The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
F-22 in Limbo. The Air Force has presented its new request for F-22 Raptor fighter jets to the Pentagon leadership, service chief Gen. Norton Schwartz says. Schwartz would not name the new number, which he has said is the result of revised strategic analysis. “Until [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] renders a decision, I’d prefer to keep the content of that conversation between [Air Force] Secretary [Michael Donley] and myself, and Secretary Gates,” Schwartz tells reporters at the Air Force Association’s annual winter symposium in Orlando. The general has said that the Air Force has pared down its previous acquisition goal of 381 F-22s. Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last year that the service is seeking 60 more of the jets to add to its current fleet of 183. The Obama administration is expected to reach a decision on the matter in April instead of by March 1, as Congress had requested.
Tanker Redux. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says that the service’s aerial refueling tanker competition could be reopened soon but that the Pentagon is still reviewing the potential schedule. Speaking at the Air Force Association’s annual winter symposium in Orlando, last week Donley says new bids could be collected starting as early as April. “We could potentially be in a position to to make a decision at the very end of the calendar year or, more likely, in the January time frame,” he tells reporters.
Hazardous Waste. The U.S. shootdown of one of its own spy satellites last February did not leave any dangerous debris orbiting the planet, while Beijing’s destruction of a Chinese weather satellite a month earlier left behind space junk that could remain in orbit for over 80 years, a top U.S. military officer says. “Every bit of debris created by that (U.S.) intercept has de-orbited,” Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, the chief of U.S. Strategic Command, says on Feb. 26. The United States used a sea-based Standard Missile-3 missile to destroy a malfunctioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite on orbit at an altitude of some 130 miles. The Chinese satellite, by contrast had been in polar orbit at about 537 miles, meaning that it will take much longer for the pieces to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. STRATCOM is tracking some 2,200 pieces of space junk created by the Chinese shootdown, according to Chilton.
Fast…Faster. As the Navy’s aerial targets program at NAVAIR begins developing a new set of supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, they are looking to explore the art of the possible in the realm of hypersonic weapons, Capt. Pat Buckley, program manager, PMA-208, Aerial Targets and Decoy Systems tells Defense Daily. “Most people will define hypersonic as Mach 5 or above. The Chinese are supposedly developing hypersonic capability. How do you test against something moving [Mach 5]?”
…Other Threats. Some countries are developing anti-ship ballistic missiles, Buckley notes. “The concept…you can lob a ballistic missile out and as it rains down there is some type of seeker head with some kind of guidance system in the reentry vehicle that can guide it to a ship,” he explains. Those type of weapons won’t need propulsion systems because they will rely on gravity, Buckley adds. “Our weapon systems are real good at looking at the horizon, at the sea-skimming [missiles] that are coming in. How about looking up now at stuff raining down?”
Future Uncertain. With the potential for the VH-71’s Increment II program to be cut, the Navy and its industry partners explored alternatives to the phase two effort. “The big challenge, and there are a number of them…probably the biggest one is for Increment II to go twice as far as Increment I…in round numbers,” Jeff Bantle, Lockheed Martin vice president VH-71, program tells Defense Daily. “When you do that, you need to upgrade many of the major dynamic components and that’s one of the more costly parts of this.” Bantle says there were a lot of options looked at. They included taking the Increment II configuration and streamlining it or reducing it, he adds. “If you really want to cut the cost, how do we spiral additional capability into Increment I? Lockheed Martin has been a player in many of the options, but the Navy suggested…they have a total of 35 different options,” Bantle notes.
…Cost. Over the last year Lockheed Martin has looked at a number of the Increment II options, Bantle says. “We played in many of those. Some are Increment II derivatives and some are Increment I derivatives, and they all have their plusses and minuses in capabilities and cost, and they range the whole gamut from [a] small amount of additional cost to the full Increment II cost that people are talking about,” he adds. “Everybody has said the cost has grown. What I’ll suggest is that compared to other similar development programs to do that, the cost is very comparable. If you look at other types of aircraft platforms…doing that kind of work…the cost is very comparable.”
Intel Expansion. The Office of Naval Intelligence is undergoing a restructuring designed to strengthen the Navy’s conventional and irregular war fighting capacities, and expand foresight into new technologies, future platforms, weapons, sensors, C4ISR and cyber capabilities, while ensuring the swift delivery of critical intelligence to ONI’s customers, the service says. The transformation establishes four Centers of Excellence as distinct echelon III commands, each with well defined areas of responsibility and deep reservoirs of expertise. Each center will focus on generating and delivering penetrating knowledge that meets current and future requirements, the Navy adds. The physical expansion of the National Maritime Intelligence Center, to be completed in 2010, will enhance ONI’s mission capabilities, the Navy says.
