Australia has signed a contract to purchase 12 MRH-90 helicopters for its army from Australian Aerospace, a subsidiary of Eurocopter and EADS, Eurocopter said June 2. EADS announced last August that it had won the $1 billion contract to provide the troop lift helicopters (DAILY, Sept. 1, 2004).
JSF MATING: The aft fuselage for the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flight-test jet is scheduled to be mated to the rest of the fuselage June 9 in Fort Worth, Texas, according to JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The aft fuselage, built by BAE Systems in Samlesbury, England, arrived in Fort Worth on May 31 (DAILY, June 2). The Lockheed Martin forward fuselage, Northrop Grumman center fuselage and Lockheed Martin wing were united in May. The aircraft's BAE Systems tails are to begin arriving in Fort Worth within the next few weeks.
DENVER - Lockheed Martin has mapped out an evolutionary development plan for its Atlas launch vehicle that would steadily increase performance to ultimately exceed that of the Apollo program's Saturn V, a company official said. Just as today's Atlas V has its roots in the Atlas ICBM of the 1950s, the "future Atlas evolution" will proceed in a logical manner, with each new phase providing simple and reliable vehicles, according to George Sowers of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. here.
Defense contractor L-3 Communications has agreed to buy security information technology company Titan Corp. in a deal worth about $2.65 billion, Titan Corp. said June 3.
SPACE FINDINGS: Scientists using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the source of X-ray flare on Saturn say the ringed planet, and the even larger Jupiter, may act as mirrors reflecting explosive activity from the sun. "The bigger the planet and nearer to the sun, the more solar photons it will intercept, resulting in more reflected X-rays," says Anil Bhardwaj, a planetary scientist who led the study team. "These results imply we could use giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn as remote-sensing tools.
MORE WORK: Orbit International Corp. expects its new Tulip Development Labs subsidiary to pick up more work under a new contract to deliver keypanels to the Towed Artillery Digitation's digital fire control system. Orbit acquired the Quakertown, Pa.-based Tulip in April, and reported the $575,000 contract June 3. "Follow-on orders of significant magnitude are likely," Orbit says. The fire control system is intended to improve the accuracy and reaction times of the new M777 Lightweight Towed Howitzer.
COOPERATING: The European Space Agency and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts have agreed to long-term cooperation, strengthening the use of ESA's space-based Earth observation program, the agency says. "ECMWF has established a worldwide reputation for its extensive use of satellite data in the field of numerical weather prediction," says Dominique Marbouty, director of the forecast center.
FIRST FLIGHT: The second of two RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles built for the U.S. Navy tentatively is scheduled to take its first flight June 7-10, according to a spokeswoman for prime contractor Northrop Grumman. The UAV, named N-2, is slated to fly from Northrop Grumman's production site in Palmdale, Calif., to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The first of the Navy's RQ-4As took its first voyage in October. The two Global Hawks eventually will be used in a maritime demonstration to help the Navy determine how to use UAVs for reconnaissance.
A400M DECISION: A decision is expected later this year on whether Malaysia will replace its air force's aging C-130H transport aircraft with Airbus Military's A400M. Defense ministry officials have been in talks with Airbus since 2003 on the possible buy (DAILY, Feb. 3), and a ministry official said the air force would like to acquire the A400Ms. Airbus has been offering generous industry packages to potential buyers for A400M-related work, which could be of interest to Malaysia.
June 5 - 7 -- SATS 2005: A Transformation in Air Travel, "Demonstration of the capabilities of the Small Aircraft Transportation System project," Danville Regional Airport, Danville, Va. For more information contact September Moon Productions at 248-355-3700, email [email protected] or go to www.sats2005.com.
NEW HOME: NASA's DC-8 "suborbital laboratory" jet aircraft will be operated by the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, under a plan to create a National Suborbital Education and Research Center at the school. The aircraft likely will be transferred this fall, NASA said June 2, and will be housed at Grand Forks Air Force Base.
