To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] Aug. 27 - 30 - 2007 Warheads & Ballistics Classified Symposium. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. For more information go to www.ndia.org. Aug. 29 - 30 - The AHS International Patuxent River Chapter Presents an International Specialists' Meeting On: Vertical Lift Aircraft Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, JT Daugherty Center, Patuxent River, Md. For more information go to www.jtdsmcc.com/sitemap.html.
Lockheed Martin specialists will remove suspect insulating foam and underlying material from the next space shuttle external tank scheduled to fly, and replace it with foam alone in an effort to avoid the sort of heat-shield damage Endeavour suffered on the STS-118 mission that ended Aug. 21.
The U.S. Navy has used its new Low Collateral Damage Bomb (LCDB) for the first time in combat. The first use, recorded during a strike July 27, pitted the modified 500-pound weapon against a group of insurgents planting an improvised explosive device along a convoy route in Iraq. Forward air controllers (FACs) assigned to VMFA-121 spotted the activity and dispatched an F/A-18 to drop the weapon.
FLYING HIGHER: The rotorcraft market is soaring, according to a soon-to-be released Teal Group industry report. The need is growing, apparently, from Iraq to Illinois. "This is the fastest growth market in Teal Group's coverage universe," the report says. "High military demand (largely for force mobility) is the leading driver, but the long-stagnant civil sector is growing to a new level too."
HARMONY: The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA, the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and the Air Transport Association of America, Inc. (ATA) plan to align international technical document standards under an agreement inked earlier this month. The agreement positions the three associations to further advance the development and maintenance of the S1000D specification for technical publications, which the groups say will ease the cost burden on supply chains by harmonizing commercial and military aviation technical documentation standards.
NORAD/NORTHCOM: Lockheed Martin will complete the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) Command Center (N2C2) upgrade program under a $13.1 million contract modification. The company will provide the NORAD/NORTHCOM commander with a single integrated command center and a collaborative environment to support existing and newly assigned missions. The project includes renovation and improvement of facilities and deployment of modernized information systems, including audio/video equipment. So far, $6,142,175 has been obligated.
BRITISH EMBRACED: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has upgraded the British HMS Manchester commensurate with U.S. Navy ships and systems to fully integrate as part of the USS Harry S. Truman Strike Group on its next Sixth Fleet deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. Systems upgrades included Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET), Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System and Link 16 Joint Tactical Information Distribution System for interoperable tactical data communication.
The choice of departing FAA Administrator Marion Blakey to be the next head of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) surprised many aerospace and defense analysts but most agree that it was a smart move. Blakey, head of the FAA since September 2002, will succeed John Douglass Sept. 13 as president and CEO of the industry group (DAILY, Aug. 22). The announcement surprised Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for the Teal Group, "because she is so closely identified with the commercial side of the business."
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is investigating a promising form of solid-state laser technology under its Revolution in Fiber Lasers (RIFL) program, which could eventually lead to a new class of highly efficient, lightweight and lethal laser weapons.
HEADS-UP RESULT: Rockwell Collins' heads-up displays (HUDs) essentially saved the U.S. Air Force's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) in recent Nunn-McCurdy cost growth and schedule slippage reviews, according to Air Force acquisition chief Sue Payton. The HUDs allow for cutting out a navigator, a manpower savings - otherwise, the C-130 AMP would have had a "very" difficult experience getting through Nunn-McCurdy, she told an industry conference audience last week.
OUTER PLANETS: NASA planetary-science managers are moving into the final phase of evaluating candidates for the next Cassini-class mission to the outer planets, on a schedule that will cut the four contenders to two by the end of 2007 and pick the winner at the end of 2008. In the running are large-scale missions to Titan, Enceladus, Europa and a general Jupiter icy moons mission - "a 21st-century Galileo" in the words of Alan Stern, associate administrator for science.
DTCI CONCERNS: While the recently awarded $1.6 billion contract by U.S. Transportation Command (DAILY, Aug. 22) will create something of a domestic freight czar by putting large chunks of continental U.S. military cargo into the hands of Menlo Worldwide Government Services, there's still plenty of DOD freight not included in the deal. The Menlo contract, awarded under the Defense Transportation Coordination Initiative (DTCI), has plenty of exclusions, says Air Force Col. James Lovell, the DTCI program director.
SMALL OUTREACH: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Office of Small Business Programs will host its eighth annual Small Business Conference on Sept. 19 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala. The latest small-business outreach comes as MDA tries to grow and sustain an industrial base for missile defense innovation -- especially by shepherding small companies through the financial "Valley of Death" after they've developed a product or service but before they've landed customers or started major production.
AMES STUDY: Commissioners for Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) have approved paying NASA's Ames Research Center up to $2 million to study potential safety improvements for the north runways at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). NASA Ames will have six months to conclude its study and offer its recommendations. The LAWA vote came just a few days after a WestJet Boeing 737 and a Northwest Airbus A320 nearly collided on an LAX runway.
SLY DEVELOPMENT: In a ground-effects research and development program called Sly Fox Program Mission 9 (SFPM9), the U.S. Navy is investigating the unmanned military capabilities of a hybrid hovercraft and ground-effects vehicle. "Our team of junior engineers and scientists will be exploring the concepts and designs for changing this vehicle from a commercial water craft into a military system," says Dohn Burnett, SFPM9 manager.
The U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program has reached a milestone with BAE Systems' demonstration of the first hybrid electric drive system for ground combat vehicles.
The European Space Agency (ESA) may join NASA in mounting a low-cost sample cache on its next rover mission to Mars, as discussions advance on a joint U.S.-European Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission as early as 2016. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ames Research Center have finished their conceptual design for a $2 million cache system to store interesting rocks on the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, which is set for launch in 2009.
U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to testify before Congress ahead of the Sept. 15 deadline for a progress report on the Bush administration's surge strategy, a White House spokesman said Aug. 20. The report to Congress, on whether the influx of more than 30,000 U.S. troops to Baghdad and other trouble spots is having the desired effect of tamping down the insurgency, was due on Sept. 15 - a Saturday.
As a setback in procurement for new aircraft plagues India's air force, the country is looking to improve the performance of the Rolls-Royce Adour 811 engines in its more than 25-year-old Jaguar fleet of about 120 aircraft. Rolls-Royce is offering its Adour 821 and Honeywell the F125 for the upgrade project.
CROWS AWARD: The U.S. Army is awarding Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace a potential five-year deal for up to 6,500 Protector Remote Weapon Stations for the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) program. The company said Aug. 23 the deal could reach $1.35 billion, while the Pentagon's Aug. 22 announcement said it was a potentially $1 billion firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials contract. Three bids were received for the Army Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Command award.
