U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) deployed the Predator B Sept. 2 to provide live streaming video for damage assessment in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, representing the first time the Department of Homeland Security has deployed an unmanned aircraft for disaster response. The aircraft was launched from Corpus Christi, Texas, and surveyed levee conditions to detect damage and identify potential trouble spots. CBP’s High Endurance Tracker (Cheyenne PA-42s) and Orion P-3 reconnaissance aircraft provided pre-landfall imagery of Hurricane Gustav.
Thailand’s Theos imaging satellite remains stranded on its launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, due to a lingering overflight dispute with neighboring Uzbekistan. The 750-kilogram (1,650-pound) spacecraft is designed to supply 2-meter panchromatic and 15-meter multispectral wide-swath imagery for cartography, land use, agriculture and other products.
SPANISH ARMOR: General Dynamics (GD) Santa Barbara Sistemas said it received a $102 million Spanish Government contract through 2009 for 100 RG-31 Mk5E mine-protected vehicles for the Spanish army. The contract calls for 85 Armored Personnel Carriers, 10 ambulances and five command post variants, plus integration of Remote Controlled Weapon Station turrets and ongoing integrated logistic support. The contract includes an option for a second phase for 80 additional vehicles that will include “some” manufacturing in Spain, according to GD.
The resurgence of Russia is cause for worry, according to Lt. Gen. James Thurman, U.S. Army deputy chief of staff for operations, who says the U.S. is in a very dangerous period. “When I hear [people say] the Army is at its breaking point, I do not see that,” Thurman said Sept. 4 at an Association for the U.S. Army (AUSA) breakfast in Washington. But the recent invasion of Georgia by Russia will test the operational capacity of U.S. forces.
Crews at Kennedy Space Center started moving the space shuttle Atlantis to Launch Complex 39A on Sept. 4, after concluding that Tropical Storm Hanna would be safely offshore when it passes by on Sept. 5. Managers met at 5:30 a.m. EDT to consider the move, which will set up a scheduled Oct. 8 launch of STS-125 – the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Original plans called for moving the shuttle to the pad on Sept. 2, but managers postponed the action when Hanna began to threaten Florida’s “space coast.”
TAILLESS AHEAD: The first of two X-47B carrier demonstration system air vehicles is more than 50 percent complete and ahead of its build schedule as it proceeds toward first flight in November 2009, Northrop Grumman says. The flight-test program for the X-47B – which is aiming to be the first-ever unmanned tailless jet to land onboard a carrier – will include catapult launch and arrested landings, autonomous carrier control-area operations and precise movement of the aircraft on the ship’s flight deck.
MEDIUM TACTICAL: The U.S. Army has awarded Navistar two new contracts worth nearly $92 million, extensions of earlier military awards for Medium Tactical Vehicles and other variants of the company’s International 7000-series trucks. Navistar will provide 400 cargo trucks with increased payload (worth nearly $70 million) and another 120 tractor trailers (worth nearly $22 million). The vehicles will be delivered to the Army’s Tank and Automotive Command (TACOM) Life Cycle Management Command for use in Iraq and Afghanistan.
MOI AUSSI: Sikorsky Aerospace Services announced a five-year contract to provide Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior (MOI) with an Operations and Maintenance Support Program for the S-92, S-76 and S-434 purchased by the MOI in 2007. This contract is the second of its kind for Sikorsky in Saudi Arabia. During the early 1990s, Sikorsky provided maintenance support for the Royal Saudi Land Force Aviation Command, assisting the group with its initial stand-up operations for its fleet of Desert Hawk S-70.
ATAK COPTER: Turkey’s army has selected AgustaWestland’s T129, powered by two Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company (LHTEC) CTS800-4A engines, as part of the Tactical Reconnaissance and Attack Helicopter (ATAK) program for the Turkish Land Forces Command. LHTEC is a joint venture between Honeywell and Rolls-Royce. Under the agreement, 50 helicopters and 100 engines including spares have been ordered in a deal valued near $96 million. The contract also provides options for an additional 40 engines.
LONDON – The U.K. Defense Ministry and EADS subsidiary Eurocopter are in the final stages of trying to negotiate a deal covering a service life extension program for 30 Royal Air Force (RAF) Puma helicopters. The program is intended to allow the Puma to remain in service until 2024, rather than be withdrawn from service in 2012. Eurocopter is already working on the assessment phase of the proposed service life extension.
LONDON – The United Kingdom will acquire three General Atomics Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during 2009. The Royal Air Force (RAF) is currently operating two Reapers in support of combat operations in Afghanistan, with the UAVs based at Kandahar. A third Predator will be delivered in January 2009 to replace one the RAF was forced to destroy following a crash landing as a result of an engine problem.
