SUSTAINING DETERRENCE: British financial watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) is cautioning that the U.K. faces schedule risks in securing the country’s future submarine-based strategic nuclear deterrent. The first of the Vanguard class of submarines will need to be replaced by around 2024. In a statement released by the ministry commenting on the report, John Hutton, the Defense Minister, said, ”We are fully aware of the timetabling risks identified by the NAO and the need to manage them.
HARRIS TAPPED: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has selected off-the-shelf Harris Corp. telemetry, tracking and command software for the Constellation Launch Control System that will be used to process and countdown the Ares booster and Orion spacecraft. Designated OS/Comet, the software is less complex than the highly specialized Launch Processing System software used for the space shuttle.
KAMOVS COMING: The Russian air force is due to receive its first batch of Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B dual-seat coaxial-rotor combat helicopters in 2009, says its chief, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin. “We are planning to acquire up to 12 Ka-52s in 2009” as long as acceptance trials are completed and performance requirements met, he says. The air force selected the Mil Mi-28N Havoc as its basic attack helicopter to eventually replace the Mi-24 Hind. The Ka-52 is to be used as a reconnaissance-attack helicopter for special missions. Full-rate production was launched in late October.
RADAR JDAM: Boeing is exploring adding a millimeter-wave radar seeker onto its Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) family of weapons, says Dan Jaspering, who oversees direct attack weapons for the company. The new seeker would add an all-weather capability to the JDAM and could be useful against maritime targets. Specifically, Jaspering says a radar JDAM could counter the “swarming boat problem.” Already, the company has met with success by funding the addition of a laser head to the weapon, and the Air Force and Navy are each buying 400 units of the laser JDAM.
UPGRADE: The Colombian air force has become the first international customer for Sikorsky’s UH-60A-to-L upgrade, with six helicopters to be converted by its Sikorsky Aerospace Services aftermarket unit at Chase Field, Texas. Two additional upgrade kits are included in the contract. The A-to-L conversion installs uprated T700-701D engines and main gearbox, new avionics, flight controls, and wiring.
SENTINEL SYSTEMS: Thales Alenia Space will supply X-band communications subsystems and S-band tracking, telemetry and control transponders for the Sentinel 1, 2 and 3 satellites, as well as the next three recurrent spacecraft, planned for Europe’s Kopernikus (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) program.
ZHUHAI, China – Air Show China kicked off Nov. 4 with Chinese political and military weight giving impetus to the event. The Chengdu J-10 fighter aircraft is in attendance after having failed to turn up in 2006. Two of the aircraft were parked, and partially covered, on the hard stand. One or more will fly during the show, which runs here until Nov. 9.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Nov. 11 - 14 — AIRTEC International Aerospace Supply Fair, “Runway To Tomorrow’s Supply Chain,” Exhibition Center, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. For more information go to www.airtec.aero Nov. 11 - 14 — International Symposium On GPS/GNSS 2008, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. For more information go http://gnss2008.jp
HORNETS STUNG: The U.S. Navy has inspected 476 of 636 F/A-18A-D Hornets, 99 percent of the deployed force, following the discovery of cracks in aileron hinges on the outer wing panel on 15 aircraft last month (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 27). Of those inspected, 10 were grounded and 20 placed on flight restrictions. Navy officials say that with the procedures now in place and maintenance techniques under development, no further degradations of the service’s strike-fighter capability are expected.
Intelsat has ended the career of the Marisat-F2 satellite after 32 years, the last of them serving scientists at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Manufactured by Hughes Aircraft in 1976 (now part of Boeing), the 700-pound spacecraft was built for Comsat General (now part of Intelsat) to serve maritime traffic. It was given a five-year design life but is now believed to be the oldest communications satellite still operating. As such, it’s been dubbed, “the little satellite that could.”
