The U.S. Air Force, Boeing and the National Reconnais-sance Office (NRO) are assessing the schedule and hardware implications of potentially significant damage at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 37, and perhaps even the Delta IV Heavy rocket on that launch pad, following a dangerous liquid oxygen leak that occurred during a countdown dress rehearsal with the massive vehicle loaded with tons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
LUNAR CUTS: NASA says it will deliver its fiscal 2007 operating plan to Capitol Hill "soon," and a couple of big shoes will drop once it does. The plan will detail how the agency intends to absorb a $545 million cut in its budget this year, and a lot of that money will come from sending robotic scouts to the surface of the moon in advance of a human return there by 2020. The top lunar-robotic priority is mapping, to be handled by NASA's 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and upcoming orbiter missions by India, Japan and perhaps China.
COUNTERDRUG OPS: The U.S. Air Force's chief of staff, Air Combat Command chief and 12th Air Force commander have determined that forward-operating base support functions shall be contracted to the maximum extent possible for counterdrug surveillance in the Caribbean and Central and South American theaters, according to a March 8 contract announcement from the Pentagon. In turn, ITT Industries is being awarded a $7.8 million contract for all support operations for U.S.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. - An operational evaluation of the Super Hornet's new radar says it is "not effective and not suitable for combat operations," but it praised the design as a "quantum leap" in air-to-air capability. Navy officials say it will be fine-tuned for war in time for the first operational deployment in 2008.
OSPREY FATIGUE TEST: The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey's airframe fatigue test program passed 20,000 effective flight hours in late February. The testing, which involves a full-size V-22, began in June 1998 and is the first ever for a tiltrotor design. The program has so for included 60,000 simulated flights and 20,000 hours of low cycle load testing, which is considered the equivalent of two lifetimes on control surfaces and aft fuselage structures. It will soon start a block of high cycle loading equivalent to 30,000 flight hours.
LONGER MARCH: Entry into service for China's long-planned Long March 5 launcher, comparable to the U.S. Atlas V, has slipped until the middle of next decade. Originally expected to enter service next year, the rocket still needs another seven to eight years of development, Huang Chunping, a former space program manager, tells Xinhua news agency. Engine designs are complete and the first engine test was made last year, he says, describing the rocket's lift capacity as ranging from 9 to 25 metric tons, presumably to low orbit.
The U.S. Air Force's Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is working on a new type of solid-state laser system that uses thin discs of material as the lasing medium rather than solid blocks. "The advantage there is in the capability to keep the laser cool, so when you can keep it cooler that's helpful from a thermal/power management standpoint," Directed Energy Directorate head Susan Thornton told The DAILY in an interview.
EBITDA UP: Inmarsat reported a 5 percent hike in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2006, to $332 million, driven by a 4 percent surge in mobile satellite service revenues. The company's new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), which started up last year, contributed $9.5 million of revenue, as the number of active terminals increased 28 percent to 7,119 units in the fourth quarter.
CSAR-X REVIEW: Some industry insiders were buzzing March 9 about a potential new Defense Department review of the U.S. Air Force's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter procurement in the aftershocks of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest decision (DAILY, March 5). Officials are mulling how to reapproach the acquisition after the GAO chastised it over several concerns. Some in Congress are pressing for defense officials to rebid the program.
WEAPONIZATION INEVITABLE: Curtailing the "weaponization" of space and preserving it as a peaceful sanctuary will prove impossible given the ever-growing importance of space to military operations, according to Sen.
HELO ACCORD: Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace Corp. have agreed to join forces and market advanced manned and unmanned helicopter systems for civil and military applications. Plans call for the two companies to jointly develop an unmanned version of Kaman's workhorse K-MAX helicopter that would have useful payload of up to 6,000 pounds.
BUYERS BEWARE: U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says Russia and China are doing some false advertising as nations around the globe contemplate fighter aircraft buys. "There are some pretenders out there," he says, adding that "Russians and Chinese - both independently by the way - are talking about fifth-generation fighters." This term, coined by F-22 and F-35 developer Lockheed Martin, refers to a combination of stealth, speed and sensor technology. But Wynne doesn't want the consumer to be confused. "It is just like branding.
