The U.S. Department of Defense has notified Congress of a possible sale of 24 new and 24 used Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds to Romania, valuing the deal at $4.5 billion. The F-16 is competing against the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen as Romania searches for a replacement for its Israeli-upgraded MiG-21 Lancers. A decision is expected this year. Romania wants its new fighter to enter service in 2010.
Language tacked onto the House Armed Service Committee’s (HASC) fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill rejects the U.S. Navy’s request for a waiver to dip below its own requirement for 11 aircraft carriers next decade. If enacted, the provision – sponsored by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) – would forbid retiring the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) in fiscal 2013, although lawmakers acknowledge the “significant schedule and cost implications” of maintaining the flattop, which has limited nuclear-powered life remaining.
Sikorsky will develop more durable rotor blades able to withstand sand and rain erosion under a 42-month, $11.4 million contract from the U.S. Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate. The program is aiming for a blade life of 1,000 hours in erosive environments, compared with the 200-300 hours being achieved in Iraq. Sikorsky will explore new materials, coatings and treatments for the blade leading edge and tip cap and deliver a set of four main rotor blades and two tail rotor blades for testing on a UH-60L Black Hawk.
The Textron-Boeing-SAIC industry team revealed its design for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) to reporters May 19, highlighting its offering’s parallel hybrid drive, center-positioned driver and semi-active suspension.
Senior NASA managers have set a May 31 launch date for the space shuttle Discovery, following a review of preparations for the STS-124/1J mission to deliver Japan’s Kibo laboratory module to the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff will come at 5:02 p.m. EDT on that day, weather permitting, for a nominal 14-day mission that will return to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on June 14.
NOT HELPING: Washington watchdog Winslow Wheeler, Straus Military Reform Project director, claims that the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have received $174 billion more than was anticipated for the 2001-2009 period, while the Air Force received $200 billion more in the same time frame. But the additional monies – which do not include more than $95 billion for Iraq operations and $80 billion for Afghanistan – have not helped the departments grow stronger, Wheeler asserts.
Expedition 17 crew members on the International Space Station (ISS) are ready to begin unloading more than 2.3 tons of supplies from a new Russian Progress cargo vehicle after a safe robotic docking. Progress M64/29P docked without incident to the nadir port on the Zarya module at 5:39 p.m. EDT May 16, and crew members later opened it and set up ventilation gear.
The NASA Ames Research Center team that invented PICA and SIRCA thermal protection system coatings for Stardust, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and, probably, the Orion spacecraft have been honored with the 2007 NASA Government Invention of the Year award.
The University of Maryland is five years into researching how living cells can be combined with computer chips to make detectors for everything from explosives to pathogens such as anthrax. “The idea of using living cells as sensors has been around for awhile,” says Benjamin Shapiro, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Systems Research, which is involved in the work. “We are not the first to work on this. But we are one of the first groups to develop technology that makes the idea practical.”
A temporary slowdown in production of space shuttle external tanks probably will have a domino effect on the first flight-test under NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle development program.
U.S. Navy officials say the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Ind., will serve as the Defense Department’s executive agent (EA) for printed circuit board (PrCB) technology. The May 15 announcement happened to come a day after House defense authorizers amended their fiscal 2009 policy bill with legislative language pushing DOD to get moving on doing as much.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will host a hearing May 21 on the Bush administration’s groundbreaking export license treaties with the United Kingdom and Australia, but industry and government representatives already expect the deals to be ratified before President Bush leaves office.
Rolls-Royce’s Highly Efficient Embedded Turbine Engine (HEETE) technology demonstration for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has passed its preliminary design review. The company’s LibertyWorks research unit was awarded the 34-month, $19.6 million HEETE contract in September 2007 to rig-test an ultra-high pressure ratio compressor and its integrated thermal management, with the goal of reducing the specific fuel consumption of embedded engines by 25 percent.
AIR FORCE ITT-AES of Herndon, Va., is being awarded a cost plus fixed fee contract for $50,168,645. The objective of this Technical Area Task is to research and develop to provide anti-insurgency analysis capabilities and methods for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization in ways that benefits the warfighter and counter evolving insurgency threats. At this time $0 has been obligated (will advise). Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (SPO700-98-D-4000, DO 0063). ARMY
LASER BLAST: Boeing has fired the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) technology demonstrator for the first time aboard its C-130H testbed. The ground firing on May 13 at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., marked the beginning of a series of tests leading up to in-flight firings at “mission-representative ground targets” later this year to evaluate the high-energy chemical laser’s military utility. U.S.
Demand from commanders in Iraq is driving an evaluation of Class I unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and small unmanned ground vehicles (SUGV) that may result in earlier fielding of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) components, U.S. Army officials say. Paul Mehney, the Army’s FCS communicator, said there are advantages to fielding the systems earlier than planned. “The Class I UAV provides a hover-and-stare capability we don’t have on the battlefield,” he said. “And the SUGV provides enhanced sensing capabilities.”
House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members are “pleased” that the U.S. Navy expects to choose a winner for its Threat D-like Multi-Stage Supersonic Target development program this summer, but lawmakers say it isn’t coming fast enough.
TSAT EXTENDED: The U.S. Air Force is extending until December pre-development work for Boeing and Lockheed Martin teams on their designs for the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program, according to sources familiar with the program. The Air Force had already extended the companies’ work until the summer, with the expectation of a contract announcement then. However, senior Pentagon leaders are reviewing the future architecture for secure satellite communications, opening the door to changes in TSAT or, possibly, a program termination. The Defense Dept.
HOLD THAT SHIP: The U.S. Coast Guard will have to answer Congressional concerns over the National Security Cutter (NSC), the Bertholf, fast on the heels of having triumphantly announced the ship’s acceptance May 8. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), along with Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), wrote a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen the day after the Bertholf’s acceptance, expressing doubts about deficiencies noted in a U.S. Navy Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) assessment of the ship.
BAMS-BOOZLED?: A major price difference in the winning proposal by Northrop Grumman and the competing bid by Lockheed Martin/General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the U.S. Navy’s Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program is key to the protest of the contract award. Lockheed Martin’s Predator-based design was estimated to cost more than $5 billion less than Northrop Grumman’s, which was based on the Global Hawk. Lockheed cited cost difference in a public statement last week, but the company has not publicly released the figure.
JOINING FORCES: European weapons manufacturer MBDA and French aerospace company Safran are expected to announce a partnership agreement this week. Safran’s Sagem unit builds the AASM air-to-ground powered bomb, which was recently used for the first time by French forces in Afghanistan. There has been expectation for some time that Sagem may partner with MBDA to help market AASM to expand the customer base, given the latter’s far-reaching international ties in the weapons market.
Science teams have gained access to a new platform for long-endurance, high-altitude missions now that a pair of RQ-4 Global Hawks have joined the inventory at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif. Working in cooperation with Global Hawk maker Northrop Grumman, the Dryden flight team’s first mission is expected in April or May 2009 for the Airborne Science Program headed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
