FOUL WEATHER: The looming arrival of Tropical Storm Debby has prompted United Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force to delay the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite by 24 hr. The launch of NROL-15 is now set for June 29 at 6:13 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral. The protective Mobile Service Tower will remain around the Delta IV launch vehicle and is scheduled to be moved for launch on June 28.
While the House overwhelmingly overturned the U.S. Air Force’s request to end funding for Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Block 30, the company’s bid to protect the high-altitude UAV faces a much tougher fight in the Senate. The Air Force wants to place 18 of the Block 30s in storage and says it can save $2.5 billion over several years by continuing to operate the manned U-2 spy aircraft. The House Appropriations Committee rejected that, keeping funding to operate the UAVs and adding funding for an additional three.
With a year or so to go before the closure of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, the focus is now on how the company will absorb the cost of ending operations there. “The company’s No. 1 risk is the Avondale closure, with closing costs still to be negotiated with the Navy,” Citi says in a recent note to investors. “Until the closure is complete, HII management is unwilling to discuss specific cash deployment plans.”
STEVENAGE, England — Having completed key development flight tests for the Meteor ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, MBDA is now preparing the final performance statement for customers on the weapon. The move comes as the company is also about to wrap up development of the program and begin first missile deliveries to the U.K. before year’s end; ground-handling test vehicles have already been delivered to the U.K.
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND L-3 Global Communications Solutions, Victor, N.Y., was awarded a single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the special operation forces deployable node family of terminals. The contract minimum guarantee is $7,551,735 and maximum ceiling is $500,000,000. The anticipated period of performance is not to exceed five years. The place of performance is Victor, N.Y. U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (H92222-12-D-0020). NAVY
BEIJING — Chinese astronauts who manually docked their spacecraft with an orbital laboratory on June 24 have proven a technology crucial for the nation’s proposed space station program. Astronaut Liu Wang, helped by his two colleagues on board Shenzhou 9, took 7 min. to bring the spacecraft into contact with the laboratory, Tiangong 1, from a range of 400 meters (1,300 ft.). That was 3 min. faster than the performance of the automatic system that Shenzhou 9 had used on June 18 and Shenzhou 8 had used last year in China’s first space docking exercise.
Congress has a number of issues to consider as it ponders the U.S. Coast Guard’s proposed shipbuilding plan for its National Security Cutters, according to the Congressional Research Service. “One potential oversight issue for Congress for FY2013 concerns the absence of funding in the Coast Guard’s fiscal 2013 five-year (fiscal 2013-2017) capital investment plan for the seventh and eighth National Security Cutters,” CRS says in a report released earlier this month.
Commercial remote sensing provider GeoEye says it has no plans to delay the launch of its upcoming GeoEye-2 imagery satellite, despite recent moves by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to cut funding support for the company.
The U.S. Army failed to implement cost-control procedures on a cost-reimbursable service contract with General Dynamics Land Systems for logistic support for the Stryker vehicle family, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
It’s House appropriators who are leaving the biggest mark on the 2013 Pentagon budget request so far this year, changing more lines than House or Senate authorizers, and plussing programs that authorizers in both chambers left unchanged.
Continued flaws with a program designed to track the cost of the military’s largest weapon system are eating into Lockheed Martin’s bottom line. Late last week, Lockheed learned the military is halting an ongoing review of its internal audit program, the earned value management system (EVMS). Along with that decision, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) will withhold 5% of the price of the fifth lot of fighter jets — the maximum penalty.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is eyeing technology that could reduce wear and increase the performance of certain towed-array components through the development of shape-changing polymers being referred to as “metal rubber” by their manufacturer. NanoSonic, a Virginia-based company, is spearheading the effort through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding. The morph-on-demand towed array outer hosewall for sonar arrays can temporarily and repeatedly change its shape, the company says.
NEW DELHI — India plans to build another indigenous aircraft carrier in addition to the INS Vikrant, which is expected to join the country’s navy in 2016. “The indigenous aircraft carrier [IAC] program is planned to be [a] continuing process over the next decade-plus, with the Indian navy’s medium-term aim being to have at least two fully operational and combat worthy carriers available at any given time,” says Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Nirmal Verma. The second planned IAC could weigh about 65,000 tons and is likely to be christened INS Vishal.
ARMY Harris Corp., Government Communications Systems Division, Palm Bay, Fla., was awarded a $47,050,513 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the sustainment and support services for the AN/GSC-52 modernization program’s family of satellite communications earth terminals and associated equipment. The work will be performed in Palm Bay, with an estimated completion date of March 11, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Alexandria, Va., is the contracting activity (W91QUZ-12-C-0013).
Turkey has changed its military rules of engagement following the "hostile attack" in which Syria shot down a Turkish plane that strayed into its territory, the BBC has reported.
FORT WORTH — Lockheed Martin plans to conduct intercept flight tests with its Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system in the second half of this year, says Jonathan Crawford, international business development analyst for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. Lockheed Martin is under contract with the U.S. Army to develop EAPS as part of a competitive program. Northrop Grumman also is working on a concept.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — A heavily modified version of the Boeing X-48 blended wing body (BWB) remotely piloted research aircraft is set to begin a six-month flight-test program next week at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The X-48C is a rebuilt, twin-engine derivative of the three-engine X-48B tested between 2007 and 2011. In this new configuration the engines are mounted farther forward from the trailing edge and shielded between vertical tails that are moved inboard and replace wingtip-mounted tails.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — Boeing and its X-51A team partners are ready to attempt a third test of the scramjet-powered hypersonic demonstrator following modifications to avoid problems that cut short the last flight in June 2011. The missile-like vehicle is being prepared at Boeing’s Palmdale, Calif., facility and will be transferred to nearby Edwards AFB for the flight, which will take place over the Pacific test range after launch from a B-52H carrier aircraft. “The vehicle is nearly ready for shipping,” says Boeing X-51A Program Manager Joe Vogel.
