JUICED UP: The Pentagon spends about $200 million a year toward technology that will help conserve, develop or better use energy, a defense official said last week during a U.S. Army and Air Force forum on energy. Another official said the issue is gaining more attention in Washington, for both financial and national security reasons.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has been selected over Lockheed Martin for a $109 million contract to develop a new missile, laser and hostile-fire warning system for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps rotorcraft. The Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (Jatas) is planned to replace the AAR-47 missile approach warning systems on the Bell Boeing MV-22B, which is the lead platform, as well as the Bell AH-1Z and UH-1Y and Sikorsky MH-60R, MH-60S and CH-53K.
A task force charged with eliminating illegal drug trafficking is installing new data analysis software technology developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) is deploying the Command-and-Control Rapid Prototype Continuum (C2RPC) system, a software application designed to fuse and integrate data for rapid analysis and support time-sensitive decision making, according to ONR.
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will take advantage of its precision-landing capabilities to touch down in a 20-km (12-mi.) circle next to a 5-km-tall mountain that scientists believe contains a good portion of the planet’s water history in its layered rocks.
LONDON — The U.K. and Australian defense research organizations will work more closely together in a bid to avoid duplicative spending. The memorandum of understanding involves the sharing of facilities between the Defense Science & Technology Organization in Australia and Britain’s Defense Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL). The move is only the latest of several cost-sharing efforts the U.K. has embarked on as it tries to trim defense spending and identify efficiencies.
After nearly nine months of protests over the selection of Boeing to build a new fleet of intelligence-collecting aircraft, the U.S. Army has revalidated the contactor’s role and begun work on project. The company won the $323 million development contract in late November 2010 over bids from Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications and a Lockheed Martin/Sierra Nevada team. Raytheon and SAIC were winnowed out earlier in the program.
ISRAEL SUPPORT: A House Foreign Affairs Committee markup of fiscal 2012 authorization legislation for the State Department would make it U.S. policy to “promote deployment as soon as is possible of effective missile defense systems capable of defending against ballistic missile attack from Iran, Syria and other potential missile threats to Israel.” The bill further calls for the U.S.
LONDON — After more than a year of deliberations, the French government has set its near-term medium-altitude/long-endurance unmanned aircraft plan, signing up to an updated proposal from Dassault Aviation to supply the Israel Aerospace Industries Heron-TP for the role.
HOUSTON — Shuttle Atlantis knifed through darkened Florida skies to a landing at Kennedy Space Center early July 21, dropping the curtain on NASA’s long-running space shuttle program. The 226,000-lb. winged orbiter touched down at 5:57 a.m. EDT in fair weather and rolled to a stop as the stirring final act of a spirited 30-year program still in search of an encore.
The U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command needs to get a better handle on the way it documents its expenditures, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “The command did not have effective controls over recording and processing 35,699 transactions using baseline and contingency funds valued at $131.8 million in obligations and $54.1 million in expenditures from October 1, 2008 to October 16, 2009,” the IG says.
There’s no doubt about it — the U.S. Navy is starting to get plenty of mileage out of its Virginia-class attack submarines. Aside from the very successful recent deployment of the Virginia itself, the sub’s design is proving fertile ground for new configurations, missions or even different classes. As everyone knows now, the Navy has reconfigured the next flight of Virginias for different bow tubes that can be used for an assortment of weapons, modules and mission equipment, making the vessel one of the most flexible in the fleet.
An operational utility evaluation (OUE) required before starting formal F-35 training operations is set to begin Oct. 1 at the new schoolhouse at the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla., says USAF Col. Andrew Toth, the wing’s new commander.
As large cuts to the U.S. defense budget are picking up an air of inevitability, more program kills are probably on their way, the military’s likely next second-in-command told senators July 21.
NEW DELHI — For the first time, India has successfully tested a quick-reaction, indigenous, surface-to-surface tactical missile that can hit a target up to 150 km (93 mi.) away. The 1,280-kg (2,800-lb.), single-stage “Prahaar” missile is fueled by solid propellants and capable of firing six warheads in one salvo at multiple targets, a Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) scientist involved with the project said soon after the missile was test fired July 21.
A July 20 story misidentified the P-8A LRIP-1 aircraft as part of the flight test program. When completed it will go directly into service with the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Navy successfully completed integrated system tests on shore and at sea on the prototype Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Div., in Panama City, Fla., throughout early July, the service’s program Executive Office — Littoral and Mine Warfare announced.
STABLE SPENDING: According to an independent think tank’s analysis of federal procurement data, contract dollars awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) increased by 56% between 2004 and 2008, growing from $9 billion annually to $14 billion. Spending held steady at $14 billion in 2009 and 2010. In absolute terms, DHS contract spending increased by 89% between 2004 and 2006, before dropping by 24% to $13 billion in 2007, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group.
Though difficult for a workforce facing economic upheaval, it’s time for change, top NASA officials said July 21 after orbiter Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center, marking the end of the long-running space shuttle program. Without a new direction, the nation will not take the bold steps required for the human exploration of destinations beyond Earth orbit, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Florida shuttle workers, who face the steepest job losses.
The Obama administration is proposing to shift tanks, trucks and other military vehicles currently controlled on the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the less-restrictive U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) by year’s end as part of a broader effort to reform the U.S. arms export licensing process.
TARGETED ACCOUNTS: Weapons maintenance, services support and logistics will increasingly draw Defense Department acquisition chief Ashton Carter’s attention as the Pentagon looks to carry out its part of cutting $400 billion from projected defense spending over the next 12 years. “We need to look where the money is,” Carter told a Brookings Institution audience last week. He said for every 30 cents spent developing and buying weapons, 70 cents are spent maintaining them, adding up to about $100 billion per year.
Parallel development of two prototype long-range, highly survivable, anti-ship missiles is on track for test flights beginning in late 2012, says Lockheed Martin, following completion of a major program review. Under a joint effort by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control is developing two variants of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm).
MOSCOW — The Russian defense ministry may purchase Sukhoi Su-30MKI multirole fighters, Russia’s most successful export combat aircraft for the last decade. On July 18, Alexei Fedorov, head of Su-30MKI manufacturer Irkut Corp., said the contract for 28 fighters for the Russian air force is expected to be signed in 2012, with deliveries to start in 18 months. The contract will include an option for 12 more aircraft that are to be handed over to the Russian navy.
