NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – With the May 19 proposal deadline for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program on the horizon, industry competitors are jockeying for position Raytheon announced April 7 that it is teaming up with Boeing to pursue the program, which will provide a replacement for the Hellfire and Maverick missiles on unmanned aerial vehicles, rotary and fixed-wing platforms by 2016.
Boeing, already financing 10 additional C-17s on its own dime beyond the U.S. Air Force order of 190, is also paying for the long-lead parts to build 20 more, according to an industry source. The company began funding the extra airlifters in hopes that the Air Force would buy more. The Air Force has decided not to re-engine its entire C-5 fleet, leaving an opportunity for Boeing to continue selling the C-17 to the Pentagon. Despite an aggressive push last year for international sales, foreign buys could not carry the production line beyond fiscal 2009.
ARMY Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems Limited Partnership, Sealy, Texas, was awarded on March 31, 2008, a $43,579,276.55 firm-fixed price contract for adding long-term armor strategy A1P2 cabs to 730 family of medium tactical vehicles. Work will be performed in Sealy, Texas. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work is expected to be completed by Nov. 15, 2008. Two bids were solicited on Aug. 15, 2002 and two bids were received. U.S. Army TACOM, Warren, Mich. is the contracting agency (DAAE07-03-C-S023).
The National Academies’ National Research Council (NRC) is urging NASA to “adequately” fund its space radiation biology research program, warning that recent budget cuts could threaten efforts to protect future astronauts during long-term missions. “NASA’s space radiation biology research has been compromised by the recent cuts in funding, particularly in research addressing non-cancer effects,” the NRC panel says in its report.
COLORADO SPRINGS Space-derived revenue hit $251 billion in 2007, an 11-percent growth rate from a year earlier, according to an annual report on the global space market released April 7 by the Space Foundation. Commercial satellite products and services continued to pace the market, accounting for 55 percent of space-economy activity worldwide, or $138.8 billion, according to the foundation’s Space Report 2008. That is an increase of 20 percent over 2006 (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 11, 2007).
NEW DELHI – India is planning to launch Cartosat-2A, a remote sensing satellite equipped with high-resolution cameras, on April 28. Identical to the mapping satellite Cartosat-2, which was launched in January 2007, the 680-kilogram (1,500 pound) Cartosat-2A will be placed in a polar orbit at an altitude of 630 kilometers (391 miles). Cartosat-2A will have a panchromatic camera capable of providing scene-specific spot imagery for cartographic and other applications at better than one-meter resolution.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Boeing announced April 7 that it expects the Italian government to issue a request for proposals (RFP) in the second quarter of 2008 for up to 20 Chinook F-model aircraft. The F-models will be produced under a special agreement with Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland. “There is money in the 2008 budget to start that program,” said Jack Dougherty, Boeing’s vice president of the Chinook program. A letter of request from Turkey for F-models was received by the company in March.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Sobering new NASA estimates that cancellation of the space shuttle in 2010 could cost up to 9,000 aerospace contractor jobs nationwide — 6,400 of them here at KSC — are refocusing Congressional pressure on the White House for additional funds to accelerate development of the Ares/Orion shuttle replacement vehicles.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: The first of six Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman completed 25 years of successful on-orbit operations on April 4. The TDRS-1 satellite tracks and communicates with low-Earth-orbiting satellites and NASA manned spacecraft, transmitting voice, television and digital and analog data to control centers on Earth. In total, the six TDRS spacecraft have logged more than 40,000 mission days on orbit, delivering more than 800,000 hours of service.
Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) are criticizing U.S. Army leadership for its supposed failure to comply with federal standards relating to contracts awarded for body armor.
Eurocontrol plans to develop a road map by the end of 2009 that outlines how unmanned aircraft will be integrated into the European air traffic management (ATM) system in the years to come. The aim is to set the stage for military and civil unmanned aircraft to fly in civil airspace in Europe, something which rarely occurs now.
JLTV PROPOSALS: Proposals are due mid-April for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) family of vehicles, a joint U.S. Army/Marine Corps program with the Army designated as the lead service. The JLTV is the future replacement for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) for the Army, and consists of 10 sub-configurations in three different payload categories. Army Lt. Col.
