The Iraqi defense ministry has taken delivery of 10-12 Sukhoi Su-25 ground-attack aircraft from Russia. The Su-25s are expected to become operational soon, but late last week, it was not clear exactly how many had been received or who will fly them. It is unlikely that Iraqi pilots will have had enough time to adapt to the type, although the Iraqi air force previously flew the model during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
The U.S. Navy awarded about $5.6 billion in aviation transactions at the end of June. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems received a $3.6 billion modification to change the advanced acquisition contract for E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes to a multiyear, fixed-price-incentive-firm target contract. The contract modification further provides for procurement of 25 full-rate-production E-2Ds. Work is expected to be completed in August 2021. Meantime, Boeing received a $1.94 billion fixed-price-incentive-fee contract for full-rate production of 11 Lot 38 F/A-18E Super Hornets and 33 EA-18G Growlers.
The U.S. Navy last month tested how radar-absorbing, carbon-fiber clouds can prevent a missile from detecting and striking its maritime target, Navy officials say. The Navy tested the manmade clouds, called maritime obscurant generator prototypes, to assess their tactical effectiveness for anti-ship missile defenses. The systems and tactics were tested off Guam under a variety of at-sea conditions using unidentified assets from the Army, Navy and Air Force to evaluate how the radar-absorbing, carbon-fiber clouds can protect naval assets as part of a layered defense, officials say.
Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit with ambitious plans to start a human colony on the red planet in the mid-2020s, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a range of engineering payloads suitable for the robotic lander it hopes to dispatch in August 2018. The lander and its landing area are intended to serve as the staging site for the organization’s first settlers. The 17-page RFP seeks responses from the private sector, academia and nonprofits prepared to compete for 44 kg (97 lb.) of total lander payload availability.
NASA faces $1.1 billion in environmental cleanup liabilities from decades of rocket testing and other research activities, according to the agency’s inspector general. But NASA’s entire budget for such work could be overwhelmed by a single project: restoration of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory northwest of Los Angeles. Working with California officials, NASA has committed $200 million in 2016-17 to the cleanup of the former rocket-testing facility shared with the U.S. Air Force, which is more than the agency’s entire environmental management budget of $153 million.
