Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s airland subcommittee. The ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), is also new, according to the SASC staff. Lieberman, who used to be the panel’s ranking member himself when Republicans controlled Congress, is the only non-Republican to take a new subcommittee chairmanship. However, three Republicans are new to their posts as ranking members of various subcommittees.
An International Launch Services Proton will boost AsiaSat 5 into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this summer, the companies announced. The satellite is under construction by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in Palo Alto, Calif., based on the company’s 1300 series spacecraft bus. It is to replace AsiaSat-2 at 105-deg. East and offer C- and Ku-band footprints over East Asia and South Asia and an in-orbit maneuverable Ku-beam.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates is slated to begin to take delivery of the first of 48 Alenia Aermacchi M-346 aircraft in 2012 following the type’s selection to meet the air force’s requirement for an advanced jet trainer.
MIAMI – U.S. officials are crafting a plan to cooperatively help Central American nations and the Dominican Republic network and, eventually, modernize their disparate ground-based air-traffic radars. The effort, called SRVA (Regional Air Service System), is being spearheaded by 12th Air Force, which interacts with air forces in Central and South America.
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Boeing will put the AH-6S Phoenix through its paces this summer, testing the proposal for the U.S. Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) for performance at 6,000 feet on a 95-degree day. “There are a couple of things we need to do to improve the aircraft” before offering it to the Army, according to Mike Burke, Boeing’s director of Army rotorcraft business development.
The fiscal 2010 NASA budget outline to be released by the Obama Administration Feb. 26 adds almost $700 million to the out-year figure proposed in the fiscal 2009 budget request submitted by former President Bush, and sticks with the goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020. The $18.7 billion that Obama will request for NASA – up from $18.026 billion for fiscal 2010 in the last Bush budget request – does not include the $1 billion NASA will receive in the $787 billion stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed Feb. 16.
LEAVING MANTA: U.S. officials are preparing to evacuate Manta Air Base, Ecuador, by July, says USAF Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, commander of the 12th Air Force, which interacts with air forces in Central and South America. This will close the chapter on a period since 1999 when the United States boosted operations from the base after losing access to Howard Air Force Base in Panama. Manta had been the site of Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) flights, as well as some Navy P-3s and other air operations supporting the counternarcotics mission that dominates U.S.
Australia still expects to get the full radar performance required under its contract for six Boeing 737 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, whose program is more than three years behind schedule. “The system has the potential to continue to grow into a world-class AEW&C capability,” the Defense Department manager for the project, Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble, has told an Australian parliamentary committee.
SCOUTING A TIME: The U.S. Navy plans to conduct a technical evaluation of the MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) program soon – “in early 2009,” according to contractor Northrop Grumman. Operational evaluation is scheduled for “later” in the year. The Fire Scout program is supposed to reach initial operating capability “soon” after OpEval in 2009. Northrop on Feb. 23 announced a recent expected Navy contract action for up to $40 million for the last of three planned low-rate initial production VTUAV buys.
LONDON – The United Kingdom needs to consider whether the Airbus Military A400M airlifter is in such a state of disarray that “abandonment would be preferable,” the British Parliament’s Defense Committee has said. The Committee’s “Defense Equipment 2009” report singles out the A400M along with the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) armored vehicle as procurement programs of particularly concern.
TWO’S COMPANY: The second short takeoff and vertical landing (Stovl) F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, aircraft BF-2, made its first flight from Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant on Feb. 25. The aircraft will be used for conventional up-and-away flight-testing while the first F-35B, aircraft BF-1, conducts powered-lift testing leading to a first vertical landing, expected in June-July. BF-1 is expected to begin hover pit testing at Fort Worth next week. Aircraft AA-1, the first F-35, made its 70th flight on Feb.
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., and ANAHEIM, Calif. – As the rhetoric over the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps VH-71 presidential helicopter escalates, prime contractor Lockheed Martin is girding itself for any possible outcome. Sikorsky says it “stands ready to support” a broader upgrade of the current VH-3D presidential fleet as a possible option to the troubled VH-71, potentially including a newly-certificated cockpit upgrade.
High-profile comments from President Barack Obama and his former Republican rival for the White House over the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps VH-71 presidential helicopter program have thrown prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s industrial team into a new defensive stance.
2008 Pentagon Expenses For Tracked Combat, Assault And Tactical Vehicles 2008 Pentagon Expenses For Tracked Combat, Assault And Tactical Vehicles Contractor Number Of Contracts Or Modifications Total Amount For Contracts Or Modifications Average Amount Per Contract Or Modification BAE Systems Land & Armaments 249 $4,790,920,143 $19,240,64
TARGETED ACQUISITION: Israel’s largest publicly traded defense contractor, Elbit Systems, is continuing its targeted acquisition spree, now picking up Shiron Satellite Communications. The $16 million deal will see privately owned Shiron Satellite become part of Elbit’s Land and C4I Tadiran unit. That unit is where Elbit houses most of its communications activities. The main Shiron Satellite product is the two-way broadband satellite communications InterSky system to deliver Internet connectivity and interactive multimedia applications.
CHIEF OF THE BOAT: Royal Australian Navy Rear Adm. Rowan Moffitt has been appointed to the new position of head of the Future Submarine Program in Australia’s Defense Materiel Organization (DMO). The future boat is planned to replace the Collins-class sub starting in 2025. Moffitt on Feb. 23 started reporting to the head of DMO, Stephen Gumley, and will lead a combined Navy, DMO and Capability Development Group Future Submarine Project Office.
BEAT THE CLOCK: The United States still is trying to come to some agreement with Kyrgyz officials and the Manas Air Base there continues to operate under the existing agreement as a key logistics hub for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. State Department spokesman. But the spokesman last week acknowledged the Kyrgyz parliament voted to close the base and President Bakiyev signed that bill into law, which he and the Defense Department’s spokesman have said starts a 180-day countdown to withdraw, based on a previous agreement made by the U.S.
Frustrated by continuing cost overruns and schedule delays in DOD acquisition programs, the chairman and senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee have introduced legislation to reform the Pentagon acquisition process.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will be able to shield its planned Dragon space capsule with its own Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) material, following arc-jet tests at NASA’s Ames Research Center. NASA helped the California-based startup develop its ability to manufacture PICA-X, as it calls the material, for use on the vehicle that may wind up providing commercial transportation to and from the International Space Station.
TRACKING REVENUE: Northrop Grumman will provide the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program with a new in-line encryption device, called the KGV-72, with the latest Blue Force Tracking installation kits. The company recently announced that the U.S. Army boosted its contract ceiling by $574 million to provide the kits, cables and related hardware for the key situational awareness and command-and-control system, heavily used by U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NASA’s first mission to monitor the effects of humanity’s input of greenhouse gas-causing carbon dioxide was lost Feb. 24 when the payload fairing on its Taurus XL 3110 launcher apparently failed to open about 2 minutes and 55 seconds into the mission. The Orbital Carbon Observatory (OCO) and four-stage, 93-foot-tall Taurus solid rocket, both built by Orbital Sciences Corp., were proceeding nominally through an 11-minute launch sequence after a 1:55.31 a.m. PST liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
