Software for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s mission system has entered flight-testing on Lockheed Martin’s CATBird avionics test bed, a highly modified Boeing 737-300. The CATBird has begun testing the “flight candidate release” (FCR) software load that will be on the first mission-system test F-35, aircraft BF-4, when it flies in mid-2009. “These are the first flights of the full-up integrated software suite, working with the F-35 cockpit and displays in flight,” says Santi Bulnes, mission-system integrated product team lead.
The U.S. Army is planning to field a variety of unmanned aircraft soon, using about $300 million dedicated last summer to sending more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collectors to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army is expecting to field three new and 12 refurbished MQ-5B Hunter unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with new Greendart signals intelligence collection systems, said Col. Gregory Gonzales, project manager for Army UAS systems. He declined to provide details of the Greendart’s capabilities, citing security concerns.
PRECIOUS CARGO: Lockheed Martin has awarded a $6.26 million contract to BAE Systems to manufacture 26 Increased Crew Protection (ICP) cabs for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in a deal that also includes 26 cab up-armor appliqué kits. The cabs and appliqué kits are slated to replace unarmored cabs on U.S. Army and Marine HIMARS vehicles, and work is slated to be complete by March 2009.
PARIS – A twin-satellite Ariane 5 mission carrying Eutelsat’s W2M and Hot Bird 9 is poised for a Dec. 20 launch. The liftoff, initially set for Dec. 10, had to be pushed back because of logistics problems related to a strike near Arianespace’s Kourou, French Guiana launch center (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 9). W2M is the first telecom spacecraft to be built under a teaming arrangement between EADS Astrium and Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Integration of W2M into the Ariane 5 ECA adapter began on Dec. 8.
FIELD NOTES: The first Apache unit deployed with VUIT-2 (Video from Unmanned aircraft systems for Interoperability Teaming - Level II) is providing daily status updates on the demonstration system. As of Dec. 8, 23 of the 24 systems deployed were fully mission capable, according to Lt. Col. Robert Johnston, Apache Program Manager. The only hiccups so far have been from hardware integration issues, for which the Army has asked for funds to retrofit the kits so “they’re easier to maintain and less likely to break,” Johnston said Dec. 9.
NEW DELHI – Dassault Aviation and India’s Tata Technologies have signed an agreement for Tata subsidiary INCAT to provide Dassault with engineering services in support of the Indian Air Force’s Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program. The MMRCA program has 50 percent offset requirements. Dassault is one of the six bidders for the 126-aircraft program, thought to be valued at more than $10 billion. Flight trials are expected to start in May 2009.
The third time was the charm for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s attempts to deliver an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to North Dakota for border patrol duties. A General Atomics Predator B arrived at Grand Forks Air Force Base Dec. 6 after turbulence the previous day forced the drone to turn back to its base at Sierra Vista, Ariz. (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 8). Another attempt took place Dec. 4. “It had a very, very nice ride with absolutely no problems,” Juan Munoz Torres, a CBP spokesman, told Aerospace DAILY.
NAVIGATION SYSTEMS: The U.S. Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a $15.5 million delivery order, the fifth under a five-year contract, to provide technical, logistics and material support for navigation systems installed on Navy ships and submarines. Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit won the contract to supply material management, configuration management and program management services for the AN/WSN-7 inertial navigation systems, and the AN/BPS-15 and AN/BPS-16 submarine radar systems.
The United States needs to take the long view – a quarter-century long – of modern warfare to be prepared for changes in political, economic, technological, strategic and operational environments, according to a new report from U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM).
Pentagon acquisition chief John Young is directing the U.S. Air Force to restructure the multibillion dollar Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program. In a newly unveiled acquisition decision memorandum (ADM), he includes a stern note to “act immediately on this direction in order to make progress on TSAT and stop poorly using taxpayer dollars.”
TRADOC CHANGE: In a ceremony Dec. 8, Gen. (select) Martin E. Dempsey took command of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), replacing retiring Gen. William Wallace, who has been commander since October 2005. Dempsey has been serving as acting commander of U.S. Central Command since March 2008 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
Military planners responsible for finding space resources to support troops on the ground think the time may be ripe to advance the 40-year-old space solar power concept to help reduce the logistics train behind forward-deployed forces. The concept of collecting solar energy above the atmosphere and beaming it to the ground as microwaves or lasers has long been seen among military freethinkers as a way to get electricity to remote airfields, fire bases or other distant outposts without having to haul fuel for diesel generators.
Eco-Aviation and Fuel Management Viable strategies to drive meaningful cost reduction and improve operating efficiencies January 27-28, 2009 Sofitel Miami Miami, FL FEATURED SPEAKER: Pierre Girault VP QSE & Sustainable Development Air France Industries KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
ARMY EADS North American Defense, Arlington, Va., was awarded on Nov. 26, 2008, a $208,375,756 firm fixed price contract for funding of Program Year 04 of the Army’s Light Utility Helicopter contract for 39 Light Utility Helicopters. The work will be performed in Columbus, Miss., and Grand Prairie, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2010. USA Aviation & Missile Command, Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-06-C-0194).
Flight training of Iraqi air force helicopter pilots is slated to begin in mid-January now that the needed Bell Jet Ranger 206B rotorcraft have started arriving in country. The first five of the rotorcraft were brought to Iraq via C-17 this month to equip Iraqi air force Squadron 2 at Kirkuk, according to the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq, which is leading the effort to rebuild the Iraqi air force. Five more Jet Rangers already operating in Taji are going to be shifted to Kirkuk to augment Squadron 2.
SCHEDULE SHUFFLE: European Space Agency officials say launch of the Herschel-Planck infrared observatory/cosmic background observer mission aboard an Ariane 5 rocket has been set for April 11. The launch had been anticipated in late 2008/early 2009 but was deferred because of satellite technical issues. Two other Ariane missions also were delayed. Launch of Hot Bird 9/W2M was delayed indefinitely from Dec. 10 because of “logistics difficulties” related to a strike.
The emerging new world order will encompass a different class of global state players facing old threats with different twists, according to the National Intelligence Council (NIC).
Strong winds at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., have slowed progress as NASA tries to attach the space shuttle Endeavour to a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), and may force further delays to the ferry flight to Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
