The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to begin flight testing new Raytheon MTS-C infrared sensors for early ballistic missile launch warning next year, according to agency officials. The sensors will be outfitted on two General Atomics Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and tested during three upcoming Aegis missile defense flight trials, the officials say. The sensor builds off of the MTS-B, the standard sensors for the Air Force Reaper UAV.
As the U.S. military comes to grips with its dependency on space assets and their vulnerability to denial or attack, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is assessing the state of cutting edge GPS-free navigation technology. Current GPS-free precision-navigation technology suffers multiple shortcomings, Darpa says. These include large errors over time, high acquisition and operating costs, labor-intensive mission planning, size, weight, power and waste heat incompatible with small platforms.
SHARING SPACE: The U.S. Defense Department has signed a memorandum of understanding to share space situational awareness data with South Korea’s military. The accord provides South Korea’s air force with higher-quality and more timely space information tailored for its specific purposes in exchange for satellite-positional and radio-frequency information it will provide to U.S. Strategic Command, the Pentagon said Sept. 5.
NEWPORT, Wales – The rapid advance of Islamic State fighters and Russia’s sudden occupancy of Ukraine is prompting NATO to re-establish a high-readiness multinational force that could be deployed anywhere on the globe within two to five days. NATO disbanded its high-readiness force, the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (AMF), in 2002. But now it is planning the formation of a new Spearhead force as one of its three core aims at the alliance’s summit, being held here.
NEWPORT, Wales—Denmark is leading a multinational program aimed at reducing the effect on air operations caused by the depletion of stocks of air-dropped precision weapons. The framework agreement, announced at the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales, on Sept. 4, is open to all NATO-member states; it is aimed at averting issues such as those found during NATO operations over Libya, when several nations ran out of precision-guided bombs and missiles and were unable to use those of other countries.
U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) is upgrading its Virtual Shelf—a repository of standard architectures, design guidelines, specifications and approved parts lists—in a move the Navy says will trim program development time and reduce total ownership costs. Navsea’s Commonality Program has integrated the VS with Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Standard Parts Catalog (SPC) to upgrade VS to version 3.0. VS 3.0 is scheduled to be operational before the end of the fiscal year and available to general users in early fiscal year 2015.
HOUSTON—NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) made data from their recently launched joint Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory publicly available on Sept. 4. The data includes comprehensive information on rain, snowfall, ice and other forms of precipitation intended to improve forecasting, climate studies and other applications.
While at times it seems that the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard are battling one another for Arctic policy supremacy, the two can and must work together in the region, according to a recent blog by Rear Adm. Jonathan White, Oceanographer of the Navy and director of Task Force Climate Change.
NEW DELHI — After ending a decades-long arms embargo, Japan has agreed to allow India to make parts for its US-2 amphibious aircraft in a bid to expedite a proposed sales deal with New Delhi and bolster Tokyo’s own domestic defense industry.
