Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor Perspectives

Week in review (1/22 to 1/28)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:53:00 +0000

In the Gulf Coast region, anything that comes down the pike about defense issues gets attention. That was the case Thursday when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave an outline of cuts to come, and it will be the case next month when we get more details.

Panetta said the proposal will impact all 50 states and many congressional districts across America. And let's face it. We have a lot of potential targets in this region. There are 21 military installations between New Orleans and Panama City, Fla., along with military activities at non-DoD locations. We also have a lot of contractors, both traditional defense contractors and companies that provide services for the bases. We're talking a multibillion-dollar economic impact on this region.

And each of the states with a piece of this I-10 corridor also has military operations and defense contractors that account for billions in spending in other parts of the state. Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi all have bases and contractors that dependon the military budget. The Pentagon wants $525 billion for the military in 2013, $6 billion less than the current budget, and wants Congress to approve a new round of base closures. (Post)

Several bases in this region have already announced personnel cuts, and Northwest Florida sees a realignment of the materiel command announced in November as a threat to Eglin Air Force Base's research and development. Work is underway to protect that activity, which is crucial for attracting and retaining high-tech operations.

One company in this region that will feel an impact of the cuts announced Thursday is Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. The 15 Littoral Combat Ships that were to be purchased from 2013 to 2017 will be trimmed to 13, and eight of nine planned Joint High Speed Vessels will be cut. The proposal also delays by a year the start of construction for the Ingalls-built LHA-8 large-deck amphibious vessel, but the proposal doesn’t slow the Navy plans to buy additional Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 destroyers built by both General Dynamics and Ingalls. (Post)

Another casualty of the budget cut is the Air Force's Block 30 variant of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned surveillance plane. The central fuselage work for the Global Hawk is done in Moss Point, Miss., at a 101,000 square-foot facility that opened in 2006.

The Air Force has decided to keep using the U-2 spy plane, which the Global Hawk was supposed to replace. Plans were to buy 31 of the Block 30 variant. Northrop has delivered 14 and has a contract for seven more. The remaining 10 will be canceled.

Northrop, not surprisingly, said it's disappointed with the decision, but will work with the Pentagon to assess alternatives to the program's termination. Northrop pointed out that just a few months ago the Pentagon published an acquisition decision memorandum that said continuation of the program is essential to national security. (Post)

But the Block 40 variant of the Global Hawk is alive and well. In fact, the proposed fiscal 2013 budget includes $1.2 billion for three additional Block 40 variants, according to Bloomberg. (Post) The Air Force already has 11 of the latest models delivered or on contract. In addition, the Pentagon wants to continue an $11 billion Navy Global Hawk program, which involves 68 Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Global Hawk drones.

NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance capability is also moving forward. A 13-nation deal should be signed before the next NATO summit in Chicago in May. That pending acquisition is valued at about $1.3 billion for five Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 unmanned air vehicles, each equipped with a Northrop/Raytheon surveillance payload. (Post)

Also untouched was the Fire Scout program. The Navy plans to buy 168 of the unmanned helicopters, which are also made in part in Moss Point. And the models now in service have been busy. Two MQ-8B Fire Scouts are in a third operational deployment, this time aboard the USS Simpson. The Fire Scouts are providing the ship's sole aviation capability. (Post)

EADS
EADS named Tom Enders to take over as chief executive officer when Louis Gallois retires in May. Enders, nominated to a five-year term, was a strong advocate for Mobile, Ala., during the competition between EADS and Boeing to build Air Force tankers.

EADS planned to build a 1,500-worker assembly plant at Brookley Aeroplex to build tankers and freighters if it won the competition. Although EADS lost, it has continued to express interest in establishing an assembly facility in the United States because of a backlog of orders from airlines. (Post)

New programs
There was a grand opening during the week for the new 325th Air Control Squadron building at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. Brig. The 36,000 square-foot building will be used to train air battle managers, who provide critical information about enemy activities to both air and ground forces. It's the only schoolhouse that will teach air battle managers in the country. (Post)

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is opening a Crestview, Fla., campus to meet a growing need for students in the north end of Okaloosa County. The school decided to open the campus because of the increase in aviation related jobs around the Crestview Airport and aviation related contracts in the area. The new campus is on the second floor of a building at the corner of South Ferdon Boulevard and Southview Drive. (Post)

Contracts
Raytheon Co., Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $17.4 million contract to provide test integration of software to enhance the system performance of the AIM 120D missile. AAC/EBAK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … L-3 Communications Corp., Systems Field Support, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $69.2 million contract to provide for the support of the worldwide fleet of C12/RC12/UC35 aircraft. Work will be performed in Madison, Miss. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.

Week in review (1/15 to 1/21)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:33:00 +0000

More rumblings about a possible Airbus assembly plant in the United States, the arrival of another F-35 at Eglin Air Force Base, AirTran switching to Southwest Airlines in Pensacola and plans by Stennis Space Center to show off its J-2X rocket engine program highlighted the aerospace news for the Gulf Coast during the week.

A top EADS official said Airbus, which already has final assembly lines in France, Germany and China, may add one in the United States to increase visibility in the largest market for single-aisle planes. The comment came from Hans Peter Ring, chief financial officer of EADS, in an interview with Bloomberg. (Post)

Of course, EADS/Airbus would have had an assembly line in Mobile, Ala., had it not lost the Air Force aerial refueling tanker competition to Boeing. But the loss of the tanker project never killed the belief that Mobile would eventually get an aircraft assembly plant.

Last September Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told the Birmingham News that EADS was looking into whether it was feasible to build commercial airplanes in Mobile. During the tanker competition, the company had said it also would build freighters in Mobile if it won the tanker contract.

Both Airbus and Boeing have been saying for a while now that the demand for airliners is increasing. That's one reason GE Aviation is building new facilities in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Auburn, Ala. And the increasing activity likely is one reason Rolls-Royce is building a second engine test stand at Stennis Space Center, Miss. More planes means more engines.

Aviation Week, in an article called "12 for '12," focused on a dozen big developments that will occur in the aerospace and defense industry in 2012. Two of them are linked to the uptick of orders from airliners.

The article pointed out that Airbus and Boeing won an estimated 2,150 net orders for new jets in 2011, with Airbus alone booking three orders for every jet it produces. The challenge will be fulfilling all of those sales, particularly among suppliers. The related big development is aerospace consolidations. United Technologies Corp.'s $18.4 billion purchase of Goodrich, which has a service center in Foley, Ala., is likely will pass regulatory muster and close by May. The question is whether Honeywell, General Electric or other aerospace giants will move to counter UTC's new "super supplier." (Article)

If you follow the aerospace industry, you can see the activity increasing. Even though Boeing is shutting down its plant in Wichita, Kan., in 2013, the Wichita Eagle reports that Boeing plans to increase the amount it spends with Kansas suppliers by 50 percent over the next three years, from $3.2 billion to $4.8 billion. (Article)

In addition, Airbus said it will add A350-1000 fuselage work to the wing engineering work it does at Wichita’s Airbus North American Engineering center. The Wichita Business Journal reports that it will mean 30 engineering jobs. (Article)

So buckle up. We're in for a pretty active 2012.

F-35
There was plenty of news during the week for anyone following the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. People along the Gulf Coast are interested because Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the Integrated Training Center, the primary location to train pilots and maintainers for the plane.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta by the end of the week lifted the probation on the Marine Corps version of the F-35. The probation of the F-35B was put in place last year by then-Secretary Robert Gates because of technical issues of the most complex version of the single-seat jet fighter. (Post)

Coincidentally, a ninth F-35, this one the Marine Corps variant just mentioned, arrived at Eglin on Thursday after a flight from Texas. B-7, piloted Marine Corps Maj. Joseph Bachmann, is assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s Marine Fighter/Attack Training Squadron 501. (Post)

Lockheed Martin is building three versions of the plane, the F-35A for the Air Force, the F-35C for the Navy and the F-35B for the Marines. Eglin now has three F-35B and six F-35As.

- The Air Force filed a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the establishment of a second F-35 pilot training center, and as expected Luke Air Force Base outside Phoenix, Ariz., is the preferred site. Plans are for 72 new F-35s at the base. The draft statement opened a 45-day public comment period ending March 14. A final decision is expected in July. (Article)

- Lockheed Martin is working on a solution to a problem with the tailhook on the Navy version of the F-35, the F-35C. Published reports said F-35C can't land on a carrier because the tailhook is too short, too close to the landing gear and can't grab arresting cables. Lockheed Martin said the problem is the design of the tailhook and a fix is underway. Tests will be done in the second quarter of the year. (Post)

Space
The media has been invited to NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. to take a look Wednesday at the facilities used to test the J-2X engines that will be used with the Space Launch System. They'll see the test control center, the A-1 Test Stand and the facility where the final assembly is done on the J-2X. (Post)

Unmanned systems
Two members of Beale Air Force Base, Calif., became the first RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots in the new 18X career field during a winging Jan. 13. The new career field is designated for RPA pilots coming from non-rated career fields as well as newly commissioned officers. Portions of Global Hawks are built in Moss Point, Miss. (Post)

Airports/bases
Pensacola International Airport's Air Tran will be converting to Southwest Airlines, which bought AirTran in May. The change will occur over the next several months. That will give the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor three airports served by Southwest. The other locations are in Panama City, Fla., and New Orleans. (Post)

- Emerald Coast Aviation has closed its operations at Florida's Destin Airport. It subleased services for Miracle Strip Aviation, one of two fixed-base operators at the airport. Emerald Coast Aviation handled aircraft maintenance and repairs and flight instructions for Miracle Strip Aviation. It's still operating in Crestview and at the airport in Valparaiso. (Post)

- The National Transportation Safety Board found a near-midair collision at Mississippi's Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in June was likely caused by errors made by an air-traffic controller. The controller cleared a Cessna for takeoff and 16 seconds later cleared a Continental Express jet to take off on a different runway. While both aircraft were about 300 feet above the airfield the jet passed in front of the Cessna, coming as close as about 300 feet. (Post)

- The commander of the Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., issued a commentary during the week about the base's accomplishments in 2011. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Merchant listed the arrival of the first F-35 fighter, bed down of the Army's 7th Special Forces Group, and the base's multiple excellence awards. (Post)

Week in review (1/8 to 1/14)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:12:00 +0000

If you follow aerospace activities in this region, you might do well to keep an eye on NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. It was just last month that Blue Origin of Kent, Wash., said it would test its rocket engines at SSC. Now Rolls-Royce North America has decided to build a second stand to test its large airliner engines.

Rolls-Royce, which also operates a ship propeller foundry in Pascagoula, Miss., as part of its marine activities, plans to invest some $50 million on a second stand at SSC. That will add another 35 jobs to the 45 employees already working at the Outdoor Jet Engine Testing Facility that opened in 2007. That stand was the first outside the UK for Rolls-Royce. (Post)

In addition to the increased activity at SSC, the new Rolls-Royce stand will also mean more activity at Stennis International Airport, to the east of SSC. Rolls-Royces uses huge transport plans to ship those engines to and from Stennis Space Center.

So what's going on that’s caused all this new activity? Truth is, there's always been a lot going on at the 14,000-acre federal city, which is surrounded by a 125,000 acre acoustical buffer zone. But in recent years some steps have been taken that appear to put it on a growth track.

In November 2009, NASA identified some 3,900 acres at land that's ready for development. There's more land available, but this is the acreage near roads and utilities. Then the Army last year turned over a 1.6 million square-foot former munitions plant and surrounding acreage to NASA, increasing the space agency's building space by a third.

Not long after that, NASA sent out feelers to companies interested in taking over the under-utilized E-4 test facility, and made it a point to stress that the test stand can be modified for larger engines. Stennis Space Center Director Patrick Scheuermann said word is getting out about the test stands, the land available for development and the expertise at SSC, and commercial companies are showing interest.

"We had been hearing on sort of an infrequent basis," Scheuermann said in the January issue of the Alliance Insight, about companies interested in working with SSC, "but in the last couple of years the frequency has picked up quite a bit." (Post)

SSC is home not only to NASA and its propulsion testing capabilities, but 30 other federal and state agencies with science and technology operations. It's the home of the Navy's oceanographic operations, the National Data Buoy Center, the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage, a Naval Research Lab detachment and more.

Hundreds of scientists and technicians are working in fields as varied as rocket propulsion, geospatial technologies, underwater research and more. Universities from two states have activities there, and SSC has one of the world's largest supercomputers there. It also has tight security and room to grow.

SSC hasn't developed like the area around Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and there are a lot of reasons behind that. But it does appear the time might have arrived for SSC. And having NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in nearby New Orleans certainly adds to the appeal.

So, as they say, stay tuned.

There were other SSC-related stories during the week. The relocation of the RS-25D space shuttle main engine inventory from Kennedy Space Center's Engine Shop in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to SSC is under way. Those engines will be used in NASA's Space Launch System, the new heavy-lift launch vehicle. SLS will carry the Orion spacecraft, its crew, cargo, equipment and experiments to destinations in deep space.

The 15 RS-25D engines are being transported on the 700-mile journey using existing transportation and processing procedures that were used to move engines between Kennedy and Stennis during the Space Shuttle Program. Each engine, built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, is 14 feet long and more than 7 feet in diameter at the end of the nozzle. (Post)

- Work is ramping up at the Orion spacecraft facility at Kennedy Space Center, expanding the spaceport's role beyond launch operations to include final assembly. About 260 people already work on Orion at KSC, and that will increase to about 400 by June in preparations for the first flight test of Orion. Meanwhile, technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, are putting the finishing touches on the second Orion capsule, and will also be doing work on portions of the Space Launch System. "Orion will use MAF for construction of the crew module and other portions. KSC will be used for final assembly of the entire spacecraft," said Jennifer Morcone Stanfield, public affairs officer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. (Post)

- Applications close at the end of the month for a new group of astronauts to fly NASA's Orion capsule to points still to be decided. So far more than 1,300 people have applied, comparable to the response NASA received from its calls for space shuttle crews, according to Aviation Week. The first Orion flight on an Space Launch System is tentatively set for 2017. Orion and portions of the SLS are being built at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans; the propulsion systems for SLS are being tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss. (Post)

- Science Applications International Corp. was awarded a contract to build out the Facilities Management Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Work will be done at MSFC and NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. (Post)

Aircraft
Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., now has eight F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, even though they still haven't been given the go-ahead to begin flight training. Two Marine Corps versions of the Lockheed Martin F-35 short takeoff/vertical landing aircraft were delivered during the week. They landed after a 90-minute flight from Texas. Both fighters will be used for pilot and maintainer training at the new F-35 Integrated Training Center. (Post)

- Last September at an aerospace conference in Sandestin, Fla., speakers said the commercial aircraft sector is growing. During the week Reuters reported that Boeing and Airbus both had a record year for aircraft deliveries in 2011. The two rivals, both with operations in the Gulf Coast region, increased deliveries to airlines by around 3 percent versus 2010, and have set out plans for record production of short-haul passenger jets to meet demand from emerging markets. (Post)

Speaking of EADS, the Army awarded EADS North America a $212.7 million contract for 39 UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopters. Thirty-two of them will be produced in the Army's Security and Support Battalion configuration and will be used by the National Guard nationwide. The Lakotas are built at EADS North America's American Eurocopter facility in Columbus, Miss. EADS also has its Airbus Engineering Center and a maintenance operation in Mobile, Ala. (Post)

And at some point, Mobile could wind up with more EADS operations. Mobile is still considered the prime location should EADS eventually opt to put a wide-body aircraft manufacturing facility in the United States. If that should happen - and I'm betting it will - Mobile and the surrounding area will be as big a hotbed of active as Stennis Space Center.

Unmanned systems
Two speakers at the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council's symposium said the field of unmanned aerial systems is a target area for the state and Northwest Florida. Gray Swoope, president and CEO of Enterprise Florida said the development and operation of unmanned vehicles is one of the fastest growing fields in the country.

Mark Bontrager, vice president of Space Florida, said the federal government soon will designate six areas around the country for unmanned air flights, and he hopes one or more will be in Florida. The EDC already has made unmanned vehicles a priority and created a group last year focused on bringing more development to the area. (Post)

South Mississippi already has two areas approved for unmanned aerial system flights. One is at Stennis Space Center, the other in Jackson County, Miss., where Northrop Grumman builds portions of the Global Hawk and Fire Scout systems.

Military cuts
The Florida Defense Support Task Force, formed to protect Florida's military bases, in particular its role in research, development, test and evaluation, met for the first time during the week in Tallahassee, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

The group decided it needs to move quickly in light of streamlining of the Air Force Material Command announced in November. The group is concerned the changes could pave the way towards moving Eglin's RDT&E mission to California. (Post) That R&D activity is significant. The base spends between $600 million and $700 million every year on weapons-related RDT&E.

- Job cuts were announced for several Gulf Coast bases back in November, but some additional cuts are coming to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. Officials say 38 additional civilian positions will be eliminated along with the 68 previously announced, according to the Sun Herald and WLOX-TV. Keesler is a major technical training center for the Air Force. (Post)

Shipbuilding/maritime
The Austal USA-built Littoral Combat Ship Coronado was slated to be christened Saturday in Mobile, Ala. Designated LCS 4, Coronado is designed to operate in littoral seas and shallow water to counter mines, submarines and fast surface craft threats in coastal regions. Coronado is the second of the Independence-variant in the LCS class. (Post)

- The Navy is working with Huntington Ingalls to drive down costs on the CVN 78 aircraft carrier and Pascagoula, Miss.-built LPD amphibious ships under construction. Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley discussed the topic at the Surface Navy Association's annual conference during the week, and said there has been some improvements. (Post)

- For NASA and the Navy, ensuring there's a pool of talent versed in science, technology, engineering and math is crucial, and both agencies have programs in place to pique the interest of students. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with a center at Stennis Space Center, Miss., and the Navy, a tenant at SSC, are reaching Mississippi students through several programs. (Post)

- Two oceanographers from NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., will chair a conference on ocean sensing and monitoring April 23-27 in Baltimore, Md. The International Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Defense Security and Sensing's fourth Ocean Sensing and Monitoring conference will be chaired by Weilin "Will" Hou and Bob Arnone, both oceanographers in the Oceanography Division at Naval Research Lab at SSC. The conference will focus on R&D efforts in the open and coastal ocean with respect to defense and security interests. (Post)

Contracts
Science Applications International Corp., Mclean, Va., was awarded a $10.6 million modification to a previously awarded, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Deep Sea Operations Program to introduce surveillance that operates at extreme ocean depths to detect quiet submarines. Twenty-seven percent of the work will be done in Long Beach, Miss. Other work will be done in Virginia, California, Texas, Maryland and Florida. … Lockheed Martin Corp., Baltimore, Md., was awarded a $20.6 million modification to previously awarded contract for MK 41 Vertical Launching System production support material, interim support parts, and equipment in support of DDG 51 class construction. Fort Walton Beach, Fla., will perform 18.8 percent of the work. Other locations of performance are in Maryland, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Michigan and Clearwater, Fla.

Week in review (1/1 to 1/7)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:51:00 +0000

The story out of Wichita, Kan., this past week had nothing to do with the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor per se, but in the long run it will. Less than a year after Kansas, along with Washington state, celebrated Boeing winning the contract to built tankers, Wichita learned it will play no role in the tanker, and in fact, will be losing its Boeing plant.

Boeing has been a part of the Wichita landscape for more than 80 years, and Kansas politicians stood with Boeing when it was competing against EADS to build Air Force tankers. That was understandable. Kansas wanted the more than 7,000 jobs expected to come to Kansas with a Boeing win.

But today the folks in Kansas are likely wondering how things can change so much in less than a year. Boeing, which began studying the 2 million square-foot, 97-building facility in mid-2011, blames it on cuts to the nation's defense budget and high overhead costs at the Wichita plant, where it has more than 2,000 workers. The Boeing study found Wichita's costs are 70 percent higher than San Antonio's, according to the Kansas City Star.

Certainly Mobile, Ala., can understand the feelings of the folks from Kansas. It knows all too well what it's like to have felt something was won, only to turn around and have it taken away. Mobile in 2008 celebrated when the Air Force announced EADS would build its tankers. Visions of a new aircraft assembly facility danced in their head. But Boeing protested and the contest was redone. The winner of the next fight was Boeing.

One of the ironies in all this is that while Boeing is leaving Wichita, the company it fought so long for the tanker contract is staying. EADS has an engineering operation in Wichita, like it does in Mobile. Guy Hicks, EADS North America communications and government-relations chief, told The Hill his firm has no intention of leaving Wichita.

No doubt the folks in Wichita would love to see another aerospace company come in and take over the Boeing plant. That happened in 2005 when Boeing sold its commercial aircraft division in Wichita. The buyer renamed it Spirit AeroSystems. The Kansas City Star wrote that Brazilian jet maker Embraer could be a buyer, according to Chris Kuehl, a managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence in Kansas City, Kan.

If Kuehl is right about Embraer, that would add another weird twist. Embraer was recently chosen to supply A-29 Super Tucano turboprops for a U.S. partnership program with Afghanistan and other nations. The 20 light attack aircraft will be built in Jacksonville, Fla., but that contract is now on hold because of a suit filed by, you guessed it, Hawker Beechcraft of Wichita. Its AT-6 was excluded from the competition. That's the same Hawker Beechcraft that flirted with moving to Louisiana.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is promising aggressive attempts to attract new commercial aviation work, even mentioning Boeing rival Airbus, according to one story. For the folks on the Gulf Coast, who established a relationship with EADS/Airbus during the tanker competition, it may be a bit of a concern knowing that the Boeing facility will go on the market. But the cost of doing business will always remain a major factor.

One lesson that should come out of this is that loyalty for a past job well done is not a factor in a global environment where competitive advantage is crucial and the bottom line is paramount. Publicly traded companies like Boeing have to answer to shareholders.

Defense
During the week the new U.S. military strategy was announced. It calls for a leaner military, reducing lower-priority forces and duplicative operations and ending the practice of maintaining a force that can fight and win on two fronts.

The new strategy streamlines the military in an era of tighter budgets and reassesses defense priorities in light of China's rise and other global changes. The report calls for investments in special forces and technological innovation, including cyber defense.

Some leaders on Capitol Hill were critical. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., said it's not the strategy for a superpower but "more a menu for mediocrity." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the announcement sends a signal to friend and foe alike about "America's diminished ability to project power on a global scale." The Gulf Coast region has multiple military bases, including those involved in cyber security and special operations. (Post)

- The Defense Department will be required to provide Congress two weeks notice before cutting by more than 1,000 the number of military personnel at an installation, under language in the final version of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill approved by Congress last month. DoD also will need to submit a justification and evaluation of the local strategic and operational impact of the reduction in forces. The requirement will not apply during a BRAC round. (Post)

F-35
The Air Force postponed until 2013 where at the Eglin reservation F-35 training will take place and which runways will be used, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News. The reassessment of the impact of flight training is due to changes in how aircraft will be used, including the number and types of takeoffs, landing and sorties. The first Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement in 2010 listed Duke Field, Choctaw Field and Eglin main as possible locations. (Post)

- The Pentagon is set to restructure F-35 program for a third time in three years, sources told Reuters, with production of more than 120 planes delayed to save money and allow more development time. But international orders will help ease the impact on Lockheed Martin. Japan plans to buy 42 F-35s and Bloomberg reported that Turkey will buy two. Israel also said it would buy F-35s. (Post)

Bases
Saudi Arabia's deal to buy 84 F-15SA fighters and upgrade its 70 F-15S aircraft will bring additional students to three bases in the Gulf Coast: Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The Saudi students also will train at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and will receive English language training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. This year the service expects to train more than 300 Saudi airmen under the agreement. (Post)

The Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., is celebrating 35 years of accreditation by the Council on Occupational Education. CNATT provides operational and maintenance training, ranging from avionics repair to flight deck operations and more. (Post)

The Blue Angels are back in El Centro, Calif., for winter training, according to the Imperial Valley Weekly. The flight demonstration squadron left their home base at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., Tuesday and arrived at El Centro after a three-hour flight. The team will train in Southern California over the next couple of months. (Post)

Space
Spaceflight during the week had a detailed story about the military' successful effort to save the more than $1 billion Advanced Extremely High Frequency 1 satellite after it failed to launch into geosynchronous orbit in 2010. Debris in the propellant line prevented the Liquid Apogee Engine from firing, keeping the satellite in the transfer orbit. But it was coaxed into orbit months later thanks to engineering creativity. he Lockheed Martin AEHF satellite's core propulsion module is built at Stennis Space Center, Miss. (Post)

Airports
Florida-based Signature Flight Support Corp. acquired Azalea Aviation's operations at Mobile Regional Airport and Downtown Air Center at Brookley Aeroplex from Taylor and Harris Morrissette. The Mobile Press-Register reports that Taylor Morrissette will remain with Signature to oversee the two centers. Azalea Aviation has fueling infrastructure and more than 100,000 square feet of hangar space between its two locations. (Post)

- U.S. Airways is expanding jet service in Northwest Florida with three new flights beginning March 25. The airline will provide two daily nonstop flights from Pensacola International Airport and one daily flight from Fort Walton Beach's Northwest Florida Regional Airport to Washington Reagan National Airport. (Post)

Unmanned systems
Congress set aside $191 million for the Navy to buy a dozen long-range variants of the Northrop Grumman Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. Called the Fire-X during development, the Fire Scout MQ-8C uses a Bell 407 airframe in place of the smaller Schweizer 333 of the MQ-8B. The newer Fire Scout uses many of the systems of the smaller version, which is now a part of the Navy fleet. The MQ-8B version is built in part in Moss Point, Miss. (Post)

United Technologies
United Technologies made some bold business moves in 2011, analysts say. It acquired Goodrich, creating a "super-supplier" with a vast product line, and unveiled a joint venture between subsidiary Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. One analyst said the Goodrich buy is a sizable bet on commercial aerospace. (Post) Goodrich operates the Alabama Service Center in Foley, Ala.; Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne assembles and tests rocket engines at Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Rolls-Royce tests commercial aircraft engines at SSC.

