The first free-flight test of the U.S. Air Force's Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD)--without using its engine--is scheduled to occur in September at Eglin AFB, Fla., followed by a year of full-up flight tests from B-52 and F-16 aircraft starting in early 2007. The cruise missile-like MALD, powered by a very small turbojet engine, is designed to confuse enemy air defense systems. The expendable air vehicle's onboard electronic systems make it appear on enemy radar screens like an attack aircraft.
NASA's success in narrowing the expected four-year gap in U.S. human space access will hinge on how well Lockheed Martin meets the cost goals it set to win the $8-billion Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) prime contract.
The U.S. Navy's long-awaited Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle procurement is set to get underway soon. The service plans to release a draft request for proposals (RFP) to industry by Oct. 1, and a final RFP in early January 2007, for a System Development and Demonstration contract. The off-the-shelf drone is slated to enter low-rate initial production in 2011 and operational service in 2013. The two primary BAMS competitors are the turbofan-powered U.S. Air Force-Northrop Grumman Global Hawk, which flies at 60,000-65,000 ft.
Spaceflight operations planners at NASA are studying new ways to navigate beyond low Earth orbit, where the Global Positioning System that serves well on the space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) won't work. The GPS constellation orbits at 20,200 km. (12,552 mi.), well above the shuttle and station. But when humans push past low Earth orbit (LEO) to the Moon and beyond, new methods will be needed.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Poland's PZL Mielec have signed a memorandum of understanding for PZL to become an assembly facility for the international version of the Black Hawk helicopter. Sikorsky will fund factory improvements and tooling to support assembly. Plans call for completing the agreement by year-end.
The first modified Gulfstream G550 arrived in Israel last week where it will be fitted with the conformal airborne early warning system developed by Israel Aircraft Industries subsidiary Elta Systems. The structural modifications were flight-tested in the U.S. and include distinct fuselage bulges to house the conformal array. The aircraft will feature two radar systems operating in different frequency bands and providing 360-deg. coverage. The delivery took place about a month later than planned. Four aircraft will be fielded.
For the Falcon space vehicles program, a journey into orbit may begin with a simple slide out the back of a C-17 cargo plane. It also could help pave the way for a radical new global-strike capability for the Pentagon.
The first operational deployment in the Iran/Afghanistan of VAQ-139's EA-6Bs, upgraded with the ICAP-III airborne electronic attack system, was successful enough that the U.S. Navy has ordered $22 million in spares from Northrop Grumman. The company's Electronics Systems division, which manufactures the ALQ-218 receiver subsystem, will do much of the production work which is to be completed by the end of 2009.
Boeing was planning to deliver the first EA-18G Growler to the U.S. Navy for testing late last week. The company flew its final checkout flight of the first Growler electronic jamming aircraft Sept. 19. During this sixth flight for the aircraft, operators carried the ALQ-99 jamming pods on the Growler for the first time. The crew also operated the ALQ-218 airborne electronic attack system, which includes a receiver for threat identification and a selective reactive jammer.
In the U.S., fighter aircraft are already being equipped with new long-range sensors that can detect and identify unwitting ground targets from medium altitudes, but the next major step forward in exploiting these air warfare capabilities is now emerging: airborne networking that allows target information gathered by attack aircraft sensors to be shared with other aircraft, air operations centers and ground forces in real time without using voice communications.
EADS Military Air Systems is carrying out design work on an unmanned combat air vehicle as a potential successor to its Barracuda test vehicle to meet possible German military requirements beyond 2010. The objective of the program, publicly known as the "Advanced UAV System," is to develop a design applicable for unmanned combat and unmanned reconnaissance air vehicle (UCAV/URAV) roles. The German Defense Ministry is looking to pursue this program with international partners.
In your article on dwarf Pluto (AW&ST Sept. 4, p. 16) the new International Astronomical Union (IAU) definition of a planet causes Pluto to lose its status based on the third criterion, which states that to qualify as a planet it must have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." Since Pluto crosses the orbit of Neptune, it cannot be called a planet. Neptune does not qualify either since it crosses the orbit of Pluto and thus also has not cleared the neighborhood of its orbit.
"War plans never survive first contact with the enemy" is a popular phrase tossed around by military brass whenever their planning goes awry. Even U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has used the phrase to answer his critics.
