FULL EARTH: The Japanese lunar probe, Selene, has taken a picture of the Earth equivalent to a full moon: round and without a shadow. The Selene team says the movie, shot on April 6, is notable because the orbits of the moon, Earth, sun and satellite orbit had to be in a precisely straight line and that such an opportunity would come only twice during Selene’s year of scheduled observation. In an Earth-rise picture taken by the satellite on Nov. 7, the planet was partly in shadow.
There’s a lot of money waiting for the right project, at least when it comes to alternative energy, according to U.S. Air Force environment chief Bill Anderson. Anderson, speaking at an Air Force-sponsored Defense Strategy Seminar series April 15, said that even with service and government commitments to conservation, global demand for fossil fuels will be on the increase over the next few years. “We have to extract, refine and use fossil fuels more efficiently,” Anderson said. “Energy and the environment must be joined at the hip.”
Hamilton Sundstrand will test Sabathier-reaction technology as a source of water for the International Space Station (ISS) under a NASA contract announced April 15 that could be worth as much as $65 million.
France’s process of procuring and then introducing new equipment into frontline units takes too long and must be streamlined, the chief of the French army warns. Next-generation defense equipment for the French army must be “deployed for today’s real-world contingency operations as soon as possible,” says Gen. Bruno Cuche.
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Several programs under way in the U.S. military show how the services are transforming their aviation aftermarket to boost aircraft availability. Gary Nenninger of the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command said April 15 at Aviation Week’s MRO Military Conference here that the command logged $80 million in cost avoidance in 2006-07 by equipping various aircraft with sensors, which allowed it to use more condition-based maintenance, as opposed to time-based maintenance.
SKY WARRIOR: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. is promoting a successful flight of the first Sky Warrior Block 1 aircraft for the U.S. Army’s Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) program. The test flight, which occurred March 31 but was not announced until April 15, took off from the company’s El Mirage Flight Operations Facility in Adelanto, Calif. The program, including follow-on production, should be worth more than $2 billion and calls for 17 Sky Warrior aircraft and seven so-called One System Ground Control Stations.
JSF COSTS: Lockheed Martin F-35 program officials are pulling their hair out over the press’s dismissive response to the Pentagon’s judgment in the 2007 Selected Acquisition Reports that the Joint Strike Fighter program is actually going down in cost. In the report, $11 billion in actual cost growth was offset by $12 billion in estimated future savings. The big question mark was $9 billion transferred from recurring cost (which get added to the price of each aircraft) to a nonrecurring cost category.
ICO LAUNCHES: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V with two solid rocket boosters placed the highly advanced ICO G1 mobile communications satellite into its geosynchronous transfer orbit after liftoff from Cape Canaveral at 4:12 p.m. EDT April 14. The 7-ton Space Systems/Loral satellite, with solar arrays spanning more than 100 feet, is one of the largest communications spacecraft ever launched. It carries a 40-foot Harris mesh antenna to initiate a new wave of hybrid high-speed mobile services.
IDEAS WANTED: The National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) C4ISR Division is calling for papers for its disruptive technologies conference Sept. 4-5 in Washington. The conference will explore technologies with disruptive operational capabilities affecting air, cyber, ground, ISR, sea, and space-based operations. NDIA is accepting abstracts on brain-computer interfaces; detection and signal processing; genomics; nano and quantum computing; robotics; and temporal, spatial and spectral data fusion.
Growing concerns with the U.S. having enough Army and Marine Corps land forces to react to potential unforeseen crises overseas are drawing attention on Capitol Hill. The concerns come as lawmakers craft fiscal 2009 defense bills and eye post-Bush administration budgetmaking, keeping in mind the looming potential for a significant number of troops operating in Iraq for years to come and the strain that deployments so far have placed on the volunteer U.S. military.
ARMY Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems Limited Partnership, Sealy, Texas, was awarded on April 3, 2008, a $6,096,214 firm-fixed price contract for 38 medium tactical vehicle 5-ton cargo trucks. The work will be performed in Sealy, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 15, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Two bids were solicited on Aug. 15, 2002, and two bids were received. U.S. Army TACOM-Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-03-C-S023). NAVY
While the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program’s recent Selected Acquisition Report points to some cost stability within the program, the program still faces some serious challenges ahead, a recent Teal Group report says. Industrial “greed” abroad and program commitment at home continue to put the F-35 in the crosshairs, according to the report.
Tests at the Mount Hopkins Observatory in Arizona this summer could validate a new technique for finding extra-solar planets on the same scale as Earth. Developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics with input from experts at MIT, the device uses extremely short pulses of laser light, in combination with an atomic clock, to make measurements accurate to one part in a trillion of the light coming from distant stars.
AIR FORCE Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of Herndon, Va., is being awarded a modified contract for $27,970,673. The action will provide survivability and vulnerability technical research and development analysis for U.S. Coast Guard ship, aviation, and Command and Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. At this time $7,714,009 has been obligated. Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (SP0700-03-D-1380, Delivery Order: 0250).
EURO TECH: Northrop Grumman has been awarded a U.S. Army contract to consolidate and centrally manage information technology (IT) resources for the service’s 5th Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany. Northrop Grumman hopes its effort, managed through the European Theater Network Operations Security Center (E-TNOSC), will streamline the Army’s European IT infrastructure to improve network integrity and security while reducing overall costs.
BMDS DACS: American Pacific Corp.’s in-space propulsion subsidiary ISP said April 14 it will deliver a “qualification unit” and two flight-test units for a liquid divert and attitude control system (DACS) for the U.S. ballistic missile defense system in September 2010. The schedule stems from a $15 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop a low-cost, low-risk propulsion system for interceptor kill vehicles. ISP is teamed with Moog Inc.’s Space and Defense Group, which will provide subsystem design and component support.
SPECIAL OPS: France will have nearly 3,300 troops in the Afghan theater following a commitment by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the NATO summit in Bucharest. Sarkozy promised 700 additional troops, to be deployed in support of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan. He declined to take action on a proposal to send 200-300 special operations troops to replace those removed in December 2006.
PARIS – The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted for a second Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system spacecraft and is poised to award a third as it gears up for a GMES expansion plan to be submitted for approval in November. Thales Alenia Space was awarded a 305 million euro ($475 million) contract April 14 for Sentinel 3, the second of five dedicated Sentinel satellites that will form the backbone of the space segment of GMES, which is being developed under ESA’s responsibility.
AIR FORCE Boeing Co. of Anaheim, Calif., is being awarded a modified contract for $24,960,000. This undefinitized contract action will incorporate Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 0035, Strategic Networks, into the Family of Advanced Beyond-Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) Increment 1 program. At this time $9,250,000 has been obligated. Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-02-C-0048/P00141). ARMY