Contracts
United Technologies Corp., Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Conn., was awarded a $194 million advance acquisition contract for long lead components, parts, and materials required for the delivery of 37 propulsion systems for the Lot VI F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. It includes 18 conventional take-off and landing for the Air Force, six short take-off and vertical landing for the Marine Corps, seven carrier variant for the Navy; four CTOL for the Italian Air Force, two CTOL for the Royal Australian Air Force and associated spares. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. ... Raytheon Co., El Segundo, Calif., was awarded an $11 million contract for robust navigation technology. This contract supports anti-jamm Global Positioning system development for the High Velocity Penetrating Weapon Program. AFRL/RWK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.

Week in review (12/25 to 12/31)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:39:00 +0000

More F-35 Joint Strike Fighter contracts, another test of the Orion crew capsule and a couple of news items from airports in the region highlighted the aviation news of interest to the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor during the week.

But first, a housekeeping matter. This column, as well as the aerospace news feed and new shipbuilding feed, can now be read in any of 53 languages. The international audience for information about the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor is growing, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible to translate the content. The tool to pick a language appears at the top left hand column of each blog. I hope you find it helpful.

Now for the week in review:

F-35
Three contracts were awarded during the week related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. That's of interest to Eglin Air Force Base, which is the initial training site for F-35 pilots and maintainers from all branches of the military.

The largest contract was for Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, a $1.1 billion modification to a previously awarded advanced acquisition contract for F-35 power plants. It provides for the Lot V Low Rate Initial Production of 21 F135 conventional take off and landing propulsion systems for the Air Force, three short take-off and vertical landing systems for the Marine Corps, and six carrier variant systems for the Navy.

Work will be done in Connecticut, the United Kingdom and Indiana and completed in February 2014. The contract combines purchases for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and the Cooperative Partner Participants. (Post)

Two other contracts were for Lockheed Martin. One was a $485 million modification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract for F-35 Low Rate Initial Production Lot V, inclusive of special tooling/special test equipment and subcontractor technical assistance for the Air Force, Navy, and the Cooperative Partner participants.

Work will be done in Texas, California, the United Kingdom, Italy, New Hampshire and Maryland, and is expected to be completed in December 2013. The contract combines purchases for the Air Force, Navy and the Cooperative Partner participants. (Post)

The other Lockheed Martin contract was for $253 million, a modification to the previously awarded F-35 Low Rate Initial Production IV contract. The modification provides for recurring and non-recurring sustainment for the Navy, Air Force, and Cooperative Program participants.

Work will be done in Texas, California, United Kingdom, Florida, New Hampshire and Maryland, and is expected to be completed in May 2014. The contract combines purchases for the Navy, Air Force and Cooperative Program participants. (Post)

- The Air Force Times during the week had a feature story about the $20 million simulators for pilots who will learn to fly the Lockheed Martin F-35 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. It points out that the simulators are so advanced they can be used to replicated aerial refueling with a KC-10 and KC-135, officials said. Air Force Times reports that 10 of the full mission simulators, built by Lockheed Martin, have been ordered so far. The refueling capability is just one of the advances. (Post)

Unmanned systems
Here's another item about a contract. Northrop Grumman was awarded a $47 million contract for the purchase and integration of two battlefield airborne communications node payloads on two Global Hawk Block 20 aircraft.

Global Hawks AF-11 and AF-13 will be provided to Northrop Grumman to integrate the BACN payload in Palmdale, Calif. Work is expected to be completed Aug. 22, 2012, for AF-11 and Dec. 15, 2012, for AF-13.

Global Hawks are built in part in Moss Point, Miss. (Post)

- Hurlburt Field in Northwest Florida was mentioned several times in a recent story by the Los Angeles Times about the role played by contractors in analyzing video feeds from drones. The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, headquartered at Hurlburt, employs 165 civilians to analyze video and other intelligence acquired from drone flights over Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere. Those civilians work alongside uniformed military personnel in a vast facility at command headquarters. (Story)

Space
NASA conducted a drop test of the Orion crew vehicle's parachutes over the Arizona desert in December in preparation for its orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry astronauts deep into space, and will include an emergency abort capability.

A C-130 dropped the Orion test article from an altitude of 25,000 feet above the Yuma Proving Grounds. Orion's drogue chutes were deployed between 15,000 and 20,000 feet, followed by the pilot parachutes, which then deployed two main landing parachutes.

Lockheed Martin builds Orion at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. (Post)

- Sometimes, a news item isn't directly related to the Gulf Coast region, but is interesting enough in light of the other activities here. That's the case with Northrop Grumman expanding its commercial space portfolio.

Northrop Grumman subsidiary, Scaled Composites, will build an air-launch system for Stratolaunch. It will be the largest aircraft ever built with a wingspan of 385 feet, more than the length of a football field. Powered by six 747 engines, it will take off and land from a runway that's at least 12,000 feet long.

It will carry payloads like satellites that will have their own propulsion systems to boost them into orbit. The development work will take place in Mojave, Calif.

That item should be of interest to this region. We have space activities at Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and there's an operation at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., that tracks space objects. Northrop Grumman is a major player in this region, and builds portions of unmanned aerial systems at Moss Point, Miss. (Story)

Airports
It's still unclear if a commercial carrier will come in to serve Mississippi's Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport once Delta Airlines ends service. According to the Hattiesburg American, in July the airline said it was discontinuing service to 24 smaller markets, including Hattiesburg.

Under federal guidelines the airliner was required to provide service for at least 90 days, but it's remained in place while a replacement is found, and there's no word how much longer that will be. The Department of Transportation currently is accepting bids for air service. (Post)

- The Crestview News Bulletins says a new 20,000 square-foot hangar is now officially opened at the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, Fla. The $1.7 million hangar is used by Qwest Air Parts of Memphis, Tenn., which dismantles airplanes for spare parts. The company has already dismantled an A310 and is now working on a DC-10 and MD-88. (Post)

Contracts
In addition to the contracts mentioned above, Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, was awarded a $33.3 million delivery order against a previously issued basic ordering agreement for the Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System and Radar Warning Receiver (APR-39D(V)X) integration in support of the MV-22B Osprey aircraft. Three percent of the work will be done in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (Post)

Shipbuilding/maritime
Aviation Week had a story about the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, raising the question, is it a science project testbed or a much-needed advanced destroyer? The publication points out that the answer depends on who is asked.

The ship being built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine is using a lot of new technologies, including a hybrid drive, composite deckhouse and new guns. Ingalls Shipbuilding's Composites Center of Excellence in Gulfport, Miss., is building the ship’s integrated composite deckhouse, helicopter hangars and parts of the ship’s peripheral vertical launch systems. (Post)

- Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and five subcontractors have been cited by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 50 safety and health violations. OSHA proposed a penalty of $176,444. Violations included blocked exits, tripping and fall hazards and more. (Post)

Week in review (12/18 to 12/24)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:43:00 +0000

If you're a regular reader of this column, you know that in addition to providing a summary of aerospace activities of interest to the Gulf Coast region, I've added over the past few months information about the considerable shipbuilding activities in this region.

Over the coming year I'll continue that approach, but will also begin adding information about the other science, technology and defense activities in this region. There's a lot going on in the I-10 corridor that needs to be highlighted. I hope you'll find the additional information helpful.

Now here's the week in review:

Space
NASA provided a year-end wrap-up of the work that's been done on the J-2X engine, which will power the heavy-lift Space Launch System's second stage. It's the first human-rated rocket engine to be developed in 40 years, and NASA and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne are setting new development records with the first J-2X engine unit, E10001.

During the year the engine went through its first 10 tests designed to check engine performance, and it accumulated a total hot-fire test run time of 1,040 seconds at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. The J-2X engine test program will need only five percent the number of tests required to develop the original J-2 engine. (Post)

- Raytheon Co. has successfully tested with the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite that will provide secure communications for the military. The test was with Raytheon's Navy Multiband Terminal, and it was the second operationally fielded terminal to interoperate with an on-orbit AEHF satellite. The first one to run through the test was Raytheon's Army Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal.

The first AEHF satellite was launched in August 2010. The joint service satellites are designed to replace the Milstar system for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets. The Lockheed Martin AEHF satellite's core propulsion module is built at Stennis Space Center, Miss. (Post)

F-35
The Japan Ministry of Defense chose the Lockheed Martin F-35 as the Japan Air Self Defense Force's next generation fighter aircraft. The initial contract will be for four F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variants.

The F-35 program is comprised of nine partner nations: the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway. The U.K. and Netherlands have ordered test aircraft, and Italy and Australia have committed long-lead funding for their initial operational aircraft. In October 2010, Israel selected the F-35A as the Israel Air Force's next generation fighter. (Post)

- The first group of military maintainers at the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., recently qualified in numerous F-35A flight inspections by a uniformed certifier, a task only civilian certifiers initially were contracted to support. Eglin is home of the F-35 training center, and will train aviators and maintainers for all branches of the military as well as foreign aviators.

With hundreds of verifications on joint technical data on how to maintain the aircraft left to be accomplished for each of the three F-35 variants in 2012 and beyond, the military maintainers are not ready to take over, but are moving forward. (Post)

Airports/airliners
The airport is in a city known for its restaurants and cuisine, but you wouldn't know that from what's available in the concourses at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. Officials hope to change that and provide passengers with world class concessions by the time the city hosts the Super Bowl in February 2013, according to the Times-Picayune. (Post)

- For Vision Airlines, there were some ups and downs during the year for the newest commercial carrier at Northwest Florida Regional Airport. The company started with a single direct route from Niagara Falls, N.Y., to Miami. But in January 2011 it announced it would add direct flights to nearly 20 more cities. Since then, some routes were dropped, others added, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News. (Post)

Partnership
Vision Technologies Aerospace Inc. entered into an agreement with Pratt & Whitney to invest in a 50.1 percent stake in EcoServices LLC. Pratt & Whitney will retain the remaining 49.9 percent stake. EcoServices will provide EcoPower Engine Wash services to customers around the world, and will become a subsidiary of VT Aerospace. VT Aerospace owns three aerospace operating companies in Mobile, Ala., and San Antonio, Texas, specializing in aircraft engineering design, maintenance and modification. (Post)

Contracts
EADS North America Inc., Arlington, Va., was awarded a $212.7 million contract to provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure 39 production aircraft in support of the Army's Light Utility Helicopter Program. Work will be done in Columbus, Miss. … GeoEnvironmental Resources, Virginia Beach, Va., was awarded a maximum $7.5 million contract for geotechnical engineering services to support the construction and maintenance of facilities required primarily for Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia, and various activities within the NAVFAC Atlantic area of responsibility. Task order 0001 is being awarded at $67,077 for A-E services to support the fiscal 2011 Airfield Pavement Condition Assessment Program at Whiting Field North, Fla.; Whiting Field South, Fla.; Naval Outlying Field (NOLF) Evergreen, Ala.; NOLF Brewton, Ala.; and NOLF Choctaw, Fla. … Equilon Enterprises was awarded a contract with a maximum $99.8 million for JP8 aviation turbine fuel. One place of performance is Mobile, Ala. … Placid Refining Co. LLC, Baton Rouge, La., was awarded a contract with a maximum $41.6 million for JP8 and JP5 aviation turbine fuel. … Cubic Defense Applications Inc., San Diego, Calif., was awarded a $15 million contract for airborne subsystems, parallel umbilical, ground subsystems and more, and well as technical and program management. Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is one of the places of performance. AAC/EBYK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. is the contracting activity. … The Boeing Co., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was awarded a $10.9 million contract for five major subassemblies required to build-up six AC-130U 25mm ammunition storage handling systems assemblies. The location of the activity is Fort Walton Beach and is expected to be completed Jan. 31, 2014.

Shipbuilding/maritime
All the littoral combat ships being built in Alabama and Wisconsin will eventually be homeported in San Diego. The first LCS built in Wisconsin, the USS Freedom, has been there since 2010. But for the time being USS Independence, built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., is in Florida undergoing testing, according to DefenseNews.

The Independence is splitting its time between Mayport near Jacksonville on the Atlantic Coast and Panama City, home of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, on the Gulf Coast. The ship has been carrying out an extensive series of tests and trials of gear associated with the mine warfare mission module. (Story)

One example is the testing of the Navy's Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV). Lockheed Martin this month completed 500 hours of reliability testing. The system will provide mine reconnaissance capabilities to the LCS.

RMMV is an unmanned, semi-submersible, semi-autonomous vehicle that tows a variable-depth sensor that can detect and identify undersea threats. The testing, completed ahead of schedule, was conducted offshore near Palm Beach, Fla., and concludes the first of three planned development and testing cycles aimed to improve system reliability and operational availability for the Remote Minehunting System (RMS). (Story)

- The Navy received an OK to spend up to $35 million to buy both Austal USA-built super ferries from the Maritime Administration, reports the Mobile Press-Register. The Huakai and Alakia, both built in Mobile, Ala., will be transferred to the Navy if the bill is signed by the president. The ferries were originally built to transport people and goods around the Hawaiian islands. (Post)

- Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, Fla., is adding 500 jobs to fill two new contracts, according to the Panama City News Herald. The contracts are for 13 supply vessels. One is for Boldini S.A., and the other for Hornbeck Offshore. The company is one of the largest employers in Bay County. (Post)

- Huntington Ingalls Industries delivered the company's sixth amphibious transport dock, San Diego, to the Navy at a brief ceremony at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., early in the week. The 684-foot long ship, LPD 22 is scheduled to be commissioned in the spring of 2012 in San Diego. The principal mission is to deploy the combat and support elements of Marine Expeditionary Units and Brigades. (Post)

- Shipbuilding contracts: Austal Hull 130 Chartering LLC, Mobile, Ala., was awarded an $8.2 million contract for the worldwide charter of one U.S.-flagged passenger/cargo ferry. The ferry will support the Marine Corps Third Marine Expeditionary Force. … Alion Science and Technology, Burr Ridge, Ill, was awarded a $73.2 million not-to-exceed letter contract for professional support services in support of surface warfare fleet support. Some of the work will be done in Pascagoula, Miss. … Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., was awarded a $7.9 million modification to previously awarded contract to exercise an option for core Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class services for the LCS program. Austal USA will assess engineering, baseline, and configuration management services in support of the basic construction, post delivery, test and trials phases of the LCS class. Thirty percent of the work will be done in Mobile.

Week in review (12/11 to 12/17)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:16:00 +0000

Passage of a defense spending measure that includes protections for Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; the return of an aerospace company to Baldwin County, Ala.; new digs of an aerospace company in Gulf Breeze, Fla.; more rocket engine testing at Stennis Space Center, Miss.; awards and much more highlighted aerospace activities of interest to the Gulf Coast region during the week.

Here’s the week in review:

A panel of speakers at the inaugural Defense Communities 360 Live Webcast warned during the week what we've all known for a while: the consequences Pentagon cuts will be widespread at installations nationwide.

"Every military base should seriously contemplate that something adverse is going to happen to them," Barry Steinberg, partner at Kutak Rock, told listeners.

No matter the size of the cut, the military's force structure and weapons systems will decline, panelists said. The really chilling part is that the panelists expect another base closure round perhaps in 2015 or 2017.

The BRAC process allows the Pentagon to consolidate various missions through realignment without Congress overseeing the process. A key for BRAC is merging similar functions performed across the services.

The I-10 region between Southeast Louisiana and Northwest Florida has a lot at stake in any BRAC process. We have a host of bases, many involved in aviation activities. Cuts have already been announced for Tyndall Air Force Base and Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Keesler Air Force Base and the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Mississippi. And that's just the start as the military makes cuts even before any BRAC.

The next BRAC round would resemble past ones, Steinberg said, but Congress might impose precise constraints on what approaches DoD could pursue in overhauling its real estate, as compared to the 2005 round. Also expect a requirement that the military adopt a more accurate way to assess the costs and savings, Steinberg said. (Post)

That's the kind of thinking -- an accurate assessment of the costs -- behind an amendment drafted by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. Designed to protect the research, development, test and evaluation activities at Eglin Air Force Base, the amendment is ncluded in the $662 billion defense spending bill approved by Congress.

The amendment, pushed through a conference committee by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., requires the Air Force to present Congress a report on its proposal to reorganize its Materiel Command within 180 days of the bill’s passage, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News. (Post)

The reorganization announced in November eliminates Eglin's Air Armament Center, replacing it with a directorate, as well as the 96th Base Wing as manager of the base. It gives that function to Eglin's 46th Test Wing, which will be under the command of a two-star at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Air Force officials say that even with the reorganization, Eglin remains the center for aerial weapons development and testing. That's true today. Tomorrow is another matter. Things change, just ask the Boeing workers in Kansas who backed that company's bid to win a tanker contract, only to find months later that workers in Wichita may lose their Boeing plant. Think "recalculate," once an action is done, a recalculation opens up other scenarios.

Nelson, Miller and others are well aware of the value of Eglin's RDT&E. Eglin spends some $600 million to $700 million a year on R&D. To put that in context, just 14 universities in the United States and seven of 39 federally funded research centers spent more than Eglin on R&D in FY 2009. Think what that means. We have in this region one of the nation's premier R&D operations.

Investing in science and engineering is widely recognized as a pathway to prosperity. R&D is key to innovation, and can spur economic growth and high-paying jobs. It attracts high-tech companies and spawns home-grown companies, all elements of sustainable growth. I've often pointed to Huntsville, Ala., as a model for building a sci-tech economy. It continues to be a magnet for high-tech operations. Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen's new space venture, Stratolaunch, will be based in Huntsville. That's not because Allen just happens to like Huntsville. It's because it has the infrastructure and workers to make the business a success.

While not on the level of Huntsville, a thriving aerospace industry has grown up around Eglin due in part to the RDT&E functions. But the fear of politicians and local economic development officials is that Edwards Air Force Base covets all that activity. And if that happens, the industry that's grown around Eglin would be left holding the bag. When the Pentagon makes its calculations about the cost of dismantling Eglin's R&D and moving it elsewhere, it doesn't occur in a vacuum. Those companies will be forced to pay a price, whether that means moving or shutting down. It would also impact the University of Florida, which has engineering R&D activities just outside the base.

Eglin's R&D is a jewel of the Gulf Coast’s economy, but it's not the only military base with an R&D function that could be jeopardized. The Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City, Fla., is one of the Navy's premier research organizations, responsible for support for mission areas within the littoral environment, including mine, amphibious and special warfare, as well as diving systems. It's one of the major research, development, test and evaluation laboratories of the Navy and boasts a wide base of expertise in engineering and scientific disciplines. Protecting that is essential.

What every politician in the Gulf Coast region needs to realize is, yes, it's important to protect the military operation in your own back yard. But Eglin represents an R&D capability others would love to have. And if this region were to lose that, it would make the natural and manmade disasters that have hit this region seem small and short-lived by comparison.

If you want to learn more about this region's R&D activities, take a look at Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor 2011-2012, which I co-authored, and download Part III: RDT&E/applied technology. The book and separate chapters are free thanks to the underwriters, the Aerospace Alliance, Gulf Coast Regional Chamber Coalition and Mississippi Enterprise for Technology.

- The 46th Test Wing at Eglin was awarded an Air Force Outstanding Unit award for 2010. The award, the 13th for the wing, recognizes the top 10 percent of numbered Air Force units. The wing performed more than 5,600 air and ground test missions and logged more than 6,200 flying hours while testing 37 highly modified test aircraft worth $4.5 billion. (Post)

- A new report ranks South Mississippi as one of the top five less-known regions in the country for defense jobs. The report by ClearanceJobs.com said defense spending, notably in shipbuilding and aerospace, helped rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina, according to the Sun Herald. The report said South Mississippi has jobs for rocket scientists, oceanographers, cybersecurity personnel, geospatial analysts, technical trainers and test engineers. (Post)

- The 2011 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index ranks Mobile, Ala., 34, Pensacola, Fla., 73, and New Orleans 101 in the list of 200 large metro areas. The index shows the performance of 379 large and small metro areas in creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth, including technology growth. In the list of 179 small metro areas, Pascagoula, Miss., is ranked 40, Panama City, Fla., is 73, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is 75, and Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., 79. (Post)

Companies
Aero-mark MRO will be opening a 26,000 square-foot facility to assemble and repair military aircraft system parts, according to the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance. Plans are to open in January at the Fairhope airport with 25 workers, according to the Mobile Press-Register. The company is awaiting FAA approval for a license. The company is owned by AIRINC, a repair station at the airport that was sold to Fokker Aircraft. Fokker closed the plant last October and moved operations to Georgia. (Post)

- The new $10 million, 53,000-square-foot headquarters of Avalex Technologies will hold a grand opening in Gulf Breeze, Fla., in January. The company makes flat panel displays, digital mapping systems, video recorders and infrared sensor pointing systems for military and law enforcement airborne surveillance, according to the Pensacola News Journal. The company has 65 workers and is hiring. Workers moved into the new building in November from nearby Pensacola. (Post)

- Goodrich Corp.'s Engineered Polymer Products (EPP) site in Jacksonville, Fla., was recognized as a 2011 Manufacturer of the Year by the Manufacturers Association of Florida. EPP is part of Goodrich's Aerostructures business, the same Goodrich division as the Goodrich Alabama Service Center in Foley, Ala. (Post)

Space
NASA conducted its final J-2X rocket engine test of the year at Stennis Space Center, Miss. It was the 10th firing in a series on the upper-stage engine for the Space Launch System. The engine was test fired on the A-2 stand at 100 percent power for engine performance calibration and the effects of fuel inlet pressure variations. More testing will be done in 2012. Additional J-2X engines are being manufactured for hot fire testing at Stennis planned through 2014. (Post)

- On the commercial side of the equation, there was another successful test firing of Aerojet's AJ26 No. 8 engine in support of Orbital Science Corp.'s program to launch a cargo mission to the International Space Station. The next test of a the AJ26 No. 9 engine is slated for January. The engines will be used on Orbital's Antares rocket, the new name for the medium-class launch vehicle previously called Taurus II. (Post)

- When you think of space in this region, you normally think of Stennis Space Center, Miss. But there's another space operation at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The operators of the 20th Space Control Squadron use the world's most powerful radar for around-the-clock space surveillance. The public affairs office published a feature story about the organization. (Post)

Shipbuilding/maritime
A maritime training facility being built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., will be named after Gov. Haley Barbour. Work on the 76,000-square-foot Haley Reeves Barbour Maritime Training Academy could begin as early as January and completed in 18 months, according to the Mississippi Press. (Post)

Week in review (12/4 to 12/10)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Another company's decision to test rocket engines at Stennis Space Center, Miss.; the $4 billion purchase of 30 production F-35s; the expected arrival this coming week of a Marine F-35C at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; yet another capability for the Fire Scout unmanned helicopters; underwater robots that can make their own decisions; and a new high school flight academy were some of the aerospace stories of interest to the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor during the week.

Space
NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) in South Mississippi has become a real hot spot lately, partly due to NASA's decision to shift low-orbit activity to the commercial sector. A commercial space company has decided that SSC in South Mississippi would be a great place to test its engines. NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver announced during a Thursday visit to Blue Origin in Kent, Wash., that the company will best its rocket engines at SSC.

