CUT OFF: U.S. House members, including the second-ranking Republican and the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, are calling for Congress to stop roughly $100 million in 2011 assistance to the Lebanese armed forces, saying the embattled country’s government is too complicit with the Hezbollah militant group. “Lebanon cannot have it both ways. If it wants to align itself with Hezbollah against the forces of democracy, stability and moderation, there will be consequences,” Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) said Aug. 9. Cantor said that since 2006, the U.S.
The U.S. Army needs to tighten up controls for certain fund balances of its overseas contingency operations, according to the Pentagon Inspector General (IG). “The Army had no assurance that unliquidated obligations valued at approximately $125.8 million represented valid Army needs,” the IG says in its July 19 report. “The line of accounting used for identifying the Army’s use of contingency operations funds was not reliable, and we could not identify specific contracts as supporting the effort,” the report says.
GUIDING VEGA: Elv has been tapped to provide new guidance and control software for the Vega launcher, following French armaments agency DGA’s decision to embargo the original software because of its potential applicability to ballistic missiles. The small rocket is slated to perform its first launch in early 2011, carrying the Lares satellite. The first missions will use the older software, developed by Eads Astrium, but it will be replaced on later vehicles. Elv will deliver the new software within two years.
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TRAINING ATTENTION: A new Rand Corp. study finds that 40%-50% of U.S. soldiers in deploying units, both active and reserve, have been in that unit for less than a year. Consequently, the turnover prompts reserve units to try to schedule much of their training during the last few months before mobilization, when unit staffing is more stable.
Steve Loranger, the chairman, president and CEO of ITT Corp., has had a tough couple of weeks. On July 30, the company reported declining profits and sales in its Defense & Information Systems unit, a 49% drop in new orders and said 2010 revenues would be $500 million lower than previously forecast.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched a massive relief and rescue operation in Leh, which was hit by flash floods Aug. 6 following massive storms. The death toll so far has exceeded 150, with more than 500 still missing. The relief operation got a boost when two IAF IL-76s and four AN-32s landed at cleaned-up Leh Airport with 125 rescue and relief personnel from the National Disaster Response Force with medicine, generators, tents, portable X-ray machines, emergency rescue kits, and other gear.
COLLISION COURSE: The U.S. spends about $4 million a year searching for near-Earth objects (NEOs), according to a new National Academies report, but that remains “insufficient” to detect the majority of NEOs that may present a tangible threat to humans. The majority of this funding supports the operation of several observatories that scan the sky searching for NEOs, rather than on so-called mitigation capabilities to avoid or minimize collisions.
SDB II: Raytheon has been selected over a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team to develop the Small Diameter Bomb Increment II (SDB II) under a $451 million U.S. Air Force contract. A follow-on to the Boeing-produced, GPS-guided GBU-39 SDB Increment I, the 250 lb.-class GBU-53/B SDB II is designed for use against moving targets in all weather and is equipped with a tri-mode radar/infrared/laser seeker. The SDB II will be integrated initially on the F-15E and F-35B/C Joint Strike Fighter.
The U.S. Air Force is reintroducing its stealthy, unmanned RQ-170 to operations in Afghanistan, and Israel is using its strategic-range UAVs to observe, target and strike smugglers in the Red Sea. The latest twist is that the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel flying wing either has returned or is returning to Afghanistan with a full-motion video capability that ground commanders have been demanding as part of the continuing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) buildup in the country.
NEW DELHI — The Indian Air Force (IAF) and Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have signed an agreement for series production of a computerized pilot selection system (CPSS). Trial runs are being facilitated by the IAF, with the system expected to be functional in three years. Twenty CPSSs will be installed at pilot selection centers in Dehradun, Varanasi and Mysore. Another 10 will be put on stand-by.
DARK HORSE: The mysterious Antonov An-112KC offered by U.S. Aerospace in its rejected bid for the U.S. Air Force KC-X tanker contest (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 5) has been revealed as an An-70 airlifter with two large turbofans replacing its four propfan engines, and equipped with a fuselage-mounted refueling boom and wing-mounted refueling pods. No prototype exists and no fewer than four engine options are listed: General Electric GEnx-1B, Pratt & Whitney PW4070, Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and GE/Pratt Engine Alliance GP7200. The ability to carry 183,000 lb.
NASA is seeking industry feedback on its plans for a new five-year, $150 million research program to help integrate unmanned aircraft into civil airspace. The program is planned to begin in Fiscal 2011 and would focus on separation assurance and collision avoidance, pilot-aircraft interface, certification requirements and communications, involving a series of increasingly complex flight demonstrations.
In a bid to drive down the size and weight of laser weapons, the U.S. Defense Department has awarded contracts to demonstrate more efficient electric lasers that can be scaled to lethal power levels. So far, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have received contracts under the Robust Electric Laser Initiative (RELI). A fourth contract is expected to be awarded to Northrop Grumman.
The International Space Station’s mission management team approved a two-spacewalk strategy on Aug. 6 to repair the cooling system that was partially disabled by a July 31 electrical short in an external pump module assembly. The first spacewalk by Expedition 24 flight engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson was scheduled to get underway on Aug. 7 at 6:55 a.m. EDT and last about 7 hr.
MOVING LASER: Northrop Grumman’s Joint High-Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) system is being moved from the laboratory to the High-Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at White Sand Missile Range, N.M., for field testing against rockets, mortars and unmanned aircraft. A ruggedized 15-kw. version of JHPSSL will be tested at sea against small boats this year under the Office of Naval Research’s Maritime Laser Demonstration program. Northrop also is participating in the Robust Electric Laser Initiative, which is just getting underway.
POINT AND SHOOT: The U.S. Army plans to award Boeing a contract to integrate Radiance Technologies’ WeaponWatch gunfire detection system onto the AH-64D Apache. The 18-month contract is planned to be awarded at the end of August by the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate. WeaponWatch is an infrared sensor and high-speed processor that can detect, locate and classify, and respond to ground fire.
MOON SHOTS: NASA is looking for industry data on robotic lunar lander technologies. The Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data broad agency announcement (BAA) is expected to lead to multiple contracts with a total value up to $30.1 million through 2012. The BAA asks for information about the design and demonstration of an end-to-end lunar landing mission, including data on hardware design, development and testing; ground operations and integration; launch; trajectory-correction maneuvers; lunar braking, burn and landing; and enhanced capabilities.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) AUG. 16 - 19 — National Defense Industrial Association’s 13th Annual Space and Missile Defense Conference and Exhibition, Huntsville, Ala. For more information call (256) 382-5823, or go to www.smdconf.org Aug. 24 - 27 — AUVSI’S Unmanned Systems North America 2010, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colo. For more information go to www.auvsi.org
