FRENCH EXPORTS: French Defense Minister Herve Morin says France exported 6.3 billion euros worth of military hardware last year, up from 5.5 billion euros in 2007 and the most since 2000. Morin predicted the turnaround last autumn, attributing it to streamlined export procedures put in place in 2006 and reinforced last year, along with greater and more concerted high-level political support, but final figures were not yet in.
GENOA, Italy – NATO has selected the Sicilian base of Sigonella, Italy, as the main operating base for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) fleet of Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Block 40 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
UNMANNED NAVIGATION: The Rockwell Collins Athena 411 Inertial Navigation, Global Positioning, Air Data, Attitude, Heading, Reference System (INIS/GPS/ADAHRS) has been selected by AeroVironment for its Global Observer. The Global Observer, a liquid hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft, will fly at an altitude of 65,000 feet for up to seven days for the U.S. Special Operations Command as well as for other military and civilian applications.
As President Barack Obama met with top officials from his national security team Jan. 21, one of the biggest tasks awaiting his administration is continuing the fights in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously making sure the military is equipped to meet future threats.
SWEDISH RADIO: Rockwell Collins, in support of a major demonstration being conducted by the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV), recently conducted a mobile, ad hoc networking demonstration of the Tactical Data Radio System (TDRS) Software Defined Radio (SDR). The demo is part of a program to provide SDRs to support the Swedish Armed Forces initiative to develop a Network Based Defense structure. The SDR system consists of modular, open architecture hardware and software components, and hosts a customized, high-data rate, networked waveform.
PARIS – France and Australia are poised to deploy the Tiger helicopter to Afghanistan in what would be the aircraft’s first operational use in theater. Eurocopter CEO Lutz Bertling said Jan. 20 that the French army will send an undisclosed number of Tigers to the Afghan front this spring-summer. The army has been pressing armaments agency DGA to conclude qualification of the French HAP and German UHT anti-armor variants of the Tiger to permit a deployment to central or eastern Afghanistan.
Russia’s Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems company (previously known as NPO PM) has won a turnkey contract to develop and deliver on orbit the TELKOM 3 telecommunication satellite for the Indonesian operator PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. Launch to geostationary orbit is scheduled by mid-2011. The 1,600-kilogram satellite, with 32 C-band transponders and 10 Ku-band transponders, will be based on a Reshetnev’s medium-class “Express-1000N” platform. The TELKOM 3 payload will deliver 5.6 kW, and the spacecraft will have a targeted lifetime of 15 years.
The U.S. Army is engaged in a holistic evaluation of its modernization and procurement plans, including Future Combat Systems (FCS), its vice chief of staff asserts.
The Pentagon is not expecting to conduct a formal fiscal 2010 budget rollout, which would normally take place Feb. 2, according to a defense official. Government agencies and departments are required by law to transmit their budget plans to Congress on the first Monday in February. However, that rule was waived by the Bush administration’s White House Office of Management and Budget last April to allow time for the new administration to craft its own budget. The waiver applies to all federal agencies and departments.
MOSCOW – Sukhoi has completed deliveries of Su-30MK2 multirole dual-seat fighters to Indonesia, with the third aircraft carried aboard an Antonov-An-124 transport to the Sultan Hasanuddin air force base in Makassar, south of Sulawesi island, on Jan. 18. The fighters were manufactured at Sukhoi’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur KnAAPO plant.
In a Jan. 15 DAILY article on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the quote attributed to Ronald O’Rourke of the Congressional Research Service was a paraphrasing of the U.S. Navy’s position on LCS oversight, and not his own opinion.
ARMY Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., was awarded on Jan. 9, 2009, a $75,509,000 firm fixed price contract for Patriot missile system radar upgrade kits. Work will be performed in Andover, Mass., and El Paso, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited on Aug. 26, 2008. Aviation and Missile Command Contracting Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-09-G-0001). AIR FORCE
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Northrop Grumman believes NASA’s upcoming exploitation of the Global Hawk autonomous unmanned air vehicle for science missions will pave the way for regular unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations in controlled airspace and possibly lead to dedicated commercial applications.
Losing bidder PlanetSpace has filed a protest of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) awards to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. Under contracts awarded earlier this month totaling $3.5 billion, SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., and Orbital of Dulles, Va., will launch unpiloted vehicles to deliver pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the International Space Station (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 5). Chicago-based PlanetSpace, which includes Lockheed Martin, ATK and Boeing, proposed the space shuttle-derived Athena III for station resupply.
The U.S. Navy’s formal decision to base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla. has generated heated debate in Congress.
Lockheed Martin is hoping to get out ahead of the curve with its manned-optional small tactical craft (STC), sized for the new Littoral Combat Ship’s (LCS) mission packages.
Several senior Republican posts on the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittees have been rearranged with new faces — and priorities — to match an enlarged Democratic majority and reduced Republican presence for the 111th Congress.
LONDON — The British Defense Ministry is examining whether to delay the point at which it commits financially to production of some weapon systems to allow time for more risk reduction. While senior ministry officials contend that progress is being made on improving time and cost performance on procurement programs, delays and cost overruns continue to occur.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office made its first use of the big United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle to launch an advanced electronic eavesdropping satellite toward geosynchronous orbit Jan. 17.
In the midst of arguments over the recent U.S. Navy selection of Naval Air Station Mayport as the home of the next nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Northrop Grumman announced Jan. 15 is has received a $374 million contract for construction preparation for the carrier CVN 79.
