The U.S. Army’s committed strength will rise slightly and remain at that higher level until at least the middle of 2010, according to its top officer, Gen. George Casey. And Casey, the Army’s chief of staff, predicts the service is facing two difficult years until the force is back in balance.
MORE JAM: Raytheon is to study the feasibility of increasing the jamming power and adding a datalink to the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy - Jammer (MALD-J) under a $12.2 million U.S. Air Force contract. This is a follow-on to a two-year, $80 million risk-reduction contract awarded in April 2008. A decision on production of the programmable jammer version of the air-launched decoy is expected in 2011. Under the new contract, Raytheon will determine the feasibility and performance of a Block II version of the MALD-J before flight-testing the improved vehicle.
After a week of air attacks and a week of ground maneuvers, the third phase of the Israeli offensive in Gaza will involve the physical occupation of the tunnel complexes along the Egyptian border. The third week of fighting in the Gaza Strip began Jan. 11 with an armored Israeli thrust into al-Atatra, part of the eastern suburbs of Gaza City. The goal is to fix the attention of Hamas fighters in the north while armored Israel Defense Forces units focus on the much more important occupation of the Rafah area, far to the south on the Egyptian border.
HEAT SINK: With thermal management a growing problem for densely packaged platforms, a team lead by Thermacore has been awarded a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract to develop advanced air-cooled heat exchangers for military electronics. The two-phase, 48-month Microtechnologies for Air-Cooled Exchangers program will demonstrate micro-technologies to improve the heat-transfer performance and reduce the electrical power-consumption of blower-driven heat exchangers. Lockheed Martin is a team member.
Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, engaging Iran and combining defense and diplomatic efforts to project “smart power,” were among President-elect Barack Obama’s foreign policy priorities outlined by Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at her Jan. 13 Senate confirmation hearing.
LAND WARRIOR: Rockwell Collins has been selected by General Dynamics C4 Systems to provide about 1,500 Helmet-Mounted Displays (HMD) for the U.S. Army’s Land Warrior integrated fighting system. The contract calls for the company to provide its ProView S035-A system, which incorporates electro-optical technology in a low-power, compact package, according to Rockwell Collins. The Land Warrior system includes a Global Positioning System sensor, radio, HMD and a portable computer.
NASA is trying to figure out how to fit the Mars Science Laboratory’s (MSL) launch on an Atlas V into the heavy-lift rocket’s already crowded fall/winter 2011 launch schedule, and manage a possible conflict with the agency’s Juno mission.
LONDON Despite British exasperation with continuing delays to the Airbus A400M airlifter, EADS CEO Louis Gallois remains publicly confident London will stay the course on the embattled military program. As a conciliatory gesture, Gallois says EADS is looking at “bridging” options to try to ease the effect of the latest delay.
The White House and Congress face a number of imminent decisions concerning NASA in 2009, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says, including whether the agency will endure another full-year continuing resolution, as well as decisions on the future of the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2015.
The first of the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation missile warning satellites has entered a critical test period at Lockheed Martin’s Sunnyvale, Calif., manufacturing facility. The Space-Based Infrared System geosynchronous (GEO-1) satellite is now undergoing a Baseline Integrated System Test (BIST) phase, a series of trials to establish a baseline of satellite performance before thermal vacuum testing.
ALKALI LIGHT: Already developing a solid-state laser weapon under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Hellads program, General Atomics has been funded to work on a different kind of high-power laser. The company has received a $667,000 contract from the Air Force for diode-pumped alkali-vapor laser (DPAL) technology development. Although diode-pumped is like a solid-state laser, the DPAL uses gas instead of semiconductor slabs to amplify the laser beam and promises to be both more efficient and easier to cool.
BOMBS AWAY: The U.S. Navy has declared initial operational capability for Lockheed Martin’s Paveway II Dual-Mode Laser Guided Bomb (DMLGB). The weapon is part of the Navy’s push to add two modes to its existing weapons, which have operated with a single mode either using laser guidance or a Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) kit. In this case, laser-guided Paveway IIs were modified with GPS/INS kits and the weapon will initially be operational on the Marine Corps AV-8B fleet. Deployment to the naval fleet is under way.
ELECTRIC AVENUE: The U.S. Army unveiled the first six of 4,000 Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) it is leasing as part of a comprehensive energy security initiative. The Jan. 12 ceremony is the beginning of an acquisition program to equip 40 Army installations with a potential 10,000 electric vehicles. According to the Army, by gradually replacing 4,000 gas-powered vehicles with the NEVs, the service will save 11 million gallons of fuel over the vehicles’ six-year service life and reduce carbon dioxide output by 115,000 tons.
MISSILE WARNING: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to deliver the Next Generation Missile Warning Systems (NexGen MWS) as the latest upgrade to its Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system. The NexGen MWS is a two-color infrared missile warning sensor and will be integrated into LAIRCM, which Northrop also developed and produces. The system detects a missile launch, determines if it is a threat, and activates a high-intensity laser-based countermeasure system to track and take out the missile.
MOSCOW The head of Sukhoi’s holding company, Mikhail Pogosyan, has taken the general director’s chair of rival fighter manufacturer MiG Corp. with an aim to integrate the latter company into United Aircraft Corp.’s (UAC) combat aircraft division.
PARIS — EADS is in talks with Turkey to find a role for the country and its industry in the advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. Ankara has expressed interest in joining the research and development endeavor, although it hasn’t specified exactly what work it wants to be doing, according to Stefan Zoller, CEO of EADS Defense & Security. Talks are still in their early stage, Zoller says.
Funding has not yet been secured for a plan to help four Central American nations buy new aircraft, including airlift and interdiction assets, according to Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, commander of U.S. Air Force assets in Central South America.
Oshkosh announced Jan. 12 that it submitted a proposal for the U.S. Army’s fast-tracked MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) program, a new program borne of U.S. counterinsurgency experience and ahead of an expected surge of ground forces to Afghanistan. The company says its submission is “based on the combat-proven Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) chassis, which has been successfully operating off-road in Afghanistan as well as around the world for several years.”
CRITICAL REVIEW: Boeing has completed the system-wide Critical Design Review (CDR) for its Family of Advanced Beyond line-of-sight Terminals (FAB-T) satellite communications program. The CDR was conducted Oct. 28-30 for senior military, government and industry officials. The Boeing Terminal Test team established log on, downlink and uplink connections with a Milstar 6 satellite – a first step toward implementing Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite Extended Data Rate (XDR) capability.
The administration and Congress should review and revamp export controls currently restricting the nation’s ability to conduct business with its allies, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is advising, or risk losing U.S. global competitiveness. Presidential directives issued on export control in 2008 were “a significant accomplishment” AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said. “However, you still have fundamental issues,” including whether the overall list of technologies is still relevant.
WORK FORCE UNIVERSITY: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has joined the nationwide push to interest a new generation in aeronautics, launching its new Center for Aviation and Aerospace Leadership.
BEIJING – China’s newly formed helicopter company will be based in Tianjin, where the city government will take 31 percent of the capital in a first step toward separating the rotary-wing business from national aircraft-making conglomerate Avic. Tianjin also will host a new production line with which the company will build light civilian helicopters, part of a range of initiatives that are turning the city, a big port close to Beijing, into a globally important aerospace center.
NEW DELHI – The Indian navy has issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for six so-called medium-range maritime reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft. The move comes following India’s choice of Boeing’s future P-8I multimission aircraft to replace the country’s eight aging TU-142s (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 6). The Indian coast guard also is looking for six MRMRs, but without an Airborne Early Warning system.
