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Courtesy: BAE Systems

 

The UK Government has just reversed a decision on which type of F-35 fighter aircraft it wants for its new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers which are currently under construction.  Fearful of any costly development hitches over new technology electromagnetic catapults/traps, the government has decided to go back to the STOVL  "jump jet" F-35B version rather than having the longer range US Navy-style F-35C tail-hook/arrestor hook landing type.  

 

The decision has its dangers, not least because the costly-to-develop vertically landing F-35B might still be cancelled as it so nearly was in 2011.  In that event, the Royal Navy would be in the unhappy position of having aircraft carriers with no aircraft to fly off them, especially given that the UK's Ministry of Defence has already sold its remaining Harrier GR7 and GR9 strike bombers to the Americans.  

 

Is bringing the Sea Harrier out of retirement feasible in an emergency? 

 

Of course, the Royal Navy could try and dig its prematurely retired Sea Harriers out of their museums and engineering training establishments (the final FA-2 version of the Sea Harrier fighter was highly rated for its Blue Vixen radar/AMRAAM missile fit).  However, Ascend's analysis is that only about 10 to 12 of these could be restored to flying condition and that any such recovery could take several months.  Even this discounts all the ground and aircrew training that would be needed for such an emergency squadron resuscitation.

 

Whether the F-35B proves to be the right choice of carrier jet fighter or not, some critics are wondering if the United Kingdom needs aircraft carriers at all.  In recent newspaper and television interviews, Sir John Nott, who was the UK Defence Secretary at the time of the Falklands War in 1982, said he still did not think that the Royal Navy needed aircraft carriers.  His conclusion remains erroneous and even a little ungrateful, especially given that it was the same Sea Harrier-toting aircraft carriers that he had previously tried to scrap or sell off, which allowed the Falklands War to be won.

 

Carriers are very useful but they are vulnerable

 

While Sir John Nott and his fellow carrier critics are probably wrong about their utility, it has to be accepted that due to their size and military value, aircraft carriers do make very vulnerable and attractive targets.  Just as the one-time king of the seven seas, the battleship, was soon rendered impotent by the advent of carrier-borne dive-bombers and the threat of torpedos launched from aircraft and submarines, so the inheritor of the battleship's crown, the aircraft carrier, may soon find its own reign usurped by the arrival of a new weapon class:  diving anti-ship missiles.

 

After Exocet's lethality was demonstrated in the Falklands War, a lot of effort was put into developing missile and gun defences against Exocet-class sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and, most recently, against their satellite-targeted  supersonic successors (e.g. india's Brahmos missile).  However, now a very different kind of anti-ship missile is threating naval ships.  These are ballistic missiles which have been especially designed to make high velocity diving attacks "from the Gods".  

 

China and Iran are developing diving anti-ship missiles

 

An example of this new missile type is China's DF-21D which has been specifically designed to target US Navy aircraft carriers and deny them an operational position in close proximity to China's territory (or a disputed territory like Taiwan).  These missiles are thought to be remotely targeted,  using data-relayed target observations from China's Yaogan/Jianbing  radar and optical reconnaissance satellites, and from airborne reconnaissance aircraft, before  finally employing a sophisticated optical seeker for the terminal guidance of their final diving strikes. 

 

It is not just China that has worked on this type of anti-ship missile technology with aim of making an "area denial" to carriers.   Iran has boasted about its own shorter range ballistic diving missile system called Khalije Fars and has even had its official FARS news agency post images and footage of one of its successful missile tests - albeit that it hits an admittedly stationary target ship.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc7eUO1aw9M&feature=fvwrel

 

Nevertheless, while the technology is still relatively young, these ballistic diving missiles, once perfected, could mark the retirement of the carrier as a serious offensice weapons platform.   The US and Royal Navies have one hope for their carrier operations:  that is that  anti-ballistic missile systems carried by their carriers' escort vessels, such as the US Navy's Standard Missile SM-3 and Royal Navy's Aster 30 (Sea Viper), will be able to intercept such hostile missiles during their hypersonic approaches and supersonic terminal dives.  But they will have to do so without failure if their carriers are to survive.   

