T-AKE SIX: The Amelia Earhart, the newest T-AKE underway replenishment ship, will be christened on April 6 in San Diego. This T-AKE ship is the sixth in a series of 11 the Navy will use to deliver provisions to U.S. and allied ships at sea. The ship is designed to operate independently for extended periods at sea and can carry and support two helicopters to conduct vertical replenishment.
PARIS – The European Space Agency (ESA) is pushing back launch of its first Earth Explorer research mission, Goce, aboard a Rockot booster from May to August because of a March failure involving the Proton rocket and its Breeze upper stage, which is shared with Rockot. The failure left the SES Americom AMC-14 telecom satellite stranded in a lower than intended orbit — 27,000 kilometers (17,000 miles) — following premature cutout near the end of the second of three planned upper stage burns. No report has yet been issued (Aerospace DAILY, March 18).
KFX DECISION: South Korea will not decide whether its proposed KFX stealth fighter is feasible until June. It originally planned to decide last month. A change of government appears to have prompted the deferral. The timetable drawn up under the previous government envisaged a concept study contract in April and selection of a company to carry out exploratory development in November.
April 15-17, 2008 Broward County Convention Center Fort Lauderdale, FL Military and industry leaders assemble in a unique Working Group Seminar designed to develop a realistic plan of action to improve readiness, availability, cost, and cycle time for U.S. fighters, airlift/tanker, rotor wing and complex electronic aircraft.
GOING AHEAD: The U.K. is continuing to order components for its two next-generation aircraft carriers, though it has yet to conclude a deal with its prime contractors for the ships. Last week it agreed to a 13 million pound ($25.9 million) package with Scottish manufacturer MacTaggart Scott covering the provision of aircraft lifts for the ships, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
BROWNOUT SOLUTION: Rockwell Collins hopes the U.S. Marine Corps will incorporate the company’s new LandSafe system on the CH-53E when it upgrades the rotorcraft’s cockpit to the Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS). According to Rockwell, LandSafe incorporates commercial off-the-shelf fiber optic laser technology to “sense through” particulate matter like dust, snow, rain, smoke or fog, while providing altitude, groundspeed and airspeed information to the flight crew. The technology was developed in conjunction with Optical Air Data Systems.
SURGE PROTECTORS: When Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen David Petraeus face Congress this week, they will have to answer questions about why the U.S. is footing the bill for Iraq’s reconstruction when the Iraqis have $30 billion in their banks, according to Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in a teleconference with reporters April 4. Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), also on the call, said he believes the surge has not achieved its primary purpose of creating a stable political environment in Iraq. “It’s like going from drowning to treading water,” Biden said.
GPS IIR: Lockheed Martin has completed the last satellite in the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System Block IIR modernization program (GPS IIR-M), including a demonstration payload to transmit the new L5 civil signal. The last spacecraft is scheduled for shipment from King of Prussia, Pa., to Cape Canaveral, Fla., in time for a June launch. IIR-M work was completed a month ahead of schedule and less than a year after the Air Force added a $6 million contract for the L5 frequency (1176.45MHz).
The Bush administration will not seek further export licensing treaties similar to pending deals before the Senate regarding the United Kingdom and Australia, according to a State Department official.
The U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard will need an additional $6.8 billion from fiscal 2013 to FY ’19, above current projections to achieve full equipment and modernization levels, according to three-star generals commanding the traditionally supportive segments.
The Bush administration is pushing Congress to fund a study of a space-based missile defense test bed because the military wants to inform debate within Washington over what is and isn’t possible, according to the director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
While a $27 million reprogramming request from the U.S. Army makes its way through defense subcommittees on the Hill for approval, a second unspecified request is being proposed to keep the Future Combat Systems’ (FCS) first spin-out on track. Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, Army deputy chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. Ross Thompson, acquisition deputy, spoke April 3 before the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee about the challenges facing FCS, which are primarily budget-related.
