The U.S. Army has thrown its support behind a Boeing effort to build a high-lift blade for its Chinook CH-47 helicopter, an improvement that could provide up to 2,000 pounds of additional lift.
ELECTRIC BOAT: The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $268 million contract modification to provide lead construction yard services for Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines. Under the modification, Electric Boat will maintain and update design drawings and data for all Virginia-class submarines, including technology insertions, throughout their construction and post-shakedown availability periods. Electric Boat will also perform Virginia-class development and design studies.
EADS North America and its KC-45 prime contractor, Northrop Grumman, are still in talks with the U.S. Air Force about termination of its tanker contract. Defense Department leadership killed the nascent award after congressional auditors cited flaws in the U.S. Air Force’s selection process, in part spotlighted by a Boeing protest. After an initial attempt to speed through a new acquisition award this year, Pentagon leaders have since decided to punt the massive program to the next presidential administration (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 11).
The Swedish government is trying to add VIP transport airlift capacity to its fleet quickly in advance of taking on the rolling European Union presidency next year.
ARMY BAE Systems, Tactical Vehicle Systems Limited Partnership, donna_thomasfirm fixed price contract to definitize the Undefinitized Contract Action (UCA) for the procurement of 10,000 family of Medium Tactical Vehicle, program support and Federal Retail Excise Tax (FRET). The work will be performed in Sealy, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2011. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. U.S. Army TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-08-C-0460). AIR FORCE
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Oct. 6 - 8 — Strategic Space and Defense 2008, “The Global Security Conference for Space and Defense Professionals,” Qwest Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena, Omaha, Neb. For more information go to www.stratspace.org
NEW SECAF: Michael Donley is formally taking over the full duties of secretary of the Air Force, following his confirmation by the Senate last week. Donley has been acting secretary since this spring, when former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and former Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley were fired following a series of nuclear management mishaps and acquisition foul ups. Moseley has already been replaced by Gen. Norton Schwartz. Donley’s nomination had been stalled since June, in part due to the refueling tanker imbroglio.
SIZE MATTERS: Aurora Flight Sciences is pushing ahead with company-funded development of the ducted-fan, vertical-takeoff-and-landing GoldenEye 80, intended as its first UAV product, but president John Langford is increasingly concerned the U.S. Army may be quietly growing Honeywell’s rival ducted-fan Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) to meet its Future Combat Systems (FCS) Class II UAV requirement without a competition. The GoldenEye was a candidate for the vehicle-launched Class II UAV, but Army deferred the requirement 18 months ago.
ISR BONUS: The stopgap spending legislation to continue funding the U.S. government through March 6 (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 2) includes $750 million for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance initiatives. The ISR money, which was not requested by the Bush administration, follows on the creation of an ISR task force by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to explore ways to deliver more intelligence to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation did not specify how the $750 million would be spent.
GLASGOW, Scotland – European Space Agency (ESA) engineers are confident that problems affecting its ambitious BepiColombo Mercury mission can be fixed, enabling the joint European-Japanese project to go forward.
ANOTHER SHOT: Boeing is to get another chance to prove its HyFly hypersonic missile demonstrator can work. After the first two tests ended in failure, Boeing has received $18,3 million from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a third demonstrator and launch it in 2010. A joint program with the Office of Naval Research, HyFly is designed to demonstrate Aerojet dual-combustion ramjet technology for a Mach 6 long-range missile.
BUY SWISS: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) recently completed a six-year program to buy and refurbish 44 retired Swiss Air Force F-5 Freedom Fighters, enabling the Navy to fly in a dedicated adversary role until at least fiscal 2015. The reverse Foreign Military Sales program began in 2000 when the Navy sought a replacement for its fleet of F-5E Tiger II adversary aircraft. The new Swiss F-5Ns were manufactured with so-called Improved Handling Quality systems, which include a sharper nose, different wing leading edge roots and automatic flaps.