SMALLER NET: U.S. Navy efforts to network its disparate platforms will focus on a "small number" of weapons and sensor-surveillance systems, including the F/A-18 aircraft, the E-2 and the DDG destroyer. ForceNet, the Navy's part of the Defense Department's Global Information Grid, is trying to prove its value in a matter of years instead of decades, says Capt. Rick Brennan, who spoke at the Navy Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation's industry day on June 3 in California, Md.
SKY ROAD MAP: The Defense Department will post its new 2005-2030 road map for unmanned air systems online over the next 30 to 60 days, according to Charles Riechers, a special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Speaking to industry representatives at the Navy Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation's industry day on June 3 in California, Md., Riechers says the new road map will look quite different from the previous version of two years ago.
KEEL LAYING: The keel has been laid for Freedom (LCS 1), the U.S. Navy's first Littoral Combat Ship built by Lockheed Martin, the company said. A ceremony attended by 200 guests was held June 2 at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., where the ship is being built. The keel was authenticated by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark, veteran Marinette Marine welder Jim Renner, and Birgit Smith. Smith is the widow of Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
F/A-22 TRAINING: The U.S. Air Force says it has begun training Air National Guard personnel to operate the F/A-22 Raptor. The Air Force announced in December that the Virginia Air National Guard's 192nd Fighter Wing will fly the Lockheed Martin-built F/A-22 sometime after the active-duty 1st Fighter Wing starts fielding the Raptor in December (DAILY, Dec. 2).
JIGSAW LASER RADAR: Harris Corp. has been awarded a $6.6 million contract to develop and demonstrate the Jigsaw Laser Radar 3D-imaging test bed system for use on a DP-5X Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the company said June 2. Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris is providing systems integration services in cooperation with LADAR sensor developer MIT-LL and DP-5X platform developer Dragonfly Pictures Inc.
Underwriters at Lloyds of London have dropped their complaint against Spacehab and joined the company in its pursuit of claims against NASA for the loss of Spacehab's Research Double Module, which was destroyed in the Columbia accident in February 2003. Soon after Columbia's loss, Lloyds paid Spacehab $17.7 million in insurance proceeds for the lost module. Then in January 2004 the underwriters filed a complaint against the company seeking the money's return on the grounds that Spacehab was pursuing reimbursement separately with NASA.
Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., will design, build, test and deliver a subscale electric propulsion drive system for NASA under a two-phase contract that could be worth up to $12.3 million, the company said June 2. The contract, funded under NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, is to validate the technology for future use on moon and Mars cargo transport vehicles, Aerojet said.
The U.S. Coast Guard now is modeling two Deepwater recapitalization plans, one for $19 billion over 19 years and another for $24 billion over 25 years, according to supplemental information the service provided Congress this week. Adm. Thomas Collins, Coast Guard commandant, also told lawmakers that he has decided to stop 123-foot patrol boat conversions at the eight currently under contract. More patrol boat information would be forthcoming, as well as additional revised Deepwater data, he said.
The Boeing Co. plans to change the wingtip design of the P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) to improve the jet's performance in harsh weather, especially icy conditions, company officials said June 2. Instead of upward-pointing blended winglets, MMA will have raked or backswept wingtips. Because the raked wingtip will be even with the rest of the wing, it will be easier to melt away ice, a key hazard in some of the low-altitude environments that the P-8A will have to operate in, said Tim Norgart, Boeing's director of business development for MMA.
TANKER HEARING: The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to hold a June 7 hearing on the Defense Department Inspector General's review of the Air Force plan to lease 100 Boeing KC-767A tanker aircraft, which collapsed amid a procurement scandal. The committee will hear from acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England, DOD Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz and other witnesses, the committee said June 2.
Congress would have to appropriate a "whole bunch of money" to speed up the CVN-21 aircraft carrier program to start formal construction in fiscal 2007, otherwise the program will continue to assume an FY '08 start and a 2015 delivery, the U.S. Navy's program executive officer for aircraft carriers said June 2.
