MICA SALE: The Sultanate of Oman has confirmed the award of a contract for a vertical launch version of the Mica medium-range air-to-air missile and Exocet MM40 Block 3 antiship missiles, which have an extended 180-kilometer (112-mile) range and a littoral attack capability. The MBDA weapons are intended for Oman's three new Khareef offshore patrol vessels. This marks the first sale for the VL Mica, which protects against saturating air and antiship attacks.
High-altitude winds and an insulation-debonding issue have pushed launch of Italy's second COSMO-Skymed radar satellite back until the evening of Dec. 7 at the earliest. Managers scrubbed a planned launch attempt a little more than two minutes before liftoff Dec. 5 when weather-balloon data indicated out-of-bounds wind speeds at altitude above the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., launch pad. A retry Dec. 6 was postponed to give technicians time to repair some debonded cork insulation on the Delta 2 launch vehicle.
ATK ORDER: Alliant Techsystems will continue to provide Orbital Sciences Corp. with its Orion solid-fuel rocket motors under a new $35 million contract. Orbital uses the motors, which range in length from four to 33 feet, in its Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur I space launch vehicles. ATK has delivered 100 flight sets of the Orion motors, which are also used in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Orbital Boost Vehicle.
NEW DELHI - Despite a flurry of denials by Eurocopter and the Indian army, the country's ministry of defense has decided to terminate a $600 million deal to purchase 197 AS550 Fennec helicopters. "The government has decided to cancel the RFP [request for proposals] for 197 helicopters for the army," defense ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said. "A fresh RFP will be issued soon." Final price negotiations were ongoing with Eurocopter and the contract was expected to be signed in December (DAILY, Dec. 6).
U.S. aerospace has attained peak after peak in significant business-performance measures during the past few years, and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) sees more of the same in 2008. "This trend will continue in dramatic fashion," new AIA chief Marion Blakey said in her first address to the annual AIA year-end luncheon outside Washington. "The news through 2010 should be equally good." (See charts p. 5-8).
Odyssey Moon, the first entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, is offering no details of how it will place a robotic explorer on the lunar surface, but its prime contractor, MDA of Canada, has decades of experience in space robotics and exploration. Odyssey Moon Chairman Ramin Khadem, an investor and former chief financial officer for Inmarsat, says it is too early in the competition to talk specifics, which are not expected to begin emerging until next year.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully completed the second firing of the P80 first stage solid rocket motor intended to power Europe's Vega light rocket. The firing, carried out on a test stand in Kourou, French Guiana, delivered 190 metric tons of thrust - equivalent to a third of the total thrust generated by the Ariane 5's solid rocket boosters - for a nominal duration of 111 seconds. The first firing took place late last year.
U.S. Air Force Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) chief Gen. Norton Schwartz says the U.S.'s global reach is "not nearly as robust" in certain areas as necessary, creating potential for problems in the future.
DARPA PAM: BAE Systems said it will adapt large-scale software systems to address emerging threats such as asymmetric warfare for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Producible Adaptive Model-based Software (PAMS) program will develop software that supposedly enables systems to learn from their performance relative to changing conditions. The initial contract is valued at $3.4 million and runs through January 2009, followed by a second phase also worth $3.4 million.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has rescheduled two launches from its launch pad at Sriharikota on its polar satellite launch vehicle - Cartosat A and the Israeli military satellite TechSAR - for the January-February 2008 timeframe. An ISRO spokesman said recent reports in the media that ISRO was under pressure by the U.S. to abandon the TechSAR launch were "totally baseless, false and speculative."
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced the successful test of the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) on Dec. 3, an important step in establishing an air-launched intercept system. International competition to develop this type of weapon is fierce. Raytheon's offering is a longer-range version of the AIM-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), and could be launched from manned or unmanned aircraft and airships (DAILY, May 22, 2006).
Exostar projects that its supplier communication network of 38,000 aerospace and defense customers should double during 2008, driven by two major supply chain integration efforts by its clients. The company hosts a number of secure collaborative computer applications through which its clients do business and share information with their supply chains. Exostar's network includes Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Northrop Grumman and EADS.
MANTECH PROGRAM: Manufacturing Technology (ManTech), a program employed for decades by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, has for the first time gone department-wide, with its deployment by the entire Defense Department for 2008. Beginning in fiscal 2008, the program expects to fund investments that will mature ceramic matrix composites manufacturing processes, system-on-chip packaging technology and design guidelines and advanced manufacturing processes for prosthetics.
The U.S. Coast Guard accepted the first shore installation of its National Security Cutter (NSC) software suite at its Petaluma Training Center in California Dec. 5, marking the final phase of a $20 million C4ISR simulator. According to software designer Lockheed Martin, the suite in Petaluma provides a near-duplicate environment to the one of the NSC, providing crews training there with a real feel for what the ship will offer.
NEW DELHI - EADS subsidiary Eurocopter is publicly rebutting media allegations about the Indian defense ministry's effort to purchase 197 AS550 Fennecs to replace the Indian army's Cheetah/Chetak light observation helicopters.
AIR WAR RISK: The fiscal 2008 defense authorization measure in final House-Senate negotiations is expected to include an extension of war risk insurance coverage, which covers damages to U.S. commercial airlines and their passengers caused by acts of war, hijackings and terrorism. Industry pushed for the government to back up the sector after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the current federal coverage expires in March.
Gen. James Conway, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, says that after much discussion with the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Marine Corps has determined that "the timing isn't right to provide additional Marines to Afghanistan," although he wouldn't rule it out in the future.
The Pentagon is a sitting duck for a computer network attack because of its reliance on foreign software and inadequate protection, according to the Defense Science Board (DSB). "Software has become the central ingredient of the information age," DSB says in its "Report of the Defense Science Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DOD Software." "However, as it improves the Department of Defense's (DOD) capability, it increases DOD's dependency," DSB says.
UAV SENSORS: The Pentagon announced Dec. 5 that Northrop Grumman is being awarded a $54.9 million contract to purchase the MQ-1 ASIP-1C Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) scaled sensor for General Atomics' Predator UAS. Currently, $16.67 million already has been obligated, with the U.S. Air Force acting as the contracting authority.
U.S. Air Force leaders working on the nascent cyber command believe there will be a "huge" need for contracted services to support the embryonic effort as it faces personnel, technology and funding headwinds. Still, plans are undetermined and genuine, robust budgets remain years away as officials have until at least next October to identify programs, and until October 2009 before the command must be fully operational (DAILY, Oct. 19).
TOKYO - The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is set to launch what it calls the world's fastest telecommunications satellite this February. The Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS), also known as 'Kizuna,' which means 'bonds' or 'ties' in Japanese, is aimed at demonstrating ultra-fast Internet connections at a maximum rate of 1.2 Gbps through direct connection with antennas on the ground.