Blue Origin is developing a reuseable launch vehicle designed to take off and land vertically. The company is one of NASA's commercial partners developing systems to reach low Earth orbit as part of the Commercial Crew Development Program. The company delivered its BE-3 engine thrust chamber assembly, the engine's combustion chamber and nozzle, to SSC, where testing will begin in April 2012 at the E-1 Test Stand.

Blue Origin joins Aerojet, which is testing its AJ-26 rocket engines at SSC, and Rolls-Royce, which is testing airline jet engines at its own stand within SSC.

"We're delighted Blue Origin is taking advantage of Stennis, a center with a long record of propulsion testing from the dawn of the Space Age, to test the rocket engines of the future," said the deputy administrator. (Post)

The E-1 stand where the BE-3 will be tested is part of the E-Complex. Just last month NASA put out a request to commercial companies to gauge interest in taking over operation of the E-4 test stand at the complex. (Post)

- An upgraded J-2X powerpack has been installed on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center and will be tested next month, NASA said. The powerpack consists of a gas generator and turbopumps, and is designed to pump liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the J-2X's main combustion chamber to produce thrust.

The Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne J-2X is designed to provide 294,000 pounds of thrust, up from the 230,000-pound capability of the original J-2 used in the Apollo program. By the way, it took two years to modify the A-1 stand for the test series. (Post)

- A test version of the Orion crew capsule will take its final splash of the year Tuesday at the Hydro Impact Basin of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Testing began this summer to certify the Orion spacecraft for water landings.

Since July, engineers have conducted six tests from different angles, heights and pitches to simulate varying sea conditions and impacts Orion could face upon landing in the Pacific Ocean. The Hydro Impact Basin is 115 feet long and 20 feet deep. (Post) The Orion test article was fabricated at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

Two days after that test splash, NASA will host an industry day at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to share information on an upcoming NASA Research Announcement for the Space Launch System's advanced booster. Marshall is leading the design and development of the SLS.

The 130-metric ton vehicle will require an advanced booster with a significant increase in thrust over existing U.S. liquid or solid boosters. Its first full-scale test flight is set for 2017. (Post)

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is ready to put $200 million of
work for the heavy launch Space Launch System on the table. NASA is seeking research proposals to meet the "goal of reducing risk in the areas of affordability, performance, and reliability" in the new rocket's booster, scheduled to make its first flight in 2017, according to the Huntsville Times. (Post)

F-35
The first Marine Corps F-35 is expected to arrive at the Joint Strike Fighter Integrated Training Center in Northwest Florida next week. The F-35C will be flown from the Lockheed Martin manufacturing center in Fort Worth, Texas, by the military's first F-35 pilots, according to the base.

There are three variants of the F-35, one a conventional takeoff and landing variant for the Air Force, one a Navy version designed for carrier landings, and one a vertical takeoff and landing version for the Marine Corps. The arrival of the F-35 at Eglin will bring to seven the number of F-35s at the base. Eventually, the base will have 59 Joint Strike Fighters. (Post)

- Lockheed Martin was awarded a $4 billion fixed-price-incentive modification to a
previously awarded advance acquisition contract for the manufacture and delivery of 30 Low Rate Initial Production Lot V F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The Air Force will get 21 conventional take off and landing variants, the Navy is getting six carrier variants and the Marine Corps will get three short take off and vertical landing variants. The modification also provides for associated ancillary mission equipment and flight test instrumentation for the aircraft, and flight test instrumentation for the United Kingdom.

The price tag for the Air Force is $2.6 million, for the Navy $937 million, the Marine Corps $426 million and the UK $4 million.

- Speaking of money, General Electric and Rolls Royce decided to stop throwing money away on the ill-fated F136 turbofan designed for the F-35 as an alternate engine. The two companies had been paying for the development after the Defense Department terminated the project in April. Now the Pratt and Whitney F135 engine is the only one that will power to F-35. (Post) Pratt & Whitney, GE and Rolls-Royce all have operations in the Gulf Coast region.

Boeing
As expected, the National Labor Relations Board dropped its legal challenge against Boeing over a nonunion 787 plant the company opened in South Carolina. The decision announced Friday comes after the Machinists union approved a four-year contract extension with Boeing. As part of that deal, the union agreed to withdraw its charge that the company violated federal labor laws. (Post)

Union officials say that 74 percent of voting members chose to approve the deal. The union represents 28,000 workers in Washington, Oregon and Kansas. Boeing promised that if workers approved the pact, the company would build the new version of the 737 in the Puget Sound region. (Post)

You can't help but wonder how Kansas feels about all of this. Boeing has said it's considering closing the plant, which was supposed to militarize the 767s that Boeing is using for Air Force tankers. Part of the agreement between the union and Boeing is that the work that would have been done in Kansas will now be done in Washington state.

Politicians in Kansas want to meet with Boeing to hear what lawmakers can do to keep 2,100 aircraft manufacturing jobs in Wichita, according to KansasReporter. Former Congressman Todd Tiahrt, a consultant for the company, said that he thinks the likelihood of Boeing staying in Wichita has improved since the possible closing was firsts reported three weeks ago. He said the company appears to be rearranging supply lines and other work among its manufacturing plants to direct more resources toward the expected tanker projects in Wichita. "I suspect they are going to stay," he said. (Story) Boeing has operations in the Gulf Coast.

Unmanned
A Fire Scout unmanned helicopter successfully sent sensor data to the cockpit display of a MH-60 helicopter during a demonstration in October near Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. That paves the way for improving the speed at which field commanders can make decisions during military operations.

Until now, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data gathered by Fire Scout was sent to its host ship for further dissemination. Notably, crew members aboard a nearby Coast Guard boat also viewed Fire Scout's sensor data in real time using a remote terminal. (Post)

This new capability is particularly important for the Navy's first composite squadron forming next year in San Diego. Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35, nicknamed "Magicians," will be using the manned MH-60R Seahawk and unmanned MQ-8B Fire Scouts for expeditionary missions. It will deploy detachments of both aircraft to LCSs, cruisers, destroyers and frigates. (Post)

Those Northrop Grumman Fire Scouts are built in part in Moss Point, Miss., and Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., builds one version of littoral combat ship. For what it's worth, a report from analysts at two Washington, D.C., think tanks speculates that littoral combat ships and joint high speed vessels could be vulnerable to upcoming defense spending cuts.

Well, so could everything else.

What needs to be kept in mind is the ripple effect of cuts. The development of the composite squadron is not necessarily dependent on having littoral combat ships in service, but it's clearly designed to be deployed aboard those ships.

By the way, Austal USA opened an office in Washington to be closer to Navy officials, according to the Mobile Press Register. The newspaper said a former Huntington Ingalls executive was hired as director of the office. (Story)

Education
In Florida, Escambia High School has become the third school in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties to create a flight academy. The National Flight Academy at Naval Air Station Pensacola partnered with the district to create an Aviation Classroom Experience, a game-based learning environment to teach skills in science, technology, engineering and math. The other area schools with flight academies are Warrington Middle School in Escambia County and Milton High School in Santa Rosa County, according to the Pensacola News Journal. (Post)

Bases
Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Northwest Florida near Milton marked its 20th consecutive year as a National Arbor Day Foundation "Tree City, USA." The base celebrated the platinum anniversary of its green leadership by planting a sapling river birch on the grounds of the air station's fire department Tuesday. The base in Northwest Florida trains naval helicopter and fixed-wing aviators.

Contracts
The Defense Logistics Agency is buying 450,000 gallons of biofuel made from a blend of non-food waste from the Louisiana-based Dynamic Fuels LLC and algae produced by Solazyme. The fuel will be used in the Navy's demonstration of a Green Strike Group in the summer of 2012 during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise. Dynamic Fuels is building a synthetic fuels plant in Geismar, La., near Baton Rouge … Raytheon Co., Andover, Mass., was awarded a $34.6 million contract to provide development and management services for systems under the Product Management Office for Integrated Tactical Systems. Some of the work will be done in Pensacola, Fla. … Emerald Coast Aviation in Crestview, Fla., will provide aviation fuel at Northwest Florida Regional Airport, as well as gas for the rental car fleet, according to the Crestview Bulletin.

Shipbuilding/maritime
BAE Systems received a $37 million contract to design, install and test onboard radio communications and network capability for the U.S. Navy's new DDG 113 and DDG 114 destroyers, both being built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. The systems will be installed at shipbuilder sites in Pascagoula, as well as Bath, Maine. (Post)

The Office of Naval Research says scientists have successfully transitioned fundamental research in autonomy to undersea gliders, demonstrating in sea tests in the Pacific how the new software can help robots become smarter at surveying large swaths of ocean – making decisions without human intervention. (Post)

In Mississippi, Jackson County Supervisors will make a proposal to the Mississippi Development Authority for up to $20 million for a test facility at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula. The facility would be built on the west bank of the shipyard and would be used for pre-installation assembly, integration and testing of ship components and equipment. (Post)

Week in review (11/27 to 12/3)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:00:00 +0000

There were plenty of news items of interest to the Gulf Coast aerospace region during the week, including a measure to protect Eglin Air Force Base's RDT&E activities; another J-2X engine test at Stennis Space Center; concerns over F-35 "hot spots" and the aircraft's first launch from an electromagnetic launch system; selection of a Hurlburt Field general to lead a probe; a U.K. sub test -firing Tomahawk missile from the Gulf of Mexico; an airliner bankruptcy and much more.

Pentagon cuts
There's been a lot of concern about the future of this region's military activities ever since it became clear some time back that the Pentagon's budget was going to be tight. That concern increased last month when some cuts were announced.

In the latest move to protect military activities in this region, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said he succeeded in passing a measure he believes can prevent the research, development, testing and evaluation activities at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., from being moved to other bases in any future Pentagon restructuring.

The measure was included in the Defense Authorization Act, but there is no companion measure in the House version. A conference committee is to be selected to combine the House and Senate versions of the bill. (Story)

If you're not that familiar with the military activities in the Gulf Coast region, there's aerial weapons development, aviator training, special operations, technical training – including cyber security – and multiple reserve activities, just to name a few. In addition to the bases themselves, there are multiple companies in the region that depend on the health of those bases.

For an overview of the military in the Gulf Coast region, take a look at the chapter on "military aviation" in the Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor 2011-2012 reference book. It focuses on aviation, but has information on other military activities as well.

F-35
One of the Eglin missions of high interest to readers is the ongoing development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Eglin is where pilots of all branches, including foreign pilots, will receive initial training.

In one story during the week, the program chief said testing of the F-35 has shown more "hot spots" in the airframe than expected. Vice Adm. David Venlet recommends slowing production of the fighter until the issues are resolved.

The fatigue hot spots are not a threat to safety or the mission, but need to be fixed to make sure the plane's structural parts last the 8,000 hours of service life required, said the admiral. (Story)

Meanwhile, a senior Defense Department official said the Marine Corps could start training new students to fly the F-35B short take-off vertical landing version of the F-35 in August 2012. (Story)

- In Lakehurst, N.J., an F-35C test aircraft was launched with the new electromagnetic aircraft launch system. The test of aircraft CF-3 provided an opportunity to evaluate technical risks and began the process to integrate the carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter with the future carrier fleet aircraft launching system being developed for the new Gerald R. Ford class of carrier.

Aircraft for years have used steam catapults, and the F-35C has completed more than 50 steam catapult launches. But EMALS uses magnetic fields to propel a carriage down a track, allowing a more gradual speed increase and reducing airframe stress. The launch system operates on the same principal as the cutting-edge electric rail gun.

Space
NASA during the week conducted a stability test firing of the J-2X rocket engine on the A-2 test stand at Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. The upper-stage engine is being developed to carry humans farther into space than ever before.

During the 80-second test, a controlled explosion was initiated inside the engine's combustion chamber to introduce an energetic pulse of vibrations not expected during nominal operations. Data from this and future combustion stability tests will help engineers understand more about the engine's performance and robustness during operation.

The engine is being developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and will provide upper-stage power for NASA's new Space Launch System. The SLS will carry the Orion spacecraft, its crew, cargo, and science experiments to space. In early November NASA conducted a successful 500-second test of the J-2X, which uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. (Post)

But it may be a while before the J-2X is used. Space News in late November reported that NASA lacks the funds to complete a flight-ready J-2X upper stage engine before 2021, and the agency will procure a commercial cryogenic rocket engine for the first two flights of the SLS. The only U.S. cryogenic upper-stage engine currently in services is the RL-10 that Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne builds for United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets. (Story)

- NASA selected 300 small business proposals to enter into negotiations for possible contract awards through the agency's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

Eight of the proposals involve technologies being developed for the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., including one involving Innovative Imaging and Research at SSC and the University of Southern Mississippi.

The SBIR and STTR programs encourage small businesses and research institutions to engage in federal research, development and commercialization to address NASA needs.

- NASA selected ISS Action Inc. of Jamaica, N.Y., to provide protective services at the
agency's Stennis Space Center, Miss. The contract consists of a base period of eight months and four one-year option periods and a total value of $25.9 million. The work includes physical security operations, personnel security, access control, badging, 911 dispatch center, access monitoring, traffic control and locksmith services.

Bases
Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Clark of the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla., was appointed to head an investigation into the Nov. 26 deaths of Pakistani soldiers during an engagement near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, directed Clark to provide an initial report on the incident by Dec. 23. NATO, the Afghan and Pakistan governments are also invited to name representatives to the team.

- Keesler Air Force Base's updated Air Installation Compatible Use Zone (AICUZ) study will be released at a public meeting Dec. 12 at the Visitors Center in Biloxi, Miss. Keesler officials point out that as surrounding cities grow, it's important that government, businesses and Keesler work together to implement mutually-beneficial planning for the future. The study addresses aircraft noise and accident potential zones created by current flying operations at Keesler, and contains information on building height restrictions and other data.

- Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton in Northwest Florida marked a step on its path to energy independence Nov. 29 with a ribbon-cutting for the air station's first large-scale photovoltaic power system. The solar array is designed to provide primary power to building 2981, which houses Training Air Wing 5's fixed-wing Training Squadron 2 and Training Squadron 6. A duplicate of the solar array has been installed to service a similar facility containing two of the air station's three south field-based helicopter training squadrons.

Boeing
Boeing and its biggest union reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract extension that would ensure the 737MAX is built in Renton, Wash., and would likely lead to a settlement of the National Labor Relations Board case against the company over a 787 production line in South Carolina.

The deal could also bring Air Force tanker work to Puget Sound if Boeing decides to shut down a Wichita, Kan., plant. The 28,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers are due to vote on the deal this week.

- In another Boeing-related item, the Defense Department says the company may exceed by as much as $500 million the cost ceiling on its contract for new refueling tankers for the Air Force. That’s $200 million more than previous estimates.

Boeing, which is developing the tanker from its 767 airliner, absorbs the cost over the contract’s $4.8 billion ceiling. Government officials in June told Bloomberg News that Boeing was projected to exceed the ceiling by $300 million. The new estimate is in the Selected Acquisition Report, the Pentagon’s first official cost review for the 179-aircraft, $51.7 billion program.

Boeing won the tanker project over EADS, which planned to assemble its tankers in Mobile, Ala.

Weapons
The Air Force authorized Raytheon to begin low rate initial production of the Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer variant. MALD is a modular, air-launched, programmable system that weighs less than 300 pounds and has a range of about 575 miles.

It protects aircrews and their aircraft by duplicating the combat flight profiles and signatures of U.S. and allied aircraft, and the new model adds radar-jamming capability that allows it to perform stand-in jamming missions instead of using manned aircraft. Raytheon will begin delivering MALD-J in 2012. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., has been the contracting activity for development of the system.

- A British submarine, HMS Astute, in November test fired Tomahawk cruise missiles from a location in the Gulf of Mexico to a target at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The tests were designed to show the new class of sub capable of using the Tomahawk cruise missile. The first launch tested a Block III Tomahawk, followed by a torpedo tube-launched Block IV Tomahawk. The Astute class of sub is built by BAE Systems. The sub will continue trials in the US until the early spring before returning to the UK for more training before her first operational deployment.

- Jacobs Engineering Group received a follow-on contract to provide advisory and assistance services for the Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The Technical and Engineering Acquisition Support (TEAS) 6 contract contains a ceiling of $662 million, and has a total ordering period of three years, beginning Dec. 11.

Jacobs provides technical expertise to help AAC develop, acquire, test, deploy and sustain air delivered munitions. Work includes systems engineering and integration support of virtually all Air Force air-launched weapon systems; test and training range systems; and numerous air combat support systems.

The Air Armament Center is being eliminated in a restructuring, but the base will continue to have a directorate and remain the Air Force's center for aerial weapons development. The contractor said the restructuring will have no impact on the contract.

- A bomb developed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is a featured weapon in a video game. A
digital version of the Massive Ordinance Air Blast, or MOAB, is a featured weapon in the game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. When the 30-foot, 21,600-pound MOAB was developed in 2003, it was the largest non-nuclear weapon in the Air Force’s inventory. It was detonated at Eglin twice. (Story)

Airports/airlines
AMR, parent of American Airlines, the nation's third largest airline, filed for chapter 11
bankruptcy during the past week. The company said that American, American Eagle and all other subsidiaries will operate normal flight schedules during the bankruptcy filing process.

American serves Mobile (Ala.) Regional Airport, Pensacola (Fla.) International Airport, Gulfport-Biloxi (Miss.) International Airport, New Orleans International Airport and Northwest Florida Regional Airport in Valparaiso, Fla.

- A building permit was issued for a $6.1 million terminal and hangar at Stennis International Airport in Hancock County, Miss. GM&R Construction Co. of Bay St. Louis was the successful bidder. The project is for a 10,000-square foot, two-story terminal and 24,000-square foot hangar. The airport supports business and executive jets and military flight training, and is used by Roll-Royce to support engine testing at Stennis Space Center.

Unmanned systems
The second Northrop Grumman unmanned X-47B fighter logged its first flight Nov. 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) climbed to 5,000 feet, flew racetrack patterns and landed after a half-hour flight. The X-47B is being developed for the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration program. The tailless AV-2 autonomous aircraft is powered by Pratt & Whitney’s F100-PW-220U engine and exhaust system.

- The Navy's first composite squadron equipped with manned and unmanned helicopters for expeditionary missions will form in San Diego next year. Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35 "Magicians" will be the first to support littoral combat ships and other ships with both the manned MH-60R Seahawk and unmanned MQ-8B Fire Scout. The composite squadron will deploy detachments of both aircraft to LCSs, cruisers, destroyers and frigates, according to Navy Times.

The Gulf Coast region is heavily involved in unmanned systems, and Mobile, Ala., is where one version of the LCS is being built by Austal USA.

- Raytheon has completed captive carry tests of its Small Tactical Munition Phase II configuration, paving the way for flight tests of the bombs for Shadow-class unmanned systems. The 12-pound, 22-inch, precision-guided, gravity-dropped bomb is designed to engage moving and static targets, and can be used by manned and unmanned aircraft. It has foldable fins and wings, enabling deployment from common launch tubes.

Contracts
Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $125.9 million contract for 4,977 Lot 16 Guided Vehicle kits procured for Joint Direct Attack Munition purposes. The JDAM is a strap-on kit with Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System capability. This procurement action is an option exercised as a separate contract. ACC/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … GCC/Thomco 1, LLC JV, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and CCI Group, LLC, Shalimar, Fla., were awarded a $10 million contract for Simplified Acquisition of Base Engineering Requirements maintenance, repair, and minor construction efforts. Work will be performed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. AAC/PKO, Eglin Air Force Base is the contracting activity. … Raytheon Co., Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $19.6 million contract to provide High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile Targeting System (HTS) contractor logistics support depot support for the HTS pod. AAC/EBAS, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.

Shipbuilding/maritime
- Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded a $46 million contract modification to previously awarded contract to procure long lead time material and related support for DDG 1002 products construction. Twenty-eight percent of the work will be done in Pascagoula, Miss. Work is expected to complete by March 2012.

- Huntington Ingalls' shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., plans to reduce its workforce by 500 people. A "voluntary reduction-in-force offer" will be made to all non-union Ingalls Shipbuilding employees in Pascagoula. Jobs would include engineers or those who work in the human resources or finance department, among others. The company blamed it on cost pressures in anticipation of declining shipbuilding budgets. (Story)

- The attack submarine USS Mississippi was christened Saturday in a ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn. The ship, the fifth to be named after the state, is scheduled to be commissioned in Gulfport, Miss., June 2, 2012.

- Union workers at Ingalls shipyard during the week voted to extend their current labor contract for three years. Workers will get a $1,000 bonus before Christmas and three raises over the next three years. The contract applies to the Pascagoula and Gulfport yards as well as Avondale, La. (Story)

- The U.S. Coast Guard during the week conducted pollution response training for the deployment of the Spilled Oil Recovery System in Pensacola Bay. Members from the Eighth Coast Guard District Response Advisory Team, Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team and Coast Guard Sector Mobile, Ala., deployed aboard the USCG Cutter Cypress, a 225-foot seagoing buoy tender homeported in Mobile.

- The Coast Guard announced the launch of its third Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter,
the William Flores, at Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La. The launch of the 154-foot cutter marks a production milestone as the Fast Response Cutter readies for sea trials, delivery, crew training and eventual commissioning. The William Flores is scheduled to be delivered and commissioned in 2012. The cutter will be homeported in Miami.

- The International WorkBoat Show, dubbed the largest maritime trade show in North America, was held during the week at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The event had over 1,000 exhibitors covering more than 200,000 square feet. There was also a separate one-day summit that included networking opportunities.

Week in review (11/20 to 11/26)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:14:00 +0000

NASA's interest in getting a commercial company to lease a test stand at Stennis Space Center; a successful test of a satellite made in part in Mississippi; the super committee's failure to cut the deficit; fears that Boeing may pull out of a state that supported it in the tanker competition; the delivery of bunker-buster bombs that a Florida base helped create; and the roll-out of the first international F-35 were among the aerospace stories of interest to the Gulf Coast region during the week.

Space
One of the more significant events during the week for the Gulf Coast aerospace region occurred rather quietly through a NASA notice of availability/request for information. It was the first tentative step that could bring a new aerospace player, or expand the operation of one that's already in this region.

NASA is seeking to identify industry interest in Stennis Space Center's underutilized E-4 Test Facility, part of the E-Complex at the massive Mississippi center. Originally designed to conduct ground tests of propulsion systems in support of NASA's Rocket Based Combined Cycle Program (RBCC), the E-4 Test Facility was partially built but never completed, and no further development is planned due to program cancelation.

NASA wants to know if any commercial companies are interested in leasing the facility or partnering with NASA. This isn't a first for Stennis Space Center (SSC). NASA's H-1 Test Complex, used to test hybrid rocket motors, is now the Rolls-Royce Outdoor Test Facility, with a 150,000 lbf stand used to test the Trent series of Rolls-Royce airliner engines.

The E-4 stand consists of concrete-walled test cells and associated hard stand, a high-bay work area with a bridge crane and adjacent work area, control room space and personnel offices. The facility was designed to provide low-pressure hydrocarbon fuel (JP-7) and oxidizer (LOX) to test articles having a thrust in the horizontal plane up to 50,000 lbf maximum.

But NASA envisioned the growth of test capabilities at the stand to meet future RBCC or other propulsion testing requirements, including the possible incorporation of other fuels and oxidizer to support testing of power packs and engine systems, and the addition of a Ram Air test capability up to Mach 0.8 to support the testing of power packs and engine systems up to 500,000 lbf thrust.

Depending on interest, a site visit will be conducted on Jan. 12, 2012.

The announcement points out that the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 directs the agency to proceed with development of a new Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System, and that means NASA has to "re-scope" its facilities to support the missions within expected funding levels.

"SSC capabilities and assets that will become idle or underutilized for near-term NASA requirements may be re-purposed and used by the commercial space industry and others in direct support of NASA's mission and purpose," the announcement says.

Priority will be given to users that support space exploration for the U.S. government or those that are involved in commercial space launch or commercial space user missions, whether or not the U.S. government is a customer.

It's too early to tell just how significant this may wind up being. But here's something to consider. In October Boeing announced it will use Kennedy Space Center's Orbiter Processing Facility-3 to manufacture, assemble, and test the company's Crew Space Transportation spacecraft. The 15-year use permit with Space Florida is part of Kennedy's moves to transitions from a government-only launch complex to a multi-user spaceport.

On one level, it's sad to see NASA ridding itself of some facilities as the agency transitions. But on the other hand, it's a lease, not a sale. And let's face it. What's being offered is valuable stuff, and one heck of a lure for a commercial company.

