BATTLESPACE BOOK CLUB
29 Jul 09. The Foreign Affairs Committee will publish its report on Global Security: Afghanistan and Pakistan at 00.01hrs British Summer Time (GMT + 1 hour) on Sunday 2 August (one minute past midnight on Sunday). This will be the Committee’s Eighth Report of Session 2008-09 (HC 302). Embargoed copies of the Report will be available electronically for
witnesses and press, on request, from 10.00 am to 11.00 am on Saturday 1
August and in printed form from the Press Gallery or the Foreign Affairs
Committee office, House of Commons. The Report will be made available on the internet (www.parliament.uk) on Sunday 2 August and copies may be purchased from the Parliamentary Bookshop (12 Bridge Street, Westminster, London SW1A 2JX, Tel: 020 7219 3890) or the Stationery Office (Parliamentary Hotline 0845 7023 474). Witnesses and members of the press who would like an embargoed hard copy of the Report should contact Committee staff on 020 7219 6394, by midday on Friday 31 July, to make collection arrangements.
27 Jul 09. In a new study, “The Market for Commercial Communications Satellites: 2009-2018,” Forecast International is projecting deliveries of approximately 262 commercial communications satellites destined for geostationary or medium-Earth orbit, worth $38.7bn, during the next 10 years. The low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) market, comprising satellites primarily for the provision of mobile communications, will see production of 142 spacecraft worth about $2.7bn. Most of the LEO spacecraft forecast for production are in response to the solidification of fleet replacement plans for ORBCOMM and Globalstar. Twenty-five spacecraft were ordered in 2008, a slight increase over the 23 ordered in 2007. Early indications for 2009 point to a solid year for commercial communications satellite orders. In spite of a highly unfavorable dollar exchange rate, European manufacturers are holding their own in the commercial communications satellite market. Looking ahead, there should be 20 to 25 orders per year on the open market over the next five years. More than two-thirds of these orders – about 69 percent – will be replacement satellites for existing fleets. The remainder will be for new operators or new applications in the industry. Thales Alenia Space, and the company’s Spacebus series, will continue to maintain a healthy share of the communications satellite market in the near term. Keeping with the trend toward longer-lasting communications spacecraft, much of the production in the latter half of the decade is expected to shift over to the Spacebus 4000 platform. Of the 20 to 25 satellites per year, European manufacturers Astrium and Thales Alenia are expected to capture four or five each. The main rivals to the European heavyweights are Space Systems/Loral and Orbital Sciences. Loral, offering its 1300 platform, addresses the large commercial satellite market, while Orbital Sciences’ STAR platform courts the smaller commercial satellite market. Space Systems/Loral expanded its manufacturing capacity to address near-term increased satellite demand by reaching an agreement to use Northrop Grumman’s satellite test facilities and services in Redondo Beach, California. Some operators are choosing to order satellites weighing less than 3,000 kilograms in a trend that bodes well for Orbital Sciences, and the outlook for its STAR platform is solid. Manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Boeing are primarily focused on the U.S. military satellite market. What will be interesting to see is what happens when several defense programs like GOES, GPS, Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) and others are completed. Theoretically, the completion of these programs will free Boeing and Lockheed Martin to pursue more commercial work. Forecast International expects this will be the case, and in the 2014 timeframe we should see these two heavyweights back in the commercial game in a big way.
20 Jul 09. MoD: Annual Report and Acco