While the U.S. is drawing down troops and pulling back on wartime resources, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon officials say they still need funds for investments to fight evolving battles on cyber and other fronts.
In the race for Missouri Senate, in which two members of the congressional armed services committees — Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) and Rep. Todd Akin (R) — are in a statistical tie, Boeing employees have largely put their money behind the Senate incumbent. Boeing Defense Space & Security is based in St. Louis. And the company’s employees have plunked down $58,500 for McCaskill, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Boeing used the recent Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention to provide more details about its new Joint Air Breathing Multi-Role Missile (Jabmm) concept originally intended for the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The new, small, modular missile payload was revealed in early 2012. Boeing is pitching the concept as a “turbine air breathing missile solution to countering proliferating anti-access threats.”
The U.S. Army is at odds with elected officials over the fate of four C-23 Sherpas. While the Army is seeking to stop operation of two of the fixed-wing cargo aircraft in Florida and another two in Texas, the governors of those states and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) are trying to ensure that they remain funded.
Raytheon could be able to deliver its first Tamir missile built in the U.S. within 15 months if U.S. and Israeli officials work out a deal to co-produce the Iron Dome interceptor stateside, according to industry officials. One official estimates that U.S. production of about 3,000 missiles, half of Israel’s anticipated buy, could provide for about 650 manufacturing jobs stateside at a time of high unemployment.
Europe’s second Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), considered by some forecasters the best of its kind in the world, has gone into service on Eumetsat’s Metop-B polar-orbiting weather satellite. Developed by France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Thales Alenia Space, the IASI measures infrared wavelengths across 8,461 different spectral channels to generate high-resolution vertical profiles of the atmosphere’s temperature and humidity. The data is crucial to numerical weather prediction models.
STORM WEATHERED: An Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket stage, on its seaside launch pad at Wallops Island, Va., for an upcoming hot-fire test, “looks to be in pretty good shape” after weathering Hurricane Sandy. Wallops was evacuated for the storm, leaving the Antares first stage in position on the pad and the nearby horizontal processing facility locked down. While the processing facility had already weathered one severe storm, it was the first time for Antares flight hardware. After a quick inspection Oct.
When it comes to this year’s congressional races, the nation’s largest defense companies are again putting their money with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman all gave Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) more money than any other member of the House or Senate.
The Defense Department is failing to properly oversee hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year to procure services, according to the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).
MILITARY INTEL: The Pentagon says the Military Intelligence Program’s total appropriated budget for fiscal 2012, including both the base budget and Overseas Contingency Operations funding, was $21.5 billion. For 2013, the Obama administration is asking for $19.2 billion for the MIP. Overall, including the National Intelligence Program that funds intel activities outside of the military, the administration is seeking $71.8 billion. That compares with $80.1 billion in 2010.
PARIS and NAPLES, Italy — French space agency CNES is studying next-generation launch vehicle concepts for a modular Ariane 6 that would use existing technologies and production facilities to replace the cumbersome, costly and commercially reliant Ariane 5 of today.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia took the fight to NATO this week, attacking the organization’s counterpiracy flagship with sustained volleys from sea and shore, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe officials report. The Dutch warship HNMLS Rotterdam was attacked while conducting routine surveillance, officials say.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student believes that with enough warning — as much as 20 years — a paintball-shooting spacecraft might be the best way to divert an asteroid from an extinction-level collision with Earth.
The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) is seeking more automated and airborne technologies and techniques to counter submarines and undersea mines, says Frank Herr, director of the ONR Ocean Battlespace Sensing Department. With the nature and technology of mines and subs continually evolving, Navy officials say, developing countermeasures is becoming increasingly difficult. “Our job is to understand the threat,” Herr said at the recent Office of Naval Research (ONR) Naval Science and Technology Partnership Conference.
The guided-missile frigate FFG-52 USS Carr and U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (Ledet) teamed up to stop a vessel suspected of transporting illegal drugs Oct. 25 in support of Operation Martillo. The operation shows the continuing use of U.S. Navy ships for such operations. The Navy’s frigate fleet is one of the vessel types slated to be replaced by the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which is set to be employed for counter-narcotics operations and related missions.
Recent testing — and operational success in the commercial world — have validated the automation for the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers, a key feature for meeting the ship’s lifecycle cost goals, says an industry executive with one of prime contractors for the ship. The U.S. Navy approved a Zumwalt-class design with extensive automation throughout the vessel to cut down on manning and long-term ship costs. It was a major step for the service, whose vessels have historically required relatively large crews to operate and maintain.
At the height of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, airships looked to be the answer to demands for persistent, “staring-eye” surveillance. But problems developing the systems — including, surprisingly, the decades-old technology of building a lighter-than-air vehicle — mean they are coming along just as the window of opportunity is closing. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) tells a heavy tale of lighter-than-air development and procurement troubles in a new report on Pentagon aerostat and airship programs. Here are some of the highlights:
The U.S. Navy is continuing to invest robustly in its directed energy programs with the goal of developing offensive and defensive weapons and equipment, says Mike Deitchman, director of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department. The U.S. is far from being the only country interested in developing directed energy weapons, Deitchman said at the recent Office of Naval Research (ONR) Naval Science and Technology Partnership Conference in Washington.