The fourth and final Boeing C-17 has been officially delivered to the Canadian armed forces from the company’s Long Beach, Calif. production line. Dubbed the CC-177 by the Canadian Forces, the aircraft will be fitted with Northrop Grumman’s large aircraft infrared countermeasures system at Boeing’s San Antonio, Texas, modification site. Following installation, the aircraft will join the three other Canadian C-17s at the 429 Transport Squadron, based in Trenton, Ontario.
The Pentagon cannot be certain that body armor bought by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps meets Defense Department standards, a recent department Inspector General (IG) report says. In its March 31 report, the IG recommends the Pentagon make sure some of the armor items bought so far are up to standard before purchasing more.
NASA has nearly finished a study on the feasibility of accelerating the crew transport portion of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which for now remains focused exclusively on cargo. During testimony April 3 to the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics, Richard Gilbrech, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration, said the agency would be happy to share the results of the study with lawmakers as soon as it is completed. “We’re in the final stages of vetting that,” he said.
The first flight of the Kawasaki C-X military transport for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces has been delayed again, this time until summer, because of newly found defects. The C-X, which was supposed to fly in September 2007, failed static structural tests last July. Officials have since decided that strengthening is needed for the frames of the mid and aft fuselage where the landing gear is attached and for the rear cargo ramp, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.
The Bush administration and European allies hope that a missile defense agreement reached inside NATO will help spur Russia to strike a larger “framework” deal and perhaps pull in the former Soviet country to a joint European missile defense network based around proposed U.S. ground-based midcourse interceptors there.
The U.S. is in danger of assuming strategic risk if it neglects national defense as it did after World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars, warned Gen. Richard Cody, departing U.S. Army vice chief of staff. Cody said that the U.S.’s historical neglect of national defense after major conflicts is a mistake. “We’ve been down that road before, as a nation and as an Army, and we know where it leads,” he said April 3. “Unexpected conflict happens, and it is the soldier who pays in blood when we as a nation are unprepared.”
Members of the U.S. Air Force’s source selection group raised concerns about the performance of the EADS refueling boom design during the KC-X tanker competition, according to Mark McGraw, Boeing’s tanker executive. The Air Force officials were “speaking loudly” behind closed doors in meetings about their worries, and this information found during the discovery phase of Boeing’s protest of the award to Northrop Grumman/EADS is “very encouraging” support for the company’s protest, McGraw told reporters during an April 3 teleconference.
Japan will consider the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning along with three other nonstealthy types as its next-generation fighter to replace McDonnell Douglas Phantoms, suggesting a softening of its hard-line requirement for F-22s.
FCS SUPPORT: The movement and distribution of supplies will happen “further back in the [Future Combat Systems] requirements than they would have you believe,” an Army transportation official said April 2. Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commander of the Army’s Transportation School at Ft. Eustis, Va., said it will be a legacy force that supports and sustains the Future Combat Systems (FCS) fleet.
Boeing has demonstrated that sustained, level flight in a manned aircraft can be achieved using nothing but a fuel cell for power, and is eyeing the technology for possible incorporation into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Francisco Escarti, managing director of Boeing Research & Technology Europe (BR&TE), thinks UAVs that tap a fuel cell’s inherent silence and lack of heat signature – no hot gas engine – are a natural for the surveillance UAV world. The fact that such aircraft would contribute no pollutants or CO2 emissions is a bonus.
NASA engineers are in the early stages of designing a mechanical countermeasure to the thrust oscillation problem identified last year in the first stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle, a modified space shuttle solid-fuel booster. The fix, which involves mounting the stage’s 14,000-pound recovery-parachute package on springs to dampen vibrations generated as its solid propellant burns out, should knock them down to a level that can be handled with shock absorbers or other devices on the seats of the Orion crew exploration vehicle on top.
ATV DOCKS: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) April 3. The 20-metric ton freighter, which will complement the space shuttle, Russian Progress and Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle while filling a vital cargo role after the retirement of the shuttle in 2010, maneuvered from a holding position 39 kilometers beyond the ISS and docked with the Zvezda service module at 10:45 a.m.
