VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Boeing is assessing whether there is a possibility to extend production of its Delta II launcher beyond the current batch of 17. So far 10 of them have been sold to the U.S. Air Force, and an 11th has a commercial costumer. According to Ken Heinly, Boeing vice president of launch products and services, there also is a good chance the fourth Italian Cosmo SkyMed will ride on a Vandenberg-launched Delta II.
France has earmarked 101.25 billion euros for equipment programs in its newly unveiled future year defense plan covering proposed budgets for 2009-2014. The total outlay during that period is expected to be 184 billion euros, which represents a significant increase over the plan it replaces. One of the goals of the equipment and spending plan is to guarantee the long-term design and engineering capacity in the French defense industry, according to Defense Minister Herve Morin.
The next U.S. president could move forward with a new competition to buy the Air Force’s much-needed aerial tanker replacements with an idea quietly crafted this fall at the Pentagon as a potential compromise. But, for now, the idea has been dashed amid the political firestorm over the $35 billion program. Pentagon acquisition chief John Young says his team discussed the notion of a new strategy to judge the existing KC-X proposals put forth by rivals Northrop Grumman/EADS North America and Boeing.
An engineering team at NASA’s Langley Research Center is studying ways to accelerate development of the vehicles that will replace the space shuttle as the U.S. route to space in case the next president and Congress want to close the upcoming gap in human spaceflight capability.
PARIS – Oto Melara has unveiled a full-scale mockup of its 76mm Super Rapid gun, fitted with the Strales guidance system for the DART-guided round, at Euronaval here. The Finmeccanica company also announced Oct. 29 that it has closed the first export deal for the system, which was sponsored by the Italian navy as the main missile-defense system for Italy’s FREMM frigates.
The three industry team winners for U.S. Army-led Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) technology development contracts already are touting their prospective vehicles, each jockeying for lead position in what promises to be a 27-month slog to the penultimate demonstration selection.
Boeing has selected BAE Systems to supply a next-generation digital electronic warfare suite (DEWS) for future international versions of the F-15. The system is being proposed to Japan and Saudi Arabia, and will be offered for retrofit to U.S. and exported F-15s.
ANGRY CZAR: Pentagon acquisition chief John Young is less than pleased with the Air Force’s problems providing a coherent fiscal 2010 budget proposal to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “There are too many games being played,” he says, citing the Air Force’s proposal that its sister services – the Army and Navy – should help pick up hefty bills for building USAF satellites. Air Force officers argue that the missile warning, communications and navigation services are provided to all of the services and the cost should be equally shared.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command (USASOC) is developing new protection systems and equipment for its helicopter fleet and refining fielded programs based on soldier feedback from Iraq.
Data from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is providing additional evidence that water remained on the planet’s surface longer and 1 billion years more recently than earlier envisioned. Researchers examining data from the orbiter’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars have found evidence of hydrated silica, commonly known as opal. The hydrated, or water-containing, mineral deposits are telltale signs of where and when water was present on ancient Mars.
TRAINER SUPPORT: L-3 Vertex Aerospace and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems are already working on a potentially $569 million U.S. Navy deal for logistics services and maintenance materials for T-45A and T-45C trainer aircraft based in Meridian, Miss., Kingville, Texas, and Pensacola, Fla. If all four option years are exercised, work could run through September 2013, they said Oct. 27. The support covers 71 T-45A and 108 T-45C.
U.S. Army demand for aircraft parts contributed to a surprising rise in the nation’s durable goods orders in September, the Commerce Department reported Oct. 29. Nationwide demand for durable goods rose 0.8 percent during the month to $208 billion after declining 5.5 percent in August. Orders for defense aircraft and parts totaled $5.7 billion during the month, up 10.1 percent from August. All of those orders were from the Army and were for parts, according to Adriana Stoica, a Commerce aircraft analyst.
Although Soltam’s automatic and autonomous Cardom mortar has been in service for some time, it received new attention at last month’s Israel Defense Industry display near Tel Aviv. Having now been integrated into the new Israel Defense Force (IDF) all-digital division deployed on the Golan Heights, Cardom units have become the mainstay for rapid tactical artillery on-call support missions, which can become crucial elements in any future conflict with Syria.
JLTV CONTRACTS AWARDED: After a tense few days of speculation and leaks of the winners in the media, the U.S. Army announced the three teams that have won contracts for the Technology Development Phase of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) contract. Lockheed Martin won $35.9 million, General Tactical Vehicles won $45.1 million and BAE Systems Land and Armament won $40.5 million to perform the work by Jan. 31, 2011 on the JLTV Family of Vehicles.
Raytheon plans to launch a small unmanned air vehicle from a submerged U.S. Navy submarine early next year to demonstrate its concept for extending the boat’s sensor range in littoral operations. Last month the company demonstrated its UAV launch concept under Phase 1 of the Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities (SOTHOC) program funded by the Office of Naval Research and the Submarine Force.
A plasma rocket engine that may one day get a test on the International Space Station has reached a power milestone in one of the radio-frequency (RF) systems used to heat the electrically charged fluid that serves as a propellant. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) under development by Houston-based Ad Astra Rocket Company reached its target rating of 30 kilowatts in a test at its laboratory of the RF device that generates the core plasma. In the Oct. 22 test, the helicon first stage used argon as its propellant.
PARIS - Lockheed Martin is contemplating big changes to its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) design to appeal to export customers, as the first LCS – USS Freedom – gets ready for its commissioning in Milwaukee on Nov. 8. A model of a modified ship is on display here at Euronaval. The leading export prospect for the LCS, Israel, is already planning such changes. If Israel follows through with its plans, its LCS ships will be heavily armed with the Barak 8 anti-air warfare system and land-attack missiles.
The first U.S. Air Force E-8C Joint STARS is about to be fitted with Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219s in Melbourne, Fla. The upgrade will give the 707-based aircraft better performance, greater range and endurance, and improved environmental characteristics.
China’s two aircraft-making conglomerates, Avic 1 and 2, have been merged back together as a prelude to further reorganization, including a dedicated helicopter subsidiary. The combined organization, foreshadowed earlier this year, is called Avic, or China Aviation Industry Corp., as it was before it was split into Avic 1 and 2 in 1999. It encompasses almost the whole Chinese aircraft industry, with plants and research institutes spread across the country.
The French government has agreed to reach out to see if other governments are willing to grant industry’s appeal for some relief on the much-delayed Airbus A400M military transport aircraft project. French Defense Minister Herve Morin says he has asked his air force chief and the defense armaments agency, DGA, to lead the talks. The air force will see if there is room for some marginal relief on program specifications, with Morin suggesting he may be supportive.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – If the U.S. Army’s Apache AH-64D Longbow aircraft is to keep pace with its own manned-unmanned common architecture program, it will require extensive technological upgrades to the cockpit, according to the Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), a driving force behind the technology.
The conviction of a University of Tennessee professor on charges he passed military technical data on unmanned aerial vehicles to China was one of 95 export-related cases handled by the Justice Department over a two-year period. China was involved in 22 cases; Iran more than 30.
TRIAL BALLOON: BAE Systems has carried out the first remotely piloted test flight of the GA-22 airship with the air vehicle being examined for a range of surveillance and endurance roles. The aim is to eventually make the GA-22 fully autonomous, with systems developed initially for the BAE Systems Herti tactical unmanned aerial vehicle to be integrated on the airship. The next stage of the program is to gain type certification. Lindstrand Technologies was picked by BAE Systems to develop the GA-22 in July of this year.
The first U.K. aircraft carrier is all but certain to be fielded in a configuration to support only short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) aircraft operations, despite persistent rumors the country may yet pull out of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
