U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George Casey says the nature of 21st century conflict will be "exponentially different" in complexity, and will require leaders who will not "be cowed by new and strange circumstances."
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) is stepping down as ranking member of the Senate space subcommittee to take a similar leadership post on the Senate's aviation subcommittee, officials said Dec. 5. Hutchison will take over the aviation panel's senior Republican post from Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who is retiring from the Senate later this month. Hutchison previously chaired the aviation panel when Republicans controlled the Senate.
NASA plans to use more than 40 high-altitude balloons to gather data on Earth's Van Allen radiation belts, which can pose hazards to astronauts, satellites and aircraft flying near the poles. NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington has awarded $9.3 million to Dartmouth College of Hanover, N.H., for the study, dubbed the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL). BARREL will fly in 2013 and 2014, collecting data in conjunction with NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes satellites, due to launch in 2011.
The U.S. Marine Corps is sharply reducing the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles it plans to order, from 3,700 to 2,300. The news came the same day that Force Protection, a major MRAP supplier, opened a manufacturing facility in Roxboro, N.C., for production of its Cheetah MRAP. The Marine Corps is Force Protection's largest MRAP customer. The 43,000-square-foot, $31 million facility is expected to employ 270 workers when it reaches full capacity, the Charleston, S.C.-based defense contractor said Nov. 30.
Thales, Finmeccanica and naval systems specialist DCNS have agreed to create three joint ventures intended to reinforce their cooperation in underwater systems. One, owned 51 percent by Finmeccanica and 49 percent by DCNS - in which Thales is a major shareholder - will be responsible for designing, developing and marketing heavy and light torpedo and anti-torpedo systems.
EADS North America says it is addressing what it considers unfair criticisms raised in a July Pentagon report that called its UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopter (LUH) "not operationally suitable."
LAUNCHER CONTRACT: The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a $51.3 million contract to supply an additional 430 helicopter-mounted missile launchers and 376 launcher electronic assemblies for U.S. and international forces, the company announced Dec. 4. The order, from the Aviation and Missile Command at the Redstone Arsenal, Ala., includes 402 M299 launcher units for the U.S. armed services and 28 units for foreign military customers. Deliveries are scheduled to run through the third quarter of 2011.
IDAHO IRIDIUM: World Communications Center (WCC) recently won an award from the state of Idaho to provide Iridium satellite voice and data products and services for government agencies throughout the state. WCC was awarded a three-year contract in March 2007 to be the exclusive supplier of Iridium satellite products and services for 15 Western states. The contract will run through May 2010, with provisions for three one-year renewal options.
A National Academies "midterm review" of NASA's progress in implementing the recommendations of the National Research Council's (NRC) 2003-2013 solar system exploration decadal survey gives the agency passing marks for now, but projects it will fail to meet the survey's goals if current trends continue.
Boeing is ready to continue the competition for the U.S. Air Force's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement fleet without the planned service debriefing the company says would have leveled the playing field against competitors Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, according Rick Lemaster, Boeing's HH-47 program manager.
The U.S. Air Force is facing an aging fleet and operational stress as it plans upgrades and replacements for its mobility aircraft, according to a new Lexington Institute report released Dec. 3. "The tankers are a disaster waiting to happen, with 90 percent of the 600-plane fleet consisting of Eisenhower-era aircraft that will reach an average age of 50 years in this decade," author Loren Thompson says in the report.
Some African nations undergoing political changes and flush with oil revenue are looking to recapitalize their military and security forces, potentially creating major opportunities for western defense enterprises, according to consultancy Forecast International.
PARIS - The U.K.'s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and OHB of Germany have confirmed that they will team up to compete for 26 operational satellites in the so-called Full Operational Capability (FOC) phase and subsequent replenishment stages of the Galileo satellite navigation system program.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will try again this month to pass a supplemental defense spending bill that includes a timeline for the start of U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq. The Nevada Democrat also told reporters Dec. 3 that he does not want to keep funding the government with a third continuing resolution (CR), which keeps most government spending - except for the Defense and Homeland Security departments - at fiscal 2006 levels.
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $270 million contract modification to buy long-lead-time material for the fiscal 2009 Virginia-class submarine SSN-784. The contract being modified was initially awarded in August 2003 and will be worth $8.8 billion. Eyeing China and a planned gap in U.S. attack subs, lawmakers of all political leanings are pushing the Navy to build more multibillion-dollar Virginias more quickly than the service planned (DAILY, Nov. 20).
PARIS - Engineers have successfully tested deployment of the giant solar arrays on Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), a major step forward in preparing the freighter for launch to the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) has been diverted to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington for thermal-vacuum testing after being bumped by a classified spacecraft also under development by manufacturer General Dynamics in Gilbert, Ariz.
A second spot inspection of the damaged solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ) on the starboard side of the International Space Station (ISS) truss produced some better photographs of the situation, but didn't really move engineers toward a better understanding of the source of the trouble.
