BEIJING — The U.S. is renewing space cooperation negotiations with China, including top-level talks aimed at the formation of a potential landmark “long-term and stable mechanism for aerospace cooperation” between the American and Chinese space programs. The reinitiation of space cooperation talks after a two-year hiatus comes at the same time the Chinese are poised for a manned space spectacular and the kickoff of the country’s first optical/radar satellite constellation.
PICKING UP ELINT: Britain is nearing a decision on how to replace its primary manned electronic intelligence (ELINT) platform, the BAE Systems Nimrod R1, with three options in consideration: acquisition of the U.S. RC-135 Rivet Joint, refitting the present R1 aircraft with an improved payload or using the Nimrod MRA4 airframe as the basis for its ELINT aircraft.
TESTING VIRGINIA: The U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class submarine will continue its Operational Evaluation (Opeval) testing through this fall. The testing is designed to evaluate the submarine’s capabilities in an operationally realistic environment. In August, the Navy conducted multiple launches of Tomahawk cruise missiles from the USS Virginia (SSN 774), the first-ever such tests for this type of submarine. The tests included launch and extended flight of multiple missiles. The program’s full-rate production decision is in 2009.
HANDED OVER: The main control center for the Galileo satellite navigation system is being prepared to house the workforce of up to 100 operators who will be needed to control the full 30-spacecraft constellation. German aerospace center DLR has recently completed acceptance of the €16-million ($23.2-million) installation.
SWATTED DOWN: Australia is cutting short its program to replace the center fuselage barrels of its McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A and B Hornet fighters, partly because analysis suggests the fleet can operate until its planned withdrawal in 2018-20 with fewer than 15 of the 71 aircraft refurbished. An order for 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets from the Boeing group will also relieve pressure on the fighters. The replacement work, originally intended for up to 49 of the aircraft, has proven difficult.
The U.S. Air Force’s deputy chief information officer thinks the service should be “sweating bullets” about its workforce issues, which should take priority over information technology (IT) programs.
FORWARD DEPLOYED: The USS George Washington (CVN 73) will assume its role in Yokosuka, Japan, as the U.S.’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier this month. It took 91 days of repair work after a May 22 fire in an unmanned Auxiliary boiler Exhaust and Supply space to get the ship back on track. The fire recovery effort cost the U.S. Navy about $70 million and 55,000 man-days of work. The Navy employed its “One Shipyard” concept to achieve the fix — relying on personnel from Puget Sound Naval shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility and Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
WINGS CLIPPED: U.S. Air Force Gen. Arthur Lichte, head of the service’s Air Mobility Command, tells Washington-based defense reporters that he is not part of the push for a proposed C-17B, a spiral upgrade Boeing has promoted to add capabilities to the airlifter and improve short-airfield performance. “We don’t see as much a requirement for that,” Lichte says.
Two prominent Republicans on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), John Cornyn (Texas) and James Inhofe (Okla.), are asking committee leaders to push Congress to authorize more than a half-billion dollars toward buying additional F-22s.
GENOA, Italy — Alenia Aeronautica has notched up an order for four C-27J Spartan tactical airlifters, though the customer has yet to be made public. The sale is to a non-NATO Mediterranean state that has stipulated it not be identified for now.
SHORTENED LIFE: Eutelsat says studies by Thales Alenia Space show that a June 16-17 incident involving a solar panel failure on its W5 spacecraft will reduce the satellite’s lifetime by up to three years. This means the nominal life of the spacecraft, which was launched in 2002, would end in the fourth quarter of 2014, instead of the first quarter of 2018 as originally planned. Initial evaluation had shown the satellite would lose four of its 24 Ku-band transponders.
FORGET GEORGIA: The conflict between Russia and Georgia isn’t the only international mess facing U.S. lawmakers just back from their five-week summer recess. The House Armed Services Committee plans to explore current operations and future plans for Iraq and Afghanistan at a hearing Sept. 10. Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) has scheduled testimony from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
PARIS — The French defense ministry is assessing the procedures and materiel in use in its Afghanistan operations to identify what changes should be introduced to avoid another bloody engagement like the one last month that killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21.
Despite a decision to slip the date for the final proposal request (FPR) of its Combat, Search and Rescue helicopter replacement (CSAR-X) aircraft, the U.S. Air Force still expects to award the $15 billion contract this fall. The Air Force is moving the FPR from mid-September to around the week of Oct. 6 to allow itself more time to review proposals before the request, according to sources familiar with the acquisition (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 2).
FATAL FLIGHT: The first fatal U.S. Coast Guard aviation mishap in Hawaii since 1982 has resulted in the loss of at least three servicemembers and an HH-65A helicopter. The accident, during a search-and-rescue drill late Sept. 4, occurred while the four-person crew was performing small-boat hoists with a 47-foot motor lifeboat in waters off Honolulu. Three crew members were recovered and identified, while authorities continued to search for the fourth Sept. 5. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: Boeing will install new cockpits on 11 U.S Air Force Hercules transport aircraft in 2009 under the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP). The company announced Sept. 5 it completed software development for the C-130 AMP and is ready to begin low rate initial production (LRIP) of the upgrade kits early next year. Two test aircraft are flying, with a third being modified by Boeing, but kit production will be recompeted beyond the 11 LRIP aircraft. The Air Force plans to AMP more than 200 C-130s.
NOT THERE YET: The new U.S.-Poland ballistic missile defense agreement and declaration on strategic cooperation still needs some refining, Acting Under Secretary of State for International Security and Arms Control John Rood says. One issue is a proposed Patriot antimissile battery. Rood says deployment will begin as soon the necessary agreements are reached with the Poles, and that could begin next year. The goal is to garrison a U.S. Army Patriot battery in Poland by 2012.
DENEL BOUGHT: Rheinmetall says it has completed the purchase of a 51 percent stake in Denel’s munitions business, following approval by antitrust authorities and fulfillment of other technicalities. South African-based Denel will retain a 41 percent holding. The move will allow German-based Rheinmetall to expand outside of its NATO customer base to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America, where Denel has a strong foothold. Rheinmetall generates annual sales of $1 billion, and Denel’s munitions activity about 10 percent of that.
A total of five contracts have now been awarded for Phase 1 concept studies under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Rapid Eye program. Rapid Eye plans to demonstrate a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle that can be launched atop a rocket from the continental U.S. to fill a surveillance gap over anywhere in the world within two orbits (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 2).
LONDON – The United Kingdom is considering contingency options to cover the risk of an increasing capability gap in tactical airlift as Airbus Military partner nations wait to find out the actual extent of delays to the A400M tactical military airlifter. Airbus and the European partner nations are trying to determine “what is a realistic delivery time for the aircraft,” according to Air Marshal Barry Thornton, chief of material (air) within Britain’s Defense Equipment and Support organization.
The lowering of the threat posed by Tropical Storm Hanna to Cape Canaveral means that United Launch Alliance (ULA) workers can be shifted to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in time for a launch of the GeoEye-1 high resolution Earth imaging satellite on Saturday, Sept. 6, instead of Sept. 7.
Having just awarded the contract to develop its high-end Multi-Stage Supersonic Target, the U.S. Navy is looking toward its next planned procurement, the Subscale Subsonic Aerial Target (SSAT), intended as a follow-on to the BQM-74E as its high-fidelity anti-ship cruise missile surrogate.
Boeing’s rotorcraft division in Philadelphia will continue studies of a high-speed compound helicopter concept under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) DiscRotor program. The design has rotating circular wing housing blades that are extended for vertical flight and retracted and stowed for forward flight at speeds up to 300-400 knots.
