USAF Lt. Gen. Douglas M. Fraser has been nominated for promotion to general with assignment as commander of Miami-based U.S. Southern Command. He has been deputy commander of U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii. Maj. Gen. Marc E. Rogers has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general with assignment as inspector general of the Air Force, at the Pentagon. He has been vice commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Ramstein AB, Germany. Maj. Gen. Larry O.
The head of Russia’s Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, who was responsible for development of the Bulava ballistic missile, has left his job following the latest failure of the submarine-launched weapon. According to Russian press reports, Yury Solomonov resigned immediately after the latest launch failure. More than half of the Bulava firings have proved unsuccessful.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. has cleared two new Earth observation satellites for a twin launch this week on board a Russian Dnepr booster. The launch, on July 29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, is expected to orbit Britain’s UK-DMC2 and Spain’s Deimos-1, which are intended to form the nucleus of Surrey’s second-generation disaster-monitoring constellation. The spacecraft, each based on a 100-kg.-class (220-lb.) microsatellite bus, will offer 22-meter-resolution multispectral wide-swath imagery with frequent revisits.
Major European airlines— faced with another period of sustained operating losses—have moved to bolster their liquidity to signal that they can ride out the downturn.
The Swiss government will upgrade its F/A-18Cs with 14 of Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared pods. The acquisition is part of the nation’s sustainment program for 33 F/A-18C/Ds. Deliveries are scheduled to end in early 2011. In addition, cockpit displays and digital storage capacity will be upgraded, along with identification friend-or-foe equipment, to meet civil ATC management requirements.
Certification of Mistral Engines’ G-300 rotary aircraft engine will be delayed a few months because of a slowdown in business activities aimed at strengthening the company’s financial condition. Mistral this year sought a new round of capital to transition from startup to full production activity, but the result was below expectations. The company’s board has authorized an increase in capital of 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.4 million) to reinforce the balance sheet, and the manufacturer remains fully financed by private equity.
Thales is setting up a facility in Saudi Arabia to support its BOR‑A and Squire ground surveillance radars, which have been selected for several Saudi applications. The facility will provide technical support, maintenance, training and final assembly.
NASA engineers and astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute expect to release first images from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope in September, despite a malfunction with a key piece of hardware last month that has not recurred. The Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit (SIC&DH) is working normally after an electronic malfunction June 15, NASA says.
MTU Aero Engines’ net profit fell more than 30% in the first six months of the year owing to higher research and development expenses and weakness in its engine sales business. MTU reached a net profit of €55.7 million ($78.5 million) on €1.38 billion in sales. Revenues were up 10%, but that was largely due to a stronger U.S. dollar. Otherwise, sales would have been down 2%.
Telesat has picked International Launch Services to orbit its Telstar 14R, a Ku-band satellite intended to replace Telstar 14/Estrela do Sol. The 46-transponder spacecraft, to be built by Space Systems/Loral, will be orbited in the second half of 2011. Estrela do Sol was launched in 2004 but suffered a solar array failure that limited its service life. The launch deal, which followed an SES award for QuetzSat-1 a week earlier, is the eleventh for ILS.
Aeroflot’s board of directors has decided to postpone deliveries of two A320-200 and three A321-200 narrowbodies that had been planned to start next year. However, deliveries scheduled for 2009 remain unaffected; the carrier expects to receive 18 A320s and six A330s.
ThalesRaytheonSystems will roll out the Air Command and Control System Level of Operational Capability (ACCS LOC 1) at eight additional European sites under a framework agreement with NATO concluded last week. The accord will allow contracting to begin for the ACCS LOC 1, which is intended to form the backbone of NATO’s Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense program. The eight new sites are in France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.
Several hundred reports have been issued since the 1960s on the need to reform the U.S. government’s acquisition process, yet the dysfunction seems only to intensify. The cost of weapons systems keeps ballooning and program delays grow longer while the Pentagon, Congress and contractors continue to point fingers at one another.
Italian space managers aim to parlay plans for reconstruction of an earthquake-ravaged plant into a springboard for developing new telecom and radar satellite know-how.
Greg Caires (see photos) has become Washington-based vice president-media relations for Cobham plc and David Helfgott vice president of Cobham Surveillance, Arlington, Va. He was president/CEO of DataPath Inc.
Astronomers worldwide will turn their instruments on Jupiter’s south pole in the weeks ahead to study the fallout from what appears to have been a surprise hit from a previously undetected comet. A dark spot only a little smaller than Earth appeared in the gas giant’s atmosphere between 6 a.m. and noon EDT July 19, first detected by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley.
China and Russia last week held a five-day joint exercise, Peace Mission 2009, that included army and air force personnel from both countries. In preparing for the joint training, a Xian JH-7A strike aircraft was reported to have crashed, with the death of its two crewmembers. Participating Russian aircraft included the Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer, Su-25 Frogfoot and Su-27 Flanker.
Pinnacle Systems of Beavercreek, Ohio, will license a self-repairing wire developed by Robert E. Kauffman, a chemist and fluid analyst at the University of Dayton Research Institute. He has conducted research for the FAA into issues surrounding wiring in aging aircraft (AW&ST June 23, 2008, p. 65). Kauffman calls the product “Patch” (Power-Activated Technology for Coating and Healing), and it comes in two versions.
Lockheed Martin officials report Boeing has withdrawn a renewed complaint protesting NASA’s award of the GOES-R weather satellites to Lockheed. NASA had been due to answer the late April protest by the end of August. Lockheed had cautioned that continued protests could heighten schedule and cost pressure on the GOES-R program.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Madhu Unnikrishnan (Kennedy Space Center)
It will be at least another week before the space shuttle Endeavour returns from its mission to the International Space Station, but its seven-member crew and the six more on the station already have set up a new platform where experiments can be exposed to open space.
Did the U.S. sell the F-117 to a foreign nation? No! So why sell the F-22? The whole premise of the F-22 is total air supremacy. Why would you even consider putting someone else on an even playing field with you? Who paid to develop this aircraft? The U.S. taxpayers. Who will profit from the sale of the F-22? Did we not learn anything from selling F-14s to Iran? We have the big stick on the block, an uneven fight in the air, total air superiority. That’s why we built the F-22.
Despite emerging signs of demand stability, U.S. airlines are eyeing the fall travel season with great trepidation. A renewed slump in this period will put intense pressure on airline liquidity—and that threat, along with earlier losses, is dispelling the last hopes of a profitable 2009 for almost all carriers.
Bodo Uebber (see photos) has been appointed chairman of the board of Amsterdam-based EADS . He suceeds Rudiger Grube, who has become CEO of Deutsche Bahn. Following Grube is Wilfried Porth, who is head of human resources and labor relations for Daimler AG.