FAST LANE: U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Nevin Carr will take over leadership of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in December. He will be the 23rd chief of ONR; his assignment was announced by Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead Nov. 6. Carr is currently head of the Navy International Programs Office.
The U.S. Army is incorporating lessons learned from Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles into its Future Combat Systems (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicles (MGVs), designing them with V-shaped hulls, blast-absorbing floors and protective seats. Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, departing program manager for FCS, said the Army consulted with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) and other organizations to determine the most survivable hull shape for the MGV common chassis.
GD WIN-T: General Dynamics C4 Systems delivered the first Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 1 equipment to the U.S. Army recently. The delivery included networking hubs, network management suites and network nodes. The company is also under contract with the Army for Increment 2, fielding of which begins in 2009, which will provide soldiers with on-the-move broadband networking. Limited User Testing for Increment 3 is anticipated in 2011 and the award for Increment 4 is still pending.
The second Mercury flyby of NASA’s Messenger probe has filled in more blanks that will help scientists understand the closest planet to the sun, and other rocky planets as well.
COMMISSIONING CEREMONY: The U.S. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) will be commissioned Nov. 8 at a ceremony in Milwaukee, Wis. Navy Secretary Donald Winter will deliver an address introducing the 378-foot Freedom. The commissioning follows that of the Independence, the second LCS seaframe, on Oct. 4. Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout will be aboard the Freedom as it transits from Milwaukee to Norfolk, Va. The company is the LCS mission package integrator and helped complete the installation of the mission package computing environment into Freedom.
SOMEWHAT HEAVY: U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command has awarded Oshkosh Defense a $46 million contract modification for more than 170 additional Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacements for the U.S. Navy Seabees. The vehicles are expected to be delivered by September 2009. The variants produced under this contract modification include cargo trucks, dump trucks, tractors and a wrecker.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is raising questions about NASA’s ability to develop its follow-on Ares/Orion human spaceflight systems on time and on budget, given the agency’s recent history and fiscal tribulations. Under its Constellation program, NASA is planning initial operating capability (IOC) for the Ares I rocket and Orion spacecraft in March 2015, and has a 65 percent confidence level of making that target. (See charts pp. 6-8.)
BEIJING – Sweeping reforms of the Chinese aerospace sector will present the global industry with a team of focused competitors with specialties ranging from engines to fighters to aircraft equipment.
PARIS – The Indian air force appears eager to conclude negotiations with Thales and Dassault Aviation on the offset package for the upgrade of India’s 51 Mirage 2000s to the 2000-5 standard (M-2000H/TH upgrade), according to executives here. It is likely that the contract will be signed before India’s general elections in early 2009. But if it’s postponed, there is concern there could be a delay of at least two years and an escalation in costs.
A NASA-backed sampling system has registered a serious jump in atmospheric methane, adding a new worry for scientists monitoring greenhouse gas levels for their potential impact on global warming. Until early 2007, methane levels measured by the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment ground network were relatively level for about 10 years.
PARIS – General Electric and Volvo Aero are extending their fighter engine partnership with Saab’s decision to use the F414 for the Gripen Next Generation (NG). The two engine makers were already cooperating on the regular Gripen, whose Volvo Aero RM12 is a modified GE F404, and now are looking for ways to expand workshare on the F414.
PROTON LAUNCH: An International Launch Services Proton Breeze M rocket has orbited Astra 1M, a Ku-band telecom spacecraft intended to deliver direct-to-home broadcasting services to continental Europe from SES Astra’s 19.2 deg. E. Long. position. The 32-transponder satellite, built by EADS Astrium, marked the third Proton M mission for ILS – and the fourth overall – since the vehicle returned to service in mid-August after a five-month shutdown.
The Phoenix Mars lander is near shutdown as sunlight at its arctic landing site is no longer enough to provide solar array power to charge its batteries daily. Loss of the lander in November or earlier has always been expected, following a successful mission that began with its landing May 25. Phoenix has lasted about six weeks longer that its original specification.
