TALKING TRADE: Trade officials in Washington and Brussels are having informal talks on a range of issues, including the continuing U.S.-European Union battle over the aircraft subsidies that each side alleges the other gives to its respective aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus. European officials are trying to assess whether Ron Kirk, the new U.S. Trade Representative, may be agreeable to opening a discussion on the issue to avoid continuing with the World Trade Organization legal battle, industry officials say.
SATELLITE SHIPPED: Boeing has shipped the IndoStar II/ ProtoStar II/ telecom satellite to Baikonur, Kazakhstan for a Proton M launch in May. The Boeing 601-based Ku-/S-band spacecraft will replace Indonesia’s aging Indostar I while providing additional direct-to-home capacity for Protostar, a Bermuda based startup that is supplying broadcasting services throughout southeast Asia. Protostar has also concluded a preliminary agreement with PLDT/Mabuhay of the Philippines to use its Agila 2 spacecraft as Protostar III.
As the U.S. Air Force gets ready to recapitalize its current combat, search and rescue (CSAR) fleet, service and industry officials are hoping that history will repeat itself and the Defense Department will again realize the importance and need for a more modern dedicated CSAR fleet.
DUTCH DECISION: The Netherlands parliament this week is expected to decide whether the country should go ahead with buying two test F-35As. But a decision on a production buy would not come until later. The F-35 procurement has met stiff opposition in parliament. The Dutch research agency, NLR, also is to provide a noise assessment on JSF. One of the sticking points for F-35 opponents is the lack of a firm purchase price for F-35s.
CARRIER ORDERED: 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 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 2006-07.
NASA is not getting enough money to hold the so-called “gap” in U.S. human access to space to five years, and even if it does get more funding it may not be able to improve the situation much, two reports issued April 16 suggest.
SAN FRANCISCO – After years of talk that space-based electrical energy generation could aid everyone from troops on the battlefield to homemakers in the kitchen, a Northern California utility has become the first customer of a Southern California satellite startup that says it can deliver space solar power (SSP).
Defense analyst and author Robert Kaplan says the security situation in Europe, Asia and the Middle East has become complicated by increasing population and less space, specifically pointing out that in Eurasia, “every country from Israel to Korea with the exception of Iraq” has managed to build some kind of ballistic missile capability. And given the constrained geographic area, these “missile ranges overlap with each other. There’s no room to breathe, there’s no room to move.”
Japan’s SkyPerfectJSAT Corp. has ordered its seventh Lockheed Martin A2100 communications satellite for the JCSAT program and second since December. Launch of JCSAT-13 is set for 2013. To be located at 124-deg. East longitude, the spacecraft will use the A2100AX platform and have an all Ku-band payload of 44 fixed high-power communications channels. Up- and downlinks are to provide coverage over Japan, Asia and Oceana. Two steerable antennas will be used for new and emerging markets.
GENOA, Italy – Italian defense export license applications are on the rise, indicating continued growth in overseas sales that were already up 39% last year to €1.77 billion ($2.33 billion), according to the annual government report sent to the Parliament this month. Italy is increasing its stake in the world defense export market notwithstanding strict export regulations, and the trend is going to continue in the next few years since the volume of the export authorization licenses is steadily increasing.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems asked to make two corrections to the interview about the company’s new, stealthy Predator C Avenger UAV (DAILY, April 16). The correct dimensions of the aircraft are 41 ft. in length with a 66 ft. wingspan. The V-tail consists of two all-flying vertically-oriented fins each with twin servos for redundancy.
PARIS – A new lawsuit is threatening to add fuel to a protracted legal battle pitting minority investors in ImageSat International, operator of Israel’s Eros imaging satellites, against ImageSat’s industrial shareholders.
NEW DELHI – Dassault Aviation’s Rafale has been booted from competition for India’s 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA). This leaves the Boeing F/A-18, Lockheed Martin F-16, Eurofighter Typhoon, RSK MiG-35 and Saab Gripen in the race. All the contenders were awaiting word from the Indian defense ministry on final dates for field trials, which they hoped would be this summer. Currently, officials seem to still disagree.
TRACKING MONEY: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that while he is canceling the $87 billion manned ground vehicle program under the Army’s Future Combat Systems, he is keeping the $87 billion in the Army’s multiyear budget plan so the service can begin working on a new vehicle modernization program.
LOS ANGELES – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has signed an agreement with Conae, Argentina’s National Commission on Space Activity, to launch two Earth observation satellites on the company’s Falcon 9.
GROUNDED: If there was any confusion about U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s position on the possibility of a split buy of Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force, he is taking pains to fix it. “I am laying my body down across the tracks” in opposition to it, he told an audience of officers at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., on April 15. The response was vigorous applause.
FORT RUCKER, Ala. – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is defending his plan to trim $1.4 billion in research projects from the Missile Defense Agency’s annual budget, in turn boosting spending for production of Raytheon SM-3 interceptors and the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
DESTROYER POLICY: A U.S. Navy spokesperson said the service has “arrived at a plan that most affordably meets the requirements for Navy surface combatants…and provides significant stability for the industrial base.” The Navy is publicly declaring its support for Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s April 6 recommendations regarding the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and the DDG-51 destroyer. Gates suggested all three DDG-1000 hulls be built at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine and the DDG-51 production be restarted at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi.
BRAZILIAN BOATS: Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit was recently awarded a contract to supply navigation systems for two new 500-ton patrol boats for the Brazil navy. The navigation systems include a complete integrated bridge system tailored to the space constraints and operational requirements of the Brazilian coast patrol boats. The two NAPA 500-class patrol boats are scheduled for delivery in 2009. Four additional ships of the same class have already been approved, and the Brazil navy has plans to order a total of eight such vessels this year.
May 6-7, 2009 Hilton Suites Chicago Magnificent Mile Chicago, IL Proven Tactics on Bird Strike Risk Mitigation Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/events or call +1.212.904.4483. Click here to view the pdf
PARIS – Airbus has completed the process of subsuming the Military Transport Aircraft Division of its parent EADS, thus giving the civilian aircraft maker oversight of the A330 tanker, A400M, C-295 and CN-235 airlifters. The creation of Airbus Military comes after an EADS board decision in December to try to improve management of its big military programs, particularly owing to continued problems on the A400M military transport.
FORT RUCKER, Ala. – U.S. Army officials are short of meeting their annual requirement to produce helicopter pilots by about 300, says Gen. Martin Dempsey, who oversees the service’s Training and Doctrine Command. The Pentagon requests 1,498 pilots annually to graduate from training here. However, the service is now producing about 1,200 pilots per year. The shortage is partly due to anemic funding for pilot training. Gates highlights importance
