The U.S. Navy is planning to loft its second in a series of next-generation narrowband communications satellites on Friday, July 19. The United Launch Alliance Atlas V is slated to boost the second Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) spacecraft during a 44-min. launch window that opens at 8:48 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral. The launch vehicle is an Atlas V 551, meaning it will use a 5-meter fairing and five strap-on, solid-rocket boosters.
Whether it is the Airbus A380 or Boeing 787, program issues leading to delays and redesigns have some in the aerospace industry arguing that traditional systems engineering is broken. But Dassault Systemes attributes the problem to design tools that have failed to keep pace with program complexity.
LONDON — A series of upgrades for the Raytheon Paveway IV precision-guided bomb will form the first phase of development for the U.K.’s Selected Precision Effects at Range (Spear). The Spear program is developing a new generation of air-to-ground weapons for the U.K.’s combat aircraft including the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The first phase, Spear Cap (Capability) 1, sees several improvements in the capability of the Paveway IV.
TEL AVIV — Despite ongoing political upheaval in the Middle East, Israel is launching the most drastic cut to its armed forces to date. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) has presented a plan to downsize its ground, air and naval forces, cutting units, platforms and personnel, and may face another round of reductions. “It’s a revolutionary plan,” said Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. “In a few years we will see a different IDF.”
FOURTH ESTATE: Making good on promises to trim the “fourth estate” of offices, staff and services outside the three branches of the military, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has announced a 20% reduction in funding for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the Military Service Headquarters over fiscal 2015-19, amounting to an estimated $1.5-2 billion in savings.
AEHF CHECKOUT: Technicians at Cape Canaveral will spend the next several months preparing the third Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-3) military communications satellite, after the U.S. Air Force and manufacturer Lockheed Martin Space Systems delivered it with a C-5 Galaxy flying out of Travis AFB, Calif. Launch from Complex 41 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V is scheduled for this fall.
The U.S. Navy’s Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program recently teamed up with the U.K.’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) for a UAV demonstration off the Maryland coast. “Stiletto [capability demonstrations] are conducted in partnership with a host warfighting command or government organization,” says Rob Tutton, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock engineer and Stiletto Maritime Demonstration program manager. “For this event, DSTL wanted to observe the operation of UAVs from a small boat platform for maritime missions.”
Now that the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, has transited the Pacific and is deployed in Singapore, the U.S. Navy brass says it is comfortable with the increased crew size and current survivability of the design — two of the most controversial issues weighing on the vessel program. The initial core crew size was 40 and the Navy added 10 more sailors and three ensigns to Freedom for its Asian deployment. “We feel the crew size is about right now,” Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, U.S. Navy director of surface warfare, tells Aviation Week.
Raytheon and Chemring are to fire a live missile from its Centurion weapons launcher later this year. The system, initially developed as a naval decoy launcher, was unveiled at the IDEX defense show in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, having been in development by Chemring since 2009. The Centurion is fitted with 12 130mm barrels mounted onto a rotating platform. Each barrel can be individually operated and adjusted in elevation, allowing a mix of weaponry and countermeasures to be housed in the same launcher system, then rapidly reloaded by hand.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Kay Granger (R-Texas), whose districts have constituents interested in U.S. helicopter work, have organized and sent a letter to the Pentagon from more than 80 lawmakers trying to apply pressure against the Defense Department’s plans to buy Russian helos for Afghanistan.
The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman failed to execute a fourth landing attempt of the X-47B onboard the USS George H.W. Bush carrier, and the Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstration flight test program has completed its planned “at-sea” trials.
NEW DELHI — Rolls-Royce aims to double its defense business in the next three to five years and is looking to team up with Indian firms, the company says. One such collaboration was the recent International Aerospace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd (IAMPL), a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) that was inaugurated in Bengaluru in the southern state of Karnataka.
Lockheed Martin has completed seven antenna assemblies for the first in the GPS III series of Global Positioning System spacecraft and delivered them to the spacecraft assembly facility near Denver. Fabricated at the company’s Newtown, Pa., facility, the assemblies will provide links for civil and military navigation signals; a UHF link to transfer data with other satellites in the GPS constellation; ground telemetry, tracking and control for the satellite, and a link for the nuclear-explosion detection payload hosted on the new spacecraft.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert continues to praise the potential of the U.S. Navy’s new Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ship, calling it one of the service’s “tailored ships for tailored capabilities.” Greenert noted the ship’s unique ability to assist amphibious and related operations July 11 during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. Moreover, Greenert says, the ship is not a drawing-board concept. “We have that ship,” he says. “It’s been delivered.”
A renewed effort by the Pentagon Inspector General to target overpricing by defense contractors and overbuying by military services is paying dividends, according to a senior Pentagon official. In fiscal 2012, the investigative wing of the Defense Department uncovered $2.9 billion that could have been put to better use elsewhere. Fiscal 2013 isn’t over yet, and inspectors have already identified $23.4 billion that could have been better spent, the official says.
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