The argument that more F-22s must be bought because it is is the only fighter that is truly effective against advanced surface to air missiles got shot down (sorry about the pun) here at the Paris Air Show by the top Joint Strike Fighter official Marine Brig. Gen David Heinz.

Advocates such as Rebecca Grant, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, argue that the F-22 is needed principally because it is the premier weapon against the sophisticated S-300 ground-to-air missiles that the Russians have developed and are trying to sell.

So I asked Heinz if the JSF could kill advanced SAMs. His answer: “While I will do the mission differently, I am still delivering first day of the war capability.”

We’ll see if that puts the nail in the coffin of the F-22 supporters or if there are good counter-arguments to this. Of course, Heinz is a fierce advocate for this program and must be expected to defend it, but he’s also known as a very straight shooter. If he did not believe the plane’s ability to handle the SAM threat I think we would have gotten a very different answer.

On the industrial base side of the program, Heinz told reporters here that the program could reasonably generate an astonishing 6,000 sales. He based his estimate on the 4,425 F-16s sold around the world in various development blocks, combined with 600 F-18 E/Fs and Typhoons. “As these airplanes aqe out, I believe my airplane will be competitive,” he said.

The United States and the eight foreign partners are expected to order about 3,100 planes. Add 1,000 sales to prospective buyers such as Israel, Singapore, Spain, Japan, Finland and South Korea. Then top up the rest of the world and you get to Heinz’ figure of 6,000.

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NASA postponed the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour early Wednesday because of a liquid hydrogen leak.

It is the same type of leak that caused the postponement of a launch on June 13 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

That leak was in the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the shuttle’s external fuel tank, the space agency said. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad. Officials said the seal around the system had to be replaced.

Wednesday’s morning leak was in the same area, the space agency said.

The shuttle, carrying seven astronauts, was scheduled to launch at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday for a 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Five spacewalks are planned for the crew after the shuttle docks.

The mission’s primary goal is to install what amounts to a porch in space. Endeavour will carry in its cargo bay two platforms of the Japanese Kibo Laboratory, which is already part of the space station.

One platform rides up and back on the shuttle, while the other will stay permanently fixed to the Kibo laboratory for scientific experiments that require exposure to space.

The Kibo science lab, also called the Japanese Experiment Module, is Japan’s first human space facility, more than 20 years in the making.

The next opportunity for launch is July 11, the space agency said.

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A new Air Force surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft has successfully completed its debut combat mission, military officials said last week.

The MC-12 Liberty is a turboprop aircraft with a specialized four-person crew that provides full-motion video and signals intelligence. Essentially, it is a manned, souped-up version of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that roam the skies above Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Liberty is “the first of its kind,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of 9th Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Central, said in an Air Force news release. “What our Air Force teams at our various headquarters staffs have done with the program has been nothing short of miraculous. They’ve satisfied very ambitious objectives and done it alongside our industry partners to achieve combat-urgent requests in a superb fashion, from initial contracts to combat sorties inside eight months.”

The first Liberty aircraft arrived in Iraq on June 8, making its debut combat mission later that day, officials said. The aircraft will be assigned to the 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron while in Iraq.

“The MC-12 is an embodiment of the Air Force’s commitment to Coalition ground forces,” Lt. Col. Phillip Stewart, 362nd ERS commander, said in the statement. “Our focus is to provide dedicated, responsive [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] operations, and we’re ready to go.”

The Liberty is one result of an effort ordered in April 2008 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the Air Force to better support troops on the ground.

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NASA managers Sunday deferred making a formal decision on whether to reschedule the delayed shuttle Endeavour for launch Wednesday or press ahead instead with launch of the agency’s $583 million Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket.

But with both missions facing tight launch windows, Mission Management Team Chairman LeRoy Cain said the agency’s preference was to launch Endeavour on Wednesday, if possible, to maximize the number of launch opportunities for both programs.

“If shuttle goes first on the 17th, then the most opportunities we can give LRO is two, and that would be on the 19th and 20th,” Cain said. “If LRO goes first on the 17th, then the most opportunities we could get for the shuttle is one opportunity, and that would be on the 20th.”

A final decision on how to proceed must be made Monday to provide enough time for the Air Force Eastern Range, which provides required tracking and telemetry support for all rockets launched from Florida, to set up its systems to support one launch or the other.

But Cain said if no additional problems develop, and if work to repair a leaky hydrogen vent line umbilical plate on Endeavour’s external tank goes smoothly, NASA likely will opt to press ahead with an attempt to launch the shuttle at 5:40:50 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

The forecast for Wednesday calls for a 70 percent chance of good weather for the shuttle’s pre-dawn launch window and a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions for the lunar orbiter’s window Wednesday afternoon.

If LRO is not off the ground by June 20, the flight will slip to the end of the month. If Endeavour is not off the ground by June 20 or 21 at the latest, the shuttle launch will be delayed to July 11 because of temperature constraints related to the space station’s orbit.

Endeavour was grounded during fueling overnight Friday when the gaseous hydrogen vent line umbilical on the side of the shuttle’s external fuel tank began leaking potentially dangerous vapors as the hydrogen section of the tank was filled.

The work is expected to be finished early Tuesday.

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