IED PARTNERS: Raytheon is trying to recruit potential industry and academic partners to work on counter-improvised explosive device (IED) efforts through a new website. “Coalition forces are still being affected on the battlefield, so we decided to exhaust every opportunity to find the best solutions,” says Jack Costello, vice president of business development and strategic planning for Raytheon Network Centric Systems.
UNMANNED SUPERVISION: Under a $2.4-million, 18-month contract from the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin is developing a framework “to help small teams of naval operators manage groups of unmanned vehicles through dynamic, complex missions.” Instead of having each operator locked to one system, the SUMMIT (Supervision of Unmanned vehicles Mission Management by Interactive Teams) program supports operator collaboration across the team, Lockheed promises.
NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) exhibit several key indicators of risk in the development program, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a statement before Congress April 3.
Final assembly of the first P-8A Poseidon long-range anti-submarine warfare aircraft for the U.S. Navy has begun on a new third assembly line at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Wash. The aircraft uses a 737-800 fuselage built by Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, Kan., and wings built in Renton. Five test articles will be used for the certification program. Delivery of the first test airplane to the Navy is set for next year. The third line is cordoned off from Renton’s two main lines, which are use for civil 737 production.
COTS CONUNDRUM: The Defense Science Board is exploring how the Pentagon can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of programs designed to take advantage of commercial-off-the-shelf items modified for military purposes. This study could provide some pointers for the Air Force’s KC-45 – built on an Airbus A330 – in how to avoid problems experienced by the Navy’s VH-71 Presidential Helicopter and Littoral Combat Ship and the Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter.
B-1 INCIDENT: U.S. Air Force officials are investigating an incident and a possible fire April 4 involving a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-1B bomber at Al-Udeid air base, Qatar. No details of injuries or fatalities had been released by 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, but news reports said a fire broke out after landing and the crew escaped. Seven B-1B bombers have been lost in previous operational accidents, the most recent of them in December 2001, and one of the development aircraft crashed in 1984.
A lot of people and organizations were left scrambling last week in the wake of military airlift contractor ATA Airlines’ abrupt shutdown and bankruptcy, including U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC), which spent the first full day of the shutdown arranging alternate transportation for stranded military travelers. “Air Mobility Command is working with the commercial airline industry to fill near term airlift gaps,” AMC said in a brief prepared statement issued on the evening of Apr. 3.
UH-1 SENSORS: The first of three Mission Equipment Package (MEP) sensors for the U.S. Army’s Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate has been delivered by FLIR Government Systems and will be integrated on the UH-1 helicopter for flight testing this spring. The system has been three years in development and is designed with Tier II and other small unmanned aerial vehicles in mind. The system only weighs 16 pounds and is 7.25-inches in diameter, but it includes two IR cameras, a color TV camera, a laser range-finder and a laser designator.
The FBI is exploring new law enforcement uses for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with the head of the agency’s Operational Technology Division (OTD) taking in a demonstration by an Insitu ScanEagle at the Quantico Marine Base April 4. FBI Assistant Director Marcus Allen, who helped launch the catapult-projected ScanEagle, has said publicly that the FBI is experimenting with a variety of UAVs.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) April 8 - 10 — Aerospace Testing Seminar, Manhattan Beach, Marriott, Manhattan Beach, Calif. For more information call 310-336-6805 or go to www.aero.org April 13 - 15 — MELAHA 2008, “Global Navigation Satellite Systems: The Next Fontier,” Arab Institute of Navigation (AIN) Conference, Hurghada, Egypt. For more information go to www.ainegypt.org.site/pages.php?ids=20
TERROR NUKES: The Homeland Security Dept.’s chief intelligence officer says nuclear terrorism remains a very real threat. “There is no doubt in my mind” that al Qaeda is intent on obtaining nuclear weapons, Homeland Security Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Charles Allen tells the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is investigating the intent and capability of terrorists to obtain nuclear materials, build a bomb, transport it, and detonate it.
