Improved situational awareness and protection capabilities are the top two priorities for the U.S. Air Force’s growing space control efforts in the Fiscal 2009 budget cycle, says Joseph Rouge, director of the National Security Space Office. In the area of protection, the Pentagon, intelligence community and commercial users have developed a “neighborhood watch,” whereby users exchange data on anomalies or operations on orbit. This helps to diagnose jamming or other tampering and to narrow sources of satellite interference.
Boeing has revolutionized air transport and built aircraft that made history; the 707, 747 and 787 will, too. The Seattle aircraft manufacturer’s setbacks, small compared to Airbus’s, are rooted in the new way of making airplanes. Subcontracting the manufacturing and even the design and engineering has taken its toll on the Dreamliner. Even if it seems cheaper to offload work to suppliers at the other end of the world, I hope Boeing will rethink its strategy and bring back work in house.
Joseph Rouge, director of the National Security Space Office, says he’s “willing to put [his] career on the line to make sure” that a new Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) initiative led by the Air Force is not derailed. The new ORS office was established earlier this year at Kirtland AFB, N.M., and its first budget is part of the Pentagon funding approved this month.
Ed Barnes has become interim chief financial officer of JetBlue Airways . He has been senior vice president-finance/principal accounting officer. Barnes succeeds John Harvey, who has resigned.
Communications surveillance by the Syrians has led the Israeli army to clamp down on personal cell phone communications during military ops and even in day-to-day procedures in the government. Having used the technology themselves, Israeli officials worry that their cell phones can be clandestinely activated as listening devices. Moreover, as cell phone users move between relay towers, their movements can be tracked. Press freedom may suffer as well.
The National Aeronautic Assn. will present USN Capt. (ret.) Eugene Cernan, the second American to walk in space and the last man to walk on the Moon, with the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy Dec. 14.
China says beginning in 2010 it will replace foreign-made communications and broadcasting satellites with its own spacecraft, which should be capable of serving twice as long as now.
The World Radiocommunications Conference has concluded four weeks of discussion at the WRC-07 conference in Geneva with an unequivocal decision not to open up the 3.4-4.2-GHz. C-band to Wimax and other so-called International Mobile Telecom users. The decision will ensure satellite operators of uninterrupted use of the C-band spectrum and the promise of bandwidth in which to roll out new broadband services, particularly in Asia and Latin America.
Darryl M. Fraser (see photo) has been named vice president-business development and strategic initiatives for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Mission Systems Sector, Reston, Va. He was vice president-Washington operations for Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems and Space Technology Sectors.
General Electric reaffirms that, despite recent signs of rapprochement with Airbus over developing an engine for the A350XWB, it still refuses to consider a larger GEnx for the A350-1000 version and says the go-ahead for the rest of the family could hinge on the performance of the initial GEnx-1B on the Boeing 787.
Two undisclosed customers have spent $41 million for the Ehud air combat maneuvering instrumentation systems from Israel Aerospace Industries’ MLM Div. The latest version is the first to tightly integrate fighters, which train against enemy air defense systems, and anti-aircraft batteries that practice interception of hostile aircraft. The sale includes advanced ground-to-air and air-to-ground weapons simulations as well as the ability to simultaneously train against live and virtual targets.
Kris Ganase (see photo) has been appointed president of aviation products within New York-based L-3 Communications’ Products Group . He has been president of ACSS, a joint venture of L-3 and Thales.
The British Defense Ministry has postponed from Dec. 13 the release of its revised Defense Industrial Strategy document, to accommodate difficult financial decisions to be taken in the present planning round.
Mechtronix Systems Inc. says its new approach to designing lower cost simulators is allowing small airlines to use a single, dedicated unit to take care of most or all of their pilot training needs.
Greg Hyslop has been named Boeing ’s vice president/program director for Ground-based Midcourse Defense. He was vice president/program director for the Airborne Laser.
Martin McCarthy (see photo) has been appointed U.K.-based vice president-sales and marketing in Europe for Crane Aerospace & Electronics , Lynn- wood, Wash. He has been managing partner of Arden Technologies, which represents Crane.
China is designing its new rocket-building base in Tianjin to ultimately handle launchers with the diameter of the U.S. Saturn V, the largest ever used operationally. While the first project for the base is the Long March 5, with a diameter of five meters (16.4 ft.), the capability of the base can be expanded for rockets of diameters of 8-10 meters, says a Tianjin official. He also gives new details of the Long March 5 specification: a height of 59.4 meters, mass of 643 metric tons and a liftoff thrust of 1.82 million lb.
David A. Fulghum (Tel Aviv), Robert Wall (Tel Aviv)
The U.S. was monitoring the electronic emissions coming from Syria during Israel’s September attack; and—although there was no direct American help in destroying a nuclear reactor—there was some advice provided beforehand, military and aerospace industry officials tell Aviation Week & Space Technology.
The Pentagon will hold a top-level review of the Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) early-warning satellite program Nov. 28 during which a launch date for the first spacecraft will be outlined. The plan was to launch the first Sbirs spacecraft next year, but problems that arose earlier this year with flight control software have delayed this. This satellite is the next early-warning system to be launched after the successful launch this month of the final Defense Support Program spacecraft. Lt. Gen.
Saab researchers have introduced a family of Compact Integrated Defensive Aid Suites (Cidas) that can be upgraded to meet rapidly changing operational and technical threats to aircraft. The company’s latest electronic warfare capability is an expansion of its integrated defensive aids suite that provides radar, laser and missile warning with automatic dispensing of countermeasures decoys. A small version Cidas offers electro-optical sensors and a small component package to defend against shoulder-launched missiles and laser threats.
Boeing’s delegation of greater design and program responsibility to its 787 supplier network began rippling through the industry even before the airplane was launched in April 2004. The 787’s Tier 1 supplier network—particularly for its systems—mimics the spider web of relationships that Boeing established in giving design, development and production authority to them. Just as Boeing wanted to tap into their expertise, spread its risk and extend its manufacturing footprint abroad, the Tier 1 suppliers are doing the same with their subcontractors.
Northrop Grumman has deployed the first digitally-controlled arrestment system designed to improve the recovery of aircraft on the USS Ronald Reagan and completed its first arrestment at sea on Nov. 5.
First, Skunk Works, now Mooseworks—a group of Cirrus Design executives and engineers who meet weekly over pizza at a secret location near Duluth to barnstorm aviation ideas. The term Mooseworks, coined in 2003, was a natural in a region where moose sightings are commonplace. The group is “constantly hammering out ideas to make it [flying] more attractive,” says Alan Klapmeier, who with his brother Dale founded Cirrus Design in 1984.
Robert Wall (Gaza-Israel border), David A. Fulghum (Tel Aviv)
Israel is preparing for a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, but realizes that several factors would make combat there even more challenging than Lebanon proved to be last year. Israeli military planners are increasingly concerned about Hamas activities inside the Gaza Strip and are considering how to thwart rocket attacks on neighboring Israeli towns. Having observed Hezbollah build its Lebanese power base—which it used for attacks on northern Israel—Tel Aviv now sees the same situation developing with Hamas in Gaza.
