The U.S. Department of Defense announced Sept. 10 that it is terminating the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition for the time being, and will be shifting money to continue maintaining the aging KC-135 fleet.
SAN DIEGO – Fifteen proposed foreign military sales (FMS) have been announced by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), with all but two of them being made to countries in the Middle East. The slew of FMS – worth about $11.5 billion altogether if none are blocked by Congress – mark the first foreign sale of Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) fire units and follow the Bush administration’s plan to boost allied military capability in the region (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 16).
SAN DIEGO – A now-familiar warning about the perils of a technology work force of diminishing numbers and skill was sounded here Sept. 9 by speakers at the opening session of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) annual Space Conference and Exposition. California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi advised industry leaders to take an active part in promoting education. “Your engagement in the education system” is vital, he said. “Make those linkages between your work and the education system.”
SAN DIEGO – NASA says potential delays to the launch of the final space shuttle flight from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) could force it to push back the key demonstration flight of its Ares successor to mid-2009.
Following the congressionally mandated addition of a fourth satellite, the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program’s total estimated cost has reached roughly $9.24 billion, according to the service. The fourth satellite, combined with some additional development costs associated with the first three spacecraft, have caused the program to breach the 25 percent Nunn-McCurdy cost growth cap (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 1).
BIG ONE: Northrop Grumman has received a $5.1 billion, 7-year cost plus incentive fee contract award for the design and construction of the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the company announced Sept. 10. The company’s Shipbuilding sector will perform the work, which includes construction, design activities, engineering services, procurement of materials and hardware to support construction and logistics activities. This new class of carrier replaces the 1960s-era Nimitz-class.
SAN DIEGO – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is offering a commercial version of its planned Dragon spacecraft to carry experimental payloads and even deploy small satellites from 2010 onward. Called DragonLab, the vehicle is derived from the free-flying, reusable spacecraft now in development to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition.
SAN DIEGO – NASA plans to defer the preliminary design review of its Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) until around mid-2009 as it contends with key decisions such as the final choice of material for the thermal protection system.
Senate defense appropriators look to provide roughly 98 percent of the Bush administration’s regular fiscal 2009 budget request, including full funding or more for the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems, the Missile Defense Agency, Navy shipbuilding and Air Force fighters.
Ground controllers in Xian are testing the optical and infrared imaging systems aboard China’s first two Huanjing disaster monitoring spacecraft following a piggyback launch Sept. 6 onboard a Long March 2C booster. The launch took place at the Taiyuan Space Center south of Beijing. The 1,034-pound Huanjing-1A and -1B satellites each carry four cameras: two CCD cameras with a resolution of 98.4 feet, an infrared camera with a resolution of about 400 feet and an “ultralight image-formation meter” with a resolution of 5 nautical miles.
Longer duration firings of the high-energy laser onboard the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Boeing 747 Airborne Laser (ABL) will begin in October-November following the initial, brief “first light” firings onboard the aircraft in ground tests at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
FRUITFUL FRIGATES: Canada said Sept. 5 it will award two long-term contracts for roughly $2 billion to Lockheed Martin Canada for the combat systems integration (CSI) design, construction and in-service support under the modernization of Canada’s 12 Halifax-class navy frigates. The CSI contract, worth about $1.4 billion, is for upgrading command-and-control systems, redesigning the operations room and reconfiguring the ships’ masts for a new radar suite. The in-service contract, worth $600 million, covers the combat system’s long-term servicing needs.
MRAP PARTS: BAE Systems Survivability Systems, LLC of Fairfield, Ohio, will receive up to $9.8 million more under an existing contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for spare parts for U.S. Army and Marine Corps Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by Feb. 10, 2009.
SAN DIEGO – The most effective way to communicate the value of space to the U.S. and the world would be to establish an official national space strategy, ensuring policy gets translated into programs, according to U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) commander Lt. Gen. John Sheridan. Sheridan addressed a crowd at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) annual Space Conference and Exposition here Sept. 9. “We are on the doorstep of our next 50 years in space,” Sheridan said, “but we’re still invisible.”
Following a waiver over the weekend from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for India to carry out civil nuclear commerce, all eyes are now on the Bush administration to see if it can win approval from Congress to enact the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal.
In a report prepared for the U.S. Air Force, Rand Corp. recommends changes to the cost estimating process for major space systems, citing 46 percent cost growth in past acquisition programs.
LONDON – A decade after it set the privatization process in motion, the British Defense Ministry Sept. 9 sold the last of its shares in U.K. defense technology company Qinetiq. The ministry had retained an 18.9 percent holding in Qinetiq, but the last of its stock was placed on the market and raised more than 240 million pounds ($423 million). The Defense Ministry retains a “golden share” in Qinetiq for security purposes.
The U.S. Defense Department is sending an assessment team to Tbilisi, Georgia, later this week as U.S. officials begin considering how to rebuild Georgia’s military after the Russian invasion last month, Bush administration officials told lawmakers Sept. 9.
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GENOA, Italy — Italy’s defense and aerospace sector is aiming to secure substantial business in Libya following a strategic agreement between Rome and Tripoli that included a $5 billion, 20-year reparations package for Italy’s occupation of Libya from 1934 to 1943.
The Bush administration issued a veto threat Sept. 9 for the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill being considered by the Senate. The $612 billion measure matches the Bush administration’s FY ’09 request but rearranges where the money would go. Among the provisions objected to by the White House Office of Management and Budget: an additional $430 million to develop an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and an additional $96.9 million for B-52 flying hours and depot maintenance.
LOST IN THE MOVE: A new Rand Corp. report warns against the security risks brought by presidential transitions. “America’s reliance upon the spoils system to fill key policy positions every four or eight years is unmatched in the Western world,” says James Dobbins, Rand’s director for international security and defense policy. The result is a high degree of inexperience in the opening years of many presidencies, particularly when the opposition party comes to power. The study reviews the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Coast Guard are moving ahead with plans to develop a joint program office for coordinating the use of maritime unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), says the head of CBP’s air and marine division.
