While the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program’s recent Selected Acquisition Report points to some cost stability within the program, the program still faces some serious challenges ahead, a recent Teal Group report says. Industrial “greed” abroad and program commitment at home continue to put the F-35 in the crosshairs, according to the report.
Tests at the Mount Hopkins Observatory in Arizona this summer could validate a new technique for finding extra-solar planets on the same scale as Earth. Developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics with input from experts at MIT, the device uses extremely short pulses of laser light, in combination with an atomic clock, to make measurements accurate to one part in a trillion of the light coming from distant stars.
AIR FORCE Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of Herndon, Va., is being awarded a modified contract for $27,970,673. The action will provide survivability and vulnerability technical research and development analysis for U.S. Coast Guard ship, aviation, and Command and Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. At this time $7,714,009 has been obligated. Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (SP0700-03-D-1380, Delivery Order: 0250).
EURO TECH: Northrop Grumman has been awarded a U.S. Army contract to consolidate and centrally manage information technology (IT) resources for the service’s 5th Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany. Northrop Grumman hopes its effort, managed through the European Theater Network Operations Security Center (E-TNOSC), will streamline the Army’s European IT infrastructure to improve network integrity and security while reducing overall costs.
BMDS DACS: American Pacific Corp.’s in-space propulsion subsidiary ISP said April 14 it will deliver a “qualification unit” and two flight-test units for a liquid divert and attitude control system (DACS) for the U.S. ballistic missile defense system in September 2010. The schedule stems from a $15 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop a low-cost, low-risk propulsion system for interceptor kill vehicles. ISP is teamed with Moog Inc.’s Space and Defense Group, which will provide subsystem design and component support.
SPECIAL OPS: France will have nearly 3,300 troops in the Afghan theater following a commitment by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the NATO summit in Bucharest. Sarkozy promised 700 additional troops, to be deployed in support of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan. He declined to take action on a proposal to send 200-300 special operations troops to replace those removed in December 2006.
PARIS – The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted for a second Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system spacecraft and is poised to award a third as it gears up for a GMES expansion plan to be submitted for approval in November. Thales Alenia Space was awarded a 305 million euro ($475 million) contract April 14 for Sentinel 3, the second of five dedicated Sentinel satellites that will form the backbone of the space segment of GMES, which is being developed under ESA’s responsibility.
AIR FORCE Boeing Co. of Anaheim, Calif., is being awarded a modified contract for $24,960,000. This undefinitized contract action will incorporate Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 0035, Strategic Networks, into the Family of Advanced Beyond-Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) Increment 1 program. At this time $9,250,000 has been obligated. Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-02-C-0048/P00141). ARMY
Aurora Flight Sciences announced April 14 that it has won a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to begin working on a concept for an aircraft that could stay airborne up to five years.
TURRET WEAPONS: A new Frost & Sullivan analysis over the European turret-mounted weapons market projects the value of the market to be up to $15.3 billion through 2016. Based on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, customer demand has shifted to lightweight and more effective turret-mounted weapons systems with enhanced crew protection and mobility to operate in unknown territories, the consultancy says.
CAT & MOUSE: The U.S. Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office are undertaking an analytical review of space protection needs for national security military satellite constellations. Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for space Gary Payton says the satellite cadre in the government needs to “take a lesson” from the Navy’s submarine community, which is constantly updating its operational concepts and countermeasures.
SPACE SUPPORT: As the space-industrial complex spins up its pitch for more funding from the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, oddsmakers at the 24th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs see New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as the strongest space supporter in the three-way presidential race as it stands today. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s support for civil space is considered weakest, given his early call for diversion of NASA funding into education and subsequent lack of specifics on his position. The presumptive Republican nominee, Sen.
RAPTOR WRINKLE: F-22 Raptors will require more frequent inspections because of a potential for catastrophic failure in flight due to a manufacturing defect in crucial titanium supports, according to recent media reports. The titanium parts provide structural support in a section of the aft fuselage that connects to the wings, and the defects could lead to failures resulting in the loss of the aircraft, according to reports on a lawsuit filed by Boeing against Alcoa, which forged the titanium parts.
PROTESTERS BEWARE: U.S. Air Force officials are postured to handle a protest from the losing contractor of the Global Positioning System III downselect expected April 18. Lockheed Martin and Boeing are competing for the satellite segment. The Air Force is in the midst of protests of the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) replacement contract and its $35 billion KC-45 award to a Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team, and service officials fear this trend will bleed over into the space acquisition arena.
Lawmakers are eager to find ways to close projected shortfalls in U.S. Navy and Marine Corps tactical aircraft and ship forces without leaning on traditional bill payers, and are eyeing major programs like Maritime Prepositioning Force-Future (MPF-F) and DDG-1000 ships instead. To be sure, the Navy still supports its budget requests for the MPF-F and destroyers, according to recent congressional testimony, and the high-profile DDG-1000 continues to enjoy significant backing, such as from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
CUBESAT: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) intends to launch one or two CubeSat-type nano-satellites by the end of 2008. Depending upon final mission plans, the spacecraft will be carried on a Russian Dnepr rocket piggybacked with a larger non-Israeli payload. So far about 32 nano-satellites have been launched worldwide with a success rate of at least 50 percent. IAI has purchased some Boeing support hardware for the flight. “Israel has entered the nano-satellite area relatively late,” says David Zusiman of the Israel Nano-Satellite Association.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) April 15 - 17 — AVIATIONWEEK MRO Military, Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. For more information call 212-904-4483 or go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences/milmain.htm
COLORADO SPRINGS — Challenge & Space, the Korean-based rocket maker, is planning to “Americanize” its Chase 10 engine to overcome U.S. State Department roadblocks currently slowing plans for using the motor to power a space tourism project. “We’d like to Americanize the engine, and run it through tests with more U.S. content to eventually make it a U.S.-certified engine,” Challenge & Space (C&S) research engineer David Riseborough says.
Malaysia will buy at least six new naval helicopters for anti-submarine warfare starting in 2011. The country’s new navy chief, Abdul Aziz Jaafar, says the service needs six anti-submarine helicopters to complement its new Scorpene submarines from France and will ask for them under the national plan for 2011-2015. The Malaysian navy already operates six AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 naval helicopters from its two British Lekiu class frigates built in 1994-1995. They were ordered in 1999 and delivered in 2003 and 2004.
FUEL DEFRAUDER: Matthew W. Bittenbender, a former defense contractor from Baltimore, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal competitive information concerning contracts to supply fuel to Defense Department aircraft at locations worldwide, the Justice Department announced last week. He will cooperate in government investigations. Indictments also were unsealed against two other individuals, Christopher Cartwright and Paul Wilkinson, and their affiliated companies, Far East Russia Aircraft Services Inc. and Aerocontrol LTD, on related charges.
After four years of construction, the U.S. Coast Guard expects to accept its first National Security Cutter by early May, but testing and shakedown runs could delay full deployment for almost two years, according to a top Coast Guard official. The cutter Bertholf is at sea, undergoing acceptance trials with a crew supplied by contractor Northrop Grumman and under the supervision of the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey, said Rear Adm. Gary Blore, the Coast Guard’s assistant commandant for acquisition.
An undercover operation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has uncovered what amounts to a cyber black-market haven for the sales of sensitive and sometimes stolen U.S. military equipment. “GAO found numerous defense-related items for sale to the highest bidder on eBay and Craigslist,” GAO said in its April 10 report. “A review of policies and procedures for these web sites determined that there are few safeguards to prevent the sale of sensitive and stolen defense-related items using the sites,” GAO said.