The E-4 stand could be seen as yet another lure by a facility that has proven in the past its ability to leverage assets. It was back at the end of one NASA program that SSC began attracting other government operations, and there are 30 now, along with commercial companies.

It's not much of a stretch to picture a commercial company involved in propulsion taking advantage of this opportunity. It likely will be a company that is also aware that 40 miles away NASA owns one of the biggest manufacturing facilities in the world, 43 acres under one roof at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

We'll keep an eye on this one.

- The military’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite, launched in August 2010, has now undergone a key test. Raytheon Co. became the first to successfully test the AEHF, designed to replace the old Milstar communications system.

Raytheon's Army Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal is the first operationally fielded terminal to interoperate with an on-orbit AEHF satellite. Raytheon will deliver 364 AEHF SMART-T terminals to the U.S. armed services.

The AEHF is a joint service satellite communications system that provides secure communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets. It's based on Lockheed Martin's award-winning A2100, whose core propulsion module is build at the Lockheed Martin Space and Technology Center at SSC.

- NASA awarded Excalibur Associates Inc. of Alexandria, Va., a contract to provide protective services at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., and Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans. The contract begins Jan. 1, 2012, with a nine-month base period, followed by option periods. Excalibur will provide support for physical and personnel security, technology protection and emergency management and training, according to PRNewswire.

- Finally, we can't leave the topic of space without noting that NASA's Curiosity rover took off Saturday aboard an Atlas V for its nine-month trip to Mars. The nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory is as big as a car and has a laser beam for smashing rocks and a tool kit for analyzing their contents. It carries a robotic arm, a drill, and a set of 10 science instruments. Sensors will let it report back on the weather and radiation levels in the atmosphere, important for NASA as it devises future human exploration missions.

Belt-tightening
Prepare yourself for ongoing stories about Pentagon belt-tightening. During the week the special congressional super committee failed to cut the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion, triggering automatic, massive military cuts in 2013 if Congress doesn't do something.

"If Congress fails to act over the next year, the Department of Defense will face devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts that will tear a seam in the nation's defense," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said they are working on a plan to minimize the impact of the sequester on DoD "to ensure that any cuts do not leave us with a hollow military."

This whole issue, of course, is of high interest to the Gulf Coast region, which has bases along the Interstate 10 corridor from Louisiana to Florida. Newspapers and broadcasters are trying to figure out what might happen to their own piece of the military-industrial complex. Good luck with that one. There are so many variables, but at the heart of it all is money. With the Pentagon making cuts, defense companies are looking for ways to trim their costs.

One company's cost-cutting efforts has really shaken up the good folks of Kansas. Boeing said it may shut down a military-aircraft plant in Wichita because its work is winding down. About 2,100 people work for Boeing in Wichita, modifying and upgrading military aircraft.

The reaction of politicians and the unions was predictable and understandable. Kansas was one of the states that lined up behind Boeing in the competition against EADS to build Air Force tankers. Workers were told they would militarize the Boeing 767s in Kansas. Now they hear there's a chance they may never do that work.

This goes to show you have to be careful with the proverbial chicken-counting. Just ask Mobile, Ala., which started celebrating when the Air Force initially picked EADS to build the planes. That fell apart in a new competition and Boeing ended up winning the contest. Now Wichita, like Mobile before it, might find it celebrated too soon.

Another cutback story that got wide distribution was an AP piece about the Pensacola-based Blue Angels naval flight demonstration team. The story pointed out that the Blue Angels, Air Force Thunderbirds and Army Golden Knights parachute team may wind up on the chopping block. The story noted that funding for the Blue Angels is small, $37 million of the Pentagon's annual budget of $926 billion. Still, enough smaller programs and you're eventually talking serious money.

My guess, and that's all it is, is that we won't see the end of the Blue Angels. But it is instructive to note that the team, created after World War II, was disbanded for a time during the Korean War and team members joined the fight. The team was recommissioned in 1951.

The Blue Angels have been around more than six decades, and during a show season some 11 million people watch them perform. There was even a half-hour television series about the team that aired from 1960 to 1961. A clip of one of the shows, this one about the team breaking up and going into combat in Korea, can be seen online. It's from the archives of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

Weapons
The Pentagon has taken delivery of huge bunker-busting bombs designed to penetrate deep to reach underground facilities. Boeing delivered 20 of the Massive Ordnance Penetrators to the Air Force. Each GPS-guided penetrator is 20 feet long, weighs 30,000 pounds and carries a 5,300-pound payload.

The explosive power of a MOP is 10 times that of its predecessor, the BLU-109. The Air Force began taking delivery of the bombs, which can be carried in a B-2, in September, according to multiple reports.

Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., has been involved in developing and deploying the MOP. You can track the progress of this weapon by looking at these previous posts: contract; contract; contract; Bunker buster deployment nears; Pentagon eyes bunker buster speedup. If you're interested in an even older story, you can go into the archives and find the story from May 2006 headlined "Mother of All Bombs gets big relative."

Cyber
The Center for Information Dominance stood up two new commands Nov. 14. The request for the new commands, the Center for Information Dominance Unit (CIDU) Corry Station in Pensacola, Fla., and CIDU Monterey, Calif., was approved by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Oct. 31.

The new commands are in response to the "expanded size of the detachment and assigned cyber training mission." Annually, CID Unit Corry Station trains about 9,000 Navy and Joint Cryptologists, Information Systems Technicians and Information Warfare and Information Professional officers, while CID Unit Monterey, Calif., trains about 1,200 Cryptologic Technicians and Foreign Language Officers.

In remarks during the stand-up ceremony at Corry Station, CID Commanding Officer Capt. Susan K. Cerovsky compared the shore-based commands to that of a newly-commissioned ship.

With a staff of nearly 1,300 military, civilian and contracted staff members, CID Corry Station oversees the development and administration of more than 168 courses at four commands, two detachments and 16 learning sites throughout the United States and in Japan. CID Corry Station provides training for about 24,000 members of the U.S. Armed Services and allied forces each year.

F-35
Lockheed Martin passed its 2011 flight-test targets for the F-35, with aircraft now flying at a pace that will allow the company to exceed its target for a significantly higher number of flights in 2012, according to Aviation Week.

The test program completed its 875th flight for the year on Nov. 17, passing the full-year target of 872. A total of 6,809 test points were accumulated on those flights, exceeding the year-end target of 6,622. Training on the F-35A at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., has yet to begin.

- The first international Lockheed Martin F-35 has rolled out of the factory in Fort Worth, Texas. The United Kingdom will use the short takeoff/vertical landing jet, known as BK-1, for training and operational tests.

BK-1 will undergo functional fuel system checks before being transported to the flight line for ground and flight tests in the coming months. The jet is scheduled to be delivered in 2012, according to Lockheed Martin.

Airports
In Florida, Okaloosa County commissioners approved the use of a $250,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation to get a runway improvement project started at Destin Airport. Okaloosa County Airports Director Greg Donovan said he estimates the cost of refurbishing the 5,000-foot runway and improving the lighting and navigational signage will be about $4 million. The Federal Aviation Administration will be lobbied for money from the agency's aviation trust fund to pay for the remainder of the runway replacement, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

- Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport near Panama City, Fla., will launch a new website that Airport Authority board members hope will strengthen the region's brand. The new site, to be online in December, is a complete redesign and will contain a feature that allows site visitors to track on a map in real time a plane’s position, according to the Walton Sun.

- Total passenger traffic in October at the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport near Panama City, Fla., rose about 4 percent from October 2010, continuing an upward trend of since the airport moved from the Panama City field on May 23, 2010. Traffic totaled 77,389 for October this year, compared to 74,372 in October 2010, according to the Panama City News Herald.

Shipbuilding/maritime
Lockheed Martin Corp., Baltimore, Md., was awarded an $11.7 million modification to previously awarded contract for MK 41 Vertical Launching System ordnance alteration kits, production support material, interim support parts, and equipment in support of DDG 51 class new construction, Aegis modernization programs, and Aegis ashore programs. The MK 41 VLS provides a missile launching system for CG 47 and DDG 51 class surface combatants of the Navy, surface combatants of allied navies, and Aegis ashore requirements for Missile Defense Agency's Ground Ballistic Missile Defense Program. Fort Walton Beach, Fla., will do 18.8 percent of the work for this contract. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

- Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded a $51.3 million modification to previously awarded contract for life cycle engineering and support services for Landing Platform Dock 17 class integrated shipboard electronic systems. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to be completed by December 2012. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

- The Navy is working with the U.S. Maritime Administration to permit the transfer of two high-speed superferries into naval service. The Maritime Administration took over the two Hawaiian superferries, Alakai and Huakai, both built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., in July 2009 after a bankruptcy judge ruled that the owner could abandon them to lenders. The administration, which guaranteed the loans, moved them to Norfolk, Va., and eventually bought them. Built to move cars and people, the ferries can cruise at 35 knots and carry 836 passengers and 282 cars, according to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.

- The Office of Naval Research has released the latest update to the Naval Science and Technology Strategic Plan. It reflects future naval requirements, including a new emphasis on autonomous systems.

"Our superiority at sea demands that we maintain superiority in science, engineering and technology," said Sean J. Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. Key areas of difference between the 2011 biannual plan and the 2009 version include a new emphasis on accelerating insertion of mature technologies to the fleet and consolidating 13 science and technology focus areas into nine, including the new category of Autonomy and Unmanned Systems.

It also places an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives aimed at increasing the talent pool of future naval scientists and engineers. ONR provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps' technological advantage, according to NNS. The region is involved in unmanned systems and is also home to a Naval Research Lab detachment at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Week in review (11/13 to 11/19)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:21:00 +0000

Another test of a commercial rocket engine in Mississippi; moves by the Navy to buy land so it can extend runways at outlying fields in Alabama; reaction of businesses to an Air Force plan to build a hotel along a Florida beach; and a warning from the Defense Secretary that more cuts could hurt shipbuilding and the F-35 program highlighted Gulf Coast aerospace and defense news during the week. In addition, there were ample indications that the world's aerospace industry is continuing to grow.

Industry growth
It's a golden opportunity for this region.

Boeing and Airbus both expect a huge demand for passenger and cargo aircraft in the Middle East over the next 20 years. Boeing sees Middle East airlines needing some 2,520 airplanes worth $450 billion by 2030. The Airbus Global Market Forecast says the Middle East will need 1,921 new passenger and freighter by 2030 with a value of $347.4 billion.

The same market forecast by Airbus also said Latin America will require 2,028 new passenger aircraft of more than 100 seats between now and 2030, including 1,653 single-aisle, 334 twin-aisle and 41 very large aircraft with an estimated value of $197 billion.

Those are significant numbers, and it means a ramp-up of production for airframes and all the associated equipment, from engines to landing gear and more. While in the past this would have meant more work in the traditional aviation centers, today it means more work to spread around to a lot of locations. Boeing saw that increasing demand and hopes to open a 787 line in South Carolina.

A fact of life in the global aerospace industry is that locations worldwide play a role in the production of aircraft, with suppliers near and far sending components to the facility where the plane is actually assembled. That's the case with the Boeing 787 and the military's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. This increasing global demand for next-generation commercial aircraft means new facilities likely will have to be built. Just look at what GE Aviation is doing. It has a new plant in Batesville, Miss., and is now building two more facilities, one in Hattiesburg, Miss., and another in Auburn, Ala.

But for any region, the Holy Grail of the aerospace industry is landing an assembly facility. Economic development leaders in the region know that, and that's why there was such a big effort to back EADS' bid to build Air Force tankers in Mobile, Ala. Landing the plant would have been a watershed event for the Gulf Coast, likely supercharging the growth of the region.

As pointed out by Site Selection magazine, new markets are emerging as centers of aircraft production. Airbus opened its joint venture A320 facility in 2008 in Tianjin, China, where production of the airliner is ramping up to meet demand in China and the rest of Southeast Asia. There's every reason to believe Mobile could eventually resurface as a location for an assembly plant.

Interesting to note is that in the past, another location in the Gulf Coast region, this one near Stennis Space Center, Miss., also has been a finalist at least twice in the past in competition for a large aircraft assembly plants. Imagine, if you will, two aircraft assembly plants.

We've been told the aerospace industry didn't suffer as much as many industries in the recession, and that growth is in the cards. Speakers at the Aerospace Alliance Summit in Sandestin, Fla., in September pointed that out, and said the region has to get ready, notably in making sure it has the workers. An Airbus official said there would be a worldwide demand for 26,000 new commercial aircraft, and an official from GE Aviation pointed out that the company is opening new facilities in Mississippi and Alabama because of the backlog and expected growth.

The Dubai Air Show during the week underscores that prediction of growth.

The United Arab Emirates ordered 50 aircraft powered by two GE90-115B engines. GE Aviation officials said the order will have an impact on multiple GE Aviation operations nationwide, including the 258-worker GE Aviation plant in Batesville, Miss., who manufacture composite engine parts -- fan stator, acoustic panels and fan platforms -- for the GE90. GE Aviation is also building a composite engine parts facility in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Auburn, Ala.

Because of increased demand, the Goodrich Aerostructures plant in Foley, Ala., hosted a job fair over Saturday to find workers to construct housing for Airbus engines. Baldwin County’s largest industrial employer, with 800 employees at the site, Goodrich is looking to hire 40 workers who have experience in heavy construction, automotive, sheet metal or heating/air conditioning. The Mobile Press-Register reports that in the apprenticeship, workers would learn to construct a nacelle, the cover housing that encases the engine for the Airbus A320. The new jobs came about because of increased demand.

And one more indicator came through ECN Magazine during the week. It reported that North Eastern Aeronautical Company Inc., NEANY, plans to open a new office in Niceville, Fla. The research, design, test and evaluation firm specializes in unmanned aerial systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, sensors and electro-optics. It also has offices in Patuxent River, Md., Arlington, Va., and Scottsdale, Ariz.

"With Eglin and Tyndall Air Force Bases, the Pensacola Naval Air Station, and numerous universities all located in the panhandle, I believe the area is a perfect fit for NEANY," said company president Steven Steptoe.

Space
Engineers at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center , Miss., conducted a test firing on an Aerojet AJ26 flight engine late in the week at the E-1 Test Stand. Orbital Sciences Corp. is testing the engines for commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station. (Post)

AJ26 engines will be used to power Orbital's Taurus II rocket. Orbital is part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services contract. After the engines are tested, inspected and the test data is reviewed, the engines are shipped to the Wallops Flight Facility launch site in Virginia for installation on the Taurus II rocket.

- NASA is one of the best places to work in the federal government, according to a survey
released during the week. NASA, which has operations at Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, is ranked No. 5 among 308 federal agencies.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden acknowledge Stennis Space Center, ranked second overall among the federal organizations. "I'm particularly proud that Stennis was ranked first in the government for employee empowerment, fairness and support for diversity," Bolden said.

The Departments of the Navy, Army and Air Force -- which have bases scattered throughout the Gulf Coast -- are ranked 15, 16 and 18, respectively. The survey was done by Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization. (Post)

- U.S. astronaut Dan Burbank became during the week the first American to fly to the International Space Station since the retirement of space shuttle fleet. Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin launched Sunday (Monday Kazakhstan time) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA is paying the Russian Federal Space Agency $1.5 billion to fly U.S. and partner nation astronauts while waiting for U.S. commercial companies to begin round-trip supply missions, likely no earlier than 2016. (Post)

Military cuts
Two military programs of high interest to the Gulf Coast, shipbuilding and the F-35, could be at risk with additional defense cuts, according to a report by Bloomberg. In a letter to Sens. John McCain Lindsey Graham, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said reductions beyond the $450 billion, 10-year defense budget cuts already planned would reduce the size of the military sharply. (Post)

According to Panetta, if a special committee of lawmakers fails to reach agreement by Nov. 23 on deficit reduction, that would trigger a so-called sequestration that would involve at least another $500 billion in defense cuts over a decade and cut military programs in 2013 by 23 percent.

In the worst-case scenario, in addition to the F-35 and shipbuilding, other programs that face termination include space initiatives, silo-based nuclear missiles and ground combat vehicle modernization. The F-35 training center is at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., while Gulfport and Pascagoula, Miss., and Mobile, Ala., build ships for the military.

After getting the letter, McCain, R-Ariz., and Graham, R-S.C., pointed to the dire description of the impact of further cuts as the latest evidence that up to $600 billion in automatic defense spending cuts "should not be allowed to occur." (Post)

- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is urging the congressional deficit-reduction super committee to consider closing unneeded overseas bases, rather than slashing force structure or weapons systems. Last year, the president’s bipartisan deficit reduction commission estimated that responsible overseas base closings could save taxpayers $8.5 billion through 2015.

Bases
The Navy has begun efforts to buy property needed to expand two Baldwin County, Ala., airfields to accommodate new training aircraft. Work is scheduled to start next summer to extend four runways, two at Barin Field in Foley and two at Summerdale Field, according to the Mobile Press-Register.

The runways are needed to accommodate the T-6A, which is replacing the T-34 training aircraft. The Navy operates several outlying fields in Baldwin County for training flights out of Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Fla. (Post)

- Resort owners who will be competing against a proposed hotel on Air Force land on Okaloosa Island are raising some concerns. According to the Northwest Florida Daily News, they're concerned about the bidding process, and whether other Eglin holdings on the island might end up on the market. The $24 million hotel is to be built, owned and run by the developers, though the land will remain in military hands. (Post)

Unmanned systems
The editors of Popular Science magazine selected the U.S. Navy/Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System to receive a 2011 Best of What's New award in the Aviation and Space category. The award was formally announced in the magazine's December issue.

Two tailless, autonomous X-47B unmanned aircraft are currently undergoing testing. The X-47B is designed to operate from a Navy aircraft carrier. Northrop Grumman's UCAS-D industry team includes GKN Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney, Eaton, GE, Hamilton Sundstrand, Dell, Honeywell, Goodrich, Moog, Wind River, Parker Aerospace and Rockwell Collins. (Post)

Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, built in part in Moss Point, Miss., has been successfully deployed aboard Navy ships.

Science and technology
The Office of Naval Research during the week released the latest update to the Naval Science and Technology Strategic Plan. It reflects future naval requirements, including a new emphasis on autonomous systems.

"Our superiority at sea demands that we maintain superiority in science, engineering and technology," said Sean J. Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

Key areas of difference between the 2011 biannual plan and the 2009 version include a new emphasis on accelerating insertion of mature technologies to the fleet and consolidation of 13 "S&T Focus Areas" into nine, including a new category, autonomy and unmanned systems.

The plan also places an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives aimed at increasing the talent pool of future naval scientists and engineers. (Post)

Shipbuilding/maritime
Huntington Ingalls' sixth amphibious transport dock, San Diego, LPD 22, successfully completed its Navy acceptance trial during the week. The ship returned to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., Thursday after a two-day sea trial that included testing the ship's main propulsion, steering, communications suite and deck missions systems. Ingalls will spend the next month putting the final touches on LPD 22 before it's delivered in mid-December. (Post)

- Workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., late in the week received flyers outlining terms of a proposed 3-year contract extension between all unions at the Pascagoula facility and the shipyard. The extension would take the contract to March 8, 2015 and includes three wage increases and a $1,000 bonus in lieu of cost of living adjustments. Union members vote Dec. 1. (Post)

- Signal International will repair an oil rig damaged off the coast of west Africa. A crew was sent to Gabon to help transport the Hercules 185 jack-up rig across the Atlantic Ocean to the company's Pascagoula, Miss., repair yard. Signal will hire up to 300 workers over the next month or two to complete the job and others. (Post)

- VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, Miss., and Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Fla., each was chosen to build eight offshore supply vessels for Covington, La.-based Hornbeck Offshore Services. Hornbeck's contracts with the two companies for 16 vessels is valued at some $720 million. (Post)

- The keel was laid during the week for the first Zumwalt-class destroyer, DDG 1000, at General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine. The ceremonial event marks the start of the ship's construction, though work has been going on since 2009 to fabricate the ship, which is modular in design. The ship is more than 60 percent complete. Ingalls' Composites Center of Excellence in Gulfport, Miss., is building the DDG's deckhouses, helicopter hangars and parts of the ships' peripheral vertical launch systems. (Post)

Week in review (11/6 to 11/12)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:06:00 +0000

If you read the daily news briefs about aerospace and defense activities in the Gulf Coast region, you know it was a busy week. Air Force cuts announced earlier this month are continuing to have repercussions; there was a key rocket engine test in Mississippi; space shuttle ground support gear is heading this way for storage; an airport changed its name and one base welcomed a new leader. There were also new developments in the unmanned field, including arming the Fire Scout drone helicopter and work that will be done in Panama City on underwater unmanned vehicles.

Military cuts
As local communities begin gearing up to protect their military assets, you may wonder what the Pentagon has to work with when it comes to bases. Granted, it's not as large as it used to be, but it's substantial nonetheless.

The Department of Defense manages 28.5 million acres of land worldwide, 97 percent in the United States. There are 4,127 DoD "sites" in the United States, ranging from huge bases to much smaller installations. Of those, 115 are "large" sites, each with a replacement value of at least $1.74 billion. All told, DoD has 542,208 buildings, structures and linear structures with a "plant replacement value" or PRV of $848.1 billion.

So how big is the piece in this region? If you look at the five states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, they have a combined 525 military sites, 16 of them large. Texas has 160 sites with a PRV of $46.2 billion, Florida has 180 sites with a PRV $26.3 billion, Alabama 89 valued at $10.5 billion, and Mississippi has 58 with a PRV of $8.2 billion, the same PRV as Louisiana's 37 sites. That's $99.4 billion for those five states.

Focus on just the slice of the Gulf Coast that this column covers – an area between New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle and going up to Dothan, Ala., and Hattiesburg, Miss. - and the mix of bases has a combined replacement value of $21.2 billion. Add outlying fields and Army National Guard assets and the figures goes to $22.3 billion.

Keep in mind, those figures reflect what it would cost the military to replace these bases using current prices and taking into consideration local costs. It doesn't count the value of the aircraft, ships, and other deployable assets. That helps explain why folks are gearing up for battle.

One likely consequence of the current budget-trimming exercise the Pentagon is conducting is a new round of base closures, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the New York Times. Panetta said priorities that could gain funding include special operations, unmanned aircraft and cyber operations. The Gulf Coast region has a dozen bases involved in a range of activities, including those priority fields. Even so, the cuts announced earlier this month are already impacting bases in this region, including Florida's Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field, Tyndall Air Force Base and Mississippi's Keesler Air Force Base.

- Those announced cuts also impact Hill Air Force Base in Utah. That prompted members of Utah's congressional delegation to call for a year's delay in implementing the restructuring of the Air Force Materiel Command. According to published reports, in a Nov. 2 letter to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, the delegation said the Air Force failed to follow procedures, which calls for an impact analysis of changes costing more than $500 million.

The delegation is concerned about the impact on Hill. The letter was signed by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee; U.S. Reps. Jim Matheson, Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.

- This region isn't just sitting around and waiting. Six people from Northwest Florida will join six other military and civic leaders from elsewhere in the state to serve on the Florida Defense Support Task Force. It has a $5 million appropriation to help fund research and advocacy for the state's bases.

The panel, created by legislation sponsored by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, will advocate for Florida's military bases and missions, including research and development, at a time of Pentagon belt-tightening and the threat of another base realignment and closure commission looming.

The defense industry reportedly is Florida's third largest job producer. In Gaetz's Northwest Florida district, base personnel and contracts tied to bases pump $14.5 billion of economic activity into the region.

- At least one local leader in the Panhandle is concerned about the future of Eglin Air Force Base. David Goetsch, an economist, college vice president and the newly sworn chairman of the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council, anticipates a future battle for Eglin's valuable, multimillion-dollar research, development, test and evaluation function. Eglin's research, development, test and evaluation is substantial, between $600 million and $700 million annually. Goetsch was named as a member of the Florida Defense Support Task Force.

- Alabama is also gearing up to protect its bases. Its new Military Stability Commission has the task of protecting that state’s military installations. There are two large sites, two medium sites and 74 small sites in Alabama.

The state legislature approved the commission last year, according to the Anniston Star. Anniston city officials are particularly concerned about a steady decline in workload at Anniston Army Depot since 2008.

Space
At NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., during the week, the space agency conducted a highly significant 500-second test of the J-2X upper-stage rocket engine. The engine has been test fired before at SSC, but this was the first test of a duration that would occur during a space mission.

