V heavy lifter NASA plans to develop to send humans back to the Moon.
LONDON — A gulf in requirements is ruling out any potential for joint-vehicle purchasing with the U.S. to meet a U.K. Defense Ministry program for a future family of tactical wheeled vehicles. As part of Britain’s Operational Utility Vehicle Systems (OUVS) project a U.S./U.K. working group was set up with the Pentagon’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program in the third quarter of 2008. Among other things, the working group looked at possible collaborative purchasing to meet elements of the OUVS requirement.
Crews at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are starting work on the first hardware for the first flight-test of a full-scale prototype of NASA’s next human space launch vehicle. A barge has delivered boilerplate components crafted at Glenn Research Center for the Ares I-X test that will simulate a fully fueled Ares I upper stage in a flight-test next year.
Cruise missile and armed unmanned aircraft programs are proliferating like wildfire among both nations and nonstate groups like Hezbollah, said defense analysts talking to a group of Washington-based journalists Nov. 13.
CSAR SKED: The U.S. Air Force has an updated working schedule for the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) replacement helicopter program. The latest request for proposals (Amendment 7) is now expected during the first week of December, with a response due by the first week of January 2009 and contract award set for spring of 2009. A little over a month ago, the Air Force had maintained it was on schedule for a contract award for this fall for the program. This latest schedule change makes the program a grand total of two years behind its original schedule.
COUNCIL COUNSEL: President-elect Barack Obama has promised to bring back a national space council, but don’t assume Vice President-elect Joe Biden will be overseeing space policy. While that has been the case historically, the president has great latitude in setting up a space council. The first was created in 1958, but President Dwight Eisenhower largely ignored it, writes Dwayne A. Day, author of a history of White House space policy-making.
An industry team successfully fired the first stage motor of the developmental Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) for about 35 seconds Nov. 13, marking the completion of four of five planned tests for this stage prior to a flight demonstration next year. This burn time is representative of the profile needed to engage a ballistic missile launched from North Korea, program officials say.
