Russia's offer to link early warning systems with the U.S. as a defense against rogue state missile attacks "provides an important strategic opening" for further discussions, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's senior Republican said Oct. 8.
WGS DELAYED: Launch of the first Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla., atop an Atlas 5 rocket has been delayed a day to Oct. 10, during a launch window that opens at 8:21 p.m. EDT. The postponement is to give engineers time to analyze whether a flight data anomaly found in a previous Delta IV mission has any implications for the WGS launch.
LAKOTAS RISING: EADS North America said its UH-72A Light Utility Helicopter program supplied a pair of its rotary-wing aircraft to the U.S. Army in September - the first time two Lakotas have been delivered during the same month. They are the 11th and 12th UH-72As received by the Army since deliveries of the Light Utility Helicopter began in December 2006 at the rate of one per month. They also are the second and third "made-in-America" Lakotas, which are certified under U.S. production authority recently issued by FAA for American Eurocopter's UH-72A/EC145 helicopters.
DOD S&T: The Pentagon's top acquisition official, John Young, has suggested boosting Defense Department science and technology (S&T) spending as much as 20 percent and concentrating the additional funds on needed developments to fight the so-called global war on terror. Young told the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing last week that his suggestion came in response to a request from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] Oct. 8 - 11 -- Aeronautical Radio Inc.: 13th Annual Flight Simulator Engineering & Maintenance Conference, Montreal, PQ, Canada. For more information call Samuel Buckwalter, ARINC, at (410) 266-2915. Oct. 9 - 10 -- The Aerospace Corp's Manufacturing Problem Prevention Program Meeting on Advanced Space Materials, Corporate Headquarters, El Segundo, Calif. For more information call (310) 336-5000 or go to www.aero.org/conferences.
The U.S. Air Force's air armament center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. is officially in the hunt for high-power microwave (HPM) weapons to put in its munitions, cruise missiles and UAVs. The center has issued a request for information, with responses due Nov. 1, for "HPM source technology capabilities." It is interested in counter-electronics payloads that won't damage buildings or harm humans.
HYPER FUNDING: The Senate in its fiscal 2008 defense spending bill has added $10 million above the Defense Department's request for research and development of a hypersonic cruise missile engine. The earmark - secured by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who cited Maine manufacturer Williams International - will go to design, make and test advanced component technologies for sustained supersonic engines. On a similar note, the Senate in its related authorization bill approved an additional $3.5 million for scramjet research.
A seven-year Congressional Research Service (CRS) review of worldwide arms transfers shows a declining but still strong market, with the value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2006 almost reaching $28.8 billion. "This was a decrease from $31.8 billion in 2005," the Sept. 26 report says. "In 2006, the value of all arms deliveries to developing nations was $19.9 billion, the lowest total in these deliveries values for the entire 1999-2006 period (in constant 2006 dollars)." (See charts pp. 6-7.)
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that the Selene spacecraft successfully achieved lunar orbit injection on Oct. 4. The satellite entered an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 101 kilometers (63 miles) and an apogee of 11,741 kilometers (7,295.5 miles) by 6:20 a.m. Japanese Standard Time.
NAVY CORROSION: Three companies will help the U.S. Navy battle corrosion under research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) contracts announced Oct. 4. BAE Systems will receive $14 million (with options the contract could reach $69 million), Science and Engineering Technologies has been awarded $11 million and Science Applications has a $5 million contract for research, development, testing and evaluation in Corrosion Science.
U.S. Air Force acquisition chief Sue Payton says she's not yet sold on Lockheed Martin's $83 million flyway cost proposal for the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP). "Even though it sounds good, it feels bad," she says.
JDRADM CONTRACT: Boeing will develop the Seeker Integrated Target Endgame Sensor (SITES) to help advance Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile (JDRADM) technology under a $600,000 contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Under the Task1 contract, Boeing will study and establish the SITES program requirements baseline, ultimately leading to a system architecture.
ZUMWALT ANTENNA: The U.S. Navy has taken delivery of an engineering development model antenna for the Volume Search component of Raytheon's Dual Band Radar for the new Zumwalt-class destroyers (DDG 1000). The X and S-band, 3-D surveillance radar is specialized for tracking missiles, aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles at long range.
ADDING BACK: NASA hopes that by carefully watching the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle's weight throughout the design process, leftover mass margin can be used for adding new systems and capabilities, as was done during the Apollo program. By the time of the last three Apollo lunar missions, "they were able to turn what used to be management reserve into capability," Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley says.
SAUDI VEHICLES: Saudi Arabia may be next in line to receive light armored vehicles and high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles in a $631 million deal proposed to Congress by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The announcement follows a similar notification of equipment sales to Iraq, valued at $2.257 billion (DAILY, Oct. 5). Saudi Arabia has requested a possible sale of 37 light armored vehicles and 25 High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles, along with associated equipment and services.
The Senate's recent duo of fiscal 2008 defense bills contain provisions promoting unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), reflecting ongoing desires to aid and supplement ground troops with robotic devices. But the provisions, in the regular defense authorization and appropriations bills passed last week, come as the Army's embattled Future Combat Systems (FCS) program faces a challenging goal: by 2015, one-third of the operational ground combat vehicles acquired through FCS are supposed to be unmanned.
A last-minute bid by the U.S. to sell Lockheed Marin F-16s to Morocco appears to have destroyed French hopes of making that country the first export customer for the new-generation Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter. Sources close to the deal say the U.S. offer to sell up to 24 new-build F-16s for $2.1 billion, or a like number of second-hand aircraft for $1.6 billion, seem to have received the nod over Dassault's 2 billion euro ($2.8 billion) proposal for 18 Rafales.
REMANUFACTURED APACHES: Boeing is aiming to deliver Block III Apache Longbow helicopter to the U.S. Army at the beginning of 2011. The first AH-64D built under the extended Block II contract was delivered to the service at the beginning of October. Boeing is remanufacturing 96 A-model Apaches for the Army under the Block II contract and continues to produce new-build wartime replacement Apaches as it prepares for Block III deliveries.
NUCLEAR KNOWLEDGE: The threats posed by nuclear proliferation and radiological terrorist weapons are the focus of attention at two events this week in Washington. On Oct. 8, at the Brookings Institution, a D.C. think tank, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) discusses his recent trip to Russia and the upcoming Moscow meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and their Russian counterparts. With then-Sen.
The Senate on Oct. 4 passed an amendment to the fiscal 2008 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) appropriations bill spearheaded by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) that would provide NASA an additional $1 billion to compensate the agency for costs related to the 2003 Columbia accident and Hurricane Katrina. However, the Bush administration is threatening to veto the entire CJS appropriation because Senate lawmakers have included $3.2 billion in additional spending above the White House request (DAILY, Oct. 5).
DAB MEETINGS: The end of October and beginning of November will be a busy time for the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB), which has scheduled meetings on several important programs. The group meets on Oct. 30th to discuss the restructure of the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program; a Nov. 1st gathering will review Milestone III of the Stryker Nuclear Biological Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle; and the following day the DAB will discuss the restructure of the VH-71 Presidential helicopter upgrade.
