MAJOR MILESTONES: The Northrop Grumman team announced May 27 the completion of the integrated baseline review for the U.S. Air Force Next-Generation Global Positioning System (GPS) Ground Control Segment (OCX). The integrated baseline review identified key schedule milestones, ensured adequate resources are available to complete program tasks and verified that the tasks are planned and can be objectively measured, the company said.
Air support – both for personnel transportation and cargo lift – will be U.S. Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) greatest near-term equipment need, the new regional command’s deputy commander said May 27. “Getting back and forth to the continent and around the continent will be something that will need a lot of air support. That’s probably the biggest need we anticipate in the years to come,” Vice Adm. Robert Moeller told an audience at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
NETWORK JAM: A Northrop Grumman study has demonstrated that airborne electronic jammer aircraft are more effective and efficient when networked and enhanced by decision aids. The study, conducted for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, aimed to determine the effectiveness of networked jammers when they are supported by specialized computer programs that recognize enemy radars, communications and other electronic activities. Initial tests demonstrated a baseline effectiveness for the jammers.
ARMY Machining Technologies Inc., (MaTech), Salisbury, Md., was awarded on May 15, 2008, an $11,352,260 firm-fixed price contract for 60mm and 81mm lightweight mortar bipods. The work is to be performed in Salisbury, Md., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2012. Bids were solicited via the Web with two bids received. U.S. Army Joint Munitions & Lethality Life Cycle Management Command, Acquisition Center Picatinny, N.J., is the contracting activity. (W15QKN-08-C-0455)
Northrop Grumman received contracts totaling more than $2.5 billion for secret aircraft programs in the first quarter of 2008, strongly supporting reports and indications that the company has won a U.S. Air Force contract to build a prototype for the Next Generation Bomber (NGB) program. First-quarter results issued April 26 state that Northrop Grumman “was awarded approximately $2.6 billion for restricted programs during this period.” The results showed a comparable increase in backlog for the company’s aircraft business, the Integrated Systems sector.
The Corot planet-finding mission has identified two more exoplanets and an unknown celestial object, mission managers reported at an International Astronomical Union conference in Massachusetts earlier this month. It also detected extremely faint signals of another exoplanet that appears to be 1.7 times the radius of Earth. If confirmed, it would be the first rocky exoplanet to be found. Discovery of earthlike planets is the primary focus of the Corot mission, which was launched in December 2006.
As spring melted into summer 2005, U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) officers responsible for developing the Combat, Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement fleet continued to stretch and strip key performance parameters (KPPs). So much so, initial requirement writers would later say, that some of the final KPPs would bear little resemblance to the originals.
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA has hit its first hiccup with the Phoenix Mars Lander mission following a radio shutdown on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which is being used to relay commands to the vehicle on the surface.
LITTLE WING: AeroVironment (AV) announced May 27 its win of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Phase II contract to design and build a flying prototype for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program. AV completed a preliminary design review at the end of its Phase I, $1.7 million program. Phase II, initiated in March, is a six-month, $636,000 development program that will culminate in the demonstration of a rudimentary, three-inch flapping-wing air vehicle.
TEST RANGE: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract to deliver the first phase of the next-generation DOD range-upgrade program, the Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS). CRIIS is a program to improve accuracy, security and data link features for test ranges. The program will replace the Advanced Range Data System developed in the 1980s with an open-system architecture which allows for future growth.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be challenging future military leaders to avoid promoting questionable major acquisitions over less-expensive defense spending that can better address near-term warfighting, but the message hasn’t resonated on Capitol Hill just yet, according to recent House action on the F-22 Raptor.
CHARGES FLY: A Washington watchdog group is trumpeting a U.S. Army and Defense Department joint finding that a major supplier of materials used in the production of composite parts on aircraft possibly committed fraud on “every aircraft manufacturer in the world” from 1997 to 2005. The watchdogs, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), further say the Air Force still has not taken disciplinary action, as an Army Criminal Investigation Command and Defense Criminal Investigative Service memorandum recommended.
The FAA Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system went out of service at 10:30 p.m. Washington time (2:30 Coordinated Universal Time) on May 22 and has been down for 12 hours with no end to the outage in sight.
TRUST, VERIFY: In the wake of last year’s turmoil in NASA’s astronaut corps stemming from the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak, lawmakers may require NASA to conduct biennial anonymous health care surveys of its astronauts and flight surgeons “to evaluate communication, relationships, and the effectiveness of policies,” and to report the results to Congress.
FCC MILESTONE: ICO Global Communications says that two-way voice and data communications between its ICO G1 satellite and mobile terminals is now operational and it has filed its final milestone certification confirming the capability with the Federal Communications Commission. ICO G1, launched on April 14, is the first in a new wave of hybrid satellites intended to serve mobile TV, navigation and other high-speed mobile service.
USCG & FCS: The U.S. Coast Guard may be looking to expand the reach of its communications architecture, and the solution may lie with the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) network. At an Army Evaluation Task Force (AETF) media day in Ft. Bliss, Texas, May 21, a Coast Guard officer observed the Army performing dry runs with its Class I unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the small unmanned ground vehicle (SUG-V) being developed for FCS. The Coast Guard official said his service was not the only one interested in the FCS network, and U.S.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed language that would prohibit new contracts that rely on private contractors to serve as lead-system integrators (LSIs) starting in fiscal 2011 – along with several other contracting-disclosure and reform-minded requirements.
LORAL LOSSES: Loral Space & Communications recorded a net loss of $71 million in the first quarter, on revenues of $386 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $99 million. Results included a first-time contribution from Telesat of Canada, in which Loral acquired a 64 percent stake on Oct. 31, 2007. Without Telesat, Loral would have recorded sales of $219 million, with break-even EBITDA. Backlog of the company’s Space Systems/Loral satellite manufacturing arm rose to $1.2 billion, from $1 billion at the end of December.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) May 26 - 30 — 4S Symposium, “Small satellite systems and services conference,” Rhodes, Greece. For more information go to www.congrex.nl/08a12/ June 2 - 4 — The 2008 Navy Opportunity Forum, “Transitioning Technology to the Fleet,” Hyatt Regency, Crystal City, Va. For more information go to www.navyopportunityforum.com
QUAKE ZONE: Chinese government agencies operating in earthquake-stricken Sichuan province are using unclassified U.S. government maps derived from satellite imagery to guide recovery efforts under an unprecedented data-sharing effort coordinated by the U.S. State Dept. The Chinese government requested the data on reservoirs and other infrastructure damaged in the Magnitude 8 earthquake, according to the Pentagon. A spokeswoman for the U.S. National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA) says it is the first time the U.S.
BOMB AGREEMENT: MBDA and Safran will collaborate on Safran’s Sagem AASM air-to-ground powered bomb, which was recently deployed for action in Afghanistan aboard the Rafale F2 fighter. Missile maker MBDA, which has no equivalent precision weapon in its portfolio, will take over marketing responsibility for the AASM, and the two companies will work together in developing future variants. Safran and MBDA have long partnered in the missile seeker domain.
A pair of astronomical observations 22 years apart has revealed that a supernova in the constellation Sagittarius occurred about 140 years ago, confirming it as the most recent stellar explosion observed in the Milky Way galaxy. In 1985 the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array in New Mexico made an observation of the supernova remnant G1.9+0.3 in radio wavelengths. Then early last year NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory collected data on X-rays from the blast.