U.K. SHUFFLE: Industry is looking to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet re-shuffle – which included replacing Des Browne as defense secretary – to renew impetus behind the Defense Industrial Strategy. Browne is replaced by John Hutton, who moves from being the senior minister for business, enterprise and regulatory reform. Unlike Browne, who also acted as secretary for Scotland, Hutton’s focus will be on defense only.
PARIS — The European Union (EU) wants to follow NATO’s lead and establish an multinational air transport fleet. But while NATO has bet on the C-17, the EU plans to build its fleet around the continent’s A400M. The initiative was endorsed last week by EU defense ministers, meeting under the French presidency. France is a major buyer of the A400M and not part of the NATO strategic airlift consortium acquiring three C-17s. No timeline has been given for the EU transport fleet.
NO SHOT: The U.S. Government Accountability Office has shot down a bid protest by Armorworks Enterprises over the U.S. Army Materiel Command’s (AMC) exclusion of its proposal from the competitive range under a May 2007 request for proposals for body armor. Armorworks’ body armor failed in AMC’s tests, but the company’s protest alleged AMC’s testing methodology was flawed. But in its Sept. 23 decision, GAO denied or dismissed the company’s complaint as not timely enough and insufficient.
WARTHOG WHIMPER: The U.S. Air Force has grounded 127 A-10 Warthog aircraft from flight status pending inspection and repair of wing cracks. The issue is facing A-10s with thin-skin wings, the first models to roll off the production line, according to Air Force officials. The service had noticed a spike in the instances of fatigue-related wing cracks in A-10s around the world, prompting the grounding order. Aircraft supporting U.S. Central Command are receiving inspections as quickly as possible.
The Pentagon needs to keep better track of its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program (EELV) program, especially now that the Defense Department has removed some reporting requirements, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
A speech recognition system that can work with any English-speaking pilot, regardless of accent, is to be flight tested on Eurofighter Typhoons in Spain.
BOMBS INBOUND: Flight testing of the Raytheon Paveway IV dual-mode precision-guided bomb will begin on the Eurofighter Typhoon this month. The integration of the Paveway IV, which uses both GPS satellite navigation and laser guidance, is part of the Phase 1 enhancement program for the aircraft that is expected to begin to open up the Typhoon’s air-to-surface capabilities.
OFFICIALLY SHARED: The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is telling its confederate U.S. intelligence agencies to favor information sharing over security concerns. The move comes as the intel community (IC) continues reforming since 9/11, when the government was accused not making enough connections in intel data. ODNI officials say the policy means there will be a single certification and accreditation process, so all IC systems must follow the same authorized security requirements.
GLASGOW, Scotland — Sergei Krikalev, the Russian cosmonaut who holds the record for time spent in space, says he doesn’t expect crew conflict to be a major problem on long-duration exploration missions, including 30-month trips to Mars and back. “I think for a mission like a Mars mission, motivation is going to be so high, if you know it’s so important, everything will be done to do your job the best way,” Krikalev told a questioner at the 59th International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 3. He has logged 803 days, nine hours, 39 minutes in space.
BLACK HOLE: U.S. Air Force Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Gary Payton says the U.S. is “one launch vehicle failure away from having gaps,” in its overhead imagery collection capability, which lends urgency to the Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability (BASIC) program, which aims to procure one or more 1.1-meter commercial imaging satellites for military use (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 19). The spacecraft are needed to eliminate “possible gaps we may have three to four years from now,” says Vice Adm.
Britain and Raytheon have spent a lot of money developing the new Astor airborne ground surveillance system, but they think export of this advanced radar system — with variants based on the customer’s pocket book — may slash away at the initial investment and development costs they’ve had to bear. “Astor offers a proven integration of complex mission systems that is a marketable commodity,” says British Army Maj. Simon Hanford, Astor chief of staff. “The United Kingdom covered the research and development cost of Astor so it has an interest in exports.”
A key congressional subcommittee has rescinded its objection to the U.S. Army reprogramming $11 million in fiscal 2008 funds to pay for its share of Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) concept definition and risk reduction work.