The J-2X engine is being developed by Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne and will be used on the new heavy-lift Space Launch System that will boost humans, cargo and equipment beyond low-Earth orbit. Data from the test will be analyzed as operators prepare for additional engine firings at SSC.

Stennis Space Center, which tests engines for NASA as well as commercial companies, will be heavily involved in testing and certification of both the J-2X and the RS-25D/E engines, which will be used for the SLS core stage. RS-25 was developed for the Space Shuttle program, and all of those engines were tested at Stennis Space Center. Both the J-2X and RS-25D/E use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

- The 266-foot-long Pegasus barge, used to transport space shuttle external tanks from Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., is on its way to Stennis Space Center.

Pegasus left Kennedy manned by a crew of four and towed by NASA's space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship Freedom Star. It’s expected to arrive at SSC Wednesday.

The barge, built specifically for the Space Shuttle program, is carrying space shuttle main engine ground support equipment. The NASA barge and shuttle equipment will remain in storage at SSC until final disposition is determined.

The shuttle main engine ground support equipment was used at Kennedy to install shuttle engines into orbiters. The Kennedy shop where the equipment was stored is among the facilities turned over to Space Florida for future use by Boeing, which plans to use the facility to build its CST-100 commercial crew capsule.

- NASA plans to add an unmanned flight test of the Orion spacecraft in early 2014 to its contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems for the multi-purpose crew vehicle's design, development, test and evaluation. The test supports the new Space Launch System, a program that involves both Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Michoud will be building portions of the heavy-lift launch vehicle.

The Exploration Flight Test will fly two orbits to a high-apogee, with a high-energy re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, then make a water landing. The test mission will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

- It's not one of the better-known space-related programs in the Gulf Coast, but tucked in the woods of Eglin Air Force Base is the 20th Space Control Squadron. Its mission is to track man-made space objects, including debris. There are some 25,000 separate objects circling earth, with one re-entry into the atmosphere a week. Most burn up.

The phased array radar at Site C-6 radar, some 35 miles east of the main gate, is behind a 9-story wall and is one of the most powerful in the world. Personnel use a screen with objects assigned numbers, similar to an air traffic control screen. The site has been tracking objects in near and deep space for 40 years.

If you want to learn more about the C-6 site, or any of the Gulf Coast's space activities, take a look at Part II in Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor 2011-2012, a reference book. You can download the chapter, or the whole book for that matter, free of charge. Click here.

F-35
October was the busiest month yet for flight tests of all variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with 122 completed flights and significant progress on a number of fronts, Lockheed Martin late last week, according to the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, Texas.

Overall, 837 test flights were completed this year. Both the number of individual flights and number of test points are running about 9 percent ahead of a restructured plan set out in January by the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Program Office. Eglin Air Force Base is home of the JSF training center.

Bases/airports
A radar approach control simulator was delivered by the 81st Training Support Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., late last month for use in the 334th Training Squadron's air traffic control course. Officials say it saves costs while increasing course capacity.

The new radar approach control simulator features a touch entry display platform to replicate a real-world ATC console at a significantly lower cost, $278,000 compared to $2.1 million. The simulator, developed over 18 months by the 81st, has the look and feel of the real thing, using identical cabinetry.

- Capt. Matthew Coughlin took over from Capt. Pete Hall as commanding officer at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Fla. The change of command ceremony, attended by about 400 people, was Thursday at the air station near Milton. Whiting Field trains student naval aviators in the primary and intermediate phases of fixed-wing aviation and in the advanced phases of helicopter training.

- The Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show was held this weekend at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. Thousands of people turned out Friday and Saturday. In addition to the flying, the show included static display of aircraft and vendor booths.

- A crew from the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., last month trained with the Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, called the A-Team, and the 7th Special Forces Group of Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in series of high altitude jumps from an HC-144A Ocean Sentry.

ATC Mobile requested a waiver from Coast Guard Headquarters to allow parachute jumps from the Ocean Sentry. The HC-144, based on a CN-235 transport, is a medium-range surveillance aircraft manufactured by Airbus Military.

Daytime jumps were done at Eglin and near Meridian, Miss., and night insertion jumps were done around Foley, Ala. It was all in preparation for the 7th Group's unconventional warfare exercise held between Oct. 26 and Saturday.

- The airport in Pensacola now has a new name: Pensacola International Airport. The airport, long known as Pensacola Regional Airport, changed its name a few years ago to Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport. Now it's dropped "Gulf Coast Regional" and replaced it with "international."

Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward said that while the airport has no international flights, it reflects an effort to raise the profile of the city. The airport also dedicated a new terminal expansion, part of an $82 million, five-year capital improvements project.

Unmanned systems
The Navy has extended the tour of duty of the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter through most of next year. The Northrop Grumman-built system has improved ground commanders' ability to see potential threats and increase fighting effectiveness in Afghanistan, company officials said.

A team of sailors and Northrop Grumman employees began their mission in May to gather 300 hours per month of full-motion video surveillance, and deliver it in real time to ground forces.

George Vardoulakis, Northrop's vice president for tactical unmanned systems, said the team has established itself as the go-to asset for intelligence, surveillance and recon in northern Afghanistan. Fire Scouts are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.

- Northrop Grumman has started work outfitting the Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout with a weapons system. The Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System laser-guided 70mm rocket will allow ship commanders to identify and engage hostile targets without calling in other aircraft for support.

With delivery set for March 2013, Fire Scout will be Navy's first sea-based unmanned system to carry weapons. Arming them became an obvious alternative after one Fire Scout was shot down while on a mission over Libya. The new Fire Scouts will be able to fight back.

- General Dynamics Advanced Informational Systems has been awarded a Navy contract to design and build the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Underwater Vehicle system. The development and manufacturing will be done in Panama City, Fla., Greensboro, N.C., Fairfax, Va., and Quincy and Braintree, Mass.

The system will initially be a part of the Littoral Combat Ship Mine Warfare mission package. The $86.7 million contract awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command calls for one Engineering Development Model and five low-rate initial production systems if all options are exercised. The system will be able to identify mines in high-clutter underwater environments in a single pass. It also will gather environmental data that can provide intelligence support for other mine warfare systems.

A lot of folks in this region are interested in the topic of underwater unmanned systems. The Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City and the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Naval Oceanographic Office and a Naval Research Lab detachment at Stennis Space Center, Miss., are all involved in the field. The folks in Mobile, Ala., will also care about this. Austal USA is building a version of the LCS.

Aviation park
Florida’s Santa Rosa County is $12 million away from an aviation park near Naval Air Station Whiting Field. The county commission received the master plan for the 269-acre Whiting Aviation Park this week from the architect. In an arrangement with the Navy, tenants would be able to use Whiting's 6,000-foot south air field. TEAM Santa Rosa, the economic development group of the county, thinks the $12 million, which would be used for infrastructure, could be covered by grants. The county began buying land for the park in 2001.

Cyber
Pentagon researchers plan to bolster their efforts to create offensive weapons for cyber warfare, U.S. officials said. "Malicious cyber attacks ... are a real threat to our physical systems, including our military systems," Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, told a conference.

"To this end, in the coming years we will focus an increasing portion of our cyber research on the investigation of offensive capabilities to address military-specific needs," she said. Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., is a cyber security training center; Corry Station in Pensacola, Fla., is home of the Navy's Center for Information Dominance.

Corporate
Singapore Technologies Engineering Inc., which employs more than 3,000 in South Alabama and Mississippi through its aerospace and marine subsidiaries, boosted third quarter profit this year despite a decline in sales.

ST Engineering owns ST Aerospace Mobile, Ala., at Brookley Aeroplex and VT Halter Marine shipyards in Mississippi's Pascagoula, Moss Point and Escatawpa.

ST Engineering earned profit of $105 million in the three months that ended Sept. 30, up from a year ago. That came despite overall revenue falling 6 percent in the quarter. The aerospace division saw revenue fall about 4 percent, but operating profit rose 18 percent.

- Ground was broken Tuesday for the new ITT Exelis facility at the VentureCrossing Enterprise Centre in Bay County, Fla.. The 105,000-square-foot facility will be used by the company's mine defense systems work.

The event was hosted by St. Joe Co., which is developing the 75,000-acre mixed use business park near the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. The park will include office, industrial, manufacturing, hotel, retail and residential uses.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who attended the event, said the project is important to Florida because of its strong ties to the defense industry. Last month, ITT Corp. spun off its defense and information solutions business. ITT Exelis currently has about 100 employees in the Panama City area.

- BAE Systems plans to close its commercial aircraft electronics manufacturing plant in Irving, Texas, next year, resulting in the loss of 160 jobs. The company in March 2009 began shifting much of the work done at the plant to Fort Wayne, Ind., and Mexico. BAE has surplus capacity in Fort Wayne, the company said. BAE Systems has multiple operations in the Gulf Coast, including Gautier, Miss., Mobile, Ala., and Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

From other fields
Shipbuilding: Two Mobile, Ala., shipyards will team up to repair a Navy research vessel over the next few months. BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards won a contract to repair an experimental littoral combat ship at shipyard across from downtown Mobile. BAE hired its neighboring shipyard, Austal USA, as a subcontractor to provide structural maintenance work on the aluminum vessel. … Failure to meet Navy standards for best management practices is costing Ingalls Shipyard of Pascagoula, Miss., some money, temporarily. The Navy will withhold a portion of each payment it issues on the $698 million contract for the Aegis destroyer DDG-114. The amount withheld is 5 percent of each progress payment until Ingalls makes improvements. … Assembly has begun at Austal USA on the second Joint High-Speed Vessel for the Navy. The ship will eventually be named the USNS Choctaw County, representing rural America.

Week in review (10/30 to 11/5)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:35:00 +0000

The news from some bases in the Gulf Coast region during the week was jarring. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will see the closing of the Air Armament Center, and the 96th Air Base Wing is folding into the 46th Test Wing. Some 351 positions are going away.

At nearby Hurlburt Field, Fla., home of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, 100 civilian support positions are being cut, and in Panama City, Fla., Tyndall Air Force Base expects to lose between 115 and 120 civilian positions. In Mississippi, Keesler Air Force Base, a major technical training center, 68 civilian positions are being eliminated. It was just two months ago that Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., said it would eliminate NCMB 7 in September 2012.

If you're surprised by all of this, you simply haven't been paying attention. The Pentagon has been saying for months that cuts would be coming and that priorities are shifting. This is only the first round. More changes will be coming in a few months, then beyond that as well.

And by "beyond that" I mean the possibility of another base realignment and closure round in 2017, if not earlier. And it's BRAC that's the real bone-chiller. In that process, bases are shut down and assets and operations relocated. Hundreds of installations have been closed in five BRAC rounds that began in 1989. The last one was in 2005.

The Gulf Coast region has not been immune. The Naval Aviation Depot at Naval Station Pensacola, Fla., was eliminated by BRAC 1993. The same BRAC round also got Naval Station Mobile, Ala., created during the 1980s fleet buildup. Naval Station Pascagoula, Miss., lasted until BRAC 2005.

Just this year Naval Air Station Pensacola said goodbye to the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, which moved to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. That move was dictated by BRAC 2005.

If you want to know just how painful a base closing can be, you don't need to look any further than Mobile, Ala., which lost Brookley Air Force Base during the 60s. It took a long time to recover, but today the city has the Brookley Aeroplex, which remains heavily involved in aviation-related activities and was the site where EADS would have built Air Force tankers had it won the contract.

This military's current streamling and the future BRAC makes me think of dodge ball – the more players that are eliminated, the better your chance of being the target of the next ball. It may be more important than ever for this region to take stock in what we have and fully understand what's crucial for the 21st century military and what's at risk. While local groups and politicians will be protecting what's in their own back yard, it would also be wise to add regional protection to the mix. That would provide a lot more political clout, where an attack on one is an attack on all, so to speak.

The military, aviation and non-aviation alike, is an $18 billion pillar of this region’s economy. The military's activities in the region are broad and involve every military branch. There's aviation training, school houses, including electronic and cyber warrior training, laboratories, land and water ranges, operational units and it's home to one of the nation’s four Air National Guard combat readiness training centers. A dozen bases in the region have aviation functions, and there are three commands. Contractors in the region were awarded $47 billion from the military between 2000 and 2010 - some of the work done here, some done outside the region.

Three bases in this region are listed by DoD as among the highest in replacement value. Eglin Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Pensacola and Keesler Air Force Base have a combined replacement value of $8.6 billion. Eglin and NAS Pensacola are among the top three in value in all of Florida, and Keesler is the most valuable in Mississippi.

But that’s no guarantee.

"I don't think anybody can call themselves BRAC-proof,” said Maj. Gen. Kenneth Merchant, commander of Eglin’s Air Armament Center, during his talk with reporters. And that's from a man who has been assigned to Eglin three times in his career and is quite familiar with its considerable capabilities.

What's really crucial for the long-term outlook for any base is retaining capabilities that set it apart. Eglin, home of the F-35 training center, in 2010 built a $300 million research facility called the United States Reprogramming Laboratory, designed to fine-tune the electronic warfare capabilities of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

But it's the longtime role as weapons developer and tester that really sets Eglin apart. Merchant said that even with the loss of the AAC, Eglin will remain the Center of Excellence for aerial weapons acquisition and testing.

"I think Eglin is postured very well for the future. When you look at the growth we've had recently in terms of the 7th Special Forces group coming in, some of the other activities like the F-35 training mission … I think we're pretty well postured," he said.

He pointed out that Eglin's Armament Laboratory, part of the Air Force Research Lab, will stay on station, and that means the "science piece of the operation" will remain in place. And the 46th Test Wing is not only staying, but expanding its role. Thus, he said, "the enterprise stays the same."

In fact, Merchant's second hat at Eglin, the Air Force program executive officer for weapons, will remain and become the leadership position at what will become Eglin's Armament Directorate. And that's significant. The base spends $600 million to $700 million every year on R&D, and Merchant said the intention is to keep at around that level, though less money will be available for development.

"Eglin has a great reputation as being the center of excellence for weapons acquisition, and test, and we want to maintain that," said Merchant. "We've got to make sure that we do the right things strategically to keep our workforce strong, healthy, and that we're prepared for the requirements of the Air Force in the future, and that we're able to procure and develop and test the weapons systems that will come in the future.”

The expanding role of the 46th Test Wing, which will become the installation manager and be headed by a one-star next October, is a far cry from what was being suggested for the 46th as recently 2006. Back then the Air Force considered trimming the 46th and moving it to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Politicians got together and scuttled that, and now that seems particularly fortuitous.

So while the news about the cuts are hard to take, especially at a time when the jobless rate is high, the important lesson that needs to be taken from this is that the Gulf Coast has a military infrastructure, aerospace and non-aerospace alike, that can't be taken for granted. Leaders of this region need to take every step possible, including a regional approach, to protect what's here and, in fact, to go after what's not here. The best defense is a good offense.

And now for some other Gulf Coast aerospace-related news from the past week:

Space
NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., this week will be test firing a J-2X rocket engine. The J-2X engines will be used by NASA's Space Launch System, which will carry the Orion spacecraft beyond Earth orbit.

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne is developing the J-2X for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The SLS rocket engines will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, which will include the J-2X engine for the upper stage and RS-25D/E engines, the Space Shuttle Main Engines, for the core stage.

SSC is involved in testing both of those engines, and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans will be building some of the SLS structures.

- Boeing said early last week that it plans to consolidate its Commercial Crew program office, manufacturing and operations at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Boeing, in partnership with Space Florida, will use the Orbiter Processing Facility-3 to manufacture, assemble, and test the company's Crew Space Transportation spacecraft.

The 15-year use permit with Space Florida is the latest step Kennedy is making as the center transitions from a historically government-only launch complex to a multi-user spaceport. Boeing has multiple operations in the Gulf Coast region.

F-35
The Air Force secretary and his chief of staff have been asked to decide what to do about a disagreement over when F-35 flight training should begin at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's top official for weapons testing, thinks the fall target date should be delayed by 10 more months of development.

But Lt. Gen. Thomas Owen, who oversees aircraft development for the Air Force, and Vice Adm. David Venlet, who oversees the F-35 program, said changing plans would drive up the program's cost. It boils down to whether the kinks in the F-35 system have been worked out.

Gilmore said the JSF team at Edwards Air Force Base racked up 1,000 hours in F- 35As, but historically flight training didn't begin until 2,000 to 5,000 hours of monitored flight tests. Right now the F-35 experiences in-flight problems three times higher than it would after reaching maturity.

Six F-35s have been delivered to Eglin, which will train pilots for all F-35 variants.

- Pratt & Whitney during the week was awarded a $75 million contract for studies associated with the F135 propulsion system. That includes engineering, programmatic, and logistics tasks related to the Joint Strike Fighter F135 propulsion system.

Among other things, the company will look into the feasibility, practicality, desirability, or supportability of design changes for the propulsion system, support equipment, and government furnished property; operational readiness and reliability; cost and weight reductions; logistics site surveys; training system analysis; modeling and simulation activities; campaign analysis; and the determination of the feasibility of integrating changes for purchaser-unique requirements.

Airports
The Transportation Security Administration started using its new Advance Imaging Technology machines during the week at Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

TSA officers have been training on the two AIT machines over the past few weeks. Passengers who chose to opt out of going through the AIT will be subjected to alternative screening methods, which will include a pat-down by a TSA screener.

- Northwest Florida Regional Airport's terminal expansion construction is slightly behind schedule but expected to be completed under budget, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

The expansion of the airport that serves the Fort Walton Beach area adds two jet bridges to the terminal and two additional ground boarding gates. The expansion also includes new office space for the Transportation Security Administration, replacing the trailers they now use.

GE footprint
GE Aviation broke ground on a 300,000 square-foot advanced manufacturing plant in Auburn, Ala. It will produce precision, super-alloy machined parts for GE jet engines that will power future commercial and military aircraft, and also to support the fleet of GE jet engines already in service.

Site construction is set to begin Monday and the facility is scheduled to open in 2012. Auburn was selected in part because of its access to skilled workforce and proximity to Alabama's university system.

GE Aviation has become a growing factor in the Gulf Coast region. It's building a composite parts plant in Hattiesburg, Miss., and also operates a composites engine parts facility in Batesville, Miss.

Contracts
Raytheon Co., Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $9.3 million contract modification to procure additional Griffin missiles in support of U.S. Special Operations Command. The following Griffin missiles are being purchased via this modification: 70 Griffin Block II A all up rounds, and 21 Griffin Block II A telemetry rounds. Air Armament Center Contracting, Advanced Programs Division, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Speegle Construction Inc., Niceville, Fla., was awarded a $24.6 million contract to provide for the construction of a Special Operation Forces
Operation and Training Facility and an Unmanned Aerial Support Squad Operations Facility at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M.

Week in review (10/22 to 10/29)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:53:00 +0000

The arrival of a sixth F-35 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., a drone-in-a-drone weapons program involving Eglin, the opening of a new fixed base operation at Mississippi's Gulfport-Biloxi airport and a concourse expansion in New Orleans, as well as a military technology conference in Panama City, Fla., were some of the aerospace and defense related news stories of interest to the Gulf Coast during the week.

F-35
Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., where pilots of all the variants of the F-35 will be trained, received its sixth F-35 during the week. AF-13, a conventional takeoff and landing variant, arrived after a 90-minute flight from Fort Worth, Texas.

The jet, piloted by Marine Corps Maj. Joseph Bachmann, was delivered to the 33d Fighter Wing and will be used for pilot and maintainer training at the base's F-35 Integrated Training Center. The week before the base's fifth F-35 was delivered to the base.

- Marine Corps F-35B short-takeoff, vertical-landing variants of the jet will begin to arrive at the base in the late half of November and early part of December, according to Air Force Times. (Story)

- In another F-35 related item, the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp returned to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia just over a week ago after spending three weeks at sea hosting the initial sea trials of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.

The first F-35B landed on WASP's flight deck early this month, beginning an 18-day test period. During the testing, two F-35B Marine Corps test jets performed vertical landings and short take-offs under various conditions. The STOVL variant logged more than 28 hours of flight time and completed 72 short take-offs and 72 vertical landings, according to the Navy.

Weapons/warplanes
Researchers from the Naval Air Systems Command, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and Navmar Applied Science Corp. are working on a micro-UAV designed to be carried in another drone. That's according to a report by InsideDefense.

The armed, electric drone would detach from a 13-foot TigerShark and relay real-time video to ground support as it heads for the target. Researchers at Eglin were working on the micro-UAV as part of the Precision Acquisition and Weaponized System when the U.S. Special Operations Command said it needed a weapon that would minimize collateral damage.

NAVAIR started working on the effort to integrate the micro-UAV with the TigerShark surveillance drone. A $12 million design and assembly effort is supposed to be done in the spring of 2012. After that comes testing at Eglin and at the Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. (Story)

- Aircrews from the 37th Bomb Squadron employed two Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles from a pair of B-1 bombers at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., as part of the Air Force's air to ground Weapon System Evaluation Program known as Combat Hammer.

The goal of the Oct. 25 exercise, managed by the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is to evaluate the effectiveness, maintainability, suitability, and accuracy of precision guided munitions and other advanced air to ground weapons.

Space
According to Aviation Week, NASA will store some rocket engines, slow work on others and study still more as it tries to fit the Space Launch System into a $3 billion annual budget for development.

Early flights of the SLS will use surplus space shuttle main engines and, as side-mounted strap-ons, the five-segment solid-fuel motors developed for the terminated Ares I crew launch vehicle's first stage.

The J-2X upper-stage engine will be slowed as managers try to maintain enough development momentum to avoid a costly stop and restart in engine development as the big new rocket evolves. (Story)

- NASA says its industry partners continue to meet established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities that will ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station. That's according to NASA's third status report.

NASA will rely on private industry to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station, while NASA focuses on deep space exploration. NASA has posted the third status report on its Commercial Crew Development 2 (CCDev2) program to the agency's Commercial Space Transportation website.

Stennis Space Center, Miss., is where space shuttle main engines were tested and where the J-2X is being assembled and tested. Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, is where portions of the SLS will be built.

- The U.S. Senate earlier this month approved a resolution sponsored by senators from Mississippi and Louisiana honoring the 50th anniversary of the John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., and its economic impact on the region.

The testing facility in Hancock County was established in 1961 and today is home to more than 30 federal organizations, including the biggest tenant, the Navy. It will continue to play a role as the test site for NASA programs and commercial ventures.

- CSC has received a $41 million modification that exercises the second option period for the NASA Shared Services Center contract at Stennis Space Center, Miss. The contract modification applies to the contract NASA awarded CSC in 2005.

CSC will continue to provide financial management, human resources, procurement and information technology support services to NASA. The NSSC is a cooperative partnership between NASA, CSC and the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. The NSSC performs selected business activities for all 10 NASA centers.

Bases
The 96th Air Base Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., received good news about the Operational Readiness Inspection. The ORI by the Air Force Material Command was the culmination of more than six months of preparation in four major graded areas.

The units were scored using a five-tier rating scale. The ratings in specific areas cannot be released, but the wing received overall results of excellent for positioning the force, employing the force, sustaining the force and the ability to survive and operate. Col. Sal Nodjomian, commander of the wing, said the inspectors reported they have never seen a wing sweep every graded category.

- The Air Force as a landlord? Perhaps that will be the case sometime next year.

Under an "enhanced lease program" designed to let the Air Force collect rent on an under-used portion of beachfront land, the military next year will become landlord of a hotel.

"This will be a new way of doing business for us," said Glenn Wagner, manager of Eglin Air Force Base's enhanced lease program, told the Northwest Florida Daily News. The $24 million hotel near Sheraton Four Points will be owned by the Department of Defense and managed by Emerald Breeze Resort Group.

Eglin's 46th Test Wing will be able to place a telemetric receiving dish and optical equipment on the top of the building so it can "see" further out into the Gulf of Mexico. (Story)

Airports
The $12 million, 52,500-square-foot Million Air facility officially opened at Mississippi's Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport during the week. It will serve as the fixed base operation at the airport, providing fuel, support services for charters and private planes and other services.

Company and airport officials expect the operation to boost the revenue base at the airport and the region by more than $10 million with fuel and activity fees and increase the casino customer base by up to 25 percent. (Story)

New Orleans' airport unveiled the expansion to Concourse D during the week. The $27 million expansion at Louis Armstrong International Airport includes six new gates and a pyramid-shaped central skylight. (Story)

With one exception, airports in Northwest Florida experienced higher passenger counts this September over the previous year. The busiest airport was Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport, with 121,409 passengers in September, up .73 percent, followed by Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City, with 73,470 passengers in September, up 8.1 percent.