…Final Four. The four Centers of Excellence are: The Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center which is responsible for Maritime Domain Awareness, intelligence products for Maritime Operations Centers and the Fleet, and Global Maritime Intelligence Integration; the Farragut Technical Analysis Center, will integrate assessments and intelligence on current and future adversary weapons, platforms, combat systems, ISR and cyber capabilities to prevent technological surprise to the fleet; the Kennedy Irregular Warfare Center delivers tailored reach-back and forward-deployed services to Navy Special Warfare and Navy Expeditionary Combat Command forces engaged globally; and the Hopper Information Services Center improves interoperability and enables enhanced access to ONI products and expertise via a service-oriented architecture, the Navy says.
From Sea To Space. NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) tested NAVSEA’s Component Repair Experiment for the first time on Feb. 19, the Navy says. NASA Astronaut Mike Fincke successfully removed and replaced a component on a circuit card as part of an ongoing experiment to establish a 2M-like repair capability (miniature and microminiature electronic repair of circuit card assemblies and electronic modules) in a space environment, the Navy adds. NSWC Crane’s 2M repair engineering agents were tasked by NASA to assist with developing a 2M repair kit and associated training that could be used to evaluate the feasibility of removing and replacing components on circuit cards in zero and reduced gravity environments.
Learn And Act. U.S. Central Command is “determined to act” on the lessons learned in the past nearly eight years of war, says Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. Top lessons learned include that international and regional partnerships are essential for success; complex problems require comprehensive solutions; a sustained commitment is required; the interagency is essential to success, Allen says at the AUSA Winter Symposium last week.
…Thwarted. Al Qaeda has suffered “significant” setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Saudi Arabia, Allen says. The “vast majority” of people in the region reject the group. However, al Qaeda remains “resilient, lethal and networked” with other extremists and continues to find sanctuary in poorly governed areas.
Big Footprints. The Army’s Future Combat Systems supplier economic footprint stretches from coast to coast, according to a program update at the AUSA conference in Florida. Gregg Martin, program manager FCS, vice president, Boeing, says the program has 896 suppliers and more than 91,000 total jobs in 43 states with an estimated annual total economic impact of $4.5 billion.
Tiny Bubbles. Up in the Sky! It’s a bird–no, it’s a plane–no, it’s a flock of small General Dynamics “GD’s” leisurely flying up and over the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center during the AUSA Winter symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., last week. By the company’s outdoor exhibit a machine mixed bubbles and helium and puffed out fragile foot-long “GD’s” every 19 seconds. It’s not GD’s latest high tech, it’s the work of Alabama-based Flogos, which puffs out corporate logos and entertains people of all ages at different venues.
SASC Cast. Three SASC subcommittees have new leaders this congressional session, the committee says. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is now ranking member of the AirLand subcommittee, replacing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who held the post last session but no longer serves on the SASC. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is the new GOP leader of the Emerging Threat and Capabilities subcommittee, replacing former North Carolina senator Elizabeth Dole, who lost her reelection bid last November. And the Readiness subcommittee has two new leaders: Chairman Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who takes over from Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), and Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a new SASC member who replaces Thune in the subcommittee spot.
Frank Budget Talk. Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has released a proposal to cut $160 billion from the defense budget. It calls for withdrawing troops from Iraq, tightening procurement procedures, reducing the number of active nuclear warheads, trimming research and development funds, and cutting or ending the F-22 Raptor, ballistic-missile-defense, Virginia-class submarine, DDG-1000 destroyer, V-22 Osprey, Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, Joint Strike Fighter, Future Combat Systems, and “offensive space weapons” programs.
F-22 Tango. Pentagon acquisition czar John Young says in a letter to a top lawmaker last Friday that DoD is not obligating more than $140 million in advance-procurement funds for F-22 parts. Thus, he says, the president did not have to certify by March 1 if the fighter jet’s production line will be continued or terminated. The FY ’09 defense authorization act, Young writes to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), “restricts the obligation of appropriations funds for advanced procurement of F-22A aircraft (to no more than $140 million) until after (the presidential) certification addressing future F-22A production.” Young adds: “The Department will not obligate funds for the procurement of the F-22A to exceed $140 million….The Department believes these funds will be adequate to preserve all F-22 procurement options until final Fiscal Year 2010 budget decisions are made by the President. Therefore, the Presidential certification…will not be made by the required (March 1) submission date.”