 

The answer:  Spread the risk and put F-35B jets on lots of ships

 

As the Battle of Midway showed during World War II, just a single strike on an aircraft carrier can be enough to change the odds in a sea battle, and with it the tide of a war. 

 

This factor plays to the STOVL advantages of the F-35B which can also be operated from smaller helicopter-class carriers and might even be flown off vessels that are not designed to be carriers at all.  For the more ships you have acting as "aircraft carriers", the less is the chance that you will "lose all your eggs in one basket" -  if you think that your "basket" might be hit by a missile that is.

 

 

 

In early May, teams of rocket enthusiasts were at the Big Range 2012 Launch Campaign in Sutherland, Scotland to hold suborbital high altitude experimental rocketry tests.  The event is a collaboration between the Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association (SARA), UK Rocket Association (UKRA) and AspireSpace. 

 

Of the teams, one from Cambridge University made an attempt at taking the current UK altitude record for an amateur rocket.   The record currently stands at 24,500 feet and the Cambridge hoped to better that by 10,000 feet using a two stage solid fuel rocket using 15kg of ammonium perchlorate - the same fuel that were used by the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) on the Space Shuttle launch system.  The Cambridge team's rocket's light weight structure was made from carbon fibre and red anodised aluminium.  The total mass of the rocket was 40kg.

 

After a one day delay due to ignition failure, the launch and stage separation went well on 3 May.  However, sadly, the team could not tell whether the altitude record had been breached as they could not find the second stage with the altimeter recording system aboard.   The science writer, Dr. Lucy Rogers, who was observing the launch, amusingly commented: "We hope the gamekeeper will come across it sometime."

 

The team was not disheartened however and gained plaudits from rocket experts including James Macfarlane, Chairman of the UK Rocket Association (UKRA) and Director of the rocket research firm Airborne Engineering Ltd:  "I am very impressed with this group. Every problem they have encountered they have designed and built elegant and professional solutions."

 

Given the altitude targets involved, a special NOTAM air traffic warning was issued for the event which is now expected to become an annual gathering.   Next year, the Cambridge University Spaceflight Rocket Team is promising to return with a three-stage rocket capable of reaching 50,000 feet.  

 

 

 

In late March, the US space scientist Stewart Nozette who had previously worked on NASA projects, was awarded a 13 years jail sentence after admitting that he tried to sell space technology secrets during sting operation FBI sting operation in 2009.  Nozette believed the FBI undercover men were working for Israel.  

Having previously collaborated on the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) instrument for JAXA's  Hinode (Solar B) mission, and with the UK having provided disaster monitoring imaging via the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) system after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, Japan and the United Kingdom have announced that they are going to collaborate further on space research.  

During April, the UK Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts signed an agreement with the Japanese Economy Minister Motohisa Furukawa for greater collaboration on space research and technology,  This is likely to include working on on earth observation technology, such as the NovaSAR  space radar programme or the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) run by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited

The UK Government, via the UK Space Agency and the Technology Strategy Board, is to grant nearly £6 million to four projects as part of the National Space Technology Programme (NSTP). The funding is to be awarded to projects run by Astrium Ltd, Avanti Communications Ltd, DMC International Imaging Ltd and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. 

Astrium Ltd:  Project to begin the development of the Next Generation Telecommunications satellite platform.  The work is focused on developing the mechanical platform architecture for future European telecommunications satellites in the 3 to 6 tonne range.  This project will also prepare UK companies to take leading roles in future European Space Agency programmes to develop telecommunication space technologies:

 

Avanti Communications Ltd: Project to develop a ruggedised and light-weight portable Ka-Band satcom terminal.  This "suitcase" terminal will provide portable and mobile access to the latest generation of high bandwidth satellite broadband services.

