The new U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) is facing some problems that its commander doesn’t want to talk about, and high on that list is China and South Africa. During a June 19 breakfast in Washington, Army Gen. William E. Ward, AFRICOM’s commander, brushed off questions about harnessing South Africa’s network of air bases, positive air control, training schools and pool of pilots, as well as China’s sale of arms to anyone in Africa with money or something to trade. “I have opinions,” he allowed. Officials speak
NETWORK STARS: In 2009, the Defense Department’s Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) program office will complete standards development for new data link, ground and airborne network standards for its Telemetry Network System (TmNW). On June 19 DOD announced the completion of the TmNW network architecture, designed to help the military research, test and evaluation community with new radio spectrum-enhancing technology.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will “redefine the concept of multirole strike” aircraft, Lockheed Martin officials say, but they offer few details to flesh out that claim. Still, while the future concept of operations, electronic attack (EA) capability and derivative options remain undefined, at least publicly, some capabilities can be picked out of their purposely vague descriptions.
Orbcomm has orbited six replenishment satellites for its 29-unit mobile satellite tracking and positioning system. The spacecraft, launched from Kasputin Yar, Russia, on a Cosmos 3M booster, include a demonstration satellite equipped with an automatic identification system that will enable the U.S. Coast Guard to monitor international shipping on a global basis, and five standard Quick Launch units.
PLUTOIDS: The International Astronomical Union, which knocked Pluto off its official list of planets in 2006, has decided to name the whole class of dwarf planets in the trans-neptune region “plutoids.” Defined as objects orbiting the sun beyond Neptune with enough gravity to assume a near-spherical shape, but not enough to clear the “neighborhood” around their orbits, only Pluto and Eris fit the bill as plutoids at the moment. “It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made,” the IAU states.
Phoenix Mars Lander computer and engineering teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin took decisive action June 18 to prevent a computer problem from swamping science data return. They caught a potentially serious flash memory situation developing on the vehicle and acted to prevent the event from worsening. The problem was traced to complicated interactions in how the software counts Application Identifiers (ADIPs). These are engineering data packets automatically placed in the flash memory of the spacecraft for relay to Earth.
NASA picked a team headed by Oceaneering International Inc. (OII) to build its next-generation spacesuits because it felt the team’s systems engineering and management plans are more likely to get the job done than those proposed by veteran suitmakers Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover.
Lockheed Martin and Savi, a wholly-owned subsidiary specializing in radio frequency identification (RFID), are demonstrating an Item Unique Identification (IUID) software system for the Defense Department. The tests use embedded sub-assemblies shipped with a DOD-compliant passive RFID label and loaded into a mock container. The assemblies include full tag and data information tracked with sensor-enabled active RFID technology from Savi.
REAFFIRMED: General Dynamics (GD) continues to work on a U.S. Navy award for common enterprise display system consoles after the sea service reaffirmed its choice of the contractor following a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. A GD spokesman said June 18 that the company reinvigorated its contract work in April. The GAO decision occurred in February, but a redacted report was published only days ago (Aerospace DAILY, June 18).
Blueprints for advanced nuclear weapons may have found their way from the computers of smugglers in Switzerland to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world, according to a report from a U.S. think tank.
SPACE SUPPORT: A new Gallup poll commissioned by the Coalition for Space Exploration shows that more than 52 percent of those surveyed would support an increase in space exploration funding. NASA’s current budget is less than 1 percent of the federal budget, or roughly 15 cents per day for the average taxpayer. Furthermore, 68 percent of respondents agreed that the benefits of the human exploration of space outweigh the risks. Gallup conducted the poll during April and May.
LITHUANIAN INTERCEPTORS: The U.S. has considered Lithuania as an alternative European host for ground-based midcourse ballistic missile interceptors, but no formal or informal talks have begun, according to a Pentagon spokesman. Briefing reporters there June 17, Geoff Morrell said defense officials believe that Poland still wants to strike a deal for the U.S. proposal of 10 two-stage interceptors to guard against expected Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles next decade.
As this year’s annual Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) tests the viability of multinational command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems, a call is being put out inviting participants to contribute ideas for the 2009 test.
NEW DELHI – The Indian government is in the midst of last-minute efforts to sign a civil nuclear deal with the U.S., trying to persuade the Left parties to agree to the accord. Under the deal, the U.S. has agreed to trade nuclear reactors, technology and fuel to help meet India’s growing energy needs.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) recommendation for the U.S. Air Force to recompete its aerial refueling tanker award has recast a spotlight on the embattled armed service’s already bruised acquisition process at a time when the service is reeling from Washington-level missteps.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is kicking off the second phase of its automated aerial refueling (AAR) program to demonstrate the capability to refuel unmanned aircraft in flight. AFRL is looking for an integrator to conduct AAR Phase II, which will develop and demonstrate the capability for U.S Air Force-style boom and receptacle refueling of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). U.S. Navy-style probe and drogue refueling will not be demonstrated.
PARIS – The French will rejoin the military command of the Atlantic Alliance as part of the country’s first major strategic shift since the end of the Cold War. President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed June 17 that Paris will fully reintegrate the NATO command structure, ending a four-decade estrangement dating back to Gen. Charles de Gaulle and cementing a return to normality at higher operational echelons initiated by his predecessor Jacques Chirac.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – Engineers on NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle project are filling in the details on a backup airbag system to protect astronauts if the capsule is forced to return to Earth on dry land instead of in the ocean near California. While the nominal Orion landing would come in the Pacific near San Clemente Island, northwest of San Diego, the Orion project has devised a system of pop-out airbags in the “toe” of the capsule that would cushion the crew in a heads-up position in what is known as a “contingency land landing.”
TEJAS FLIES: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has flown the second of eight limited series-production (LSP) Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). LSP-2 is the first to be powered by the General Electric F404-IN20 engine planned for the initial production batch of indigenous multirole fighters for the Indian air force. The aircraft completed a 43-minute flight from HAL’s Bangalore plant on June 17, reaching Mach 1.1. Compared with the F404-N2J3 powering previous LCAs, the F404-IN20 has full-authority digital engine control and increased thrust and life.
NASA BILL: On June 18 the House of Representatives passed NASA’s fiscal 2009 authorization bill by a vote of 409 to 15. H.R. 6063 was introduced May 15 by House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and passed the House Science and Technology Committee on June 4. The legislation authorizes $20.21 billion for FY ‘09, which includes a baseline authorization of $19.21 billion plus $1 billion to accelerate the development of the Orion and Ares vehicles.
ILLEGAL EXPORTS: Federal prosecutors said June 17 that Parthasarathy Sudarshan was sentenced to 35 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to illegally export controlled electronic components to government entities in India that participate in the development of ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles and fighter jets. Sudarshan, of Simpsonville, S.C., did business as Cirrus Electronics. Recipients of U.S.
CHIEF REQUIREMENT: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top U.S. military officer, wants more high-level military “understanding” of requirements cited for pending and future defense acquisition programs. “We must contain the requirements. That would be a huge step toward containing costs and we don’t have much of an appetite for containing that,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen says. “Clearly we’ve got way too many major programs whose costs have gone sky high and we cannot continue to engender the confidence of the American people if we don’t contain those costs.”
HELLFIRE DEVELOPMENT: The U.K. Defense Ministry is working on an upgrade program for the AGM-114 Hellfire missile. Lockheed Martin is the likely lead for the U.K. project, which includes an insensitive munition motor. The U.K. uses variants of the missile on its WAH-64 Apache attack helicopter and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle. The upgraded missile may also be offered back into the U.S.
