HEAVY PENETRATOR: Boeing on Oct. 23 announced the successful July testing of a fuze well and fuze for high-speed penetrator warheads. Along with industry partners Applied Research Associates, L-3 KDI Precision Products and Ellwood National Forge Co., Boeing tested its design in a bomb that penetrated reinforced concrete at supersonic speeds. Boeing’s new fuze design is a result of data collected from a 2006 test, when Boeing propelled an 1,800-pound penetrator warhead at more than 2,300 feet per second through high-strength reinforced concrete.
TEAMING UP: Mechtronix Systems will work as a subcontractor to Spain’s Indra infotech supplier in the construction of a flight training device (FTC) for the Spanish Ministry of Defence’s Bombardier 415 amphibious firefighting aircraft. In January, Spain ordered two additional 415s, raising its total Bombardier firefighting fleet to 22 aircraft. Mechtronix was first to make an FTC for the 415s.
SPRINGFIELD, Va. – The U.S. must destroy oil as a strategic commodity to gain energy freedom, according to former CIA director James Woolsey, now an advisor to John McCain’s presidential campaign.
PARIS – France aims to return to the top ranks of arms exporters now that its overseas sales are once again on the rise due to recent reforms. In a report to parliament released this month, the defense ministry said it had signed off on nearly 4 billion euros in export contracts as of Sept. 30 and is on track to meet its goal of 6 billion euros for 2008, slightly above figures in 2006-07 and almost double the level in 2004, when exports reached rock bottom.
DEFENSE SUPPORT: The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded Northrop Grumman a $206 million support and sustainment contract for the operational Defense Support Program (DSP) spacecraft, primary infrared sensor and mission analysis. Northrop Grumman built the DSP infrared sensors in Azusa, Calif., and integrated them with the DSP spacecraft in Redondo Beach, Calif. DSP support and sustainment will continue at both sites. The first DSP was launched in 1970 and the final DSP was orbited in 2008.
BASIC SHUTDOWN: U.S. House and Senate defense appropriators have thrown a wrench in the Pentagon’s plans to field two commercial-class imaging satellites for launch as soon as 2012. They pulled nearly $1 billion of funding for the Broad-Area Space-Based Imagery Collection (BASIC) system, confirms Michael Birmingham, an official working for the U.S. director of national intelligence. BASIC is a two-satellite program to fill a gap in overhead imaging capacity left after the collapse of the Future Imagery Architecture program.
The U.S. Navy is exploring ways to increase its ability to monitor maritime traffic off the pirate-plagued coast of Somalia, according to Navy and Coast Guard sources, and one idea under consideration is deploying sensors on aerostats that are tethered to barges.
STARTING UP: Lockheed Martin plans to ferry the first F-35A back to its Fort Worth, Texas, site on Oct. 24, following the completion of engine air-start tests at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., over the past three weeks. The tests, which included 12 successful airstarts, clear the way for the next Joint Strike Fighter flight-test milestones – supersonic flight and weapons bay door opening in-flight. These will be attempted with vehicle AA-1, which was used for the airstart tests, around December and January 2009, according to Lockheed Martin.
Michael Strianese has been named chairman of the board of L-3 Communications, adding to the duties of president and CEO that he assumed two years ago after the death of co-founder Frank Lanza. Strianese’s promotion, which has not been formally announced, was made on Oct. 7 and disclosed in an 8-K filing last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are being forced to replace a complex series of tubes in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) descent stage because of unqualified welds, but a program official insists the work will not jeopardize the September/October 2009 launch target.
The U.S. Air Force confirmed Oct. 22 that it is indeed delaying the contract award for the service’s $15 billion combat, search and rescue helicopter acquisition program. Aerospace DAILY reported Oct. 21 that sources said the contract – which the Air Force had said would be awarded this fall – would be shifted to May or June (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 22).
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Gen. Robert Kehler, who oversees the U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) here, tells Aviation Week that he supports delaying the contract award for the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program. He further says he does not view the expected cancellation of the existing competition between Boeing and Lockheed Martin as a program termination. A downselect between the two design approaches was set for December, but the Pentagon’s acquisition chief is mulling a termination to that competition (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 21).
SPRINGFIELD, Va. – Despite a decline in the U.S. Defense Department’s budget in the coming years, it will eventually level off at a much higher rate than just a decade ago, according to a topline forecast from the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA).
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Boeing says it will appeal a jury award against the company in a suit brought by ICO Global Communications that could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The suit charged the aerospace giant was guilty of fraud and breach of contract in demanding a $400 million additional payment to complete a batch of satellites it was building for a 12 medium Earth orbit constellation that ICO had planned to deploy in the 1990s, before it filed for bankruptcy.
SATISH DHAWAN SPACE CENTER, India – India’s first mission to the moon is under way, after a clockwork launch of its uprated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) from this Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facility in the Bay of Bengal. Liftoff of the four-stage rocket came at 6:22 a.m. Oct. 22 local time (8:52 p.m. Oct. 21 EDT), after a 52-hour countdown. Launch occurred from the new Second Launch Pad on the facility at Sriharikota Island, about 80 kilometers north of Chennai.
Estonia is moving ahead with building up its unmanned naval vehicle capability, and has acquired two unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). U.S. manufacturer Hydroid has received a contract to supply two of its Remus 100 UUVs to the Estonian armed forces. The system, fitted with a variety of sensors, including a sonar, is designed in part to be used in mine-countermeasures missions, although other applications include surveying and scientific sampling.
YSTERPLAAT AIR FORCE BASE, South Africa — Defense manufacturer Denel and the South African government are trying to hammer out the details of a deal to secure the future of the air force’s Rooivalk attack helicopter.
END GAME: The U.S. Air Force’s provisional Cyber Command will remain in place, likely for a few months, working to develop a road map and set of requirements to stand up the recently announced 24th Air Force, according to a spokesperson. Meanwhile, the Air Force will be narrowing down the list of possible bases for the 24th, and then an Environmental Impact Study will have to be done to determine the best headquarters (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 20).
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SPECIAL NORMALCY: The Pentagon said Oct. 20 that Italy and the United States have signed a new Reciprocal Defense Procurement Memorandum of Understanding that allows Italy to continue as one of the so-called qualifying countries under DOD acquisition regulations. Offers of Italian products would continue to be exempt from Buy American and Balance of Payments Program policy, and U.S. products presumably will be exempt from equivalent buy-Italian provisions.
