The U.S. Justice Department has closed an investigation of Orbital Sciences Corp. related to its work on U.S. government launch vehicle programs without filing any charges against the company or its staff, Orbital announced July 17. The investigation prompted federal and DOD investigators to search company facilities in Arizona in 2005 (Aerospace DAILY, May 31, 2005).
APKWS FUNDED: Demonstrations of BAE Systems’ Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) are on track for completion now that full funding from the U.S. Navy is in place. The Navy will assume the $45.7 million APKWS development contract with BAE Systems. According to the company, plans are under way to produce and deliver the rocket-guidance capability to the field. Production is slated to begin in 2009.
Bucking recent trends, the Pentagon has focused its spending in the first half of this year on things that fly instead of those on the ground, with fixed-wing aircraft costs topping the list at $4.8 billion in DOD contracts and contract modifications so far.
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have asked top Defense Department leaders for 25 percent more Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), and specifically, the General Dynamics/BAE-made RG-31s. A Pentagon spokesman told reporters there July 16 that the RG-31 is desired “because it’s better suited for the unimproved roads and rugged terrain of the country.” Spokesman Geoff Morrell further said “the RG-31 is the MRAP of choice in Afghanistan.”
LAIRCM TANKERS: Under a $93 million contract, Northrop Grumman has been selected to provide its laser-based Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures Systems (LAIRCM) for the U.K. Royal Air Force’s (RAF) air-to-air refueling and transport aircraft. Northrop Grumman will provide LAIRCM system hardware and support for the U.K.’s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program to Thales U.K., a member of the AirTanker consortium.
GUIDING GODDARD: Rob Strain, head of the space dept. at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), will take over Aug. 4 as director of NASA’s nearby Goddard Space Flight Center. Administrator Michael Griffin, who held Strain’s post at APL before taking the top job at NASA, announced the appointment. Strain replaces Ed Weiler, who was named associate administrator for science in May following the abrupt resignation of planetary scientist Alan Stern (Aerospace DAILY, May 9)
Raytheon announced July 16 that it has completed captive-carry testing of the Joint Standoff Weapon-Extended Range (JSOW-ER) and said the test proved it can deliver on a recently awarded $4.1 million, U.S. Navy contract to conduct a free-flight demonstration of the JSOW-ER next spring. During the Raytheon-funded test, a JSOW-ER was loaded onto an A-4 Skyhawk fighter and the weapon’s engine was ignited at 25,000 feet. Test conditions met operational stresses, Raytheon asserted.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy has sent an open letter to President Bush and Congress stressing the importance of a viable energy policy and offering a 13-point plan to address current issues. U.S. national security and economic competitiveness depend on affordable and abundant supplies of energy, said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue, who introduced the letter July 16. He said the 13 points must be addressed as a whole.
Teams led by Raytheon and Sensis have been awarded 18-month, $6 million NASA contracts to evaluate the effect that new aircraft types, from Very Light Jets to supersonic transports, might have on the next-generation air transportation system (NextGen). The two teams will use modeling and simulation to evaluate how the new classes of aircraft could effect air traffic management efficiency, aviation safety and the environment. The studies will provide NASA and its NextGen partners with research and design recommendations.
A group of analysts inside the U.S. Defense Department is trying to figure out how to extend the Cold War-era national security strategy of deterrence into space and cyberspace, a Bush administration official told a recent Washington seminar. Early results from the strategy review, which is racing against the end of the administration’s tenure, entails using “all” aspects of U.S. power to deter attacks against U.S. space assets while similarly trying to dissuade attacks on its cyber interests, according to the official. Sharing assets
FARNBOROUGH – The U.S. Air Force is considering speeding up the purchase of CV-22s, which may be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a defense official close to the program. The acceleration could add up to three aircraft annually, boosting the total number to as high as nine per year. The proposal was part of the U.S. Air Force’s fiscal 2010 budget plan, which is now being reviewed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and will be sent to Congress in February.
