Rebuffed by Congress last year over a proposal to convert submarine-based nuclear ballistic missiles into conventional strike platforms, the U.S. Air Force now is pushing for a so-called Conventional Strike Missile (CSM) that would be based on land and follow a different flight path than intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), an officer said April 25.
GUN SYSTEM: BAE Systems' Armament Systems Division has been awarded a $108.9 million contract modification to complete the design, development and integration of the Advanced Gun System for the DDG 1000 program. The work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minn.; Burlington, Vt.; and Baltimore, Md. It is expected to be complete by September 2009. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command.
FLIGHT-TESTS: Thales says it has completed flight-tests of an active electronically scanned array radar antenna on a Mirage 2000 testbed, preparing the way for integration trials on the new-generation Rafale fighter in the second quarter of this year. Following final development and production engineering, the AESA radar is scheduled to enter series production in late 2010 as part of a package of enhancements, dubbed Post-F3, agreed to late last year. It will replace the passive phased array antenna that currently equips the Rafale.
U.S. Army and Navy officials say they are looking for safer propellant for use in five-inch and 155mm naval gunfire systems and various ground-based precision strike munitions. The challenge, they say, is to develop explosives and propellants that pack a punch, but only when they are supposed to - on the battlefield, not while in transport or elsewhere.
Independent auditors have concluded that unexplained accounting irregularities contained in financial statements for Dec. 31, 2005-Sept. 30, 2006 published by the Sagem Defense & Security Division of Safran were due to calculation errors and an inaccurate assessment of the profitability of certain defense contracts. In addition, the irregularities stemmed from noncompliance with prevailing accounting standards and rules - "in some cases deliberate" - the auditors found, adding that none of the events appeared to be attributable to Safran management.
LAUNCH ABORT TESTS: NASA's Constellation program will pay Orbital Sciences Corp. between $35 million and $57 million for as many as four test boosters based on U.S. Air Force Peacekeeper ICBM solid-rocket motors for tests of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle launch abort system. The competed award came through the Air Force's Sounding Rockets Program. The Space Development and Test Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., will conduct the launch abort tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
SARLUPE LAUNCH: Launch of the second of five SARLupe radar reconnaissance satellites has been set for July 1, says German prime contractor OHB-System. Like the first unit, orbited on Dec. 19, the new spacecraft will be sent aloft atop a Cosmos 3M booster from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The system, being procured by the German armed forces, is to enter initial operation in the fall, once the second satellite has been brought into service. Full operating capability is expected by the end of next year, following launch of the three remaining spacecraft.
DNEPR-1 BACK IN SERVICE: Chances for a late May/early June launch of Germany's TerraSAR-X 1-meter resolution commercial radar imaging satellite look better following the successful April 18 orbiting of an Egyptian remote sensing/scientific satellite, EgyptSat-1, by a Russian Dnepr-1 rocket, the intended TerraSAR-X launch vehicle. Dnepr-1 had been sidelined since a July 2006 failure caused by a premature first-stage engine shutdown.
The U.S. Air Force's attempt to become the executive agent for all high-flying military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations is not a power grab by the service, according to Gen. Michael Moseley, service chief of staff. "This is about the joint fight," he said April 24 during a breakfast roundtable meeting with reporters.
NAVAL AVIATION LASERS: QPC Lasers announced April 25 that the U.S. Navy has awarded it two contracts totaling $1 million to deliver high-energy laser engine prototypes for naval aviation directed-energy weapons applications. The goal is semiconductor laser technologies that achieve a tenfold reduction in cost, size and weight compared with conventional lasers.
CSAR-X RFP: Despite defense analysts' predictions that the U.S. Air Force would release its revised request for proposals (RFP) for the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement by this week, the service announced April 25 it would not do so until the coming month. "The Air Force expects to release a draft [RFP] amendment to the CSAR-X offerors in May, and will conduct meetings with the offerors to address comments and answer questions prior to the release of the official RFP amendment," the service said.
As the U.S. Air Force reviews the Boeing and Northrop Grumman proposals for the service's new KC-X tanker replacement fleet, the two companies are putting their marketing campaigns into high gear. Boeing's KC-767 entry uses the KC-135 as a baseline template, offering enhanced capability on the existing fleet. The company boasts of fuel savings of about $10 billion over 25 years for the required 179 aircraft compared to the Northrop Grumman KC-30 Airbus variant.
The major requirement for the U.S. Air Force's new KC-X tanker is building, delivering and deploying an effective fleet to replace the aging KC-135 refueler, service Chief of Staff Gen. Moseley says, and cargo carrying remains a secondary consideration. "Give me the 'A' model," Moseley said April 24, referring to the basic refueler. After that, then the service can start to consider more of a "floors-and-doors" capability for carrying cargo and passengers, he said.
China has developed extensive space and air warfare capabilities that make the country a greater force to be reckoned with, according to Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff. The recent Chinese anti-satellite demonstration shows how vulnerable major commercial and military satellites - American and foreign - are to attack, Moseley told reporters April 24 during a roundtable breakfast meeting.
The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command has tapped Force Protection Industries for 1,000 more Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, launching the incumbent favorite over several other competitors for the major new program this year. The United States will buy 300 Category I MRAPs and 700 Category II MRAPs under the competitively awarded $481.4 million contract announced April 23 by the Pentagon. Manufacturing work will take place in Ladson, S.C., and should be completed by May 2008.
AIM LAUNCH: Orbital Sciences Corp. and NASA are in the final stages of preparation for launching the agency's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite aboard an Orbital-built Pegasus rocket during a seven-minute launch window opening at 1:23 p.m. Pacific time April 25. Orbital also built the AIM spacecraft, which is slated to spend two years studying polar mesospheric clouds. The spacecraft program is being overseen by Hampton University of Hampton, Va., assisted by the University of Colorado and Virginia Tech University.
TOKYO - The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission will officially begin its return to Earth April 25, but it faces an uncertain journey with only one of four ion engines working properly. Faced with this challenge, Project Manager Junichiro Kawaguchi said, "It will not be a sweet situation, but it doesn't mean we can't bring it home in June 2010."
The way U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley describes it, the service's budget is lot like Saran Wrap in that it covers a lot, but is stretched very thin, and he hopes to persuade the White House to increase the service's annual topline by about $20 billion. "I think it's a reasonable discussion point," Moseley told reporters April 24 during a breakfast meeting.
NAVY FMS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Company a $184 million Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract for radar equipment for the Royal Australian Navy's Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) and the Spanish navy's F-105 Frigate, the company announced April 24. Under the contract, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) will manufacture, integrate and test AN/SPY-1 D(V) system transmitters and MK99 Fire Control Systems for the AWD and F-105 programs.
The French military is in the early stages of defining requirements for a new tactical communications jamming system. The goal is to improve the capabilities of current ground-based jamming devices to effectively thwart all types of telecommunications devices, according to the French armaments agency DGA. The architecture for the new system is supposed to allow it to be modular and reprogrammable to evolve with threats. Plans also call for marrying the system with other electronic warfare tools such as communications interceptors.
