HELO CARRIER: France has ordered a third command ship-helicopter carrier to augment its force projection capability. The 21,000-metric-ton displacement vessel, which also carries intensive care surgical units, amphibious landing craft and troops, will be built by STX France and DCNS with funding from a 2.4 billion euro aerospace and defense economic stimulus package approved late last year. The first two ships were delivered in 2006 and 2007.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. – On the day the amphibious-assault ship Makin Island (LHD-8) was delivered to the U.S. Navy here, the president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding defended his work force’s craftsmanship skills against recent accusations by lawmakers and other critics. “It misplaces the discussion to say it’s a craftsmanship issue,” Mike Petters told reporters April 16. “This is about making sure you have requirements set right.”
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a cost plus award fee contract with Northrop Grumman Mission Systems of Clearfield, Utah, for $33,263,356. The action will provide sustainment support for the Minuteman weapon systems. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 526 ICBMSG/PKE, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity. (F42610-98-C-0001, modification number has not been assigned). NAVY
ARMOR JOINS ATK: Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. James Armor Jr. has joined Alliant Techsystems as vice president of strategy and business development for spacecraft systems and engineering services at ATK Space Systems. A former director of the National Security Space Office, Armor will be responsible for all strategic direction and related activities in the company’s Spacecraft Systems and Services unit.
The British government is coming under pressure to clarify whether the Treasury – its finance ministry – is balking at the approval of funding for Tranche 3 of the Eurofighter Typhoon. A four-nation deal covering a split buy – including allowing the U.K. to offset some of its commitment against deliveries to Saudi Arabia – was thought to have been agreed upon.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is awarding a cost-reimbursement, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to the University of Dayton Research Institute of Dayton, Ohio, for $15,100,000. The contract action will enable the quick reaction evaluation of materials and processes. At this time, $154,133 has been obligated. Det 1 AFRL/PKMN, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-09-D-5600). NAVY
SUB SAT LAUNCH: South African press reports say a submarine-launched Russian Shtil-1 rocket will orbit a SumbandilaSat, a South African technology microsatellite, in June. To be launched from beneath the Barents Sea, the 80-kilogram spacecraft is intended to provide 6.25 meter resolution imagery for environmental and resource management applications. The Shtil-1 successfully orbited Russia’s Compas-2 earthquake prediction satellite in 2006, although the spacecraft subsequently developed problems in orbit.
SES Astra and Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. of Abu Dhabi will create a joint venture to offer direct-to-home TV services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and southwest Asia. Yahsat is investing more than $1.7 billion in a privately owned, dual-use satcom company intended to serve commercial and government customers in the Gulf and surrounding regions. The investment includes two large Ka-/Ku/-C-band spacecraft and an extensive ground network being supplied by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates justified the thinking behind dramatic cuts to the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program at the Army War College, wrapping up a week-long trip that resembled a defense budget public relations blitz. “The FCS vehicle program was, despite some adjustments, designed using the same basic assumptions as when FCS was first designed nine years ago,” he told students at the War College on April 16.
The world’s largest orbiting camera has returned its “first light” images of a star field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way, including a telescopic view of a star called TrES-2 with a known Jupiter-sized planet orbiting it every 2.5 days. NASA’s release of the first images from the Kepler mission, which is dedicated to finding planets orbiting sun-like stars, comes as the spacecraft’s science team continues instrument checkout of its 95 megapixel camera.
SPACE-X PICKED: A pair of Argentine L-band synthetic aperture radar satellites intended to form part of an Argentine-Italian disaster management network will be launched by Space-X’s Falcon 9. The launches, first mentioned by Space-X CEO Elon Musk last month, will raise the number of missions on the Falcon 9 manifest to 21, even though the vehicle is not expected to make its inaugural flight until this summer.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 21 — AVIATION WEEK Management Forums, 2009 Lean Six Sigma For Military, Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Grapevine/Dallas, Texas. For more information go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences
Calling the move unprecedented, outgoing Pentagon acquisitions chief John Young told reporters at a roundtable April 17 that General Dynamics will build the second of three DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyers under a fixed-price contract. Young also said he would press Northrop Grumman for a fixed-price contract on the DDG-51 destroyers, whose production will be restarted at the company’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. “I’ve felt like when you understand the risk, you should push for a [fixed-price] contract,” Young said.
INTELLIGENT CAREER: The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence is seeking about 30 “highly motivated” graduate students and college seniors interested in careers in intelligence analysis to study and work with current intel analysts for an “intensive” two-week residential seminar. The seminar, ODNI’s first, will be July 13-24 in Washington and will address political instability and international systems in transition. Students who qualify will receive secret-level security clearances for the duration of the seminar.
LES MUREAUX, France – EADS Astrium officials are urging that Europe begin preparing a design for a medium-lift launch vehicle that could provide an eventual replacement for the Russian-built Soyuz.
CYBER VS. EW: Defense Secretary Robert Gates says cyber warfare is going to be “one of the significant new realms of conflict.” He tells students at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., he plans to establish a sub-unified cyber command within Strategic Command that would involve the National Security Agency and various other entities. Gates plans to “significantly increase” the training of cyber experts. We graduate about 80 students a year from our cyber-schools right now. We’re going to quadruple that by fiscal 2011,” he said.
FIRST FLIGHT SLIP: The first flight of the first carrier-capable F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, aircraft CF-1, has slipped to December, from October, because of parts deliveries. The U.S. Navy’s F-35C is the last of the three JSF variants to fly. Despite the slip, Lockheed Martin says the schedule still supports the overall flight-test plan and initial operational capability in 2015.
The increase in contractor bid protests of Pentagon contract awards in fiscal 2008 should raise little cause for alarm, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
TORNADO TOUCHDOWN: The United Kingdom plans to withdraw the bulk of its remaining Tornado F3 air defense aircraft starting in September as a savings measure. The country will keep the ability to field 12 aircraft for the air defense role until the fighter type is withdrawn from service at the end of March 2011. A total of 35 aircraft are available to provide air defense and quick-reaction alert (north) tasks, based out of RAF Leuchars in the east of Scotland.
‘UNDER THE GUN’: The three-stage ballistic missile North Korea launched April 5 went higher and farther than originally believed. The Taepodong-2 missile traveled 3,230 kilometers before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The rocket’s flight path indicated it was carrying a satellite and separated in its final two stages, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said last week. “The performance of this vehicle was far better than we realized,” says Charles P. Vick, a senior technical analyst with Globalsecurity.org.