A jury has convicted a University of Tennessee professor of unlawfully passing technical data on plasma actuators used on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to two postgraduate students, one from China and another from Iran, while he worked on a U.S. Air Force contract.
MISSION CAPABLE: The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a contract to Integrated Coast Guard Systems to missionize the fourth HC-130J Long Range Surveillance (LRS) aircraft at Lockheed Martin in Greenville, S.C. The C-130Js replace the legacy HC-130H aircraft in the Coast Guard fleet. The new Hercules is based on the standard C-130 airframe, but with beefier engines, propellers, avionics and cargo-handling equipment. The missionized C-130J boasts a 20 percent increase in speed, 40 percent increase in range and 40 percent higher cruising altitude than its predecessor.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate needs to improve the integrity of its project selection process to avoid the appearance of bias, according to the DHS Inspector General (IG).
Industry’s progress in demonstrating high-power, solid-state laser technology is focusing service interest in weapon applications, according to Northrop Grumman. U.S. Army interest is in a counter-rocket/artillery weapon, while the Air Force focus is precision strike, but the Navy could be first to use technology from the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program, says Dan Wildt, vice president of directed energy systems for Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: Lockheed Martin announced Sept. 3 it demonstrated its Intelligent Control and Autonomous Replanning of Unmanned Systems (ICARUS) suite of technologies as part of an exercise conducted Aug. 12-14. During the Edge Command and Control/Hybrid Operations (ECC/HO) exercises, a Tactical Operations Center operator worked in conjunction with a mobile Command and Control (C2) unit and soldiers on the ground.
International Space Station (ISS) crewmates have been making lots of trips to the dump this week, transferring trash and junk into two automated cargo capsules to burn up during re-entry over the Pacific. Russia’s Progress M-64/29P undocked from the nadir port of the Zarya module on Sept. 1, and Europe’s Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is scheduled to follow on Sept. 5. Both vehicles will remain in orbit for a time before being commanded to re-enter.
Pacific-realm activity, Iranian behavior, resurgent major powers like China and the prevalence of low-intensity conflict (LIC) will drive U.S. Navy investments in the region, according to Marshall Billingslea, deputy under secretary of the Navy.
NORTHERN COMFORT: Two Canadian C-130 aircraft were deployed by Canada Command to Pensacola, Fla., to support search and rescue efforts in the U.S. Gulf region for Hurricane Gustav. Previously, Canada Command deployed a CC-177 Globemaster aircraft from Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario, to Lakefront Airport in New Orleans to conduct evacuation operations ahead of the hurricane. This is the first time that U.S.
PROWLER RECOVERY: The U.S. Navy’s deep-diving Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) “Deep Drone” performed an aircraft search and recovery of an EA-6B Prowler on Aug. 17-20 near Guam. Based off the USNS Salvor (T-ARS 52), the operation was carried out to help the crash investigation in determining the accident cause and possible implication on the rest of the EA-6B inventory. The EA-6B crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 6,500 feet of water Feb. 12 while conducting night landing qualifications. Both engines and assorted other components were recovered.
MATURED TEST: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) declared Sept. 2 that the High Speed Anti-radiation Demonstration (HSAD) Project successfully showed the “maturity” of an integral rocket ramjet propulsion system. The Aug. 15 test incorporated nozzleless booster and variable-flow, ducted rocket ramjet technologies in a controlled test vehicle (CTV) that was air-launched from an QF-4 drone at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. “Initial data analysis and post-test visual inspection of the hardware indicates that the vehicle’s systems performed as designed,” NAVAIR said.
Hurricane Hanna’s expected arrival off the east coast of Florida is delaying the planned launch of the GeoEye-1 remote sensing spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., until no earlier than Sept. 7.
WE SEA YOU: The U.S. Navy this month will deploy its Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) strategy to its newly established Caribbean-based 4th Fleet. The Navy achieved initial operating capability (IOC) of its MDA strategy Aug. 28 after nearly two years of work and extensive investment, Deputy Navy Undersecretary Marshall Billingslea told a group at ComDef 2008 Sept. 3. Billingslea said the service now has the ability to track hundreds of vessel types and properly apportion response to data streaming from the ships. The system is in use in U.S.
USAF BUSINESS: The U.S. Air Force’s recent internal turmoil could provide business opportunities to federal information technology vendors, according to consultancy Input. For vendors, it means a return to an emphasis on strong business processes, and a commitment to provide systems that will create future cost savings for the armed service. Input says to look for business process opportunities in supply chain management, supply rationalization and stategic sourcing, logistics management business process engineering, asset tracking and visibility and overall cost savings.
