Northrop Grumman said March 17 it received a contract to developmentally and operationally test the Multi-Role Tactical Common Data Link (MR-TCDL) for the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has signed a science and technology research agreement with the German Ministry of Education and Research. The pact, signed March 16 in Berlin, is similar to collaboration arrangements the U.S. already has with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Sweden, Mexico, Israel and France.
IRANIAN DRONE: Coalition aircraft over Iraq shot down an Iranian-made Ababil 3 model unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, according to U.S. military officials. The Feb. 25 incident was announced March 16. “This was not an accident on the part of the Iranians,” officials said. “The UAV was in Iraqi airspace for nearly one hour and 10 minutes and well inside Iraqi territory before it was engaged.” Two coalition aircraft were directed to visually identify the UAV after it was detected hovering inside the Iraqi border.
In 2008 there were 6,000 cartel-related murders in Mexico, which is more than twice the previous record, says Mark Koumans, deputy assistant secretary of the office of international affairs for the Homeland Security Department. Even more alarming is that in January 2009 alone, there were 1,000 such murders.
The head of North American Aerospace Defense Command told Congress March 17 that the military unit charged with defending U.S. and Canadian airspace could have trouble maintaining sovereignty of the skies without aircraft recapitalization. In his written testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Air Force Gen. Victor Renuart Jr. noted that legacy F-16 fighters are aging and “will be stressed to maintain reliability and capability as we move into the 2013-2025 time frame.”
Members of the U.S. submarine industrial base are seeking and winning visible support in Congress for protecting the military’s underwater programs – namely the Virginia-class submarine – as the Pentagon undergoes expected budget tightening.
A state-of-the-art instrument to measure the effects of atmospheric aerosols – both natural and manmade – on the Earth’s climate is ready for installation on the NASA satellite that will take it to orbit next fall.
UAV SUMMIT: U.S. Northern Command will host a national summit for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) stakeholders March 23-24. U.S. Air Force Gen. Victor Renuart Jr., NORTHCOM’s commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee March 17 that the gathering was being called to help determine “the best way forward on employing UAS capabilities in the National Air Space.” He added that NORTHCOM was eager to team with the Homeland Security Department as it expands UAS operational capabilities “to achieve synergy with our homeland defense and homeland security efforts.”
ST. LOUIS – Boeing unveiled the prototype of a new variant of the F-15 Strike Eagle aimed at the Asian and Middle East markets that will incorporate stealthy coatings and structure here on March 17.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston – The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station March 17, delivering power and life support hardware needed to support a full-size crew of six later this year. Mission Commander Lee Archambault and pilot Tony Antonelli maneuvered the orbiter to a soft dock at the front of the station’s Harmony node at 5:19 p.m. EDT.
The U.S. Navy’s Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) Mark 2 sensor and weapons package is still far from being shipshape, says a recent report by the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). Indeed, the Navy has failed to make the SSDS meet the DOT&E grade for the past two years, according to the organization’s 2008 annual report, released last month. “The Navy has not completed any of the (fiscal year) 2006 or FY07 recommendations,” the DOT&E said.
The European Space Agency’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite was launched March 17 aboard a Russian Rockot launch vehicle from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, following a 24-hour hold. The hold on the previous day – with seven seconds left on the clock – was due to an issue with an element of the launch platform. The overall GOCE program is well behind the original schedule.
C-17 BOOST: President Barack Obama’s reluctance to personally put a stamp of approval on specific defense programs has not gone unnoticed, analyst Loren Thompson says in a recent Lexington Institute briefing paper. “That makes any direct endorsement of a weapons program by the president unusual, and worthy of mention.
Two years after its purchase by Sikorsky, PZL Mielec rolled out the first of 200 Black Hawk cabins it expects to make as it takes the lead in international sales of the multimission helicopter. The initial cabin, the first produced outside the U.S., will be used by PZL on the S-70i International Black Hawk program, a multimission 10-ton class variant of the H-60 developed with mission specific requirements in mind for international customers.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a staunch advocate of closing the gap in U.S. human spaceflight between the space shuttle and the follow-on Ares I/Orion vehicles, said here March 15 that he expects President Barack Obama to pick his NASA administrator “in the next few days.”
PARIS – Arianespace has postponed launch of the European Space Agency’s Herschel-Planck science mission because of the need to carry out additional checks on the mission’s ground segment following recent software updates. The delay in the mission – Arianespace’s second of the year – is expected to be “a couple of weeks.” A new date for the launch, which had been set for April 16, is to be announced at the end of this month.
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The business side of the Pentagon lacks the same sense of “urgency and focus and clarity” as the warfighting side, the head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified to Congress last week. Change can only come from “the top level, dedicated leadership,” said Gene Dodaro, who also serves as acting comptroller general of the U.S., at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee.
