The economic landscape beyond fiscal 2010 may “not be as rosy as projected,” according to Pentagon budget chief Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, requiring belt-tightening of the nation’s defense budget.
A Monroe Doctrine for cyberspace — defining what constitutes an attack on America — may not be far off, contend some of the nation’s top officials with responsibility for network operations. But before anything else happens, the White House must define its role in network operation, which is expected to be the product of a 60-day review that is under way. “I think that is the first step,” said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and a candidate to lead a new cyber command.
JAYHAWK EDGE: U.S. Air Force T-1A Jayhawks are to be upgraded with simulated sensors, countermeasures and weapon systems to improve navigation/electronic-warfare officer training. Two instructor stations will be added to manage the simulated combat systems. Camber will lead the upgrade program, with Stevens Aviation modifying the aircraft in Dayton, Ohio.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking $19.1 million in the fiscal 2010 Homeland Security Department budget to hire more pilots, boat operators and support personnel. Included in the $11.4 billion CBP request — at 20 percent, the largest chunk of its parent department’s budget — CPB Air & Marine is seeking money to hire 68 pilots. Air & Marine says it plans to expand its capabilities across the 5,000-mile northern border as well as on, and over, coastal waters.
PHANTOM RAY: Boeing on May 8 unveiled the Phantom Ray — a version of its defunct X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle prototype. The company is using its own internal research and development funding for flight tests of the demonstrator, slated for late 2010 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The X-45 lost the Navy-led Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) program to Northrop Grumman’s X-47 in 2007. Exclusive photos of the aircraft appear in Aviation Week’s May 11 issue and more information can be found online at www.aviationweek.com.
MANTIS: BAE Systems is aiming to fly the Mantis medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle before the end of this month, says Kevin Taylor, managing director of the company’s Military Air Solutions business unit. The Mantis technology demonstrator is being jointly funded by the Defense Ministry and industry. The air vehicle is now at the Woomera range in Australia.
LOS ANGELES Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) hopes to reschedule a second launch attempt of the delayed Malaysian RazakSAT Earth resource satellite as early as next month, pending the availability of the Reagan missile test range in the Pacific Ocean and clearance of a suitable launch window.
GOING VERTICAL: XCOR Aerospace is refining the aerodynamic design of its Lynx suborbital launch vehicle and preparing for another round of wind tunnel tests following completion of initial subsonic testing at the U.S. Air Force Air Vehicle Directorate’s vertical wind tunnel at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
LONDON The British Defense Ministry is dumping a project examining sweeping consolidation of helicopter basing as a result of the potential costs of the program. Program Belvedere has been considering options such as the possible co-location of the Joint Helicopter Command’s support helicopters, with Royal Air Force Lyneham as a candidate site
STATION RESUPPLY: NASA can proceed with its effort to develop and fly commercial vehicles to resupply the International Space Station, now that an industry protest has been dismissed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). In January, Chicago-based PlanetSpace — which includes Lockheed Martin, ATK and Boeing — protested its loss of $3.5 billion in contracts under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program to rivals Orbital Sciences Corp (OSC) and SpaceX.
Hawker Beechcraft expects to fly the AT-6B counterinsurgency (COIN) aircraft in late June, but is shifting focus to emerging U.S. irregular-warfare requirements because of delays to an Iraqi order for the armed turboprop trainer. Congress was notified in December of the proposed $520 million sale of 36 AT-6B Texan IIs to the Iraqi air force, but falling oil prices have hit Baghdad’s defense budget and an order has been delayed.
MOSCOW The Russian government has approved the consolidation of more than 20 aerospace radar and avionics companies to create a single entity responsible for producing land, air and space surveillance, reconnaissance and C2 systems.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is concerned about the Obama administration’s plans to cut Missile Defense Agency spending by $1.4 billion, but he doesn’t see trimming the planned increase in Army and Marine Corps end strength as a tradeoff.
WARRIOR OVERHAUL: Bell Helicopter and the U.S. Army soon will begin to work through the many elements of Life Support 2020, a program that will extend the service life of the Kiowa Warrior OH-58D with sensor, safety and platform upgrades. The first task is to place a Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) ball on the nose of the aircraft and remove the sensor ball from the mast, which may require some rebalancing of the aircraft’s center of gravity and a skid extension so the FLIR ball doesn’t scrape the ground.
LORAL TAPPED: Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. has picked Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to build AsiaSat 5C, a new satellite that will serve as a backup for AsiaSat 5, currently under construction at SS/L for launch in the third quarter. The move will ensure service continuity for customers using AsiaSat 2, which AsiaSat 5 is intended to replace, in the event of a launch failure. The application the new spacecraft will serve if the launch is successful was not specified.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 12 - 14 — EBACE, Geneva PALEXPO, Geneva, Switzerland For more information go to http://www.ebace.aero/2009/ May 12 - 14 — Joint Warfighting Conference 2009, “Building A Balanced Joint Force: How Best To Meet Demands of the Future Security Environment?” Virginia Beach, Va. Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va. For more information go to www.jointwarfighting.org
SURGE AND RESCUE: Boeing will have to reconfigure its Chinook helicopter production line in Ridley Park, Penn., to reflect Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recommendation that a combat search and rescue helicopter replacement be postponed until a more multi-service platform can be competed. “The fact that CSAR isn’t a program that will continue in the near-term threw a monkey wrench into building planning,” says director of Chinook programs Jack Daugherty. “We’re figuring out what capacity we need.” The company is currently building 3 CH-47s a month.
The expert panel set up to review human spaceflight options for the Obama administration is likely to produce at least one alternative to the present space shuttle follow-on, according to the panel’s chairman. Former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine said May 8 the panel will start with an examination of the Ares I/Orion crew vehicles now in development to replace the shuttle after it is retired in 2010, and probably won’t generate many different options (Aerospace DAILY, May 8).
NICE RECOVERY: Utah’s congressional delegation has announced the U.S. Army is to consolidate all system-integration and production-acceptance testing for its Hunter, Shadow and Sky Warrior unmanned aircraft systems at Dugway Proving Ground in the state’s western desert. This will somewhat offset the embarrassment that followed the delegation’s March announcement the U.S.
VERTICALLY CHALLENGED: The first vertical landing by the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter is now expected in September. Aircraft BF-1 is to begin short takeoff and vertical landing mode transitions in flight “in the next few weeks,” Lockheed Martin says, then it will be ferried to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., to continuing “building down” to lower airspeed until it is in hover. The company says the delay in the first vertical landing will not have a “meaningful impact” on the program.
TURBULENCE AHEAD: If contractors find the fiscal 2010 budget process to have been painful at the Pentagon, they should brace for FY ‘11, according to military and industry sources. Initial phases of the FY ‘11 budget are now underway, with the service major commands forming initial funding proposals. Those will eventually be collated in the Pentagon late this year in advance of a February delivery to Congress. But FY ‘11 will be the first year where funding is expected to level off, according to these sources.
