NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Scott Horowitz addressed rumored increases in the development cost of the Ares 1 Crew Launch Vehicle Aug. 4, saying that NASA has decided to spend more on the rocket's initial development to avoid billions in life-cycle costs later. The cost to develop the Ares 1, a larger derivative of the space shuttle's solid rocket booster (SRB), is rumored to have risen from $1 billion to as high as $3 billion.
Lockheed Martin officials are geared up for two important North American battles for the C-130J Hercules tactical mobility aircraft. In the United States, Lockheed was scheduled to get a briefing from the Army Aviation and Missile Command to explain why the service felt the company's shortened C-130J would not meet requirements for the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA).
JSF MILESTONES: The Joint Strike Fighter is being readied for two scheduled milestones in mid-August. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor, is getting ready to fire up the engine in the first production model. The company is also preparing to flip on key electrical systems to start up the plane and provide power in basic systems.
Aug. 20 - 23 -- The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States 35th General Conference & Exhibition, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information go to www.ngaus.org. Aug. 21 - 25 -- 39th Annual Rotary Wing Technology, "A Comprehensive Short Course in Rotary Wing Technology," Penn State University Park, University Park, Penn. For more information go to www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/RotaryWing/.
NEW OSPREYS: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command awarded the Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office in Amarillo, Texas, a $200.1 million undefinitized contract action to begin fabrication and delivery of three MV-22 tiltrotor production aircraft. The new work should be finished by December 2009, the Pentagon announced late Aug. 3. Meanwhile, six Block B aircraft have been delivered to date, with two more due before the end of the month, a Navair representative said recently (DAILY, Aug. 4).
MORE C-17S: Britain and the United States have agreed to a deal in which the Royal Air Force will acquire a fifth Boeing C-17 in 2008 and also purchase four of the aircraft that it now leases. British Defense Undersecretary Tom Watson announced the agreement with Boeing on Aug. 4. At the same time, he confirmed that the four aircraft the U.K. air force now operates will be purchased outright when the present lease arrangement expires in '08. The RAF has long harbored ambitions to add to its four-strong fleet, and had hoped to eventually field eight of the aircraft.
Michael Bertin has been named vice president and director of compliance and contracts. Ed Clements has been appointed director of R & D engineering. Steve Leonard has been appointed vice president and director of operations.
TANKS RESET: General Dynamics Land Systems said Aug. 2 that it has been awarded a $46 million contract to provide parts for the reset of 72 U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks. Working with the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama, the company will modify, repair and service the vehicles to their pre-combat condition. The work is set to begin next year and will be done in Anniston; Tallahassee, Fla.; Sterling Heights, Mich.; and Eynon, Pa. Final assembly will take place at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, Lima, Ohio.
The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command has ordered 72 IAC 1209 Modern Signal Processing Unit (MSPU) Health & Usage Management Systems (HUMS) for the AH-64 Apache helicopter, manufacturer Intelligent Automation Corp. has announced. During recent independent testing, the system demonstrated an increase in operational readiness and availability while decreasing maintenance costs and aircraft downtime, according to the company.
International Space Station Expedition 13 crewman Army Col. Jeff Williams and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter from Germany completed about a 6-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) Aug. 3 for various ISS installation and maintenance tasks.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a defense appropriator and an advocate for the Northrop Grumman-EADS team vying to build new Air Force refueling tankers, dropped an amendment effort Aug. 3 to restore a part of the Bush administration's budget request for the program.
SUPPORT SERVICES: The U.S. National Guard Bureau said Aug. 3 that it has awarded General Dynamics Information Technology a blanket purchase agreement worth up to $20 million to provide professional support services to all National Guard divisions. The support includes civilian and military personnel operations, force modernization and planning, safety advisory, and logistics management.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin predicts that the U.S. may be able to mount a manned mission to Mars by the late 2020s, following its scheduled return to the moon around 2018. "We will then be in possession of a heavy-lift launch vehicle, which is of course the key element for any approach to going to Mars," Griffin told attendees at the Mars Society's annual convention in Washington Aug. 3. The total mass-to-orbit required for a Mars mission is roughly comparable to the mass of the International Space Station, Griffin said.
The U.S. Marine Corps is considering upgrading the ice protection system for the Block A MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor in the wake of the July 10 incident in which ice in an engine prompted an Osprey to perform a precautionary landing while traveling over the Atlantic to participate in the Farnborough Air Show.
The U.S. military is going to need more spacecraft or unmanned aircraft - and a quick, accurate network to tie them with today's weapons systems - to provide the kind of timely intelligence required for those weapons, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says. The problem, though, is that the developmental programs for satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have run beyond deadline and over budget, causing greater congressional scrutiny.
President Bush is asking Congress to drop a mandate to notify six congressional committees before any transfer of defense articles or services, other than intelligence services, to another nation or an international organization for international peacekeeping, peace enforcement or humanitarian-assistance operations.
A Defense Department funds reprogramming worth $6.7 billion essentially agreed to by the Senate could fully fund the Army's $17 billion readiness needs as outlined recently by the service's chief, according to Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). The reset requirements, resulting from continuing combat operations, include repair, depot and procurement activities. They are expected as the military services face growing reset and recapitalization bills already. Dodd sponsored the move Aug. 2 with five other Democratic senators.
The Justice Department will not seek criminal prosecution of Boeing Co. for its hiring of a retired Air Force general-level officer under the $615 million so-called global settlement, officials and executives have clarified. "The agreement between Boeing and the DOJ specifies that the government will not in the future seek criminal charges against Boeing related to the corporation's 'retention of a retired USAF general officer and his activities while retained by Boeing relating to the Tanker program or otherwise,'" Boeing said.
European scientists are applying data-coordination lessons learned during the Huygens probe's descent onto Titan to future planetary exploration missions, including the Rosetta mission to the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Although a command error deprived Huygens mission scientists of the highly stable radio signal they had counted on for tracking wind profiles in the moon's cloudy atmosphere, an experimental array of 18 radio telescopes on Earth was able to fill in by following the descent module's carrier wave.
