Many of the technology export and visa controls designed to protect U.S. national and economic security during the Cold War no longer do either task and should be streamlined by President-elect Barack Obama, according to a new report by the National Academies’ National Research Council.
ORLANDO, Fla. – NASA is preparing for the final stage of outfitting of the International Space Station (ISS), which will transition it from an assembly project to a full-fledged orbiting research laboratory. “In May 2009 we will go to six crew, which is a huge transition,” said Julie Robinson, NASA ISS project scientist. The station has gradually been built up from a 3kW, single-module structure with no permanent crew in 1998 to a 63kW, eight-module vehicle with three crew members in 2008.
MARINE VEHICLES: Oshkosh Defense has been awarded an addition to an existing contract with U.S. Marine Corps System Command for more than 425 next-generation Logistics Vehicle System Replacements (LVSR) and more than 170 add-on armor kits. The contract order, valued at $176 million, will transition the LVSR Cargo variants from low-rate initial production into full-rate production and also calls for more than 270 weapon-mount kits. The LVSR variants produced under this delivery order include cargo, wrecker and fifth-wheel trucks.
The U.S. Defense Department has failed to recognize the psychological and political importance of U.S. deterrent forces, according to a congressionally chartered commission examining the nation’s strategic posture. “Deterrence is in the eye of the beholder,” according to James Schlesinger, chairman of the Task Force on DOD Nuclear Weapons Management. Schlesinger presented the panel’s findings at the Pentagon Jan. 8.
It would be a mistake to drop development of the Ares I crew launch vehicle in favor of a human-rated Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), NASA Administrator Michael Griffin argued Jan. 8 in a detailed defense of the outgoing Bush administration’s human spaceflight policy. But he said it might be possible to close the gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability by spending extra money to continue flying the space shuttle beyond 2010, and to accelerate Ares I development to make it available before 2015.
TURKISH COUGARS: Safran’s Turbomeca unit has signed a deal with the Turkish defense ministry to set up a repair and overhaul center for Maikila 1A1 turboshafts. The award, for turboshafts mounted on 50 Cougar helicopters acquired in the 1990s, covers repairs up to Level 4. The center will be located at the Eskisehir plant of Tusas Engine Industries, where all government repair work is concentrated.
Space Adventures, the Virginia firm that arranges for well-heeled tourists to fly to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz vehicles, is booking a “VIP Launch Tour” for slightly less well-heeled tourists who want to see Charles Simonyi off on its second orbital trip.
A rare but not unprecedented “space weather Katrina” could cost the global economy $1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year afterward as society’s dependence on space and terrestrial networks that are vulnerable to solar weather continues to grow, a new federally commissioned science report says.
FROM RUSSIA: Indonesia has started taking delivery of a new tranche of advanced Sukhoi fighters. Sukhoi says two Su-30MK2s were delivered in late December from the KnAAPO production facility at Kosomolsk-on-Amur. In 2007, Indonesia agreed to buy three dual-seat Su-30MK2s and three single-seat Su-27SKMs. The third Su-30MK2 is due for handover soon, with the Su-27 deliveries scheduled to start later this year and run into 2010, according to Sukhoi.
A key provider of electronic warfare (EW) technology for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter anticipates a complicated environment when it comes to export sales of the stealthy strike aircraft.
NORTHROP REDUX: Northrop Grumman said Jan. 7 it reorganized its business into five units from seven. The company’s Integrated Systems and Space Technology units were combined to form a new Aerospace Systems sector that will be led by Gary Ervin. The Information Technology and Mission Systems units were combined to form a new Information Systems sector led by Linda Mills. Northrop also appointed Alexis Livanos as chief technology officer, a position that will focus on development of new technologies.
As the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama gets set to study possible plans for the second increment of the VH-71 presidential helicopter, contractor Lockheed Martin says the program is on schedule to have mission systems flying on the first increments by March or April.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Preliminary findings of an investigation into the August 2008 loss of NASA’s HyBOLT (hypersonic boundary layer transition) rocket-boosted experimental project suggest a software fault was to blame. HyBOLT was aimed at gathering data on transition flow physics – one of the fundamental areas of mystery in the high-speed atmospheric flight regime – but was cut short 20 seconds after liftoff from NASA’s Wallops Island, Va., test site when the ATK-provided ALV X-1 booster went out of control (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 25, 2008).
British government support to help U.K. industry secure work on the next-generation of narrow-body aircraft was high on the agenda in a Jan. 7 meeting between industry lobbyists and Peter Mandelson, the government minister for business. Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) President Alex Dorrian (and CEO of Thales UK), and SBAC Chief Executive Ian Godden met with Mandelson to “discuss the U.K.’s position...in propulsion (aero engines) and aero structures, especially wing manufacture,” according to the SBAC.
U.S. supremacy in aerospace is being threatened, according to a new study issued by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), and the organization is proposing solutions and pressing the incoming Obama administration to help.
INDIAN UPGRADES: India said it has completed the avionics upgrade of its MiG-27 aircraft. The Defense Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), under the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), claims “the effort was realized using entirely indigenous expertise at a fraction of cost.” The project was initiated in 2002 through a deal between DARE, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and the Indian air force. The avionics system is built around a modular mission computer called the Core Avionics Computer (CAC), developed by DARE.
SAT CHAT: Boeing has proclaimed that it reconfigured an on-orbit U.S. Navy satellite, adding 30 percent more communications capability. The satellite, the 11th in the Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) series built by Boeing, was launched in 2003 and supports the Navy’s global communications network, serving ships at sea and a variety of other U.S. military fixed and mobile terminals. According to Boeing, UFO 11 has the most sophisticated digital signal processor in the constellation.
The head of the U.S. State Department’s counterterrorism office says Leon Panetta, President-elect Barack Obama’s reported pick to head the CIA, “comes with the right skills.” While Obama has yet to officially announce his choices for top intelligence positions, Democratic officials have been widely reported as saying Panetta, a former California congressman, White House chief of staff and head of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, will get the director of central intelligence position.
Boeing has responded to a U.S. Army call for sources sought for its restarted Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program with two alternatives: Boeing’s newly named AH-6S Phoenix and an aircraft the company has loosely nicknamed an Apache “Lite.”
Nuclear terrorism poses a “growing threat” to the United States, according to initial findings from a congressionally chartered commission examining the nation’s strategic posture. In an interim report, the 12-member panel also cautions that if Iran and North Korea continue unchecked in developing nuclear arsenals, it could lead to a “tipping point” in nuclear weapons proliferation.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley has signed into effect a document the service says will function as the blueprint for its energy initiatives, especially for cutting demand, boosting supply and changing the air service’s energy usage habits.
DAGR SHOT: Lockheed Martin announced Jan. 6 it has successfully conducted the first live warhead ground test launch of the Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR) guidance kit for the 2.75-inch rocket. The test, conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., demonstrated DAGR’s vehicle penetration and time-delayed fuzing feature, according to the company. The DAGR-equipped rocket, armed with a live warhead, was fired at a stationary vehicle, penetrating the vehicle before detonating inside.
SATCOM SOLUTION: The U.S. Army has awarded DataPath $100 million to manufacture and integrate Ka-band conversion kits and provide spares kits that will enable satellite transportable terminals (STTs) and other systems on the battlefield to operate using the Wideband Global SatCom (WGS) system. The satellite communications terminals being converted were designed and built by DataPath and deployed by the Army for the Joint Network Node (JNN)/Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program.