 

DMC International Ltd:  Project to develop a system and service for measuring land carbon stocks and fluxes from Satellite Earth observation data.  This service will provide much higher resolution services than are currently available and enable the monitoring and trading of carbon credits and similar commercial tools for tackling climate change.

 

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL):  Project to prepare the way for the planned UK NovaSAR Synthetic aperture radar mission by accelerating the technology development of an innovative S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument.

After firing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, Armadillo's Stig-A successfully flew to 137,000 ft. Stig-A is now nearly halfway to the Karman Line, the arbitrary line that marks the official transition from atmosphere to space. Of course, there is a video

Armadillo, a tiny but driven company, has for years been building small rockets with the goal of suborbital flight. If they haven't quite made it, they're certainly well on their way.

Vega, the European Space Agency's new light launcher, has now got its maiden flight date set, for 26 January 2012. ESA had been hoping to launch during 2011, but the critical parameter was to get Vega launched between the 20 October launch of Soyuz and the beginning of preparations at Kourou, French Guiana for the next Automated Transfer Vehicle launch, via Ariane 5, to the International Space Station.

European made components have arrived by sea at Kourou from Avio's factory in Colleferro, near Rome. The inaugural campaign will begin on November 7 with rollout of Vega's P80 first stage to the launch pad, followed during the subsequent weeks by stacking of the Zefiro 23 second stage and Zefiro 9 third stage - all of which are loaded with solid-propellant. A progress review will be held on December 7 to authorize a continuation of the final integration process - allowing the bi-propellant Attitude and Vernier Upper Module (AVUM) to be mated atop the launcher, and final operations to begin with the mission's multi-spacecraft payload.

carrying LARES (LAser RElativity Satellite) and nine cubesat educational payloads of varying sizes.

Vega will lift off from the Spaceport's ZLV launch site, which originally was used for the Ariane 1 and Ariane 3 vehicles.

The medium-lift Soyuz and light category Vega will complement ESA's heavylift Ariane 5s to provide a fully flexible range of launch options at Kourou. Vega, whose first stage is one of the world's biggest carbon fibre single-piece structures, is designed to launch satellites up to 1.5 tonnes into 700km polar orbits. As French Guiana is much closer to the equator than Soyuz's normal launch site at Baikonur, added boost from the Earth's spin will nearly double its maximum payload to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to 3 tonnes. Ariane 5 can lift 10 tonnes to GTO, though ESA member governments are thought to be moving towards approval of a mid-life upgrade to increase payload capacity.

A longer-term project is also underway, to develop a a high-thrust cryogenic engine that could form the basis of ESA's next-generation launcher. It will not fly until about 2025, but is intended to provide a medium-lift capability in a modular design, with a re-ignitable upper stage and options for strap-on solid propellant boosters offering extra thrust.

The European Space Agency just released this video to show how its Galileo satellite navigation system works. I love the part about how a nanosecond error in the onboard clocks would translate to a 30m error on the ground - but if that error were a second, the position error would amount to 300,000km, enough to leave driver wondering whether they were approaching the house or cruising on the Moon.


The first two spacecraft are due for launch on 20 October, and then ESA will be making a fast-track push to provide near-global coverage in 2014 and, in 2019, a full constellation of 27 spacecraft and three orbiting spares.

Unlike the USA's GPS system, Galileo will be fully under civilian control. The idea is to ensure that Europe is self-sufficient in a technology that is becomming increasingly indispensible. Galileo will also do a better job than GPS at high latitudes, so Nordic Europeans should really notice the difference. Everybody else can be sure sure of continuous service - no worries about the US military degrading the signal in an emergency - and, combined with the ground-based signal enhancement system called EGNOS that went live earlier this year, can get position information accurate to less than 1m. EGNOS signals are free, too, and Brussels is encouraging companies to develop receivers and services to exploit them.

Budget wrangles will have delayed Galileo by seven years by the time coverage goes global in 2014, but it should be well worth the wait. Satnav services are already coming down in price, so the combination of an added layer of reliability and better geographic coverage should make them cheap and easy to use for any conceivable application.