HYDRA ROCKETS: The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command has awarded General Dynamics a $166 million contract for the production of 2.75-inch Hydra-70 rockets. The award, part of a five-year requirements contract signed in 2005, has the potential to exceed $900 million if all options are exercised. Hydra-70 is a family of unguided rockets offering several warhead configurations. Rockets can be fired from a variety of platforms, including the Army Apache helicopter and the Air Force F-16.
Damage to a critical solar array rotating mechanism on the International Space Station (ISS) probably was caused by excessive loading, possibly from an out-of-kilter bearing that fractured the coating on one of its moving surfaces. Mike Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager, said late March 24 that data collected to date suggest “a high-friction event” damaged the station’s starboard solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ) last summer.
With the biggest problem facing U.S. Navy aviation being the looming shortage of strike fighters, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead says he is not tempted to sacrifice the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter - specialized for carrier operations - which congressional researchers say is running into projected cost increases and schedule delays.
Boeing expects to resume testing of its Airborne Laser (ABL) this summer, starting with ground tests. Flight tets using the beam control and high-energy chemical laser will follow. The chemical laser modules are now being integrated onto the 747-400 ABL airframe at Edwards AFB, Calif., following a series of beam-control flight tests using a low-energy surrogate laser last year.
Boeing executives indicated March 25 that a planned ballistic missile intercept test under the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) program may slip later in 2008 as program officials look to cut risk while boosting testing complexity.
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In flight tests this week, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) AA-1 proved mid-air refueling capabilities, according to prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The aircraft demonstrated it can operate behind a tanker and hook up and receive fuel, said Doug Pearson, Lockheed Martin vice president of the F-35 Integrated Test Force. “This is the first time we’ve done this. These are the kinds of things we’re trying to do early in the program.”
A Washington-based analyst expects the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve the proposed $5 billion merger of satellite radio providers XM Radio and Sirius within the next few weeks, following the Justice Department’s March 24 greenlight of the deal. “We continue to believe the Federal Communications Commission will approve the deal as well, although battles over merger conditions will likely take at least a few weeks to play out,” Stanford Group Analyst Paul Gallant said March 25.
The recent successful transmission of data from software-defined radios to the Future Combat Systems (FCS) network is a big step forward for the U.S. Army, which has been battling public criticism and doubts about the viability of the overarching FCS network. The Army has demonstrated for the first time that the Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radios (JTRS GMR) can receive data from unattended ground sensors and pass the data to nearby vehicles equipped with the FCS network integration system.
Negotiations between the U.S. Navy and industry over a multiyear contract for eight Virginia-class submarines will begin “soon,” and the Navy expects to sign a deal late this year, according to the sea service’s civilian official and three-star admiral in charge of shipbuilding budgeting. The Virginia program is shared between General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.
HELMET INTEGRATION: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing $49.5 million to integrate its Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) into 145 F-15E aircraft. The first installation is expected in October 2008, with contract completion in December 2010. This is the ninth production contract for JHMCS, a system currently deployed on more than 2,500 F-15, F-16 and F/A-18 aircraft. The advanced helmet provides the pilot head-up control of aircraft targeting systems and sensors.
CANBERRA SAVES: The Australian government is looking for savings in defense administration worth A$1 billion ($900 million) a year that it could put into frontline forces and their equipment.
The amount of money the Pentagon has designated for its top 21 expenses has more than doubled since 2001 and while the Defense Department’s long-time largest outlay – fixed-wing aircraft – has remained at the top of the list, those contracts have been eating up smaller pieces of a much larger pie, an Aerospace DAILY analysis shows.
Mission managers have cleared the space shuttle Endeavour to return to Earth as early as March 26, ratifying engineering findings that the orbiter’s thermal protection system is in good shape to withstand the heat of reentry. Leroy Cain, chairman of the STS-123/1J/A mission management team (MMT), said March 24 that the orbiter systems were ready for the return. A slow pressure leak in one of the three redundant auxiliary power units that will drive orbiter hydraulics during reentry is not a concern, and controllers plan to use the system, he said.
CSAR-X AND TANKER: Another wrinkle in the Pentagon Inspector General’s investigation into the U.S. Air Force’s Combat Search and Rescue replacement (CSAR-X) helicopter program is the recent $35 billion tanker award to the team of Northrop Grumman and EADS, which has been protested by Boeing. Boeing won the original CSAR-X award, which losing bidders Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky have protested twice.
The Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator, the Sea Jet, has had its stern modified with a unique Rimjet propulsion system manufactured by General Dynamics Electric Boat.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking to develop an advanced, guided, actively controlled 50-caliber sniper rifle system whose range, accuracy and target speed are classified. DARPA released a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) March 21 requesting “innovative solutions that will expand the knowledge base and design capabilities” for the EXtreme ACcuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program. The technology development and demonstration program to create the gun will be conducted in three phases. Initial proposals are due May 5.
WEBB SUNSHIELD: The tennis court-sized sunshield that Northrop Grumman has developed to protect NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has completed its preliminary design review (PDR). The sunshield is a five-layer structure composed of extremely thin, specially coated reflective membranes and a support structure that is critical to keeping solar heat from cooking the telescope’s science package, which includes instruments operating at cryogenic temperatures.
GWAC SURGE: Federal spending on task order contract vehicles, such as General Services Administration (GSA)-managed governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) and agency-managed task order vehicles, increased by 39 percent over 2006, according to consultancy Input’s analysis of fiscal 2007 federal procurement spending data. But the majority of the increase came from non-GSA vehicles and stemmed from defense umbrella contracts.