MINE DETECTION: Northrop Grumman’s Airborne Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Minefield Detection System (ASTAMIDS) is on track for Low Rate Initial Production in 2009. The system first flew aboard a modified U.S. Army UH-1H Huey helicopter at Northrop’s facility in Melbourne, Fla., on April 30. On the first ASTAMIDS flight, all four first-flight objectives were achieved and ground control of the gimbal via the developmental Tactical Ground Segment software was demonstrated. ASTAMIDS is designed for the U.S.
SUPER CONDUCTOR: The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division’s Ship Engineering Station in Philadelphia, Pa., have installed a new high-temperature superconducting degaussing coil system onboard the USS Higgins (DDG 76) at the naval station in San Diego, Calif. The new degaussing coil – the first of its kind to be installed onboard a naval vessel – went into a cold state on July 11 and will undergo a series of at-sea tests and demonstrations over the next two years.
BARRELING AHEAD: L-3 Communications MAS (Canada) said it received a $106 million contract for the production phase of the Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18 Center Barrel Replacement as part of the Structural Refurbishment Project Phase 2. The company said the work is worth $130 million over five years and creates more than 110 jobs at L-3 MAS Mirabel. Under this new phase, L-3 MAS will deliver four low-rate-initial-production aircraft followed by four full-rate production aircraft.
CHINOOK TEAM: Boeing and AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, signed an agreement July 16 at the Farnborough Air Show for the joint manufacture of new CH-47F Chinook helicopters for the Italian army. As prime contractor for the Italian CH-47F, AgustaWestland will be responsible for design and systems integration and aircraft delivery to the Italian army. Boeing will build the fuselage at its facility in Ridley Park, Pa.
PGS BOOST: The U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs recently added $16.7 million more to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. for the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) Medium Lift Re-entry Body (MLRB) development effort. Lockheed will perform the work in Sunnyvale, Calif., and various other locations yet to be determined, and is expected to finish in June 2009, the Pentagon said July 11.
The two Russian crewmembers of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 17 have installed a docking target and made other preparations for the arrival of a new pressurized module next summer in the second spacewalk of their mission.
A pending defense export license treaty with the U.S. is “very crucial to Australia,” Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says. In his first visit to the U.S. since becoming defense minister earlier this year, Fitzgibbon said he would be meeting with White House and congressional leaders to push for passage of the treaty, which he called “very important to the Australian defense industry.”
The Phoenix Mars Lander team so far this week has been improving the coordination of scooping away frozen soil and returning it to its sample ovens for analysis. The challenge is to do the task quickly enough so ice in the soil shavings doesn’t sublimate before it can be analyzed by the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer – Phoenix’ combination oven and mass spectrometer for heating up soil samples. The week started with an enlargement of a hard subsurface area called Snow White to 8-by-12 inches to expose subsurface soil for a successful scoop.
EW FOR A400M: Northrop Grumman, under a $28.2 million contract, has been selected to provide eight Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulator (CEESIM) systems to support the Electronic Warfare (EW) self-defense ground station of the EADS A400M transport aircraft. The Airbus A400M is replacing aging C-130 Hercules and C-160 Transall air transport fleets around the world.
PARIS – SES Astra has awarded EADS Astrium a contract to build a spacecraft for its 19.2 deg. E. Long. neighborhood. The spacecraft, Astra 1N, will be launched in 2011, mainly to serve French, German and Spanish customers. It will utilize Astrium’s Eurostar 3000 space bus – the 13th application for the platform – and carry 55 Ku-band transponders.
Exploration Systems & Technology (EST), a joint venture of Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover, has formally protested NASA’s award of the $745.9 million Constellation spacesuit contract to a team headed by Oceaneering International Inc. (OII).
Key technology areas still pose hurdles in the development of the U.S. Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). “The Navy faces challenges in developing certain new technologies intended for CVN 21, particularly the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) – an electromagnetic (as opposed to the traditional steam-powered) aircraft catapult,” says the report by Ronald O’Rourke, CRS naval affairs specialist. It was released earlier this month.
PARIS – Thales Alenia Space is poised to deliver the optical imager for the first of two high-resolution Pleiades observation satellites to be launched by France in early 2010. To be integrated by satellite prime contractor EADS Astrium, the imager features highly integrated avionics that permit volume to be reduced three-fold compared to previous designs, and a carbon-carbon structure and Zerodur mirrors that afford extra high dimensional stability.