100 SEAHAWKS: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has delivered the 100th MH-60S Seahawk helicopter to the U.S. Navy. Plans call for the Navy to buy up to 250 of the aircraft, which is used throughout the fleet for transport, mine countermeasures, logistics support and offensive missions. Sikorsky began delivering Seahawks to the Navy in 2001, and the fleet has accumulated more than 150,000 flight hours.
BEALE, AFB, Calif. - Air Combat Command is considering a new concept of operations for high-altitude reconnaissance collection that will take advantage of the attributes of the new RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.
JAMMER NEEDS: The U.S. Air Force is continuing to look for options for a "portfolio" approach to the airborne electronic attack mission, Wynne says. The closest thing to a sure thing, the B-52 Standoff Jammer, was terminated last year due to major cost growth. But Wynne says the Air Force still needs a jammer capable of traveling with advanced fighters. "We need to make sure that we have the right match to assist us to go into various areas," Wynne says. "I see a role for all of the developments that are going on, and it is going to be a question of application.
The debate over whether there should be a single engine provider for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is expected to heat up soon with the delivery of several congressionally mandated reports - including one by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) due this month.
STANDOFF WEAPON: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is awarding Raytheon Missile Systems a $93.8 million delivery order for the Joint Standoff Weapon AGM-154C-1 Block III network-enabled weapon moving-target capability and Seeker Obsolescence Redesign, the Pentagon said March 8. The deal includes design, development, integration, test and delivery of an AGM-154C-1 network-enabled weapon moving target capability and qualification and production of a replacement for the obsolete seeker processor and detector components (Phase I).
March 13 - 14 -- RTCA Symposium, "Operational Evolution Partnership (OEP) - The Bridge To NextGen," Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call (202) 833-9339 or go to www.rtca.org. March 13 - 15 -- 2007 U.S. Defense Department Standardization Conference, Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel, Arlington, Va. For more information call (724) 776-4841. March 16 - 17 -- Aeronautical Repair Station: Annual Repair Symposium, Alexandria, Va. For information call ARSA, (703) 739-9543.
A chance reading of a "for sale" advertisement in a weekly newspaper has launched a group of 30 space history buffs on a mission to save the 30-meter Jamesburg AT&T/Comsat satellite dish about an hour from Monterey, Calif. Built in 1968
BUSY BACKSEATERS: Change the way you look at combat aircraft, U.S. Navy officials say. Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars being introduced on F/A-18Fs, F-22s and F-35s "are really sensors that are forward in the battlespace collecting information and putting different effects on targets," says Capt. Donald Gaddis, program manager for the Super Hornet. These effects eventually will include data streams, energy bursts and offensive algorithms. Gaddis identifies the electronic warfare officers in the back seat as perhaps the busiest men in the Navy.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chief of naval operations, said March 8 that U.S. Navy officials will finalize an umbrella plan for naval aviation in the coming months, much like they did last year with shipbuilding. "I crave stability in this account so we can have a plan," Mullen told the Defense Writers Group.
TARGETING POD: Finland has decided to buy the Northrop Grumman Litening-2 Advanced Targeting Pod for its F/A-18s as part of the ongoing Mid-Life Upgrade 2 program. F/A-18 users in the U.S. and Spain already have the system. EADS has delivered the first of two C-295 tactical airlifters to the Finnish air force. Finland also has an option for five additional C-295s that have yet to be exercised.
U.S. defense officials and lawmakers are fervently stressing a desire for far more military-to-military communication with China, as well as greater openness by the Asian giant in light of announced and demonstrated new military capabilities. "In gross numbers, it's impressive," Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, who will take over Pacific Command (PACOM), said of China's plans during his March 8 confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).
The most immediate airborne threat to the U.S. homeland is from high-speed commercial aviation flying in a low-altitude profile, similar to a cruise missile, or even an unmanned aircraft built in someone's garage, according to the next likely commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and NORAD.
