U.S. Air Force Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) chief Gen. Norton Schwartz says the U.S.'s global reach is "not nearly as robust" in certain areas as necessary, creating potential for problems in the future.
DARPA PAM: BAE Systems said it will adapt large-scale software systems to address emerging threats such as asymmetric warfare for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Producible Adaptive Model-based Software (PAMS) program will develop software that supposedly enables systems to learn from their performance relative to changing conditions. The initial contract is valued at $3.4 million and runs through January 2009, followed by a second phase also worth $3.4 million.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has rescheduled two launches from its launch pad at Sriharikota on its polar satellite launch vehicle - Cartosat A and the Israeli military satellite TechSAR - for the January-February 2008 timeframe. An ISRO spokesman said recent reports in the media that ISRO was under pressure by the U.S. to abandon the TechSAR launch were "totally baseless, false and speculative."
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced the successful test of the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) on Dec. 3, an important step in establishing an air-launched intercept system. International competition to develop this type of weapon is fierce. Raytheon's offering is a longer-range version of the AIM-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), and could be launched from manned or unmanned aircraft and airships (DAILY, May 22, 2006).
Exostar projects that its supplier communication network of 38,000 aerospace and defense customers should double during 2008, driven by two major supply chain integration efforts by its clients. The company hosts a number of secure collaborative computer applications through which its clients do business and share information with their supply chains. Exostar's network includes Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Northrop Grumman and EADS.
MANTECH PROGRAM: Manufacturing Technology (ManTech), a program employed for decades by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, has for the first time gone department-wide, with its deployment by the entire Defense Department for 2008. Beginning in fiscal 2008, the program expects to fund investments that will mature ceramic matrix composites manufacturing processes, system-on-chip packaging technology and design guidelines and advanced manufacturing processes for prosthetics.
The U.S. Coast Guard accepted the first shore installation of its National Security Cutter (NSC) software suite at its Petaluma Training Center in California Dec. 5, marking the final phase of a $20 million C4ISR simulator. According to software designer Lockheed Martin, the suite in Petaluma provides a near-duplicate environment to the one of the NSC, providing crews training there with a real feel for what the ship will offer.
NEW DELHI - EADS subsidiary Eurocopter is publicly rebutting media allegations about the Indian defense ministry's effort to purchase 197 AS550 Fennecs to replace the Indian army's Cheetah/Chetak light observation helicopters.
AIR WAR RISK: The fiscal 2008 defense authorization measure in final House-Senate negotiations is expected to include an extension of war risk insurance coverage, which covers damages to U.S. commercial airlines and their passengers caused by acts of war, hijackings and terrorism. Industry pushed for the government to back up the sector after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the current federal coverage expires in March.
Gen. James Conway, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, says that after much discussion with the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Marine Corps has determined that "the timing isn't right to provide additional Marines to Afghanistan," although he wouldn't rule it out in the future.
The Pentagon is a sitting duck for a computer network attack because of its reliance on foreign software and inadequate protection, according to the Defense Science Board (DSB). "Software has become the central ingredient of the information age," DSB says in its "Report of the Defense Science Task Force on Mission Impact of Foreign Influence on DOD Software." "However, as it improves the Department of Defense's (DOD) capability, it increases DOD's dependency," DSB says.
UAV SENSORS: The Pentagon announced Dec. 5 that Northrop Grumman is being awarded a $54.9 million contract to purchase the MQ-1 ASIP-1C Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) scaled sensor for General Atomics' Predator UAS. Currently, $16.67 million already has been obligated, with the U.S. Air Force acting as the contracting authority.
U.S. Air Force leaders working on the nascent cyber command believe there will be a "huge" need for contracted services to support the embryonic effort as it faces personnel, technology and funding headwinds. Still, plans are undetermined and genuine, robust budgets remain years away as officials have until at least next October to identify programs, and until October 2009 before the command must be fully operational (DAILY, Oct. 19).
TOKYO - The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is set to launch what it calls the world's fastest telecommunications satellite this February. The Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS), also known as 'Kizuna,' which means 'bonds' or 'ties' in Japanese, is aimed at demonstrating ultra-fast Internet connections at a maximum rate of 1.2 Gbps through direct connection with antennas on the ground.
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.
