General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has quietly rolled out its new Avenger unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) – formerly known as the Predator C – and completed its first three flights on April 4, 13 and 14. While company officials are not calling it a stealthy aircraft, they will admit to a reduced radar signature. The 20-hour-endurance UCAV’s undeniably low-observable design offers clues about how it could be employed.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has named Betty Sapp as the new principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to defense and intelligence officials. Sapp is currently the acquisition and resource director for the under secretary of defense for intelligence. She has held that position while Gates has pushed for more fielding of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance resources to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The next “decadal” survey of the U.S. planetary-science community will consider the technical maturity and cost of space missions, as well as their scientific value in setting priorities, applying lessons learned from the delayed Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Steve Squyres, principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rovers and chairman of the 2009-2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, told prospective members of the panels that will set goals for the coming decade that the outcome “may be the most important one in decades for Mars exploration.”
ISOLATED ADVOCACY: Congressional auditors are again calling for the Pentagon to reinvigorate high-level leadership necessary to promote interagency coordination to build up Guam militarily and otherwise. Only the Defense Department can “marshal” the federal attention needed to provide the money, people, goods and services required to meet a military growth spurt there, the Government Accountability Office reported to lawmakers last week.
NASA has decided to call Node 3 on the International Space Station “Tranquility,” despite an outpouring of public support for naming the pressurized module after television comedian Steven Colbert. “Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 years ago this July,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations. “We selected ‘Tranquility’ because it ties it to exploration and the moon and symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station.”
FREE LASER: The U.S. Navy awarded Boeing and Raytheon contracts to develop the Free Electron Laser (FEL) weapon system. Under the $6.9 million task orders, within a contract valued at up to $163 million, they will each complete the preliminary design of a 100kw electric-powered FEL demonstrator. Boeing says it will partner with U.S. Department of Energy labs, academia and industry partners to design the eventual megawatt-class ship-based laser weapon. FELs can operate across a range of wavelengths, making them better suited to maritime environments.
Former U.S. Navy Secretary Donald Winter advised the international community not to rule out land strikes against so-called “supporting elements” in response to continued piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Winter was careful to characterize his advice when he addressed a group at the American Enterprise Institute on April 14.
SMART DEAL: A spin-off of the University of California’s Computer Science Department nurtured on contracts from the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has landed a “strategic investment, technology development program and licensing agreement” with intelligence-firm incubator In-Q-Tel. Financial details were not provided. Under the deal, Geosemble Technologies will further develop its geospatial data integration and layering technology for both the government and commercial markets for users of aerial reconnaissance imagery.
ITALIAN JOB: Northrop Grumman has been selected by Alenia Aermacchi to supply a newly designed navigation system for the M-346 advanced fighter trainer aircraft. The M-346 was recently selected as the winner in a United Arab Emirates lead-in fighter trainer and light attack aircraft competition. Northrop Grumman Italia will supply the aircraft transducer unit that uses a quadruple redundant installation of the company’s LISA-200 fiber-optic gyro attitude and heading reference unit.
Lockheed Martin says the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite for the constellation to replace Milstar is on track following a 1.5-month systems-verification test in thermal vacuum conditions. The company now has four of the 9,200-pound AEHF spacecraft in process, including AEHF-1, which is due for its final thermal vacuum tests to begin April 30. Following that, it will undergo a final integrated systems test prior to shipment in the first quarter of 2010 to the U.S. Air Force for launch.
Space shuttle managers probably will begin closing down the program next month, absent an unlikely infusion of funds to keep it going after assembly of the International Space Station is completed next year.
NEW DELHI – Re-endorsement by the Obama administration and U.S. congressional acquiescence is helping Boeing provide India with eight P8-I aircraft, with a congressional notification clearing the way for the direct commercial sale (DCS) deal on April 11. Vivek Lall, vice president and country head of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, told Aerospace DAILY here that his company was “pleased” that both the U.S. and Indian governments have “leaned forward to conclude this historic deal.”
ISR PUSH: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said April 14 en route to Fort Rucker, Ala., that he is going to propose requesting funding for up to a half-dozen new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, as well as new sensors to collect full-motion video. Some of the new platforms are and will remain classified. Gates will also propose an increase in funding for additional ISR exploitation and dissemination technologies.
AUSMIN ARRANGEMENTS: Last week’s annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations in Washington focused on security challenges faced by the United States in Afghanistan, Australian officials said afterward. Australian and U.S. officials also discussed Iran’s nuclear activities and condemned North Korea’s launch of a Taepo-Dong 2 long-range rocket, stressing that the launch was in violation of U.N. Security Resolution 1718, which stemmed from the regime’s 2006 launch. AusMin participants this year, the first with the Obama administration, included new U.S.
Climate scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan have run computer models coupling ocean and atmospheric conditions that suggest atmospheric aerosols have a much greater impact on the warming observed in the Arctic than previously appreciated.
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will join the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville as an “eminent scholar” and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, the school announced April 14.
The U.S. military’s successful rescue of an American cargo ship captain from pirates may signal a change in U.S. strategy for combating crime on the high seas. Experts and policymakers have long seen piracy as a law enforcement problem requiring a civilian solution, rather than a military problem. But that could change given the high-tech operation to rescue Richard Phillips, captain of the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates.
PATH BLAZED: Northrop Grumman’s industry team leading the Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) program has completed full-scale “pathfinder” ground operations in preparation for the weapon system’s booster flight-test scheduled for later this year, the company said April 14. The dry runs and rehearsals precede an actual flight-test or launch, including all aspects of vehicle preparations, ground operations and range safety systems. KEI was spotlighted in proposed changes to U.S. missile defense efforts as outlined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates this month.
