Researchers are all too familiar with the huge costs, high risks and frustratingly slow pace of high-speed flight testing, not to mention the scarcity of opportunities. Now a Colorado-based team is developing a small supersonic UAV (below) for low-risk testing at a fraction of the cost of existing systems. Dubbed the Gojett (graduate organization jet engine technology team), the ambitious project is aimed at breaking the supersonic test paradigm and filling part of the void left by retirement of reusable flying testbeds like the legendary X-15.
As the Army prepares for a spring flight demonstration of possible interim replacements for its OH-58D scout helicopter, financial pressure on the Pentagon may mean the service has to make do with the aging Kiowa for years to come, despite forthcoming obsolescence issues. Army aviation officials face a tough decision as they continue to struggle with how to replace the Kiowa warrior fleet following the 2008 collapse of the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program, led by Bell, owing to cost growth.
Whether the threat is from insurgents, pirates, drug smugglers or illegal immigrants, whether the resources requiring protection are in the ocean or the jungle, the need for surveillance is increasing. This is driving demand for special-mission aircraft—manned and unmanned—the sensors to equip them and systems to analyze and disseminate the intelligence collected.
Controllers have restarted on-orbit checkout of the Npoess Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite, which was suspended last year after the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor begin losing sensitivity in four of its channels. The spacecraft originally was scheduled to become fully operational in December, but its commissioning was put on hold while the VIIRS problem was analyzed.
Republican members of Congress are bristling about the Obama administration’s decision to work with the European Union on an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week announced that the U.S. would not sign on to an EU Code of Conduct but would continue to work with the EU to develop a broader international code.
Of the $1.5 trillion the Defense Department spent on contracts from 2007 to 2010, a full 41% – or $606.3 billion – were granted without first going through a full and open competition, mostly by making use of one of seven Federal Acquisition Regulation exemptions, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report. The most commonly used exemption, stating that “only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements,” ate up $448.6 billion, or a whopping 74% of the total.
A Lockheed Martin/Raytheon team has opted not to protest its loss of a $3.5 billion contract managing U.S. missile defenses to a Boeing/Northrop Grumman team. Boeing re-established itself as the overseer of the massive Ground-Based/Midcourse Defense (GMD) program when the Missile Defense Agency announced the contract win late last year.
The Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) will have to compensate for some past bad decisions that now hobble electronic warfare and the future of non-kinetic attack. The active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, for example, offers the potential for NGJ to become both an electronic sensor and weapon. But there will have to be intense development to make it an operational reality, and funding for such esoteric capabilities has been elusive.
In a “first step” toward implementing a more efficient procurement strategy for rockets, the U.S. Air Force has issued a $1.5 billion contract to United Launch Alliance for nine Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) to support launches in fiscal 2014, according to service officials.
Although sales are soaring, two of Israel’s leading defense companies are undergoing unsettling personnel changes: Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI’s) CEO for the last six years, Itzhak Nissan, is being forced to retire, and Aeronautics Defense Systems’ CEO and founder Avi Leumi will also depart his position in the coming weeks.
The U.S. Navy LPD-17 San Antonio Class Amphibious Transport Dock ship program is making strides, says the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), but the vessel is still a risky asset to deploy when and where it is likely to be needed. Navy officials maintain DOT&E operational concerns fail to take into account that the ship will be deployed with other vessels or assets that will be able to protect it.
HEAVY VEHICLES: The U.S. Army has awarded Oshkosh Defense a bridge contract to continue production and support of the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV) through 2014. The Oshkosh FHTV includes the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT), Heavy Equipment Transporter and Palletized Load System (PLS). The first $11 million order under the bridge contract was awarded Dec. 21, and includes more than 20 HEMTT Light Equipment Transporters, more than 10 PLS A1 trucks and more than 10 PLS A1 trailers.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is dropping down the operational ladder a rung or two as the platform of greatest interest for the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ). The initial plan of making the F-35 — probably the Marine Corps B-mode — an early user of the NGJ is being de-emphasized in favor of a more intense focus on the EA-18G Growler as the initial platform for a fully-funded airborne electronic attack (AEA) program, followed by the jammer’s adaptation to both stealthy and nonstealthy unmanned aircraft designs.
LightSquared has rejected as rigged government testing of the potential for its L-band wireless network to interfere with GPS satellite signals, and vows to fight its case in court, if necessary.
PARIS — The U.S. military has removed links to Phobos-Grunt tracking data posted on a public website detailing orbital parameters of the ill-fated Russian Mars mission that Russia says re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 15.
Last week the U.S. Army hosted almost 300 defense industry representatives at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to further explain the ongoing testing process for its new “agile” approach to buying technologies to modernize its tactical communications network. This second Industry Day event is a big part of the Army’s biannual Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) held at Ft. Bliss, Texas, which puts an entire brigade from the 1st Armored Division into the field for weeks at a time to experiment with new equipment that the Army is considering buying.
The Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) still has concerns about the U.S. Navy’s Ford-class carrier program meeting its schedule because of radar development, Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) integration and other key technological advancements for the ships being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries. The carrier program has been facing growing uncertainty about its schedule as speculation mounts that the Pentagon will delay development and delivery due to budget concerns.
An agreement by Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand to become subscribers to the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) broadband communications network has prompted the U.S. Air Force to exercise an option for Boeing to build a ninth spacecraft. With their $377 million contract, the five nations join Australia, which funded WGS-6 in 2008, as members of the Air Force WGS team.
NEW DELHI — The Indian government is likely to give its final approval this week for the $365 million purchase of 75 Pilatus trainer aircraft from Switzerland. Indian air force (IAF) chief N.A.K. Browne says the green light is expected from India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) within the next two days. As soon as the CCS gives its stamp of approval , “we should be able to sign the contract,” Browne says. Deliveries of the aircraft are expected to begin next year.
In the latest annual report from the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), the U.S. Air Force ranks last among the services in testing performance, with a mere 27% of programs reviewed meeting their reliabiliity thresholds. DOT&E chief J. Michael Gilmore writes that of the 311 Major Defense Acquisition Programs that his office scrutinized in fiscal 2011, 67 experienced either significant delays and/or Nunn-McCurdy breaches, with thirty-six actually breaching Nunn-McCurdy cost-growth caps.
John Young, who took over as the CEO of Alenia North America in June 2010, has left the company, and a new top officer is evidently waiting in the wings. A company official says an announcement on a new CEO is forthcoming as soon as next week.