The airport in Okaloosa County, Northwest Florida Regional Airport, had 66,258 passengers in September, an increase of 10.4 percent. Tallahassee Regional Airport had 50,025, a 5.2 percent drop. (Story)

Contracts
L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $26.3 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise an option for organizational, selected intermediate, and limited depot level maintenance for F-16, F-18, H-60, and E-2C aircraft operated by the adversary squadrons based at Naval Air Station, Fallon, Nev. … Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Northrop Grumman Information Systems, Herndon, Va., was awarded a $119.7 million contract for the design, development, test, and deployment of Increment 10.2, modernization of the Air and Space Operations Center Weapon System. Increment 10.2 capabilities will be fielded to the Geographic Air and Space Operations Centers; a help desk at Langley Air Force Base, Va.; and the Formal Training Unit at Hurlburt Field, Fla. … L3 Communications Corp., Systems Field Support, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $21.3 million contract modification for contractor logistics support for the C-12 aircraft for Pacific Air Forces, Air Force Materiel Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Defense Security Cooperation Agency, consisting of maintenance, repair, and support functions for one year from Nov. 1, 2011, through Oct. 31, 2012. … Gulfport Aviation Partners LLC, Houston, Texas, was awarded a fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract for a maximum $6.6 million for jet fuel. Other location of performance is Gulfport Biloxi International Airport, Gulfport, Miss. Using service is Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. … The Boeing Co., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was awarded an $11.1 million contract for spares and will provide five major subassemblies required to build-up six AC-130U 25 mm ammunition storage handling systems assemblies.

From other fields
Technology: The 16th annual Expeditionary Warfare Conference was held during the week in Panama City, Fla., at the Wyndham Bay Point Resort. The theme of the four-day conference was integrating future and present capabilities. The News Herald’s story focused on the Panama City mine roller developed by the Navy in Bay County. Brian Detter, the deputy assistant director of the Navy for Expeditionary Programs and Logistics Management, touted the mine roller as a piece of equipment that military personnel are using with great success in Afghanistan. (Story)
Shipbuilding: The biggest ship ever built in Alabama is in the water. BAE Systems Southeast Shipyard launched American Phoenix, a 616-foot-long chemical tanker, into Mobile River from the company's Pinto Island facility. Work is continuing on the tanker, which should be delivered to Mid-Ocean Tanker Co. of Connecticut in 2012. (Story)

Week in review (10/16 to 10/21)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:37:00 +0000

The past week was highlighted by news about the F-35, including the arrival of another F-35 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and installation of a weapons loading training device, news that two Gulf Coast bases are now competing for the best in the Air Force honors, the decision by Northrop Grumman to opt out of next year's Farnborough air show, the formal opening of a Lockheed Martin tech center in Mississippi and more.

F-35
A fifth F-35 has arrived at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to be used to train pilots and maintainers at the Joint Strike Fighter training center. The plane, an Air Force variant, arrived on Thursday after a 90-minute flight from Fort Worth, Texas.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin also delivered and installed the first weapons load training device at the F-35 Integrated Pilot-and-Maintenance Training Center at Eglin. Configured in all three variants of the F-35, the system allows maintenance students to hone their skills loading munitions, fuel tanks and missile systems onto the aircraft.

The simulators enable training to take place without removing aircraft from the flight schedule. Earlier this year the first two F-35 full mission simulators were installed. The ITC at Eglin will be home to the latest courseware, electronic classrooms, simulators and flight events.

- The F-35B, the Marine Corps variant of the F-35, conducted short take-off and vertical landing tests aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp during the week. The demonstration was conducted by the JSF program office and Marine Corps. According to press reports, BF-04 flew a series of short take-off and vertical landings off the Virginia coast in front of a group of reporters.

Space
Fifteen Space Shuttle Main Engines at NASA's Engine Shop at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., are being prepped for shipment to Stennis Space Center, Miss. At SSC, they'll become part of the propulsion used on NASA's next generation heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.

The engines are built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and each is 14 feet long and more than 7 feet in diameter at the end of its nozzle. In addition to testing the SLS engines at SSC, NASA will have portions of the SLS fabricated at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

Airshows
In a move that underscores tight budgets, aerospace powerhouse Northrop Grumman Corp. had decided not to participate in the 2012 international air show in Farnborough, England, according to Reuters.

Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said pulling out completely will save millions of dollars. Northrop Grumman is just one of the big defense contractors with operations along the Gulf Coast. Among other things, it builds portions of the Fire Scout and Global Hawk at the Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, Miss.

Newcomer
Lockheed Martin held a ceremonial opening during the week for its new 33,000 square-foot technology support center at South Pointe Business Park in Clinton, near Jackson, Miss. Lockheed Martin announced in April that it planned to create 350 new jobs at the center.

The mission support center will serve several of Lockheed Martin's federal customers. The center is in part of the former corporate headquarters of WorldCom, the telecommunications company that went into bankruptcy in 2002. In this region, Lockheed Martin assembles satellite components at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Bases
Two bases in the Gulf Coast region will be among those competing for the Air Force 2011 Commander-in-Chief's Installation Excellence Award. The Air Education and Training Command selected Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., as its nominee. Earlier, the Air Force Material Command picked Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is its nominee.

The winner, chosen in January, will get a $1 million prize and the runner-up $500,000 for quality of life improvements. Each of the 10 finalists from Air Force major commands will be visited by an inspection team.

- Two dozen helicopters during the week visited Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Fla., for the base's annual Naval Helicopter Association Fleet Fly-in. The event is designed to let student aviators learn about potential career paths.

- The Air Force says three bases, Davis Monthan in Arizona., Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii and Shaw in South Carolina, are candidate bases for one active duty Air Force MQ-1/9 remote split operations squadron.

They are candidates for a single active duty MQ-1/9 RSO squadron of 280 personnel and associated equipment. No remotely piloted aircraft will be assigned to the base, only a ground control station. Hurlburt Field, Fla., in August was chosen as the preferred alternative for the Air Force Reserve Command MQ-1 remote split-operations squadron, consisting of 140 personnel and associated equipment.

Contracts
Jacobs Technology Inc., Tullahoma, Tenn., was awarded an estimated $135.5 million contract for the Technical and Engineering Acquisition Support Program, providing a wide range of engineering, technical, and acquisition support required for development, production, and sustainment of various munitions systems within the Air Armament Center and other organizations at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. This effort supports Foreign Military Sales programs to 19 foreign governmens. Air Armament Center/PKES, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The Mobile Press-Register reported during the week that a Congressional Research Service report indicates that the Navy plans to reduce by more than half – from 21 to 10 – the number of joint high-speed vessels it buys. The transport vessels are built at Austal USA's Mobile River shipyard in Alabama. … Also during the week, the Press-Register reported that Rear Adm. James Murdoch, head of the Littoral Combat Ship program office, said he's "very confident" in the designs of the two ships built for the Navy. The ships are being slightly reconfigured to avoid corrosion problems that have arisen in recent months, but the cost of making these changes will be insignificant, he said. Austal USA is being 10 aluminum, tri-hull versions of the ship. … House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., and Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., toured Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., during the week. The Mississippi Press reports that McKeon said that it's difficult to conceive what the military will look like if the defense budget is slashed beyond the $465 billion in cuts already in the works.
Education: The curriculum for the Navy-sponsored academic outreach, "Mission Ocean," will be presented at the 2011 Mississippi Science Teacher's Association Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Jackson, Miss., Oct. 23-25. The curriculum is being offered in association with the December 2011 christening of the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi, which is scheduled for commissioning in Gulfport, Miss., in 2012. The submarine-related science curriculum for 6th and 7th grade students will be available beginning with the 2012-2013 school year. The curriculum focuses on science activities and missions in a simulated submarine control room.
Science centers: Proposals are being sought to operate a full-service restaurant at the Infinity Science Center at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. Written proposals are due by Nov. 9, and a selection will be made Dec. 8, 2011. Proposals must have the requisite demonstrated competence and experience and a knowledge of restaurant, baker, deli and catering operations, including financing, marketing, design, leasing, management and oversight. Infinity is located next to the Welcome Center on Interstate 10, near the Mississippi and Louisiana state line.

Week in review (10/9 to 10/15)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:37:00 +0000

For a region that relies so much on defense activities, these are uncertain times. The Gulf Coast is packed with bases from every military branch, doing everything from training to surveying the world's oceans to developing weapons systems and more. Thousands of contractors big and small rely on the military as a customer, whether it's the local base that needs lawn service or a major defense program crucial to the nation's security.

Like it or not, cuts are coming, and nothing is immune.

In a speech last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that in this fiscal environment, every program, contract and facility will be scrutinized, with an eye towards ensuring the cuts won't reduce readiness or impact essential missions. He said it's important to maintain a robust industrial, science and technology base so the United States can maintain its edge, according to Defense News. (Story)

The Boston Globe recently wrote that defense lobbyists are packing a potential weapon in the battle to save their industry: a warning that more cuts to the Pentagon budget will cost jobs. They recognize that it's jobs, not defense or terrorism, that most concerns Americans.

"Make no mistake, combining the cuts that have already occurred and the potential for more cuts defense cuts … hundreds of thousands of American workers' jobs are at risk," said Marion C. Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association. The group launched a public relations campaign last month to pursued Congress not to cut the Pentagon further. (Story)

There are many Pentagon programs of high interest in the Gulf Coast region. Building warships is a major part of the economy in South Mississippi, South Alabama and for now Southeast Louisiana. The DoD in its annual industrial report to Congress last month said that while U.S. shipbuilders produce the most capable warships in the world, the number of Navy ships being built each year is very low when compared to the number of ships being produced each year by the leading international shipyards. The low volume of production makes it extremely difficult for U.S. shipyards to match the improvements in technology and productivity seen in the international shipyards.

Further cuts here can only make that problem more pronounced, one can only assume.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is also of a major program that's of high interest to this region. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the initial training center for all three variants of the stealth aircraft, and that program will have a big impact on the Northwest Florida economy. But the program is over budget, and cuts could come, notably a possible decision to drop the Marine Corps variant.

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., reminded Panetta that the Office of Management and Budget's 2013 guidelines was to identify programs that provided the best opportunity of economic growth, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News. The F-35 offered 127,000 direct and indirect jobs. And when the training school reaches full strength in 2014, the wing would employ 2,000 military personnel and 260 contractors, according to Miller. (Story)

While nothing is immune, there are some programs that seem destined to do well. Panetta and others have singled out cybersecurity as a major area of concern. The thinking is, it's likely more will be spent despite defense cuts. Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., is where the Air Force provides initial training to cyber warriors, and there's an effort to create a Navy cyber battle lab in Pensacola, Fla., which already does training in the field.

Robotic system also should continue to do well as the military and non-military users turn more and more to unmanned systems. The recent DoD industrial capabilities report notes that it's a field filled with smaller, innovative firms that are doing a lot of critical research and development work, which in itself helps satisfy a requirement that the country maintain its technological edge. Unmanned aerial systems are built in Moss Point, Miss., and Pensacola is home of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a big researcher in the field.

We're already feeling the impact here. The Navy next year will eliminate one Seabee battalion in Gulfport, Miss., and the head of weapons development at Eglin has warned that there will be less money for developing new weapons.

There's little doubt every community in this region with military-related activities is paying close attention to the Pentagon’s belt-tightening. Some likely are more concerned more than others. The AIA is taking the right approach. Like it or not, it will all boil down to jobs.

Cyber security
As I mentioned above, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., is already the home of the Air Force's electronics training, including the key growth field of cyber security. Now efforts are under way in Florida to establish a prototype cyber warfare battle lab at the Navy’s Corry Station in Pensacola.

The state of Florida approved eight grants totaling $1.03 billion to be used by a variety of groups in Northwest Florida to protect and improve military assets. Two of those grants totaling $300,000 are going to the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce to enhance Corry's Center for Information Dominance and help the chamber's efforts to retain and create jobs. One is a defense reinvestment grant of $100,000, and the other is a defense infrastructure grant of $200,000.

Another group, TEAM Santa Rosa, will get two grants totaling $257,726, one to be used for land acquisition near Naval Air Station Whiting Field. A third group, the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County, is getting two grants totaling $287,500 for projects related to Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field and Duke Fields, and the Bay County Board of County Commissioners and Bay Defense Alliance will get $93,519 and $87,500, respectively, for projects associated with the Naval Support Activity and Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City.

F-35
BAE Systems was selected by Lockheed Martin to supply a Night Vision Goggle Helmet Mounted Display (NVG HMD) system for the F-35 during the next phase of its development.

The NVG HMD will incorporate the latest Q-SIGHT waveguide display and feature detachable Night Vision Goggles for night operations. It will also incorporate an optical Head Tracking System for precise weapons delivery and carrier and land-based operations.

BAE Systems will begin delivery of test assets in 2012 to support the F-35 development and integration laboratories, flight simulators, and flight-test platforms. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the Joint Strike Fighter training center. BAE Systems has operations in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and Gautier, Miss.

Propulsion systems
Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney announce an agreement to form a new partnership to
power future mid-size aircraft. The two companies will establish a joint venture company, in which each will hold an equal share, to develop new engines for the next generation of aircraft that will replace the existing mid-size fleet.

The prediction is a need for nearly 45,000 engines over the next 20 years.

Both of those companies have a major presence in the Gulf Coast region. Rolls Royce tests jet engines at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Rolls-Royce Marine also has a foundry in Pascagoula that makes huge ship propellers. Pratt & Whitney assembles and tests rocket engines at Stennis Space Center. Pratt & Whitney is part of United Technologies, which is buying Goodrich Corp., including its Alabama Service Center is in Foley, Ala.

GE Aviation is building a composites parts center near Hattiesburg, Miss.

- Speaking of propulsion systems, Continental Motors in Mobile, Ala., was chosen during the week by Germany's Flight Design to provide engines for its new four-seat airplane.

Continental, located at Brookley Aeroplex, hopes to sell engines for 50 of the planes in 2013, when production begins. That's projected to grow to 100 engines in 2014 and 200 in 2015. Continental's six-cylinder IO-360-AF engine will burn traditional leaded aviation gas as well as unleaded fuel. Earlier this year, China's AVIC International Holding Corp. bought Continental from Teledyne Technologies.

Advanced materials
Wind energy will overtake aerospace as the largest user of advanced composite materials, according to a research report. The overall market for advanced composites, based on carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, and grapheme, will more than triple to $25.8 billion by 2020, according to a report by Lux Research. In 2020, wind energy will account for nearly 60 percent of the market for composites, compared to the current 35 percent.

This region is heavily involved in composites work. The Gulf Coast is home to the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, which has an international reputation for its research into advanced materials. Southern Miss has been working with GE Aviation to manufacture composite jet engine parts at the still-to-be-built plant near Hattiesburg.

Airports
Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans was approved to join a select group of U.S. airports that can fly to and from Cuba. The U.S. government has loosened restrictions, allowing New Orleans and other international airports in the United States to apply to host flights. New Orleans and seven other airports were approved.

Travel is restricted to those with close relatives in Cuba, or those involved in the medical or agricultural business sectors. Travel for educational or religious activities is also permitted. The longstanding U.S.-imposed trade embargo and travel restrictions were designed to pressure the communist nation to move toward democracy.

- Delta Air Lines is eliminating direct flights to Memphis from Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi, Mobile Regional Airport in Alabama and Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport near Panama City, beginning Jan. 4. But in Gulfport, US Airways is adding a flight to Charlotte, N.C.

- UPS will close a sorting operation at Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Ala., and move the hub to Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport in Pensacola, Fla. Pensacola officials said the new sorting facility will create 30 jobs and open Oct. 31. UPS competitor FedEx still has a regional operation at Brookley.

Space
The first Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) military communications satellite built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy has successfully completed a major end-to-end system test, validating satellite performance and functionality with user ground terminals.

Completion of this key milestone confirms the system meets requirements and allows the satellite to proceed to final factory test activities prior to launch. MUOS will augment and replace the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Follow-On system (UFO) providing communications, including simultaneous voice, video and data, for mobile warfighters.

Work on the propulsion system for the MUOS, an A2100 satellite-based spacecraft, is done at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Tidbits from other fields
Armored vehicles: Textron Marine & Land Systems will refurbish 392 Army M1117 Armored Security Vehicles under a $19.8 million award. The program, which could expand with the exercise of two option years, is designed to reverse the effects of combat stress on the ASVs. The program’s objective is to return these ASVs to fully mission-capable, combat-ready assets, regardless of their current condition. Work will be performed at Textron Marine & Land Systems in New Orleans.
Shipbuilding: The Signet Constellation and the Signet Stars & Stripes were christened at Gulfport, Miss.-based Trinity Offshore during the week. Signet will use the RAstar 3100-class tugs to execute a 20-year marine transportation contract from Angola LNG Supply Services, which supplies liquefied natural gas to Gulf LNG Energy's $1.1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal in Pascagoula, Miss. … Mobile, Ala.-based Signal International Inc. says it’s won a contract to repair and upgrade the Henry Goodrich, a semisubmersible oil rig owned by Transocean. Work will begin at Signal's east yard in Pascagoula, Miss., and will last a little more than two months. ... Austal USA of Mobile, Ala., celebrated the beginning of fabrication for its third Joint High Speed Vessel by presenting an aluminum plaque to U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner. The company now has three JHSVs under construction.

Week in review (10/2 to 10/8)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:41:00 +0000

It was mentioned during the recent Aerospace Alliance summit in Sandestin, Fla., and now the Defense Department's newest annual report on industrial capabilities has underscored the growing problem.

The retirement of the science, technology, engineering and math workforce "could significantly impact the aerospace sector in the coming decade." The DoD's Annual Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress (September 2011) said replacing them "could be challenging due to declining interest in STEM as a career field, fewer STEM college graduates, and poor math and science proficiency in secondary education."

DoD points out that specialized skill sets, such as protected military satellite communications and intelligence payloads, "make the issue of a declining STEM workforce even more of a concern for the military space industrial base."

An estimate from 2006 said 70 percent of DoD STEM workers will be eligible to retire.

"The combined factors of low demand, reduced military spending, workforce retirements, and reduced labor pool entrants could threaten specialized skills. If lost, it could take significant cost and time to rebuild these skills for the military space industrial base," the report said.

This is hardly the first time the alarm has been raised. As far back as 2005, the National Academies' report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" warned that if this country doesn't do something to improve investments in science and technology, the United States would continue to slip against global competition. Five years later, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5," found, sadly, that we had slipped further.

If you want to give yourself a jolt, just take a look at the bullet points at the beginning of "Gathering Storm." Just focusing on some related to education, we find the United States is 48 in quality of mathematics and science education, 27 among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving undergraduate degrees in science or engineering, 20 in high school completion rate and 16th in college completion rate among industrialized nations.

Considering the budget crunch, the quote at the start of "Gathering Storm" from Nobel Laureate physicist Ernest Rutherford couldn't be more appropriate: "Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking."

For the Gulf Coast region this may actually be an incredible opportunity if we heed the warning and single ourselves out in something that would give us competitive advantage. The Southeast, including the four-state region along the Interstate 10 corridor, is already a major aerospace player. But we've got to look to the future and understand that one of the most important things this region can do is to start thinking about those fifth-grade and sixth-grade students, and establish a foundation for their future.

We are, unfortunately, a people who want immediate results, and sometimes it simply takes time before an investment pays off. Economic development officials face this all the time. They are grilled by political leaders and the public about the jobs they've helped create, not about what they've done to invest in the future for their children and grandchildren.

A Northrop Grumman executive told me a few years ago that in California, the aerospace industry competes against all the other sectors looking for engineers. He said back then that there's no reason why those engineers and other STEM workers couldn't be cultivated in this region.

What would be a real gift to our future generations is turning this region into a hot-spot for STEM education. And it can be done. The I-10 region is moving ahead on projects designed to pique the interest of young people in science fields. The Infinity Science Center near Stennis Space Center, Miss., GulfQuest in Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola's National Flight Academy will go a long way towards doing that. Wouldn't it be amazing to have this region known for its strong STEM emphasis?

Indeed. We've run out of money, ladies and gentlemen, and it's time to start thinking.

Now for the week in review.

Belt-tightening
Speaking of running out of money, the commander of the Air Armaments Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., warned participants at the 37th Air Armament Conference during the week that there's a "big target" painted on weapons development.

According to National Defense magazine, Major Gen. Kenneth D. Merchant told the military officers, government employees and contractors attending the Fort Walton Beach conference that while the projected cuts for fiscal year 2012 are relatively small, weapons programs can expect to take a disproportionate share of hits compared to personnel and operations accounts.

"It's not looking good," Merchant said. "The next few years are going to be very lean."

The Air Armaments Center oversees the development, procurement and testing of all Air Force air-delivered weapons.

Space
OK, all you folks who ever thought about being an astronaut. Here's your chance.

Early next month NASA will seek applicants for its next class of astronaut candidates who will support long-duration missions to the International Space Station and future deep space exploration activities.

"For scientists, engineers and other professionals who have always dreamed of experiencing spaceflight, this is an exciting time to join the astronaut corps," said Janet Kavandi, director of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This next class will support missions to the station and will arrive via transportation systems now in development. They also will have the opportunity to participate in NASA's continuing exploration programs that will include missions beyond low Earth orbit."

A bachelor's degree in engineering, science or math and three years of relevant professional experience are required. Typically, successful applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science, or extensive experience flying high-performance jet-aircraft. Additional information about the Astronaut Candidate Program is available by calling the Astronaut Selection Office at 281-483-5907.

Infinity
Getting excited about the opening of Infinity Science Center near Stennis Space Center, Miss., and wondering when it's going to finally launch? Well the building will be finished in October, but it will be a while before all the money is raised to pay for the exhibits. But you can take it in early next year.

A restaurant and initial exhibit showcasing earth and space science will open at Infinity in early 2012, according to the Sun Herald.

Infinity Science Center, expected to cost $42 million, is at Exit 2 of Interstate 10, south of the entrance to NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center. It will be both a state-of-the-art science center and a major visitor attraction.

F-35
A Marine F-35B marked a first when it made a safe vertical landing on the deck of the USS Wasp (LHD 1), according to the Navy. The first vertical landing is part of the initial ship trials for the F-35B, which started early in the week and is expected to last two weeks.

The tests will collect data on the aircraft's ability to perform short take-offs and vertical landings on a ship at sea, as well as determine how the aircraft integrates with the ship's landing systems, and deck and hangar operations. This test period will also collect environmental data on the deck through added instrumentation to measure the F-35B's impact to flight deck operations.

The F-35B is the variant of the Joint Strike Fighter capable of short take-offs and vertical landings for use on amphibious ships or expeditionary airfields. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the Joint Strike Fighter training center.

Bases
Two T-38 Talon jets from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., arrived at Tyndall late in the week, according to the Panama City News Herald. They are the first of 20 of the twin-engine jets slated to arrive and used to aid in the training of F-22 pilots. An estimated 100 jobs will be brought to Tyndall because of the T-38s arrival.

The T-38 is a high-altitude supersonic jet trainer used by the Texas-based Air Education and Training Command. At Tyndall, instead of using F-22s, F-15s or F-16s to simulate an enemy fighter, the Air Force will use the T-38 at a fraction of the cost.

The Air Force will eventually replace the T-38 and companies are jockeying for position to compete. See my column from last week and go down to the item under "Economic development" to learn more about the trainer competition.

- The FBI held a week-long post-blast school at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., late last month, according the Eglin officials. The Large Vehicle Bomb Post Blast School was attended by more than 50 state and local law enforcement officers as well as Navy and Air Force explosive ordnance disposal technicians. Crime scene investigators from 18 U.S. agencies participated.

There were four explosions, creating distinct "crime scenes" that included a roadside bomb. It was the 128th post-blast school class held by the FBI and only the second at Eglin. The class was dedicated to Tech. Sgt. Daniel Douville, an Eglin EOD technician who fell in the line of duty in June.

Week in review (9/25 to 10/1)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:22:00 +0000

When it came to aerospace news for the Gulf Coast during the week, there was just about something for everyone. Fascinated with space? Then word that portions of NASA's heavy-lift rocket will be built at Michoud Assembly Facility or the ongoing series of rocket engine tests at Stennis Space Center likely drew your attention. Military aviation? It looks like F-35s will take to the air at Eglin Air Force Base later this month, and a Navy darling – the Fire Scout – flew for the first time using biofuel. Economic development? Then the hint that Lake Charles, La., might build jet trainers would have interested you. One publication mentioned Mobile, Ala., as a possible build site for those trainers, while another quoted a senator as saying Airbus is looking at Mobile to build commercial jetliners.

One more thing. If you’re interested in dollar figures, some $644.7 million in DoD contracts with some ties to the Gulf Coast were awarded. OK, here's the rundown.

