LONDON — Boeing is continuing to examine wing pod-related buffet and boundary layer separation concerns on its KC-767A tanker aircraft for the Italian air force, with further revisions of the refueling pod and pylon configuration also being explored. Buffet issues first emerged on the aircraft’s wing airborne refueling pod (WARP) design during the flight-test program in mid-2005, resulting in the redesign of the pod pylon. Further buffet flight testing was carried out in mid-2007.
FIRM COMMITMENT: Arianespace announced Oct. 17 that SES has committed to three new launches with the European launch provider under the Multi Launch Agreement signed in June 2007. The commitment covers three new satellites for the SES group, including Astra 3B for SES Astra plus two other satellites that have not yet been identified. The spacecraft are slated for launch between 2009 and 2012 using Ariane 5 rockets from the company’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
SCIF-EQUIPPED: For the first time, the U.S. Coast Guard will equip one of its ships with a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), a top acquisition official says. The 418-foot USCGC Bertholf, the first National Security Cutter, will get the SCIF for processing classified information next summer, says Michael Tangora, Coast Guard director of Acquisition Services. Once installed with the SCIF, plans call for deploying 12 cryptologists aboard the Bertholf tasked with intelligence gathering.
NEW BRITAIN: Following the recent revamp of top civilian posts in the British Defense Ministry, it’s now the turn of the uniformed personnel. Army Gen. David Richards is to succeed Gen. Richard Dannatt as chief of the general staff, Adm. Jonathan Band will be replaced by Adm. Mark Stanhope as chief of naval staff, and Air Chief Marshal Glenn Torpy will be succeeded by Air Marshal Stephen Dalton as chief of the air staff. Richards takes up post in August 2009, with Stanhope and Dalton taking over during July 2009.
FALSE START: NASA will roll back the space shuttle Atlantis from Launch Pad 39A and return it to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Oct. 20. Rollback will begin at 7 a.m. EDT, with the shuttle being carried atop its massive crawler, and it should arrive at the VAB by 2 p.m. Atlantis was to have launched on the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, but that flight has been delayed into next year due to problems with the telescope (See p. 3).
UAV RADAR: France, the U.K. and Sweden have agreed to study a lightweight, compact radar suitable to be carried on tactical unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles. The 4-year study is expected to cost 21 million euros, and will be jointly funded by industry and government. It will be carried out under a contract to be awarded by the European Defense Agency (EDA).
WGS DELAY: Launch of the Defense Dept.’s second Boeing Wideband Global Satcom spacecraft is still officially listed as Dec. 4 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral, but it will not occur before Jan. 14.
ACS AMBIGUITY: The U.S. Army’s Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program to produce a new aircraft for signals and communications interception just can’t seem to get going. A joint Army-Navy effort was cancelled. Now the Army has just sent out a update to its latest ACS solicitation with three basic messages: 1) The service is open to discussion new acquisition strategies; 2) Officials favor a two-phase downselect that includes a risk-reduction technology demonstration; and 3) The program is slowing down.
CHINESE GEOSAT: A Long March 3A launch vehicle will put China’s third geostationary meteorological satellite into orbit in late December. The Fengyun 2-06 spacecraft will replace Fengyun 2C and operate in concert with Fengyun 2D. The first of the Fengyun 4 successor series of geostationary satellites is due to be launched around 2013, according to China’s meteorological administration.
Hubble Space Telescope Controllers hope to be able to restart science observations on the orbiting observatory by about Oct. 24, after a pair of last-minute anomalies forced them to suspend recovery from an earlier on-board failure that has kept the telescope out of commission since Sept. 27.
The list of possible headquarter bases for U.S. Air Force Cyber Command will be winnowed down and evaluated more closely over the next three to four months, according to Maj. Gen. William Lord, chief of the provisional command.
LATE DELIVERY: Defense Minister Herve Morin says France may cede some ground on penalties that EADS is liable to incur for late delivery of the A400M airlifter under its fixed-price contract. Penalties already have led to €1.4 billion in write-downs, and with deliveries slipping further to the right, they are likely to increase. But EADS CEO Louis Gallois has threatened to stop work on the A400M if penalties for delays, which he says are not entirely EADS’s fault, are not waived or reduced.
Four developmental live-fire tests remain before the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) enters a nine-month operational evaluation by the U.S. Navy next spring, program manager Capt. Larry Egbert says. Development of the AARGM upgrade to the basic High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) now used by Navy and Air Force strike aircraft missile is estimated at $566 million.
The U.S. Homeland Security Department is becoming a prime collector of domestic intelligence, but obtaining funding for information-sharing needs remains an issue both in terms of equipment and personnel, according to a senior DHS official.
PARIS – Eumetsat has OK’d a payload for Europe’s third-generation geostationary weather satellite system, MTG, that will serve as a baseline for a full development and operation program proposal to be submitted for approval later this year.
Engineers and technicians have reinstalled the 2.5-meter telescope mirror for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified 747SP, at NASA Dryden’s Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif.
PATCHED UP: A minor hydrogen leak on a U.S. Air Force/United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket discovered during a countdown dress rehearsal with the vehicle on Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral has been traced to a bleed line not involved with in-flight propulsion. Technicians tightened a B-nut clamp at the location of the leak, halting the problem. Another countdown test with the vehicle filled with oxygen and hydrogen propellant confirmed that the leak was stopped when the clamp was tightened.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has reached an agreement with United Space Alliance (USA) that USA will perform subcontractor support to ATK for NASA’s Ares I launch vehicle. USA has been supporting ATK under a $257 million letter contract until a more formal contract is completed in 60-90 days, said Michael Kahn, executive vice president and general manager, ATK Launch Systems. Kahn spoke in Promontory, Utah, during a teleconference Oct. 16. The contract will run until 2014.
TARGETED WIN: GenCorp’s Aerojet has been awarded a U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) contract for the Kill Vehicle (KV) Commonality Pathfinder Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS). The propulsion system is designed to control the KV by firing individual thrusters while homing for an intercept with a ballistic missile or its warhead, according to the company.
BETHESDA, Md. – The U.S. Coast Guard still is mulling its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) options – including a land-based Predator – but one of the agency’s top acquisition officials predicts the new National Security Cutter (NSC) will eventually carry a shipborne unmanned aircraft.
A DOD Configuration Steering Board meeting scheduled for Oct. 22 will determine the future of the Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM), currently in full-rate production, which violates new rules against cluster munitions.
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – Development on the next phase of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), which until only recently was hanging in the balance, is continuing with a recent flight-test of an extended-range version of the stealthy cruise missile. During the test late last month at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., a B-1 bomber launched the missile and it navigated through a preplanned route, striking the target, according to program officials. During this test, developers verified new hardware and software for the system.
NASA AUTHORIZED: President Bush signed new authorizing legislation for NASA Oct. 15. The policy bill (H.R. 6063) requires NASA to add two space shuttle logisticts flights to the International Space Station to its baseline flight manifest and “take all necessary steps to fly a third” mission. It also requires the agency to take steps to ensure that the station remains viable through at least 2020.
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