AGILE TO FLY: India will launch Italy's Agile satellite on a PSLV C-8 booster in May, the nation's first fully commercial satellite launch. The Indian Space Research Organization is also planning a GSLV launch in April, which will carry the INSAT 4-C broadcast satellite for augmenting DTH technology. The twin launches will require the use of both large pads at the launch facility on Sriharikota Island in the Bay of Bengal. ISRO has entered into partnerships with EADS Astrium and Arianespace as India moves to market its satellite-building and launch services.
Jan. 17 - 20 -- Network Centric Warfare 2006, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-882-8684 or go to www.ncw2006.com. Jan. 18 - 20 -- ION National Technical Meeting 2006, Hyatt Regency, Monterey, Calif. For more information go to www.ion.org. Jan. 19 -- Royal Aeronautical Society's Annual Corporate Partner Seminar, "Aerospace - The Year Ahead," London. For more information call +44 (118) 947-4853 or go to www.raes.org.uk.
The bad news on recommended defense budget cuts continues to leak out of the Pentagon. Now considered dead or fatally crippled is the Air Force's E-10 command and control aircraft, which is down to a single demonstrator with no planning for full-scale development. The Navy/Air Force Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS), an unmanned strike aircraft demonstrator, has also been gutted, service and industry officials say.
The worldwide market over the next 10 years for aircraft auxiliary power units and ground power units will be worth $4.6 billion and will see production of more than 23,000 APUs and GPUs, according to a new study by market analysis company Frost & Sullivan. The study, "The Market for APU/GPU Gas Turbines," says Honeywell Aerospace will remain the dominant player. It predicts that sales of commercial aircraft APUs through 2012 will remain flat and then dip a bit in 2013 and 2014, reflecting the end of production of several aircraft.
The team behind the recent "Agile Lion" network-centric warfare exercise plans to brief Marine Corps leadership on its results in mid-February, according to Agile Lion Project Officer Lt. Col. Robert Sofge. "We'll look at the results, look at the data, and show it to leadership," Sofge said during a briefing in Washington on Jan. 11. "I can assure you that my leadership is ... very interested in fielding some type of network capability," he said, although it's too early to say precisely when.
PAYLOAD TEST: The U.S. Army and Northrop Grumman Corp. have successfully tested a new Adaptive Joint Intelligence payload on the RQ-5A Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle that will allow warfighters to share multiple types of communications simultaneously, the company said Jan. 12. The 10-day demonstration was sponsored by the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
The U.S. Coast Guard expects a request for proposals for Automatic Information Systems (AIS) to be issued later this year as part of the Bush administration's push for greater maritime domain awareness (MDA), according to an admiral.
In observance of the Martin Luther King birthday holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish on Monday, Jan. 16. The next issue will be dated Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Lockheed Martin Corp. said Jan. 12 that it received a $16.4 million U.S. Navy award to add a new sensor data computer to the airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) Common Console, currently in development for the MH-60S helicopter.
The U.S. Navy will formally stand up its new Expeditionary Combat Command on Jan. 13, and one of its first challenges will be how to equip three riverine squads for river-patrol missions that have not been part of the Navy's bailiwick since the 1970s. Vice Adm. John Morgan Jr. told the Surface Navy Association's national symposium in Arlington, Va., that the Navy is looking at taking some hardware from the Marine Corps, which is carrying out the mission now. The Navy will take over an Iraqi river-patrol mission from the Marines in March 2007, he said.
Division-level staff of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division and the Canadian army have been preparing at Fort Drum's Battle Command Training Center (BCTF) in upstate New York for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, officials said Jan. 12. Joint academic seminars on Afghanistan's history and economics as well as regional influences and how to conduct negotiations have been conducted at the BCTC, which allows staff elements to conduct real-time, networked training simulations to prepare for combat deployments.
Under pressure from the Pentagon to merge efforts, the Army is studying the possibility of making the Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) and Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) unmanned aerial vehicle into joint programs with the Air Force. The Air Force and Army service chiefs are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding setting a deadline of 90 days to develop joint plans for FCA and ER/MP and report back to the Pentagon's acquisition leadership.
Orbimage Holdings Inc. has announced the completion of its $58.5 million acquisition of Space Imaging LLC, resulting in a long-awaited U.S. satellite imagery industry of two, rather than three, competitors. The new Orbimage-Space Imaging company is called GeoEye, and it will compete with DigitalGlobe Inc. Orbimage said GeoEye is "the world's largest commercial satellite imagery company" with a combined 2005 revenue of about $160 million. Orbimage announced last September that it intended to acquire Space Imaging.
A new market study forecasts that the money spent on outsourcing of information technology functions by the federal government will continue to grow at 8 percent through 2010 to $17.6 billion from $12.2 billion now.
The Army has chosen to cancel Lockheed Martin's $879 million Aerial Common Sensor development contract rather than switch aircraft platforms to Bombardier's Global Express business jet, the service announced Jan. 12.
F-22: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $191.1 million contract modification to provide long lead activities and logistics support for F-22 Raptor Lot 6 aircraft and associated equipment, the Defense Department said Jan. 11. The work will be done in February 2006. The contract was awarded by Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have resolved a relatively tiny partner orbiting the super-giant Pole Star Polaris, determining that the fixed point of light sailors and aviators have used for generations to navigate is actually a three-star system.
Carl A. Alleyne has been named vice president for infrastructure and business area support. David T. Perry has been appointed vice president of the Marine Systems division. Everett H. Pratt, Jr. has been appointed vice president of business development for the Defensive Systems Division. Gregory A. Schmidt has been named vice president of radio frequency combat and information systems. Carl R. Smith has been appointed vice president of engineering and manufacturing.