Space
When it comes to significant, it was pretty hard to top the news that came from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that NASA has chosen Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to build components of its new heavy-lift rocket. Vitter released a statement late in the week saying the decision is "big big news for southeast Louisiana."

Indeed, hundreds of jobs, perhaps a couple thousand, would come from that work. And that's good news for a facility that began seeing jobs disappear as the Space Shuttle program drew to a close.

For anyone closely following the space program, it really wasn't much of a surprise that Michoud would be chosen. Michoud was picked by NASA to build portions of the now-defunct Constellation program, and the same factors that prompted that decision hold true for the Space Launch System. It's a huge facility, 43 acres under one roof.

NASA plans to build several components at Michoud, including manufacturing core stage and upper stage, the instrument ring and integrating engines with core and upper stages, according to Vitter's release.

Meanwhile, some 40 miles away from Michoud at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., testing continues on engines that will be used not only by the SLS, but by private companies that are taking over the low-Earth orbit missions from NASA.

NASA conducted a 40-second test of the J-2X rocket engine, the most recent in a series of tests of the next-generation engine chosen as part of the Space Launch System. It was a test at the 99 percent power level to gain a better understanding of start and shutdown systems as well as modifications that had been made from previous test firing results.

The test came two weeks after NASA announced plans for the new SLS to be powered by core-stage RS-25 D/E and upper-stage J-2X engines. The liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen J-2X is being developed for NASA by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which has a major facility at SSC.

On the commercial side of the equation, engineers at SSC during the week conducted a test of an Aerojet AJ26 flight engine that will power the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corp's Taurus II space launch vehicle. Orbital will provide cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services research and development initiative.

The test on the E-1 Test Stand was performed by a team of Orbital, Aerojet and Stennis engineers. Data from the test will be reviewed and verified before the engine is delivered to the Wallops Flight Facility launch site in Virginia for installation on the Taurus II rocket's first-stage core.

- While on the topic of NASA, the agency is restructuring its contracting program as the agency's missions change. Contractors are anticipating a new initiative worth millions over nearly 10 years. The initiative, known as the Test and Operations Support Contract, covers ground systems work now being done by Boeing and the United Space Alliance.

The new program would provide NASA with services related to managing the ground systems used for flight launches, such as maintaining equipment, overseeing landings and performing simulations and experiments.

Economic development
OK, fans of the tanker competition. Here's another competition to keep your eye on. It hasn't officially started yet, but teams are being formed to compete for building the jet trainer that will replace the Air Force's T-38.

Aviation Week had a good overview of the posturing that's going on. Many foreign companies are expected to compete, and it's likely they'll insource manufacturing jobs to the United States. Think tanker, think arguements about American versus foreign, U.S. jobs versus foreign jobs. That message sunk in, no doubt.

BAE announced that Northrop Grumman will be its U.S. manufacturing lead for its Hawk-based candidate. Although both companies are keeping quiet about where the Hawk would be built, Aviation Week reports that Northrop has been hoping to secure work for its Lake Charles, La., plant.

BAE Systems is making an early pitch. Two UK Royal Air Force Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers will demonstrate their capabilities at U.S. Air Force bases nationwide, according to BAE Systems Inc. The company is offering the Hawk AJTS. The Navy for some time now has been using a Hawk. The T-45 Goshawk is a variant of the Hawk 60. But the BAE/Northrop team won’t be alone in this fight.

Alenia Aeronautica is still talking to potential partners, including Northrop, Boeing, Raytheon and L-3 Communications, and Jacksonville, Fla., is considered a potential site. And then there's the Lockheed Martin/Korea Aerospace Industries team and its T-50-based proposal. That site might be Lockheed's facility in Marietta, Ga. Mobile, Ala., is another option, according to Aviation Week.

OK, the above item is a good lead-in for this item. EADS is looking into whether it's feasible to build commercial airplanes in Mobile, Ala. That's according to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. In an interview with the Birmingham News after a symposium address, Shelby said that while EADS didn't win the competition against Boeing to build tankers for the Air Force, a loss that ended EADS' plans to put an assembly plant in Mobile, the senator said EADS's Airbus may end up building commercial airplanes in Mobile.

"They're looking to see if it's feasible," Shelby said. Shelby was a participant at a symposium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., hosted by GE Aviation, which is building an engine coatings plant in Auburn. GE Aviation also has an engine components plant in Batesville, Miss., and is building another one near Hattiesburg in South Mississippi.

- Speaking of GE Aviation, the Ohio-based company is marking 40 years in the commercial aviation business and feeling good about the future, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The company landed orders for more than $27 billion in engines and services at the Paris Air Show in June, and GE Aviation is ramping up production.

It added 1,000 jobs across its U.S. manufacturing operations over the past three years and plans to add another 1,000 over the next three years. That includes 200 jobs in Dayton, Ohio, 400 new jobs at two component plants in Mississippi and 400 more across its 20 U.S. operating plants. One of the Mississippi plants is in Ellisville, near Hattiesburg.

F-35
The F-35s at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., could be flying next month, according to Aviation Week. F-35 program officials are awaiting a clearance from the procurement community to begin flight operations at Eglin, a step closer to pilot training.

The Air Force is reviewing data collected during a period of "maturity flights" using two conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35As at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Tom Burbage, executive vice president of F-35 integration at Lockheed Martin, says he hopes to have the first F-35 flying at Eglin by Oct. 31. The F-35As at Eglin right now are supporting maintenance training.

Unmanned systems
The Navy reached a milestone in its quest to gain energy independence during the week when an MQ-8B Fire Scout, built in part in Moss Point, Miss., successfully flew the first unmanned biofueled flight.

The Fire Scout, tested in Maryland, was fueled with a combination of JP-5 aviation fuel and plant-based camelina. The biofuel blend reduces carbon dioxide output by 75 percent when compared to conventional aviation fuel.

The unmanned helicopter provides situational awareness, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting data to forward deployed warfighter, and can operate from all air capable ships and is currently providing ISR support during its first-land based deployment in U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

Fire Scout is the seventh aircraft to demonstrate the versatility of biofuel through its use in all facets of naval aviation.

Bases
For the second year in a row, Air Force Materiel Command selected Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., for the Commander-in-Chief's 2012 Annual Award for Installation Excellence. Eglin will compete against other command winners for the Air Force level award. Each finalist base will be visited by an inspection team next year. The winner is traditionally announced in April.

- A long-time member of Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., has closed its doors. The Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory closed Sept. 2 and moved to new facilities at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The move of the lab, which employed 65, was dictated by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005. Wright-Patterson is headquarters of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Contracts
During the week, L-3 Vertex Aerospace of Madison, Miss., was a huge winner, landing four contracts. It was awarded a $139 million contract modification for logistics support for the T -1A aircraft at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., and several Air Force bases. It was also awarded a $123 million modification for logistics services and materials for organizational, intermediate, and depot-level maintenance required to support 36 T-45A, and 168 T-45C, aircraft based at Naval Air Station Pensacola, NAS Meridian, Miss., NAS Kingsville, Texas, and NAS Patuxent River, Md. In addition, the company was awarded a $23.5 million contract for contractor logistics support and Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department support for the T-39 Undergraduate Military Flight Officer Training Program. This also provides intermediate level maintenance and support for Chief of Naval Air Training aircraft, transient aircraft, tenant, and other services activities at the NAS Pensacola and NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. Finally, L-3 was also awarded an $11.3 million modification for trainer maintenance at Sheppard Air Force-Base, Texas, and satellite site at NAS Pensacola, Fla. … Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $187 million modification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract, providing additional funding for recurring sustainment support, and system engineering sustainment activities necessary to meet the requirement and delivery schedule of this low rate initial production, lot five, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Much of the work, 60 percent, will be performed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. … Rolls-Royce Defense Services Inc., Indianapolis, Ind., was awarded a $99.9 million modification to a previously awarded contract to exercise an option for intermediate and depot-level maintenance and related support for in-service T-45 F405-RR-401 Adour engines under the power-by-the-hour arrangement. In addition, this modification provides for inventory control, sustaining engineering and configuration management, as well as integrated logistics support and required engineering elements necessary to support the F405-RR-401 engine at the organization level. Work will be performed at the NAS Kingsville, Texas, NAS Meridian, Miss., NAS Pensacola, Fla., and NAS Patuxent River, Md. … Sikorsky Support Services Inc., Pensacola, Fla., was awarded a $49.6 million modification to a previously awarded contract to exercise an option for logistics services and materials for organizational, intermediate, and depot level maintenance to support 273 T-34, 54 T-44 and 62 T-6 aircraft based primarily at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, NAS Whiting Field, Fla. and NAS Pensacola, Fla. Work will be performed in Corpus Christi, Whiting Field and Pensacola … Amherst Systems Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., was awarded an $11.4 million contract to provide sustaining engineering services support on government-owned B-1, B-2, B-52, and fighter test facilities' threat simulations. AAC/PKES, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.

Week in review (9/18 to 9/24)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 19:19:00 +0000

A major player in the aerospace and defense industries, United Technologies, is on its way to increasing the size of its aerospace footprint in the Gulf Coast region with the planned purchase of aircraft-component maker Goodrich Corp.

The deal, valued at $18.4 billion, is subject to customary approvals, but once completed, United Technologies is expected to have worldwide sales of $66 billion based on projected 2011 results, and a stronger position in the aerospace and defense industry.

Both Goodrich and United Technologies have operations in the Gulf Coast region. Goodrich operates the Alabama Service Center in Foley, Ala., with some 750 employees who make and repair engine cowlings, called nacelles. United Technologies owns Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which is a tenant at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss. At SSC Pratt & Whitney assembles and tests rocket engines, including the RS-68A and J-2X engines – both important to the nation's space program.

"We are on the eve of a substantial ramp-up" for the commercial aviation industry, UT chief executive Louis Chenevert said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "With the addition of Goodrich we really strengthened our aerospace position."

Chenevert's comments echoed what industry leaders said during last week's Aerospace Alliance Summit held in Sandestin, Fla. At that summit, participants pointed out that the aerospace industry, notably commercial aviation, is growing, and that the Gulf Coast region needs to prepare for it. This region already has a wide range of activities, and is hungry for more.

United Technologies, of Hartford, Conn., has a diversified list of products that include Carrier heating and air conditioning, Hamilton Sundstrand aerospace systems, Otis elevators and escalators, Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines, Sikorsky helicopters, UTC Fire & Security systems and UTC Power fuel cells. After the deal to buy Goodrich, nearly half of United Technologies' revenue will come from aerospace.

United Technologies, the 44th largest U.S. corporation, is ranked among Barron's list of the world's most respected companies. In 2011 Fortune named it No. 1 "Most Admired" aerospace and defense company. It's the 16th largest U.S. manufacturer and 112th largest company in the world. It has more than 4,000 locations in more than 70 countries, and does business in about 180 countries.

Goodrich, based in Charlotte, N.C., is a major supplier of landing gear, aircraft wheels and brakes to the aerospace and defense industry. Goodrich will be combined with Hamilton Sundstrand in a new unit that will be based in Charlotte.

Space
Speaking of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, the company successfully completed a series of hot-fire tests on the certified RS-68A engine, the world's most powerful hydrogen-fueled engine, at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss.

The tests demonstrated the capability of the engine to operate for 4,800 seconds of cumulative run time, four times the design life of the engine and more than 10 times what's needed to boost a United Launch Alliance heavy-lift rocket into space.

The RS-68A, which evolved from the RS-68, is a liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen booster engine designed for the Delta IV family of launch vehicles. In addition, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and NASA have begun testing on the upper-stage J-2X engine. To date, five hot-fire tests have been conducted on the J-2X, which could be used to boost humans beyond low-Earth orbit.

Education
The Stennis (Space Center) Education Office in Mississippi has released its new "Food for Thought" teaching curriculum and interactive website. It uses the idea of food in space to teach students such topics as caloric content and nutritional value of food, while challenging them to build space robots, design a better microgravity coffee cup and create a space cookie recipe.

The curriculum is the third produced by the Stennis education team, all within the last 15 months. It's part of NASA's Teaching from Space initiative, designed to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning by students.

The folks who participated in that Aerospace Alliance Summit in Sandestin, Fla., would be applauding this. At the summit they heard aerospace companies say the region has to really make a push to get children interested in science, technology, engineering and math - STEM education. These Teaching from Space initiatives shows NASA's SSC is doing its part.

Contracts
Jacobs Technology Inc., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was awarded $42.4 million under a
previously awarded contract to continue information technology services until the transition to the next generation Enterprise Network is accomplished. Work will be performed in Quantico, Va., and is expected to be completed in June 2014. … L-3 Communications Systems Field Support, Vertex Aerospace LLC., Madison, Miss., was awarded a $48.8 million modification to a previously awarded contract to exercise an option for aircraft maintenance and logistical life cycle support for 66 C-12 aircraft for the Navy and the Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Texas, Nebraska, Canada, Arizona, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Florida, California, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Japan, Cuba and Bahrain. Work is expected to be completed in September 2012. … Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, Calif., was awarded a $17 million contract for the Rapid Deployment Capability Weaponization Program in support of the MQ-8B Fire Scout. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and Grand Rapids, Mich., and is expected to be completed in March 2013. … Del-Jen Inc., Clarksville, Tenn., was awarded a $24.6 million modification under a previously awarded contract to exercise option four, for base operations support services at Naval Air Station Pensacola and surrounding areas. The work to be performed provides for public works administration including labor, management, supervision, materials, supplies and more. Work will be performed in Pensacola and is expected to be completed by September 2012.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Jackson County, Miss., leaders are inviting companies to bid on a $20 million maritime training facility to be built on Ingalls Shipbuilding property. On Monday, the Board of Supervisors and Port Authority's Board of Commissioners passed a joint resolution to advertise bid on the federally funded shipbuilding academy. The project, funded through a Hurricane Katrina community development block grant, will help Ingalls expand its two- to four-year apprentice program to about 1,000 students, leaders have said. Construction on the 76,000-square-foot facility is expected to take 18 months.
Marine science: The Destin-based nonprofit AquaGreen wants to build a marine life center in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on Okaloosa Island. The pitch for the proposed fish hatchery and aquarium was made to Okaloosa County commissioners at a board meeting. The county owns a 35-acre parcel on the north side of U.S. Highway 98 where the group wants the aquarium. AquaGreen’s facility would include a 30,000-square-foot interactive aquarium and 50,000 square feet of hatcheries, nurseries, classrooms and labs.
Advanced materials: The University of Southern Mississippi School of Polymers and High Performance Materials unveiled the Sidney Lauren Memorial Center, located in the Polymer Science Research Center. Lauren, who died in 2010, was a longtime figure in the coatings industry and helped provide money for scholarships to Southern Miss' polymer science students in his capacity as on-and-off director of the Washington, D.C.-based Coatings Industry Education Foundation.

Week in review (9/11 to 9/17)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:33:00 +0000

There were several messages that came through loud and clear at the two-day Aerospace Alliance Summit held at the end of the week in Northwest Florida’s Sandestin.

One is that the region should place a big emphasis on interesting a new generation of Gulf Coast residents in the science, technology, engineering and math training that’s essential to the high-paying and healthy aerospace industry.

Another: The Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi region has an incredibly diverse level of activity in aerospace, and should continue to pursue a wide variety of aerospace-related enterprises, from unmanned systems to weapons development and more.

Oh yes, one more thing: Gene Goldman, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., pointed out that the Space Launch System that NASA is pursuing - see the more detailed item below - will benefit Marshall, Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Organizers were pleased with the turnout for the inaugural summit, which will be an annual event. About 140 people, ranging from company representatives to economic development officials, turned out for the summit organized by the Aerospace Alliance, formed more than two years ago to represent the aerospace interests of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The four states have aerospace activities throughout the region, including Huntsville, the Golden Triangle in east central Mississippi and the Space Coast of Florida. One cluster is along the Gulf Coast Interstate 10 corridor between South Louisiana and Northwest Florida, the only one that involves portions of all four states.

The I-10 region's aerospace footprint includes space activities, aerial weapons development, military aviator training and testing ranges. It’s where the first F-35 training center is being established, and is also where portions of unmanned aerial vehicles are built. The region includes major domestic and foreign aerospace companies.

The Sunshine State is actually a late entry to the group. Up to now it's interests have been represented by Florida's Great Northwest, a regional economic group that represents well over a dozen counties in Northwest Florida.

"Florida is proud to be a partner, a full partner," Florida lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, told the gathering. She pointed out that aerospace is near and dear to her heart. She was involved in the field when she was in the military.

Gray Swoope, Florida's secretary of commerce, thanked Florida's Great Northwest for representing the state's interests "before we got the message."

"Nobody can touch us, the resources that we have in these four states combined in aviation, in space, in the aerospace industry anywhere in the world. And we have a unique opportunity together in the four states to tell our story," said Swoope, who is former head of the Mississippi Development Authority.

Industry officials raised the alarm about education, indicating it would be the best way to help ensure the region's future role in aerospace.

J.R. McDonald, vice president of Lockheed Martin's Northwest Florida operations, pointed to a sobering number. He said that when he gave a similar talk in 2009, the number of Lockheed Martin employees was 146,000. The company has shed 20,000 employees in two years.

But he also said the company has a current and future need for engineers and people with science and technology degrees. Lockheed Martin hires 5 percent of every engineering and technical student that graduates from the United States - about 4,000 to 5,000 per year.

Lockheed Martin has put a lot of money and effort into supporting science, technology, engineering and math programs, even down the middle school level to encourage students to enter the field. Lockheed Martin expects growth in the company's information technology and electronics systems group.

David Trent, site director of the Airbus Engineering Center in Mobile, Ala., said workers at the center, which opened a little more than four years ago, come from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. He praised the work of the Aerospace Alliance and suggested it should next set its sights on helping educate the future generations to work in the aerospace industry.

"We suspect over the next 20 years that there will be a demand for procurement of almost 26,000 new commercial aircraft in the world," he said, and the region needs to prepare for that.

"We were attracted to Mobile and this region because of the infrastructure that was in place," he said. But added that the company did have to bring in many engineers. Trent suggested an effort be made to begin interesting children in the field as early as the fifth grade level.

"The question is always, where's the workforce coming from, and I can't stress enough this idea of you've got to have world-class public education in this region and a real strong concentration on STEM," he said.

Jeanne Edwards, plant leader at GE Aviation in Batesville, Miss., said that of the 344 workers at the Batesville plant, which opened in 2008, 20 percent have degrees. The company recently announced another plant near Hattiesburg, and will break ground soon on a plant in Auburn, Ala. It also has a presence in Jacksonville and Clearwater, Fla.

She said that while much of the company's revenue is generated from outside the United States, GE Aviation is putting a huge amount of money into manufacturing jobs in the United States.

"If GE didn't see the future that we do with our backlog in aviation, we wouldn't be making the investment in manufacturing facilities," said Edwards. She said that by 2012 the Batesville operation will have 475 employees and will have invested of $100 million in infrastructure and equipment.

"That kind of investment hasn't happened in GE for a long time, at least in the aviation sector. So I think the growth that we’re anticipating is echoed by our commitment to adding jobs and building facilities in America."

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis with the Teal Group, was particularly struck by how the Gulf Coast region has changed in the 27 or 28 years since he biked from New Orleans to Jacksonville. He said it's certainly become more high-tech.

"I never thought back then that I'd be here with you today talking about improving the aerospace cluster that's obviously developed very nicely in this area, so it's a real treat to be back," he said.

He pointed out that even in the downturn, the aerospace sector did well. He said that just considering Boeing and Airbus, the commercial jetliner market is a $110 billion enterprise, with a like amount through after-market and support that more than doubles that amount – a $300 billion a year enterprise on the world stage.

"That, in a nutshell, is why as a cluster you want to be part of this," he said. "A regional approach is absolutely essential," he said, adding that the Gulf Coast has a great combination of capabilities. "This would appear to be a natural place to put work."

And what are the opportunities for this region?

"What you're good at now is what you should accentuate. This is one of the most varied aerospace cluster regions that I've ever seen," with everything from unmanned aerial systems to aerostructures and composite materials. "More of the same in my way of thinking."

In other regional aerospace news during the past week:

Space
NASA unveiled plans for the Space Launch System rocket, designed to take astronauts into deep space. Administrator Charles Bolden said during a news conference that the heavy-lift SLS, more powerful than the Saturn V that launched astronauts to the Moon, will fly in 2017. It will allow astronauts to reach asteroids and Mars.

SLS will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as cargo, equipment and science experiments. It will serve as a backup for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station.

It will use technologies from the Space Shuttle and Constellation programs to leverage proven hardware and tooling and manufacturing technology. It will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, which will include the RS-25D/E from the Space Shuttle for the core stage and the J-2X engine for the upper stage.

Stennis Space Center, Miss., does rocket engine testing and assembly of the J-2X. Michoud Assembly Facilities has been working on Orion.

Construction in fact, has begun on Orion, the first new NASA spacecraft built to take humans to orbit since space shuttle Endeavour left the factory in 1991. Engineers at Michoud started welding together the first space-bound Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

The first welds were completed using an innovative new friction stir welding process, developed especially for Orion construction. The process creates a seamless, leak-proof bond that has proven stronger and higher in quality than can be achieved with conventional welding.

After welding is completed at Michoud, the Orion spacecraft orbital test article will be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the heat shield will be installed. At Kennedy, it will undergo final assembly and checkout operations for flight.

Contracts
Rehabilitation Services Mississippi, Madison, Miss., was awarded an $8.1 million contract modification to provide full food services at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. The 81st Contracting Squadron, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., is the contracting activity.

Week in review (9/4 to 9/10)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:52:00 +0000

Anyone interested in aerospace in this region may want to attend the inaugural Aerospace Alliance Summit Thursday and Friday, Sept. 15 and 16, at Sandestin Gulf and Beach Resort in Florida. The focus will be the future of aerospace in the Gulf Coast region and nation in an age of tight budgets.

The summit is hosted by the Aerospace Alliance, a partnership of the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida's Great Northwest. Organizers say the summit will be attended by state and local economic development leaders. There also will be representatives from NASA, a major aerospace player in the region, as well as analysts and economists.

On Friday there's a moderated panel on "State Industry Perspectives" with representatives from Lockheed Martin, Airbus, Aeroframe and GE Aviation. That company recently announced plans to build a composite engine parts plant in Ellisville, Miss., north of Hattiesburg.

There will also be a panel discussion on the near-term future of defense and commercial spending. Panel participatnes will be from the Teal Group, Morgan Keegan and ITT. The summit ends at 2 p.m. Friday.

Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi have aerospace activities throughout the region, including Huntsville, Ala., the Golden Triangle in east central Mississippi and the Space Coast of Florida. One cluster is along the Gulf Coast Interstate 10 corridor between South Louisiana and Northwest Florida, the only one that involves portions of all four states.

The I-10 region's aerospace footprint includes space activities, aerial weapons development, military aviator training and testing ranges. It's where the first F-35 training center is being established, and is also where portions of the Fire Scout and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles are built. The region includes major domestic and foreign aerospace companies.

It you want more information on the summit, visit the Aerospace Alliance Web site.

Unmanned
The Navy will award Northrop Grumman a contract to supply 28 MQ-8C Fire Scout "rapid deployment capability" unmanned helicopters using the larger Bell 407 helicopter airframe to increase endurance and payload, according to Aviation Week.

The notice of intent says the aircraft are to be fielded by the first quarter of 2014. The Navy also evaluated the Boeing Hummingbird and Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max, but opted for the 407 airframe jointly developed by Northrop Grumman and Bell as the Fire-X and first flown in December.

The MQ-8C will use the same systems as the MQ-8B Fire Scout, which is based on the smaller Schweizer 333 helicopter airframe. That aircraft has been successfully deployed aboard Navy ships and has also seen use on land in Afghanistan.

One of those Fire Scouts was also shot down over Libya, but the Navy is planning to arm them in the future. (Story)

The smaller Fire Scouts are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.

- Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush said his company, which in addition to the Fire Scout builds the Global Hawk unmanned surveillance plane, can bolster its international sales of unmanned systems.

He also said at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit that he felt the U.S. government was taking steps to try to loosen export curbs on some arms. The Obama administration has been consulting Congress on plans to sell unmanned Global Hawks to South Korea. International sales currently are less than 10 percent of Northrop Grumman’s overall sales.

Like the Fire Scout, portions of Global Hawks are built in Moss Point.

New business
The St. Joe Co. officially welcomed to Panama City, Fla., ITT Corp.'s mine defense business to the VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre at West Bay, the development's first corporate tenant. According to the Panama City Herald, ITT will be moving into a 105,000-square-foot facility.

