The first flight of an MQ-8B Fire Scout with multimode maritime radar has removed a major obstacle to U.S. Coast Guard interest in the shipborne vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned air vehicle (VUAV), manufacturer Northrop Grumman believes.
GROUND SEGMENT: Raytheon says it has completed acceptance testing of the data processing segment at the satellite operations facility for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) three weeks ahead of schedule. The segment, which will deliver NPOESS weather and climate data to users, will first be used on the NPOESS Preparatory Project risk-reduction spacecraft. NPOESS ran billions over budget due to problems with its many sensors, particularly the Raytheon-led Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite.
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has asked his party’s congressional leadership to extend NASA’s authority to buy seats on the Russian Soyuz vehicle, while holding open the possibility of flying the space shuttle beyond its planned 2010 retirement date. In a letter that offers the most detailed Obama position yet on issues facing the U.S. space agency in the runup to the November election, the Illinois senator appears to signal strong support for civil space and aeronautics spending after the Bush administration leaves office.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) plans the fourth launch attempt of its Falcon 1 rocket during a window running Sept. 28 to Oct. 1. Although Flight 4 was originally to carry a Malaysian Space Agency payload, it has been redesignated as a demonstration test. The low-cost commercial rocket has been launched three times but so far failed to make it to orbit. The third attempt in early August failed due to residual thrust in the Merlin 1C first-stage engine (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 8).
U.S. aerospace and defense trade representatives in Washington are vowing to promote now-stalled export licensing reform treaties with Britain and Australia with whoever controls Washington starting next year.
BUILDER’S TRIALS: The Northrop Grumman-built Aegis guided missile destroyer Truxtun (DDG 103) completed two days of builder’s sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico last week, proceeding apace to completion. The ship is the 25th in the DDG-51 class being built by Northrop Grumman, and will now prepare for U.S. Navy acceptance trials scheduled for the week of Sept. 29. All major hull, mechanical and electrical systems were tested during the builder’s trials, as was the Aegis Combat System.
MORE SOYUZ: A bill that would allow the U.S. to continue buying rides on Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) after the space shuttle stops flying was cleared by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sept. 23. The measure extends an exemption for NASA to the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act, which bars the U.S. from paying Russia for rides on Soyuz spacecraft, from its previous deadline of Dec. 31, 2011 until the ISS is deorbited. Without Soyuz, U.S.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Czech Republic Minister of Defense Vlasta Parkanova signed a declaration on strategic defense cooperation between the two countries Sept. 22, finalizing years of negotiations over a missile defense package. Earlier this summer, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a framework agreement that included basing an existing U.S. midcourse missile defense tracking radar in the Central European country (Aerospace DAILY, July 9).
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he considered changing the ground rules for the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition before finally deciding to leave the details of a new competition to the next administration. Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee Sept. 23 he was very disappointed that he had to scrap the contest, but finally decided that issuing new rules for the massive contract competition in the waning days of the Bush administration would prompt questions of propriety.
The U.S. Air Force jumped the gun in approving the B-1 Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL) program, possibly before key Common Link Integration Processing (CLIP) software was ready, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
Northrop Grumman announced it has established the baseline required for the U.S. Navy to proceed to the Systems Design and Development (SDD) phase of its next-generation Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP).
BETTER WAYPOINTS: The U.S. Navy is upgrading amphibious assault ships and related Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) vehicles with an electronic communications capability. Naval Sea Systems Command said it is installing the AN/KSQ-1A Amphibious Assault Direction System (AADS) Gator 7.0 software upgrade, which allows ships to send waypoints electronically. Before, if mission data had to be transmitted to an LCAC after its launch, military units had to break external radio silence to transmit it to the operational unit.
NASA’s Kepler planet-finding mission has successfully completed thermal-vacuum testing in preparation for its launch next year, NASA announced Sept. 23. The test took place at manufacturer Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.’s facility in Boulder, Colo. The spacecraft functioned “extremely well,” NASA Kepler Project Manager James Fanson said in a statement.
PROJECTILE TEST: The U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program fired the first artillery projectile from its Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) prototype at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. The NLOS-C is the lead prototype in the Army’s family of eight FCS MGVs, the rest of which are to be produced between 2008 and 2009. The cannon, operated by a two-man crew, has a fully automated ammunition loading system and improved accuracy through onboard projectile tracking.
PARIS – France will dispatch more hardware to Afghanistan to avoid a repetition of a bloody engagement last month that killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21. The ambush, which occurred during a routine patrol Aug. 17-18 near Surobi, about 50 kilometers east of the capital Kabul, led to sharp criticism of the French military for sending troops into hostile zones without proper reconnaissance, intelligence, air cover and fighting materiel. The incident also forced a vote in parliament on whether or not to maintain the Afghan operation.
A full analysis of Spin Out 1, the first spate of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) equipment to be fielded, will occur this fall and winter, with an eye toward follow-on versions.
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JAPAN’S INTERCEPT: Japan’s self-defense force conducted its first test of the Lockheed Martin PAC-3 hit-to-kill ballistic missile interceptor last week. During the test, a PAC-3 intercepted and destroyed a theater ballistic missile target at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the company says.
ELINT UPGRADE: French armaments agency DGA has selected Thales to upgrade the ELINT system on France’s two C-160G Gabriel signals intelligence aircraft. The upgrade, to be introduced into service in 2011, is intended to allow the aircraft to meet evolving naval and air radar threats. The Gabriel also carries a COMINT payload, which like the basic ELINT system was provided by Thales.
