BOOMING SPENDING: When all potential defense-related costs are considered, the Bush administration’s fiscal 2009 defense budget may represent close to 5 percent of gross domestic product, according to consultancy Forecast International. Although the administration listed $515 billion in its noncombat-oriented baseline request, tens of billions of dollars more are expected through supplemental appropriations across the Defense Department, and the armed services have outlined an additional $30 billion or so in requirements not provided in President Bush’s budget.
An industry-academic team from California is claiming what it believes is the first successful flight of a liquid oxygen (LOX)-methane powered rocket engine. The milestone was achieved on April 12, when the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation (GSC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)-developed Prospector 14LM (P-14LM) reached an altitude of 5,500 feet after launching from a test site near Mojave, Calif.
The U.S. Army has opened an indefinite delivery and quantity contact with Alloy Surfaces Co. Inc. so it can purchase up to $348 million worth of the M211 special material decoy countermeasure that is protecting fixed and rotary wing aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan.
TANKS LOT: Rockwell Collins announced the completed delivery of the first 505 Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) for the Tank Urban Survivability Kit (TUSK) program. TUSK is part of an upgrade designed for M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams tank crews. As part of the TUSK upgrade program, Rockwell Collins will provide the HMD for the Loaders Thermal Weapon Sight (LTWS). The same HMD fielded for the Land Warrior and Mounted Warrior Soldier System (MWSS) program is being used as a remote viewer LTWS.
Congressional Democrats have moved to widen their battle with the Bush administration over soaring oil prices, and are issuing new threats to OPEC producers and oil companies that they are prepared to take retaliatory action over sky-high prices by using Foreign Military Sales as leverage.
CHEAP SPACE: Two years after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) first reported on DOD’s operationally responsive space (ORS) efforts, a new report found numerous challenges remain. The Defense Department has made progress, including providing Congress with an organizational plan, launching one of its TacSat satellites and developing interface standards for satellite buses. But GAO still found the department wanting. “Achieving success in ORS will be challenging,” the April report said.
A surge of defense-oriented acquisition reform legislation on Capitol Hill has opponents and supporters fighting a war of words ahead of the next battlefield, the Senate, while federal regulators move to make changes of their own. The House of Representatives has approved the so-called Contractors and Federal Spending Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3033), the Close the Contractor Fraud Loophole Act (H.R. 5712), the Government Contractor Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3928) and Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2008 (H.R. 4881).
If congressional opponents of the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award its KC-X aerial refueling tanker program to a Northrop Grumman-EADS team get their criticism written into law, it could become the greatest earmark in modern times.
The draft future airlift study plan released last month by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) lacks requisite detail, the Government Accountability said April 28, precluding GAO from conducting a full analysis.
The new Land Launch rocket has entered commercial service with the successful launch of Spacecom’s Amos-3. The Zenit-3SLB-based booster, a derivative of Sea Launch designed to operate from the Baikonur, Kazakhstan cosmodrome, lifted off for the first time at 5 a.m. GMT April 28 with the Israeli telecom satellite on-board. The mission, initially set for April 24, was held up because of a launcher support arm problem.
A pair of launches have put a total of 11 satellites in orbit, 10 of them on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and one – the second test satellite for Europe’s planned Galileo constellation – on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
The U.S. Air Force is considering fielding a variant of its next-generation bomber that could collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) undetected behind enemy lines. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says the service is on “a quest to have long-range reconnaissance.” He says that an unmanned version of the bomber, which is expected to be fielded in 2018, would be a strong candidate for this mission.
PROPELLING PRISMA: Swedish Space Corp. has selected a Kosmotras Dnepr booster to launch two Prisma satellites. The Prisma spacecraft, to be orbited in 2009 from either Baikonur, Kazakhstan, or Yasni, Russia, will experiment with formation-flying technologies, including environmentally benign and micro propulsion systems. France, which is participating in Prisma, also may launch its Picard climate research satellite on Dnepr.
LATE FLIGHT: Denmark plans to fly air force pilots in the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet as part of its fighter evaluation process. The Danish Defense Ministry has asked the U.S. Defense Dept. to release additional information on the aircraft. The Saab Gripen and Lockheed Martin F-35 also are contenders. A selection is expected by mid-2009.
Scientific research on the International Space Station (ISS) should soon kick into high gear, with two new laboratory modules spinning up and the crew size set to double in about a year. Early results could produce new treatments for infectious diseases, experts tell Congress. But NASA has no current plans to continue its station role beyond 2016, leaving the decision whether to do so to the next occupant of the White House.
FLORIDA LINK: Space Florida, an economic-development organization established by the state legislature to promote aerospace-industry development, is teaming with Spacehab Inc. to establish a “space-based, biotech corridor” linking laboratory space on the International Space Station (ISS) with the state-owned Space Life Sciences Lab at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Space Florida will provide Spacehab with financial backing and use of its research facility to develop commercial uses of U.S. experiment-rack space on the ISS.
SHORT FUZE: The first preliminary report from the new Pentagon task force on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is due to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on May 1, with further reports to follow each month. The task force is charged with finding news ways to provide ISR to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also how to beef up unmanned aerial vehicle operations in theater (Aerospace DAILY, April 22). The task force was given 90 days to deliver its full assessment.
GPS III: U.S. Air Force Col. Anthony Russo, deputy director of the U.S. National Coordination Office for Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing, says the contractor for Global Positioning System III, initially expected to be announced in April, has been selected and will be revealed “in the next few days.” John Duddy, Director of GPS Programs at Boeing, says the announcement is anticipated in May. Bruce Tanner, Lockheed executive vice president and CFO, told analysts the same thing last week.
BULLET POINT: NASA argues that congressional permission for its astronauts to continue flying on Russian Soyuz vehicles after 2011 is “mandatory” if the International Space Station (ISS) is to continue operating. The agency’s human spaceflight chief, William Gerstenmaier, tells the House aeronautics and space subcommittee that Russia understands it can’t operate the ISS without U.S. crewmates to run the U.S. power and cooling systems that keep the massive spacecraft functioning. But a congressional exemption to the Iran nonproliferation law permitting the U.S.
