Part of Iraq’s military future airborne strike capability appears to be flying out of a civilian airport in Fort Worth, Texas. Two Cessna Grand Caravan 208Bs, armed with a pair of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles each, have been photographed flying out of Meacham Airport earlier this month. The field officially has no military presence, but it is the home of a major ATK Integrated Systems major modification facility and the armed Cessna Caravan is one of its projects.
The Luftwaffe conducted its first flight-test Oct. 16 of the Lockheed Martin PAC-3 missile, designed to intercept ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of flight. During the test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., a German Patriot launcher fired a PAC-3 for the first time. The interceptor flew to a point in space where a simulated theater ballistic missile was projected, according to Dan O’Boyle, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army’s project office. He says the demonstration was a success.
Controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are calibrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s instruments to begin making observations again Oct. 17, after switching the orbiting observatory’s Science Instrument Control and Data Handling system to its backup “B” side.
Despite the strength of the U.S. defense industrial base, post-Cold War challenges may require a long-term strategy change, according to a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report.
Paradise Hotel San Diego, CA November 13-14, 2008 Highly complex programs of the 21st century A&D industry – are they too hot to handle? Gain real and timely intelligence and perspective about the politics, the money, the technology and the challenges the supply chain must overcome.
COUNTER-IED FACILITY: R4 Incorporated, a defense services company, opened its first domestically located integration facility for counter-Improvised Explosive Device (IED) support and technology at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Maryland Oct. 15. The new facility allows engineers and technicians to develop, field and support new technologies in counter-IED. Work performed at the facility will include system integration, reverse engineering, form-fit-function, prototyping, vehicle mounts and transit casing as well as complete installations.
The head of the FAA office set up to regulate the commercial spaceflight industry anticipates a rapid rise in paying passengers to space over the next few years. Now the purview of adventurers wealthy enough to pay $20 million-$30 million for a Russian Soyuz ride to the International Space Station (ISS), space tourism will soon expand dramatically as suborbital flights get under way, according to George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation.
EW HELP: Alion Science and Technology will receive up to $8.6 million from the U.S. Air Force to assess shortfalls in future weapons systems and to plan, develop and analyze Air Force electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. Under the Alion-operated Weapon Systems Technology Information Analysis Center, the company and its subcontractors will provide Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Electronic Warfare Life Cycle Management Group with system design and related technologies, the company announced Oct. 15.
PARIS – European Space Agency (ESA) managers have dropped plans to seek sharply expanded funding for the agency’s science program, but still hope to get a real spending increase.
Boeing is developing a system that combines signals from the heavily populated Iridium satellite constellation to boost the strength of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals through jamming or into hard-to-reach places like canyons to help dismounted soldiers receive precise coordinates more quickly. This capability could also be useful in better employing GPS-guided weapons in jammed environments.
IRCM FLIGHT: ITT Corporation announced Oct. 14 the successful airborne testing of its Infrared Countermeasures (IRCM) system in flight trials during two weeks in September. The IRCM system developed by ITT was integrated with an infrared missile warning system (IRMWS) aboard a UH-60 Black Hawk. Tests were conducted at Naval Air Engineering Station, Lakehurst, N.J., and sponsored by the U.S. Army’s Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM) in Ft. Monmouth, N.J.
BUY BIOMETRICS: Safran’s Sagem Security unit has agreed to acquire Motorola’s biometrics business. The unit, which operates under the Printrak trademark, is based in Anaheim, Calif., and serves law enforcement, civil and commercial customers worldwide. Sagem is already a world leader in biometric technologies. The acquisition also will serve to strengthen Safran’s industrial footprint in the U.S., noted Safran CEO Jean-Paul Herteman.
PARIS – The European Space Agency (ESA) is expressing confidence that its newest flagship mission, Herschel-Planck, will get off the ground next spring, putting Europe in the forefront of infrared and cosmic-background astronomy.
BETHESDA, Md. – Boeing is testing the environmental suitability of new sensor and communications towers for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) SBInet border security project in a remote New Mexico mining town-turned-test bed, company and government officials said Oct. 15. The towers – three equipped with sensors and one with microwave communications equipment – are being tested in Playas, N.M., to simulate the environment expected when they are deployed for Block 1 of Boeing’s SBInet contract, said Jack Chenevey, the new SBInet program manager.
The high-power microwave bomb may finally become a reality in the next decade, with U.S. Air Force planners pushing to get a program into the fiscal 2010 DOD budget plan. The development strategy includes an industry technology assessment this year, followed by a Joint Concept Technology Demonstration submission for FY ’09 and, if all goes well, a place in the FY ’10 multiyear budget plan known as the program objective memorandum (POM).
Next week’s planned launch of India’s first mission to the moon will intensify the search for lunar water ice that could help support future lunar base operations. Crews kept the Chandrayaan-1 mission on track for its Oct. 22 launch date with a move Oct. 14 to the vehicle assembly building at the launch facility on Sriharikota Island in the Bay of Bengal for mounting atop its PSLV-XL Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Lockheed Martin engineers working on the Orion crew exploration vehicle will use data from a test deployment by Orion subcontractor ATK as they develop the distinctive Mickey-Mouse-ears solar arrays that will power the next-generation U.S. human spacecraft. ATK deployed a 5.5-meter version of its UltraFlex array, and demonstrated that the arrays can handle the 2.7-g acceleration they would experience in a departure for the moon.
The Canadian Air Force has received its first Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). IAI and Canadian firm MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), teaming as prime contractor, were awarded a contract in August for delivery of the first IAI Heron UAV through MDA to Canadian forces deployed in Afghanistan under the “Noctua” project.
Six industry teams are to help NASA identify advanced configurations and technologies that could overcome the economic and environmental challenges facing commercial aircraft entering service 25-30 years from now. NASA’s aeronautics research is focused towards three generations of commercial aircraft. N+1 is aimed at conventional aircraft entering service around 2015, including the next-generation single-aisle airliner. N+2 is targeting unconventional hybrid wing-body aircraft entering service around 2020.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a $30 million contract to continue testing its Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), to help allow the service and other potential users to properly evaluate the laser’s capabilities.
BRITISH TRUCKS: Nine finalists have been tapped to compete to replace a significant portion of Britain’s tactical wheeled vehicle fleet in the Operational Utility Vehicle Systems (OUVS) program. Navistar Defense recently said it will provide vehicles for testing and trials in 2009. The company was selected to compete in both the OUVS Large and Small categories and intends to provide variants of its International MXT for testing in both divisions.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Blackswift hypersonics testbed was expected to fly in 2012. A typographical error in an Aerospace DAILY article Oct. 13 indicated the wrong year.
DISCO RADAR: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command said that Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme engineers will install the first maintenance system using laser technology to improve upkeep of the AN/SPY-1D(V) multi-function phased array radar onboard the USS Sterett (DDG 104) this week. Previously, necessary measurements were taken over a four-day period for all four ship arrays. The new laser technology cuts the effort to two days, with just two personnel needed instead of three.
