United Launch Alliance is targeting Mar. 31 for its next attempt to launch USAF’s second Wideband Global Satcom satellite on board an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral. An attempt last week had to be scrubbed and the vehicle rolled back to its integration facility following the discovery of a leaky oxidizer valve on the rocket’s Centaur upper stage. The valve has since been replaced.
If the U.S. government was serious about saving money it would terminate the contract that allows the Marine Corps to use UH-1/AH-1 platforms. These 30-year-old systems have very little survivability for the crews that fly them. Keeping a legacy system alive is irresponsible in that they have little chance of success in the current threat arena. The Marines need the most modern equipment available to support the ground troops, and Black Hawks and Apaches can do the job.
Michael A Taverna (Paris), Robert Wall (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London), Andy Nativi (Genoa)
This week’s NATO summit was supposed to serve as a catalyst to drive missile defense activities forward in Europe. But with Washington still defining its policy stance, the brakes are being put on expectations.
The Bristow Group expects to slash 10% of its workforce and take other restructuring actions to deal with declining demand in the helicopter service business. The company announced last week that its European business, Bristow Helicopter Group, has begun layoff talks with labor unions. These will follow cuts already taken in the U.S., West Africa and Australia and will be augmented by reductions in other areas, as well. President/CEO William E. Chiles says, “We are reviewing capital investments and our operations.” Management salaries have been frozen, also.
Saab and Selex Galileo have signed an agreement covering the integration of an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the Gripen NG, aimed initially at the bid for Brazil’s fighter program. The radar will be based on Selex Galileo’s Vixen AESA family. A Selex radar also could be part of Saab’s bid for India’s fighter procurement. Described as the “beginning of a long-term collaboration,” the agreement with Selex involves Saab Aerosystems and Saab Microwave Systems. The Vixen 500E AESA will later this year be delivered for installation on U.S.
Astrium Services says it has concluded an agreement to lease UHF capacity on its U.K. Skynet 5 milsatcom network to the U.S. Navy. Like a previous X-band capacity arrangement through the joint DSTS-G program, the UHF capacity will be supplied via Intelsat. Separately, Intelsat said it had inked a multiyear agreement to supply up to 432 MHz. of bandwidth for UAV applications in Iraq and Afghanistan, using 12 Ku-band transponders on its Galaxy 26 satellite. The contract, which will be able to support 40 UAV sorties per day, was concluded in partnership with Artel.
China’s conventional and nuclear missile arsenal grows in quality and quantity, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of Beijing’s military developments.
Changeling blobs photographed on a landing strut of the Phoenix Mars lander may be the first evidence of liquid water on the red planet. If true, the discovery could hold profound implications for habitability there, since liquid water is considered a prerequisite for life. Scientists believe the blobs may be brine too salty to freeze in the frigid atmosphere at the Phoenix landing site in the Martian arctic, where temperatures did not go above -5F, dipped as low as -140F and averaged about -75F during the mission.
Southwest Airlines on Mar. 26 reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with Transport Workers Union Local 66, which represents more than 9,800 flight attendants at the carrier.
Researchers will explore the physical properties of plasma under a new round of U.S. Air Force studies aimed at finding ways to communicate with hypersonic vehicles through the sheath of plasma generated at speeds above Mach 10.
Neelam Mathews (Bangalore ), Douglas Barrie (Bangalore )
In a turnaround from earlier practice, India’s military is now looking at an off-the-shelf spares exchange program from suppliers as a package with the original equipment purchase.
The Lockheed Martin pilot flying the F-22A that crashed north of Edwards AFB, Calif., apparently did not eject and died from the Mar. 25 crash, according to initial information given to senior U.S. Air Force officials that was obtained by Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Analysts are surprisingly upbeat about prospects for satellite radio but continue to voice concern about the impact of equity and credit collapses on second-generation mobile satphone service.
Chinese officials are dropping more hints that they are about to announce an aircraft carrier program. Defense Minister Liang Guanglie tells his Japanese counterpart, Yasukazu Hamada, that “China cannot be without an aircraft carrier forever.” He adds: “China’s navy is now rather weak. We need to develop an aircraft carrier.”
While the capital awaits President Barack Obama’s reworked defense budget for Fiscal 2010, a missile defense advocate with good Pentagon contacts says he’s hearing the delivery date could slip to May. The administration was expected to deliver its version of the Defense Dept. budget request on Apr. 21, but there is starting to be some buzz that sorting out the money may take longer than planned.
Small satellites have been widely regarded as second-rate by Pentagon and intelligence community officials, who opt for massive, high-technology spacecraft lasting a decade or more in orbit. But the time may finally be at hand for skeptics to begin accepting smaller, simpler systems for some national security missions.
London’s Heathrow Airport last week began using a microwave landing system approved for low-visibility operations. The Thales system was given Category-3 approval earlier in March. Fog and low clouds normally cut the airport’s landing rate to 24 aircraft an hour from 40-plus. British Airways has already fitted most of its Airbus A320s and A321s with the system. The fleet modification is due to be finished by year-end.
The Pakistan air force has taken delivery of one of four Phenom 100 jets it has on order. It intends to use the aircraft to transport government officials. This transaction marks a couple of milestones for the Brazilian manufacturer—the first Embraer delivered to a customer in Pakistan and the first Phenom 100 to be operated by a government.
Members of Britain’s two main aerospace and defense industry lobbying groups—the Defense Manufacturers Assn. and Society of British Aerospace Companies—voted at general meetings last week to merge the organizations, with the new entity to be operational next year.
Launch of the U.S. Air Force’s first Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite on board a Minotaur rocket has slipped as engineers try to ensure that the flight does not suffer the same fate as NASA’s Orbital Carbon Observatory. OCO was lost in February when the fairing on its Orbital Sciences-built Taurus XL rocket failed to open. Orbital also builds the Minotaur, which has a lot of hardware in common with the Taurus, including fairing systems.
Robert Wall (Paris), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Advances in the range of Hamas and Hezbollah surface-to-surface rockets—and the introduction of new designs—are forcing the Israeli air force (IAF) to confront the reality that it may have to conduct combat operations even while its bases and civilian population centers are under fire.
China’s newly formed challenger to Western defense contractors aims to become a listed, profit-focused company with a revenue target of 160 billion yuan ($23 billion) by 2017. Early hints of the country’s ambitions are now confirmed: Beijing wants a Chinese BAE Systems or Lockheed Martin, a large, integrated supplier of a broad range of weapon systems and military support services for the global market. The new group, provisionally called the Avic Defense Div., is also aiming at enlarging its civil business.
Controllers are checking out GPS IIR‑20, the U.S. Air Force’s latest Global Positioning System satellite, following its early morning liftoff Mar. 24 on a United Launch Alliance Delta II from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla.
