Funding development of a second engine from within the existing F-35 budget would cut production by dozens of aircraft and push up program costs, the Joint Strike Fighter’s program chief warns in an interview with Aviation Week. The concerns come as Congress is expected to reverse the White House and Pentagon’s effort to cancel the alternate powerplant.
SOYUZ SEATS: NASA says it will pay $51 million each for seats on Russia’s Soyuz crew vehicle after the space shuttle retires under a new $306 million contract modification for crew transportation and related services in 2012-13. The price includes training, launch preparation, crew rescue and landing for six International Space Station (ISS) crew members.
President Barack Obama’s new White House cybersecurity office could lead to significant — albeit undetermined — effects in how the U.S. government makes purchases, even for national security, although details seem far from decided.
OPERATING AUTHORITY: The U.S. Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter, the Bertholf, is cleared to join the fleet on fully operational status. The Bertholf was granted Authority to Operate (ATO) for its command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems. ATO was achieved after a two-year TEMPEST inspection and testing process, which ensured that systems processing classified information were correctly installed and shielded, thereby reducing the risk of compromising emanations from a facility, ship or aircraft.
UAV ADVANCES: EADS says it has wrapped up the risk-reduction phase for the Advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The medium-altitude UAV study was supported by Germany, France and Spain. EADS is trying to convince the governments to take the concept for the twin-jet unmanned aircraft forward, but it is meeting opposition. Dassault, Thales and Indra have teamed to offer a system based on the Israel Aerospace Industries’ Heron-TP, arguing money should be spent on the system and sensors, not a new airframe.
COSTLY WARNING: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin Space Systems a $1.487 billion contract to produce the third of a new class of overhead non-imaging infrared missile warning spacecraft. The $11.5 billion Space-Based Infrared System High constellation will replace Defense Support Program satellites now in orbit. Included in the effort now are three geosynchronous satellites and four payloads bound for classified satellites in highly elliptical orbit.
The first phase of tests of the rocket motor for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) space tourism vehicle has been successfully completed at Mojave, Calif., by Scaled Composites and its subcontractor Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC).
BETTER IMAGE: System engineers for the U.S. Navy are busy installing new software for “enhanced imagery capability” aboard the aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). “The software upgrade is critical to support near real-time dissemination of intelligence products to fleet users,” says Cristina Zamboni, a Naval Sea Systems Command engineer.
ROME — Alenia Aeronautica is in talks with Northrop Grumman to become a potential partner in establishing a final assembly facility in the U.S. for the C-27J, which is being purchased by the Pentagon, according to Alenia officials.
ZOMBIE: A small, low-cost vertical take-off and landing launch vehicle being developed for sub-orbital flights is being tested by Mojave, Calif.-based Masten Space Systems. Designed for quick turn-around missions, the initial XA-0 1B-750 sub-orbital vehicle (also dubbed the “Zombie”) forms the basis for a vehicle that could be used to carry scientific and educational payloads before the end of this year, the company says.
MIND THE GAP: The top admiral in charge of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Forces Command says the sea service needs to craft an “aggressive and effective” integration and testing plan for new, so-called organic mine countermeasure (MCM) capabilities before it retires legacy systems like aging workhorse rotorcraft. The new systems, which would be based aboard the nascent Littoral Combat Ship and others, include airborne MCMs like the Raytheon AN/AQS-20, a towed deep-water mine detection system.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jun. 1 - 4 — 2009 Joint Navigation Conference, “Military Navigation Technology: The Foundation for Military Ops,” Wyndham Orlando Resort, Orlando, Fla. For more information go to www.jointnavigation.org Jun. 4 — AVIATION WEEK Management Forums, Business Aviation Security, The DOME Theater, Arlington, Va. For more information go to http://www.aviationweek.com/events
LONGER LIFE: The British Defense Ministry is looking at the option of further extending the out-of-service date of the Royal Air Force’s VC10 tanker-transport aircraft to better fit the delivery of the successor program, the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft. Support for the VC10 fleet now extends through March 2013. The ministry is looking at extending this to either the end of 2013, or until the end of the third quarter of 2014.
EXTRA LONGBOWS: The Pentagon is in talks with Egypt over the sale of 12 AH-64D Block II Apache Longbow attack helicopters. The notification over the potential foreign military sales deal worth up to $820 million went to Congress late last month. It would also include 27 T700-GE-701D engines, 14 ALQ-144(V)3 infrared jammers, 28 M299 Hellfire Longbow missile launchers and various other sets of equipment. The country already has 35 AH-64Ds in inventory.
DEAL MAKING: Working out how to support the aircraft is proving a pacing issue for the deal to sell F-35s to Israel. Because of its unique operating environment, it is difficult for Israel to join Lockheed Martin’s global sustainment network. “It’s a test case for use of the aircraft outside a coalition environment,” says Tom Burbage, executive vice president and general manager F-35 program integration.
LONDON — The British Defense Ministry is giving itself a long lead time as it begins to determine a replacement for its Warrior infantry fighting vehicle, having instituted a life-extension program. The Warrior had originally been due to be withdrawn from service in 2025, but a capability sustainment program will see the vehicle remain in service at least until 2035. This date, the ministry says, aligns with its “Future Ground Manoeuvre Concept program, which is assumed to replace Warrior from 2035.”
SECOND LIFE: The Chilean government is buying 18 F-16s from the Netherlands. The aircraft have undergone the Midlife Update program and are to be delivered starting next year. It is the second purchase of used F-16s from the Netherlands by Chile; the earlier deal was signed in 2006.
The United States needs to break out of its Cold War thinking about science and technology export control to benefit more from the global economy and defend itself in the new technological era, according to a recent study by the National Research Council (NRC). “The national security controls that regulate access to and export of science and technology are broken,” the report says. “As currently structured, many of these controls undermine our national and homeland security and stifle American engagement in the global economy, and in science and technology.”
CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: Denmark may be following the Netherlands in deferring new fighter acquisition, and a political controversy appears to be building in Norway over the government’s dismissal of the rival Saab Gripen Next Generation. Denmark’s defense minister, Soren Gade, told parliamentary auditors last week that the country would not sign a contract for a new fighter until 2012, and then only at a fixed price, according to national news agency Ritzau. Denmark is still looking at the Gripen NG and the Boeing Super Hornet as well as the JSF.
Eurofighter CEO Enzo Casolini believes the four partner nations will finally sign-off on the contract covering the initial batch of Tranche 3 Typhoon fighter aircraft, Tranche 3A, around the end of June.
During a wide-ranging talk May 27 in Washington, President Obama’s National Security Advisor James Jones said that recent actions by North Korea “do not, in and of themselves, constitute an imminent threat to our safety and security.” He said the North Koreans “still have a long way to go to weaponize the instrument and also to have a delivery system ...that’s obviously a very worst-case scenario and one we hope to avoid.”
CYBER PLANS: The White House will unveil a long-awaited cybersecurity plan May 29, although Obama administration officials are trying to temper expectations for what they now call an “early, comprehensive interagency review,” according to the administration’s top spokesman. “The report is an important first step toward securing our nation’s cyber infrastructure,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters earlier this week.