VentureCrossings is St. Joe's initial project in the West Bay Sector Plan, a 75,000-acre development that will include office, industrial, manufacturing, hotel, retail and residential uses. Sites offer direct ramp access and access to the 10,000-foot runway at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

Contracts
CYE Enterprises Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., was awarded a $25 million contract to furnish all plants, materials, labor, equipment, and all operations in connection with repairing and replacing roofs, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. AAC/PKOA, Eglin Air Force Base, is the contracting activity. … Jacobs Technology Inc., Tullahoma, Tenn., was awarded a $20.3 million contract modification to provide technical, engineering, and acquisition support at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. AAC/PKES, Eglin Air Force Base is the contracting activity.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Ingalls Shipbuilding was awarded a $482.8 million contract from the U.S. Coast Guard for the construction of a fifth National Security Cutter. Construction of the yet-to-be-named WMSL 754 will be done in Pascagoula, Miss., facility. … In Mobile, Ala., Austal USA rolled its first Joint High-Speed Vessel out of the shed and onto a dry dock floating in the Mobile River, according to the Mobile Press-Register. The ship is slated to be delivered to the Navy early next year. … The Gosport reports that the USS Independence, the littoral combat ship built at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., will be at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., on Sept. 12 for shipboard mission module testing over the next several weeks. … The amphibious transport dock ship USS New York is in New York City to participate in events honoring the victims and responders from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The ship, whose bow as made with steel recovered from the destroyed World Trade Center, was built by Northrop Grumman shipyard, now part of Huntington Ingalls Industries, in Avondale, La.

Week in review (8/28 to 9/3)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:33:00 +0000

Two more F-35s arrive at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., more workers for the Northrop Grumman Fire Scout program in California, concerns over cuts to the nation's hurricane tracking programs - including the Hurricane Hunters in Biloxi, Miss. - and Eglin awarding of more than $800 million in contracts highlighted Gulf Coast aerospace news during the week.

F-35
Two Lockheed Martin F-35As arrived at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., this week, joining two earlier arrivals that will be used for training pilots and maintainers at the new F-35 Integrated Training Center.

The jets left Wednesday from Fort Worth, Texas, along with two F-16 escorts for the 90-minute flight. The two F-35s are AF-10 and AF-11 from the second lot of low-rate production aircraft.

Speaking of the F-35, Texas Rep. Kay Granger has called Friday for increased production of the Joint Strike Fighter, and suggested that its critics, like Sen. John McCain, visit the mile-long factory before continuing to push for cuts in the Defense Department's largest weapons program.

The remarks came after a tour of the facility with Florida Rep. Jeff Miller, whose district includes Eglin Air Force Base, where F-35 pilots and maintainers will be trained. Both said that when Congress reconvenes next week, members should consider the nation's security goals before cutting into defense programs. (Story)

Unmanned systems
Northrop Grumman will add 100 workers in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., to enable the company to continue developing its Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle and a larger version called Fire-X. About 200 employees are already assigned to the program.

The company also is negotiating with the Navy to add weapons to Fire Scout, says George Vardoulakis, Northrop's vice president of tactical unmanned systems.

The Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, Miss., builds portions of the Fire Scout.

Federal cuts
There are concerns that budget cuts could jeopardize future accurate hurricane forecasting. Proposed cuts in the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and in funding for new satellites could undermine the National Hurricane Center's forecasting ability.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson told reporters in a visit to NHC headquarters in Miami that there was also talk about possible Defense Department cuts to funding for the 10 C-130 Super Hercules "hurricane hunter" planes based in Biloxi, Miss. He vowed that the proposed cuts would be halted in the Senate.

Weapons testing
BAE Systems, Boeing, and the Navy recently conducted a successful test of the Mk 38 MOD 2 Tactical Laser System concept at Eglin Air Force Base in Eglin, Fla. The concept is a proposed high energy laser addition to the Mk 38 naval gun systems currently deployed on most surface combatants.

The test system fired against air and surface maritime targets. Additionally, swarm tests were conducted to simulate an attack by a large number of fast, maneuvering small boats, intermingled with neutral boat traffic. These tests demonstrated a consistent ability to detect, track, classify and engage threat vessels at tactically relevant ranges.

Sensors
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin signed a five-year deal to further sensors technology. The cooperative research and development agreement with Air Force Research Laboratory will assess the viability of Lockheed's cooled tri-mode seeker for integration onto Air Force weapon platforms.

The seeker combines several sensors and a radar that run simultaneously and share information in flight. The work will be done with AFRL's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., according to the Dayton Business Journal.

Contracts
MacAulay-Brown Inc., Dayton, Ohio, was awarded a $26 million order for information technology and intelligence services. Specialized Contracting, HQ AFSOC/A7KQ, Hurlburt Field, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Raytheon Co., Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $569 million contract modification for air-to-air missiles and test vehicles and equipment, software and logistic support. It includes foreign military sales. AAC/EBAC, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … InDyne Inc., Reston, Va., was awarded a $192.8 million contract which exercises option two, fiscal 2012 and 2013, of Eglin Test and Training Complex Range operations and maintenance for test and training areas, and technical facilities. AAC/PKET, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $14.4 million contract modification to provide of 602 Joint Direct Attack Munitions. Air Armament Center/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … EADS North American Defense, Arlington, Va., was awarded a $43.8 million contract to provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure 32 security and support mission equipment package production cut-in. Work will be performed in Columbus, Miss.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead visited Austal USA's Mobile, Ala., shipyard and called it "a model for others to follow." He said he's excited about the commitment and innovation that's gone into the shipyard, which he considers on the leading edge of shipbuilding. … Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Miss., celebrated the "start of fabrication" of the U.S. Coast Guard's fourth National Security Cutter, Hamilton. … BAE Systems, Boeing, and the Navy recently conducted a successful test of the Mk 38 MOD 2 Tactical Laser System concept at Eglin Air Force Base in Eglin, Fla. The concept is a proposed high energy laser addition to the Mk 38 naval gun systems currently deployed on most surface combatants.
Marine science: The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative will use $112.5 million to fund eight research teams over the next three years to study the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. Universities with operations along the Gulf Coast that are participating in one or more teams include the University of Southern Mississippi, University of West Florida, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, Florida State University and the University of Mississippi. Also participating will be Mobile’s Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Naval Research Laboratory, which has a detachment at Stennis Space Center, Miss.
Advanced materials: Pennsylvania-based stainless steel scrap recycler Cronimet Corp. plans to locate a manufacturing facility in Pensacola, Fla., in early November, creating 15 manufacturing and administrative jobs. Cronimet recovers and reprocesses stainless steel and high-grade alloys for manufacturers. … The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss., hopes to get approval for a new undergraduate degree program in polymer sciences engineering. It will be the only polymer engineering major in the state.

Week in review (8/21 to 8/27)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:55:00 +0000

Stennis Space Center, Miss., has been a big economic engine for the region for years. The federal facility is home to NASA's rocket testing facilities and 30 other agencies, including the Navy and its oceanography operations. SSC had a direct global economic impact in 2010 of $875 million. In a 50-mile radius the impact was $616 million.

Not bad at all. But in the past couple of years the 14,000 acre site, surrounded by a 124,000 acre buffer zone, seems to be gearing up to become even more of a powerhouse in the region. In October 2009, 3,900 acres of NASA land at Stennis Space Center received "Project Ready" certification by Mississippi Power.

The Project Ready program highlights areas that are near utilities and ready for development. At the time, SSC officials pointed out that there's even more acreage, but that the 3,900 acres are all close to roads and utilities and it would be well-suited for aerospace companies and others that are either national in scope or somehow involved in space activities.

Then last week NASA got more acreage along with more building space. The former Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant, initially designed to make munitions, was formally turned over by the Army to NASA. That provides an additional 1.6 million square feet to what NASA already controls at SSC. The increase is considerable – about 33 percent more.

The Army plant hasn't made munitions since 1990 and was deactivated in 1992. About half the space is already occupied by a dozen employers, including Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, the Government Printing Office, Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage.

One of the reasons this is so significant is because NASA is pushing much of its near-Earth work to commercial companies so it can concentrate on missions into deep space. The thinking is SSC is a great location for companies interested in either of those activities.

Now consider this: About 40 miles away from SSC is NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in east New Orleans. There's a lot of available space at that facility, which is no longer making external tanks for the Space Shuttle program, and there's also some 800 acres NASA would like to turn into an advanced manufacturing park. Combined the Stennis-Michoud area appears to have a lot of potential.

For some background on the Gulf Coast's space activities, click here.

F-35
The Air Force officially rolled out the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter during a ceremony late in the week at the 58th Fighter Squadron Hanger at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. According to press reports, hundreds of people attended the event, hosted by Gen. Edward Rice, Air Education and Training Command commander.

Eglin is home of the F-35 training center, where pilots and maintainers from the Air Force, Navy, Marines and foreign nations will train with three variants of the fighter. Florida Sen. Don Gaetz said the F-35 will have a big impact on Northwest Florida.

- The production version of the F-35 has been cleared to fly, according to Lockheed Martin. As pointed out in a story in the Air Force Times, the entire JSF fleet was grounded Aug. 2 after one jet suffered a malfunction of the integrated power package. A dozen instrumented test aircraft were OKd to fly Aug. 18, and now a half-dozen production jets, including two at Eglin, can take to the air.

Weapons
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin signed a five-year deal to further sensors technology. The cooperative research and development agreement signed Friday will assess the viability of Lockheed's cooled tri-mode seeker for integration into Air Force weapon platforms. The work will be done with the Air Force Research Lab's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., according to the Dayton Business Journal.

Airport
Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, which opened in May 2010, hopes a $475,000 federal grant will help it plan for future expansion, according to the Panama City News Herald. The Transportation Department grant will be used to hire a company to develop short- and long-term forecasts for future passenger traffic. Last month the airport, north of Panama City, Fla., marked the million-passenger milestone.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The University of New Orleans received $306,216 from the Department of Defense to buy equipment that features a welding technique that has been used on the space shuttle's external tank. The friction stir welding equipment will be used on ships, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Marine science: The Mobile Press-Register reported during the week that oil was found floating on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Later in the week BP and the U.S. Coast Guard's Gulf Coast Incident Management Team conducted a visual inspection of the well, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and said there is no release of oil occurring at the well. … A year ago, at the height of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, much of the seafloor off the Alabama coast was dead. But things look much different now. Several times this spring the Mobile Press-Register returned to three natural gas platforms visited during the summer of 2010. Instead of swimming through a dead sea and finding oxygen levels far below the threshold required to support marine animals, there was abundant life.
Advanced materials: Three University of Southern Mississippi professors and a team of 10 students have come up with an experimental substance to help clean up an oil spill, according to the Hattiesburg American. The substance is renewable and non-toxic and made from plants. The two key ingredients are cellulose and soy lecithin.

Week in review (8/14 to 8/20)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:46:00 +0000

The Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration plan to carve out between four and 10 "bubbles" in civilian airspace to test unmanned aerial systems. That's the word from Steve Pennington, executive director of the Defense Policy Board on Federal Aviation. (Story)

The test bubbles will provide the Department of Defense and the FAA with space to show that unmanned systems can fly in heavily-traveled commercial airspace in all conditions. That may be particularly important in light of the incident during the week when a 12-foot long Shadow drone with a 20-foot wingspan and a C-130 collided in Afghanistan.

The sites will not be co-located with existing DoD sites that have been cleared to fly unmanned systems in the United States, but the new airspace sites will likely butt up against those DoD-owned sites. DoD will begin preliminary site selection by the end of 2012, Pennington said.

It appears to me that this region is perfect for one of the sites, or perhaps more. South Mississippi has two locations cleared for unmanned flights. One is at Stennis Space Center near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line, and the other is in and around Moss Point, not far from the Mississippi-Alabama state line.

Unmanned systems also fly at Eglin Air Force Base in Northwest Florida, which also has been a test site for cruise missiles for years. Considering the Gulf Coast also has ranges in the Gulf of Mexico, it almost appears to be a no-brainer that this region will be considered. And if the idea is to show that the drones can fly in heavily-traveled commercial airspace, this region fits the bill. There are commercial airports in New Orleans, Gulfport, Miss., Mobile, Ala., and Florida’s Pensacola, Eglin and Panama City. The region also has plenty of military flights.

We'll let you know how this search develops.

- While on the topic of unmanned systems, the Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, which is built in part in Moss Point,, Miss., may soon head to sea with air-to-surface missiles. The drone, which recently finished its second deployment, will start carrying weapons in addition to its array of sensors used for surveillance missions. (Story)

And that seems to be increasingly important. A Fire Scout was shot down over Libya during a deployment, and had it been armed it might have been able to respond to a perceived threat. It will also give ground operators a change to engage targets of opportunity that might otherwise get away.

The Navy picked a laser-guided 70mm rocket, BAE Systems' Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, as the initial weapon because it has existing safety approval for deployment on ships. But Northrop Grumman will conduct a demonstration of Raytheon's Griffin, a 35-pount tube launched laser-guided mini-missile, later this month.

This wouldn't be a first for the Fire Scount. The Navy test-fired an armed version in 2005.

- Also during the week, the Pentagon approved the requirement for an "endurance upgrade" to the Fire Scout. That means the Navy likes Northrop Grumman's idea of using the proven Fire Scout systems on a larger airframe, in this case the Bell 407. The increased payload and range is designed to support special operations forces. (Story)

The program office evaluated the Boeing A160T Hummingbird and Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopters, but recommended using the Bell 407 airframe, Capt. Patrick Smith, the Navy's Fire Scout program manager, said at the AUVSI International show in Washington.

The program office’s recommendation has yet to be endorsed by Navy leadership, but Northrop and Bell are already jointly developing an unmanned version of the civil Bell 407 light turbine helicopter, called the Fire-X, which first flew in December.

The MQ-8C will be developed within 24 months, with deployment in 2014. Plans to acquire 28 air vehicles over three years.

- Speaking of drones and Eglin, I mentioned above that cruise missiles have been tested in this region for years. Well on July 20 a Tomahawk was fired from the USS Normandy off the coast of south Florida, navigated through the Gulf of Mexico and hit a target at the Eglin Air Force Base weapons range. It marked the 500 test flights for the Tomahawk. (Story)

The cruise missile has been in service for more than 30 years, but Navy officials point out that testing and training of personnel is still essential. It can be launched from over 140 Navy ships and submarines and has been used in every major combat operation since Desert Storm in 1991. The 2,000th combat missile was recently launched against Libyan air defense systems.

F-35
The F-35 test fleet has been cleared for flight, but the Air Force's production aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., are still grounded, the Pentagon said during the week.

An Air Force safety board is continuing its investigation of the failure of the AF-4’s Integrated Power Package on Aug. 2, which led to the grounding of the fleet of 20 aircraft. Ground operations of the test fleet resumed Aug. 10.

Command change
Maj. Gen. Kenneth A. Merchant assumed command of the Air Armament Center from Maj. Gen. C.R. Davis Friday. Merchant's previous assignment was director at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., where he was director of Logistics, Headquarters, Air Mobility Command. Davis will assume command of the Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., Sept. 1, the same day he's promoted to lieutenant general. Also Friday, Col. David A. Harris, Vice Commander, Air Armament Center, pinned on the rank of brigadier general.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards announced its first contract to build a new ship from scratch at its facility in Mobile, Ala. Weeks Marine Inc. hired BAE to build a 356-foot-long dredging vessel. The contract is worth $85 million. … The Justice Department has accused Bollinger Shipyards Inc. of Lockport, La., of falsifying data that led the Coast Guard to contract with the firm to lengthen eight deepwater cutters, all of which turned out "unseaworthy and unusable." The suit seeks unspecified damages. Bollinger said the company has a spotless record for honest and fair dealings. … Local 441 of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after a failed attempt earlier this month to organize Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. Workers vote 613-367 against unionizing. … Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., was awarded a $7 million option exercise modification to a previously awarded contract for management and engineering services to maintain and modify as necessary the design of DDG 51-class combat system compartments and topside arrangements, in support of the program executive officer Integrated Warfare Systems. Twenty-two percent of the work will be done in Pascagoula, Miss. … BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for a steel profile processing system. BAE will use the money for an automated system for cutting and welding stiffening profiles to steel plates on ships. … Huntington Ingalls Industries, Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded an $11 million modification to previously awarded contract for research, development, test, and technical services for the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer. Eighty percent of the work will be done in Pascagoula, Miss., and 20 percent in Gulfport, Miss.

Week in review (8/7 to 8/13)

noreply@blogger.com (David Tortorano) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:14:00 +0000

An upcoming aerospace summit, a visit by the Atlantis crew to two NASA facilities, the role of Eglin’s 20th Space Control Squadron in the shuttle program, more signs of growth in the unmanned aerial systems field and word that Rolls-Royce is looking to expand its engine testing footprint in the United States all highlighted the Gulf Coast region's aerospace news during the week.

Aerospace summit
If you follow aerospace activities in the Gulf Coast region - and my guess is you do since you read this column - you'll be interested in a summit being held next month in Northwest Florida. The future of aerospace and aviation in the region and nation will be the focus of the Aerospace Alliance Summit, Sept. 15-16 at Sandestin Golf and Beach and Resort.

The summit is hosted by the Aerospace Alliance, a partnership of the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida's Great Northwest. The group's goal is to market the Southeast region of the United States as a world-class aerospace and aviation corridor.

The Aerospace Alliance was formed in 2009 at the height of the battle between Boeing and EADS over a contract to build aerial tankers for the Air Force. The multi-state group made its mark early on, hosting some attention-grabbing galas at the Paris and Farnborough international air shows. (Invitation/registration)

Unmanned systems
The Navy during the week confirmed it's joining with the Army to buy dozens of a new class of medium-sized, unmanned helicopter that could be in service within five years, according to Flightglobal, citing an acquisition document. The agreement combines requirements for the Navy's medium-range maritime unmanned aircraft system and the Army's medium-range multi-purpose vertical take-off and landing system.

The Navy is already operating the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, but both services are looking for a larger, more capable helicopter. Boeing is expected to offer its A160 Hummingbird and Northrop Grumman has proposed the MQ-8C Fire-X, which combines the Fire Scout operating system and a Bell 407 airframe. (Story) The Fire Scout is built in part in Moss Point, Miss., at the Unmanned Systems Center. That facility could eventually play a role as well in the Fire-X project.

- Also during the week, the Navy confirmed plans to retire the special mission versions of the Lockheed P-3 by 2020 and replace them with an all-unmanned fleet. Flightglobal reports that in written responses to the Senate Armed Services Committee late last month, incoming chief of naval operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said the Navy's EP-3 Aries and special projects aircraft will be retired in 2019 and 2020.

They'll be replaced by an $8 billion investment over the next five years in a family of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, Greenert said. Those investments include $1.1 billion in the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout, $3.9 billion in the Northrop RQ-4N Global Hawk broad area maritime surveillance aircraft, $2.5 billion in the unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike program and $1.1 billion in the medium-range maritime unmanned aircraft system.

The Navy believes its intelligence-collecting capabilities will be improved by transitioning to a larger fleet of long-endurance, unmanned aircraft, Greenert said. (Story)

This can't help but be good news for Moss Point, Miss. In addition to the Fire Scout, portions of the Global Hawk are also built there at the Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems Center. It's been apparent for some time now that growth is in the cards.

According to defense analysts and consulting firm Teal Group, the business of unmanned aerial vehicles will rise from $5.9 billion to more than $13 billion over the next 10 years, despite declining defense budgets. Companies in the United States will account for 77 percent of the research and development of UAV technologies in the next decade.

To learn more about the Gulf Coast's unmanned systems activities, click here.

Space
Crew members from the final mission of space shuttle Atlantis visited NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans during the week to thank employees at both facilities and their families for their part in the success of the mission.

At SSC, hundreds crowded the auditorium of StenniSphere to hear pilot Doug Hurley, mission commander Chris Ferguson and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Waldheim share their appreciation and their experiences in space.

"Of all the NASA centers that are involved in human space flight, I think Stennis' future is probably the most clear at this point," said Ferguson. Stennis tested all the space shuttle main engines, and continues to test rocket engines for commercial companies.

"The space shuttle (main engines) that you've tested and operated here for probably at least 35 years was really one of the success stories," said Hurley.

Atlantis, launched on its maiden mission in October 1985, completed its final flight on July 21, marking the end of NASA's shuttle program. During its 26 years in service, Atlantis flew 33 missions and logged more than 131 million miles in space. Atlantis and sister crafts Discovery and Endeavour now are being prepared for permanent display at selected sites.

- When you think of space and the Gulf Coast, you think of Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans. But during the week a nod of recognition went out to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.’s, 20th Space Control Squadron and the other units that are part of Peterson Air Force Base’s 21st Space Wing in Colorado.

A story written by the public affairs office at the 21st discussed the critical role of the organization in ensuring the safety and success of the shuttle program. In addition to the Eglin-based 20th, the other units involved were the 6th Space Warning Squadron at Cape Cod Air Force Station, Mass., and the 7th SWS at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. They tracked more than 22,000 near-earth and deep space objects, shuttle missions and the International Space Station.

From launch to landing these teams are tracking the shuttle and any objects that could potentially collide with the shuttle. "In 2009, observations collected by the 20th SPCS led NASA to evacuate astronauts from the International Space Station into the Russian Soyuz manned spacecraft after identifying objects with a close trajectory to the space station," said Capt. Aaron Lynch, 20th SPCS Operations Flight commander.

Most of the space debris are less than one millimeter in diameter and cause no damage, but the shuttle occasionally had to dodge objects if it was determined there was a one in 10,000 chance of a collision.

The shuttles are back on earth now, but the mission of the 6th SWS, 7th SWS and 20th SPCS continues.

"We continue to perform the space surveillance mission since there are still many objects up there (that) we want our functioning satellites to be able to avoid," said Capt. Chris Leininger, 7th SWS Operations Support Flight commander.

Additionally, the United States will continue to send astronauts to space using the Russian Soyuz capsule and the 6th SWS, 7th SWS and 20th SPCS will continue to closely monitor manned missions to the International Space Station. (Story)

To learn more about the Gulf Coast’s space activities, click here.

Expansion
Rolls-Royce Group is studying locations in the United States and Germany for new engine test sites, the Telegraph reported during the week. The company told workers in Derby, England, where it employs 11,000, that it was considering sites outside of the United Kingdom.

Derby builds and tests the Trent XWB, which will go in the new Airbus A350. That program will continue in Derby, but the company says it's looking at new locations to help fulfill orders worth about $98 billion. Rolls-Royce could open test sites either in the United States or Germany or both, the Telegraph reported.

Rolls-Royce currently tests jet engines at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Airports
Construction will resume at the air traffic control tower at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi on Monday. Work on the $12 million project in Gulfport was halted last month when Congress failed to provide funding for infrastructure projects. Congress has since approved a budget and the work in Gulfport, and other sites nationwide, can now proceed.

- Vision Airlines will discontinue service from Northwest Florida Regional Airport at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to selected destinations during the fall and winter. The reduced schedule will start Aug. 19, when the airline cuts service to Lafayette and Shreveport, La., Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., and Asheville, N.C. Vision made the announcement as it released its fall and winter flight schedule.

Among the geekiest
The Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin metro area in Northwest Florida is ranked 20 on Forbes list of America’s Geekiest Cities. That means it has a lot of people with degrees in science and engineering-related fields. Of the workforce in the Fort Walton Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, 8.8 percent or some 7,200 workers are employed in the science, technology, engineering or mathematics field. Much of that is due to Eglin Air Force Base, which acts as a magnet for technology-oriented defense contractors.

Contracts
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $535.3 million advance acquisition contract to provide long lead parts and components required for the manufacture of 38 Low Rate Initial Production Lot VI F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the F-35 training center.

Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Construction on a $144 million shipping vessel for Honolulu-based Pasha Hawaii began during the week with the cutting of the first piece of steel at VT Halter Marine’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The ship will provide weekly service between the West Coast and Hawaii. … Huntington Ingalls Industries' third U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter, Stratton (WMSL 752), returned to Pascagoula, Miss., after successfully completing two days of acceptance sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico. The 418-foot NSC is the flagship of the Coast Guard's cutter fleet. Stratton is scheduled for delivery to the Coast Guard on Sept. 2.
Marine science: The Marine Technology Society and Mississippi Enterprise for Technology are hosting the Oceans in Action Workshop Aug. 22 and 23 at the Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss. The workshop focuses on how marine technology is applied to real-world issues.