The NASA/Lockheed Martin Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is ready to start high-resolution science operations after completing aerobraking to fly into a lower 250 X 316-km. orbit around the red planet. The new orbit is much better for imagery than the highly elliptical orbit around Mars that MRO followed when it first arrived in March and collected this test image with its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument.
Alliant Techsystems test-fired a first-stage rocket motor for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) in mid-September, the latest in a series of ground tests leading to a first flight in 2008 (see photo). A second-stage motor was test-fired in January. The latest rocket "burned successfully to completion, demonstrating proof-of-concept of the motor assembly and its thrust-vector control nozzle," says Bill Condas, ATK Launch Systems group vice president of strategic and commercial systems.
The first flight test of a B-52 fueled with a blend of synthetic kerosene and JP-8 appeared to work successfully Sept. 19 at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, Calif. Air Force Undersecretary Ronald Sega, who was on board the flight, says the two TF33 engines in the test pod performed the same as the other six powerplants, which were fueled totally with JP-8. The flight was cut short when the left wingtip landing gear failed to retract properly. At least two other B-52 flight tests are planned.
In Europe, as in the U.S., the "future soldier" is envisioned as high-tech, tinged with science fiction, and combining everything from rifle-mounted sensors to hand-held computers. But with at least 14 European countries developing dozens of systems, it's easy to see some of the fault lines along what will be the most sweeping of all military modernization projects.
FAA Chief Operating Officer Russell Chew says it is too early to tell if the Air Traffic Organization he heads will need separation from the government to serve customers (AW&ST Aug. 7, p. 22). Many of the 40 air navigation service provider (ANSP) organizations that have been partially privatized around the world have a cushion between their operations and the government to avoid political interference.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will open potentially historic talks in Beijing this week on U.S.-Chinese space cooperation. But Griffin must "thread the political needle" between a tough Bush administration policy on China and Chinese military secrecy and communist bureaucracy already disarming U.S. interest in manned flight collaboration. As with the Soviet Union in the 1970s, the U.S. space program is being used by the White House and State Dept. as a diplomatic vehicle to open better relations with a potential adversary.
Allowing military officials to hide their online identities is the idea behind something called the Anonymizer. Lance Cottrell, the co-founder and chief scientist of Anonymizer Inc., says his U.S. government clients are increasingly turning toward open-source intelligence, but they leave themselves surprisingly exposed because their Internet security training is focused on preventing intrusion and hacking. What they don't think about--at least not as much--is the information they're leaking everywhere they go online.
Elbit is trying to boost the financial performance at its subsidiaries by restructuring operations. The company, which is the main shareholder with 70% of the Elisra Group, is undergoing a make-over. One of the key changes is the establishment of an operations division, to be run by Ami Dagan who oversaw Elbit's Silver Arrow unmanned aircraft unit.
MARKET FOCUS Defense IT companies: business hot, stocks cool 14 NEWS BREAKS ISS sporting two new solar array wings at end of P3/P4 truss element 22 Telesat's IPO may halt new round of consolidation 24 Israel to outfit modified G550 corporate jet with conformal AEW system 24 Testing shows 747-8 on path to being quieter than -400 26 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS To protect acquisitions, USAF chief mort- gaging ops and training accounts 28
Zodiac is forecasting that business activities in the aeronautical sector will slow in the next fiscal year, compared with the past two years. The company, which reported full-year sales of €2.3 billion ($2.9 billion), still anticipates a healthy market; moreover, it expects its maritime sales to rebound. In the 2005-06 fiscal year, sales for the aeronautical business were up 45.4% to €1.7 billion, or 12.2% if excluding sales in newly acquired units. The company expects an operating income of around 25%, near--but not on--target.
NASA next week will ask several new space tourism and commercial space launch companies for data on their horizontally launched/runway-recovered suborbital and orbital concepts to evaluate opening the Kennedy Space Center shuttle runway for use by innovative space business operations. The hope is to lure commercial companies like Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures to Kennedy facilities vacated by the shuttle program starting 2010.
Tim Fedrigon (see photo) has been appointed vice president-human resources for FKI Logistex of St. Louis. He was director of human resources for the Cabot Corp.
