NASA is preparing the space shuttle Discovery to deliver the final truss element and U.S.-built solar array wing to the International Space Station (ISS), adding another 20 kilowatts of usable electricity before the crew doubles to six. Set for a Feb. 12 launch from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., the STS-119/15A mission will install the S6 truss element to kick off what promises to be a busy year at the ISS. The truss section, with the 240-foot-long solar array wing folded into it, will completely fill Discovery’s payload bay at launch.
U.S. officials are delaying trials for new modes of its developmental ground-surveillance radar, opting instead to test existing imaging and moving-target modes on the Global Hawk Block 40 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The U.S. Air Force is looking for contractors interested in competing to design and build the next Air Force One for transporting the president worldwide. This could set the stage for a new trans-Atlantic battle between global widebody rivals Boeing and Airbus. Design options could include the Boeing 787, 747-8 and Airbus A380.
Israeli officials say privately that they are not going to get involved in ground combat in the built-up urban areas and that they will likely be out of Gaza in another two weeks. They contend that the lack of action from Hezbollah since 2006 shows that the combat in Lebanon – despite revealing some disarray in Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ground operations – has served as a deterrent for two years. They note that Hezbollah hastened to absolve itself of responsibility for a few missile launches into northern Israel in recent days.
The U.S. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), USS Freedom, has been performing up to specifications in sea trails, according to prime contractor Lockheed Martin, and the Navy says the program is back on course following its restructuring. “We were out on Lake Michigan for 10 days in all kinds of water,” said Joe North, Lockheed vice president and LCS program manager. “The more she rises [off the surface at speed], the more stable she is. But there was nothing that surprised us. We had been doing this on paper for so many years.”
PARIS – EADS Astrium has completed the acquisition of U.K.-based Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) following approval of the merger in late December by the European Commission (EC). The EC had delayed approval last month to study potential repercussions, but as expected the review did not generate any objections.
FULL PLATE: The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General (DHS IG) warns in a December report that the U.S. Coast Guard’s homeland security missions may jeopardize future performance of other, unrelated missions. Data show that in fiscal 2007, homeland security mission resource hours increased, as do projections in dollars and personnel from FY ’07 through ’09 for homeland security, with a corresponding decrease in resources for other missions.
South Korea has ordered six Type 214 submarines from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), adding to three units of the class that it ordered in 2000. Local shipyards, beginning with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for the first boat, will assemble the six submarines with packages supplied by the German company. Local builders also have been responsible for the first three, of which two have been delivered.
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.
