Missile Defense Agency awards $24.7 million 'flight campaign' to Stratolaunch

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded Stratolaunch LLC a $24.7 million contract to provide a “flight campaign” that will support several test objectives for the agency. MDA announced the contract award on Friday.

Stratolaunch LLC, located in Mojave, Calif, is being awarded a competitive firm-fixed-price other transaction agreement valued at $24,749,990.00, MDA said in the announcement.

“Under this new agreement, the performer will provide a flight campaign in support of Missile Defense Agency test objectives,” MDA said in the brief announcement.

Aircraft Fleet

Stratolaunch operates two massive aircraft that can air-launch payloads to space and within the Earth’s atmosphere at a reduced cost with more flexibility than current vertical launch options.

One aircraft, named Roc, has six Boeing 747 engines and a wingspan of 385 feet – longer than an American football field, Roc is the largest of any plane ever assembled with a payload capacity of 550,000 pounds.

The company also operates a Boeing 747 known as “Spirit of Mojave.” The Boeing 747 is a readily deployable launch platform able to test a variety of payloads from a variety of locations.

Both aircraft operate as an air launch platform for space vehicles or hypersonic research.

Fully Funded Work

The work under the new MDA contract will be performed in Mojave. The period of performance is December 2024 through December 2025.

“This agreement was competitively awarded via the MDA Innovation, Science & Technology Broad Agency Announcement, Solicitation No, HQ0860-23-S-0001,” MDA said. “This effort will be fully funded with Fiscal Year 2024 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds.”

The Missile Defense Agency Redstone Arsenal in Alabama is managing the contract. The announcement doesn’t state which aircraft will be used for the MDA flight campaign.

According to Aviation Week, Stratolaunch is going through final approvals to conduct its first reusable test flight of the Talon A hypersonic testbed by the end of the month. That test will use the Spirit of Mojave aircraft.

Success in March

In March, Stratolaunch completed the first powered flight of the Talon-A test vehicle, TA-1. This was the first flight in the development of the country's first privately funded, reusable hypersonic test capability.

“While I can’t share the specific altitude and speed TA-1 reached due to proprietary agreements with our customers, we are pleased to share that in addition to meeting all primary and customer objectives of the flight, we reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5 and collected a great amount of data at an incredible value to our customers,” said Zachary Krevor, president and CEO of Stratolaunch.

New date announced for Caesars Virginia casino grand opening

Caesars Entertainment announced on Friday that the highly anticipated grand opening of their new Caesars Virginia location will now occur on Dec. 17. This is an update to the company’s previous announcement that said the property would open on Dec. 12.

Caesars Virginia will now welcome its first guests on Dec. 17 at noon, when doors will officially open to the public, the company said in an email to customers. The email did not state a reason for the date change.

“Our opening day festivities will begin at 10:15 a.m. with a parade of race cars supplied by Virginia International Raceway,” the company said. “The parade route will weave through Danville’s streets, starting at the Danville Farmers’ Market and ending at Caesars Virginia. Joining us as the parade’s master of ceremonies is five-time NBA Champion Dennis Rodman who will also make the ceremonial first bet in Caesars Sportsbook.”

An official ribbon cutting will commence at 11 a.m. in the resort’s porte cochere before the doors open at noon.

The grand opening celebration will conclude later that evening with a fireworks and drone show at 8 p.m., lighting the sky above the resort.

A temporary Danville Casino has been operating on the property since May 2023. Danville Casino, one of three casinos currently operating in Virginia, reported an Adjusted Gross Revenue of $18.2 million for October, according to a monthly report by the Virginia Lottery.

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol held a grand opening ceremony from a temporary casino to a full resort on Nov. 14. Rivers Casino Portsmouth opened in January 2023 as Virginia’s first permanent casino.

Two more casinos are planned for the Commonwealth in the City of Norfolk and Petersburg.

Changes coming to US Army rotary wing training

The U.S. Army's Initial Entry Rotary Wing is seeking comments from defense contractors on how they can improve the quality of training provided to its new aviators, cut costs, and improve efficiency.

The Army released a Request For Information (RFI) document in October detailing changes coming to the training problem. The program includes classroom, simulator, and live flight training that takes place at Fort Novosel, Ala.

The Initial Entry Rotary Wing Flight Training has been located at Fort Novosel for over 50+ years. It operates with “inefficiencies” from years of change and multiple disparate contracts, the Army said in the RFI. The Army is seeking to simultaneously improve the quality of training provided to its new aviators, cut costs, and improve efficiency.

Currently, hours of flight operations begin at 6 a.m. and end around midnight. Saturday flight periods are conducted when students are behind in training due to weather or maintenance and the weekend follows a federal holiday to meet current capacity numbers.

The Army Aviation Center of Excellence is seeking information from commercial aviation industry partners and aviation training providers on solutions and methodologies that inform the Army’s analysis and development of options to transform the flight training at Fort Novosel. The Army also highlights the potential replacement of the current training helicopter (Lakota LUH-72) to reduce costs, gain efficiency, and maintain or increase aviation training quality.

In August, a Fort Novosel UH-72 Lakota experienced a mishap that injured three crew members.

“Once again, the goal of the effort is to explore Courses of Action that could reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and maintain or increase aviation training quality,” the Army said.

The Army envisions a long-term contract that will provide a modern Adult Learning Model maximizing innovation, efficiency, and technology to more effectively train the next generation of Army Aviation Professionals. The model must maximize efficiency and throughput while increasing aviator quality.

Over the past 20 years, the annual number of initial pilots produced has been between 980 and 1,400 a year. These pilots must graduate from this program at a rate to ensure availability to fill advanced airframe seats for the AH-64E, UH-60M, CH-47F, C-12U, and the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft. Currently, this equates to inducting 50-54 aviators every two weeks. The maximum student input in the past 10 Fiscal Years has been 1,380 students annually.

The overall objective is to create a new pilot prepared to be successful as they transition to their U.S. Army Airframe (AH-64E/UH-60M/CH-47F/C-12U).