VENICE, Italy – Underwriters say they do not think the space insurance sector is growing more litigious, despite the growing number of claims that are going to arbitration. “It’s true we’re seeing lots of arbitrations,” Peter Nesgos, a partner at Milbank, told the Pagnanelli space insurance conference here early this month. “We are taking a new look at the agreements and the wording in claims paid and seeing that much more precision is required.”
GATEWAY RFP DELAYED: A request for proposals for the U.S. Air Force’s Interim Airborne Gateway (IG) program to install a communications “bridge” on an unmanned aircraft has been delayed while the Defense Department reviews the acquisition strategy and funding. Installed on a 300-kt. cruise, 24-hour endurance UAV capable of flying at 45,000-60,000 feet – likely a Global Hawk – the IG payload would translate between dissimilar tactical datalinks and bridge between voice radios while acting as a forward server for data and imagery.
Claims that unknown attackers used Chinese Internet hosts as a conduit to break into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project to scoop up terabytes of design and electronic systems data are being denied by the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin – kind of.
UNMANNED CARGO HELO: An unmanned cargo helicopter could be deployed to Afghanistan by February 2010 or sooner as the result of a request for proposals issued by the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. The cargo unmanned aircraft system is required to lift 750-1,000 pounds at a 12,000-feet density altitude, reach 15,000 feet with a full cargo load and maintain 70 kt. airspeed to complete a 150 nautical mile round trip. Likely candidates are the Boeing A160T Hummingbird and Lockheed Martin/Kaman Unmanned K-Max.
PARTIAL SUCCESS: France’s newest nuclear ballistic missile carrying submarine, the Terrible, successfully completed an initial test firing of a dummy missile on April 18, although the mockup’s float system malfunctioned after launch. Defense ministry officials said the dummy, which is sized to represent the country’s new M51 missile, will be retrieved shortly to determine the cause of the malfunction and analyze test results. The Terrible, the fourth of the Triomphant class submarines, was launched in January and christened on March 21.
VIBRATION SENSOR: The Raytheon Company is set to begin work on a laser radar vibration sensor, or ladar vibrometer, that measures ground-surface vibrations by using electronic instructions for calculation and processing. The project is to be carried out under a $19 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the development and demonstration of technology that can detect and locate buried land mines and tunnels.
As the German military looks for a new air surveillance radar system, Rheinmetall and BAE Systems have joined forces to offer a joint bid. Rheinmetall would function as the prime contractor offering the BAE Systems Commander-SL radar system already in use with the Royal Air Force.
The Obama administration is making a mistake when it combines into one problem the dual risks of the massive U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue states or terrorists, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate says. “The administration risks muddying the issue and making it more difficult to address the true danger, which most people agree [is] the threat of nuclear Iran and North Korea and the threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists,” Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) said April 21.
SOLDIER ENSEMBLE: The U.S. Army has awarded one of three $12 million contracts to General Dynamics (GD) to design a new information-systems ensemble for soldiers to use during combat operations. The Ground Soldier Ensemble will feature built-in equipment that allows Army team leaders to access information about each other and their surroundings during a mission. The ensemble will have enough computing power to enable small groups to manipulate information critical for mission planning.
The Luftwaffe says the first few Eurofighter Typhoons of the Tranche 2 configuration have now been delivered to the Laage air base and assigned to the 73rd fighter wing “Steinhoff.” The aircraft, in the Block 8 standard, is a major upgrade from the Tranche 1 aircraft that the German unit has had in service so far. The computer architecture is greatly enhanced and the Tranche 2 aircraft also phases in air-to-ground capabilities. The Luftwaffe is to get 68 Tranche 2 aircraft, on top of the 44 Tranche 1s that Germany has acquired.
RAPIDEYE: RapidEye of Germany has named MakaLani of Hawaii as a U.S. distributor for its wide-area, high-revisit-frequency commercial geospatial imaging data. The five satellite RapidEye constellation, funded under a public private partnership, was launched on Aug. 29, 2008. It is aimed at agriculture, natural resources, insurance, security and other applications.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz’s tenure is starting to look like “a controlled flight into terrain” because other service senior leaders feel that Schwartz betrayed them by siding with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in terminating key air power programs without rigorous analysis, Lexington Institute defense expert Loren Thompson says.
Obama administration delays in setting out a clear space policy, with funding to go with it, appear to have rendered NASA plans to narrow the post-shuttle “gap” in U.S. human access to space out of date before they could be implemented.
Researchers at DLR, the German aerospace center, have provided independent verification of the latest Global Positioning System (GPS) signal. The capacity to broadcast the so-called L5 signal is provided by the GPS IIR(M)20 satellite launched March 24. The L5 broadcast is part of a validation effort, but also to assure that the U.S. keeps the spectrum allocation provided by the International Telecommunications Union. GPS IIF satellites are to feature the signal starting later this year.
Don’t expect China to trim military spending because of an economic downturn wrought by the worldwide financial crisis, a China expert says. Jacqueline Newmyer says it is not likely the economic squeeze will deter Beijing from more defense spending or expanding its role in world affairs. Newmyer, a civilian consultant to the Defense Department on East Asia, says China has seen double-digit growth in defense spending for the past several decades and history indicates it is unlikely to turn inward now. Navy a high-tech force
CZECH AIRLIFT: The Czech government plans to acquire four EADS Cases C-295M airlifters to replace its four Antonov An-26s. The deal foresees the Czech Republic trading in five Aero Vodochody L-159s to help cover the costs of one of the airlifters, with the other three bought directly, the Czech defense ministry says. The acquisition is to be completed by the end of 2011.
NEW DELHI – The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) used a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C12) early April 20 to launch RISAT-2, a 300-kg radar imaging satellite. The satellite was built with Israeli technology in a hurry-up effort to improve India’s reconnaissance capabilities over Pakistan in the wake of last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai. Liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island on the Bay of Bengal came at 6:45 a.m. local time (9:15 p.m. April 19 EDT).
April 20 saw contrasting fortunes for launch attempts from the Pacific, with Sea Launch successfully placing Telespazio’s SICRAL 1B communications satellite into a transfer orbit while Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) was forced to delay launch of its first commercial payload due to a potential compatibility issue between the Falcon 1 vehicle and the payload.
