REPURPOSED: Expect decisions by the end of September on proposals to reuse the "mother ships" from NASA's Deep Impact and Stardust missions to visit secondary targets. Both are still functioning, and there are proposals to use the Deep Impact spacecraft to visit another comet, and to send the Stardust comet-sample-return mother ship to Comet Tempel 1 to take another look into the 70-foot deep crater blasted in it with a copper projectile from Deep Impact (DAILY, July 6, 2005).
FOLLOWING SUIT: Momentum is building for the Pentagon to have to establish a chief management officer (CMO) and put some teeth behind its slow-moving business transformation effort. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has recommended the Senate pass a CMO provision just as the House did earlier this month (DAILY, May 14).
ABM COOPERATION: Australia will join U.S.-Japanese research on ballistic missile defense but won't host an anti-missile system on its soil. The Liberal-National government plans to buy at least three destroyers equipped with the U.S. Aegis defense system, however, and is considering whether to equip them with the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3, which can intercept medium-range ballistic missiles. The Labor opposition says it would support such a move.
NCS MAKEOVER: The U.S. Air Force is seeking maintenance contracts for its NORAD Contingency Suite (NCS) system while at the same time paying tens of millions of dollars more to give Thales Raytheon Systems' (TRS) chosen successor system, the Battle Control System Fixed (BCS-F), some of the same look and feel of NCS for operators. More than $30 million is slated to make the BCS more closely resemble NCS - an interim C2 system for air defense radars that's been in place since late 2001.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential contender and lead minority member on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), has introduced legislation that he promised would fundamentally reform how the Pentagon buys its biggest and most expensive weapons systems. "Despite the lessons of the past, the acquisition process continues to be dysfunctional," McCain said on the Senate floor May 22.
Although U.S. Air Force leaders say they chose to adopt the Battle Control System Fixed (BCS-F) because the existing interim air defense command and control (C2) system -- the NORAD Contingency Suite (NCS) -- lacks the necessary processing power to handle all the radars the service wants to incorporate, a review of key acquisition documents, reports and interviews with Air Force personnel show that NCS is not nearly as lacking as service BCS officials would have everyone think.
CHINA 2010: By 2010, China's strategic nuclear forces are likely to comprise a combination of enhanced CSS-4s, CSS-3s, CSS-5s, solid-fueled mobile DF-31 and DF-31A intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the JL-1 and JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SSBNs), according to the Pentagon's latest annual report to Congress on China's military capabilities. "The addition of the DF-31 family of missiles and the JL-2 and JIN-class SSBNs will give China a more survivable and flexible nuclear force," the report says.
SHEDDING PROGRAMS: The cost of operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere has European militaries shedding defense programs rather than adding new ones, a U.S. Navy official cautions. "You should not expect major new platform purchases coming out of Europe," says former NATO official and current acting deputy Navy under secretary Marshall Billingslea. For example, he says, last year the Netherlands shut down its P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft program, and Denmark is cutting back its submarine program to better fund Special Operations Forces.
RIVERINE PROSPECT: Northrop Grumman Corp. and Aluminum Chambered Boats Inc. have unveiled their new riverine experimental boat, named the Joint Multimission Expeditionary Craft. It will be demonstrated for the first time to potential customers and the press at the Multiagency Craft Conference on June 5-7 in Little Creek, Va. Northrop has designed a suite of network-centric warfare mission systems, while ACB provided the parent craft. The partnership, announced last December, targets the U.S. Navy's anticipated Riverine/Coastal Warfare program (DAILY, Dec. 13, 2006).
Raytheon announced May 24 that a March award from the U.S. Navy to develop the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) AGM-154C1 (formerly JSOW Block III) will provide a capability against moving maritime targets.
POSTPONED: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has postponed a scheduled missile intercept test using the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system until May 25 at the earliest due to poor weather at the target missile launch site in Kodiak, Alaska. "The forecast of thick clouds, heavy winds and rain will not meet safety requirements for the launch," an MDA spokesman said May 24. The interceptor missile will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The U.S. and Canada missed an opportunity to deploy an upgraded NORAD radar-based air defense system before the 2001 terrorist attacks because of problems that have hindered both countries' efforts to field a tried-and-proven system for more than a decade, including escalating costs, blown deadlines, mismatched technology and mismanaged programs, according to government audits and acquisition documents.
The Ohio-class conventionally armed "strike" submarine program has passed an important benchmark with the launch of four Tomahawk cruise missiles from the USS Florida May 15-17 during its successful strike operational evaluation (opeval), according to the U.S. Navy. The converted Ohio is supposed to deploy for the first time this year, and Florida's opeval was a critical test, Navy officials said.
John Douglass, the public face and head of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) for nine years, plans to retire at the end of the year, AIA announced May 24.
The Bush administration is standing firm in its opposition to the development of new, legally binding outer space treaties in front of the newly Democratic-controlled Congress. But Donald Mahley, acting deputy assistant secretary of State for threat reductions, export controls and negotiations, interestingly allowed for the possibility of informal discussions with other countries about outer space in recent testimony.
In 1997, the U.S. and Canada agreed to upgrade their command and control systems for radar-based air defense, but a recent Canadian government audit estimates their country's military has spent nearly twice what was expected for a system it never used.
The $22 billion allocated for National Guard equipment in DOD's latest five-year budget plan only will bring the Guard back to its pre-9/11 equipment readiness level, which is likely not enough in today's national security environment, National Guard Bureau Chief Lt. Gen. Steven Blum told Capitol Hill lawmakers May 24. "I am not certain that those levels match today's requirements," Blum testified to the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight. 75 percent
KEEP IT QUIET: The federal government should not make public detailed information on subcontracts for commercial goods and services, even if the subcontracts are awarded under a noncommercial prime contract, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) contends. ITAA argues that data from commercial subcontracts, which would be provided under an upcoming Web site created by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, could be used by competitors to undermine the subcontractor's pricing and provide an unfair advantage.
Northrop Grumman has performed the first engine run of the U.S. Army's MQ-8B Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the company announced May 22. Fire Scout is the Class IV unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization program. The engine run took place May 18 at the company's Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, Miss., and was followed by further test runs on May 19 and 21, according to a company spokeswoman.
Lawmakers have requested additional information about the acquisition of the U.S. Air Force replacement fleet for its combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter, service officials acknowledged May 24. The Air Force said it could not comply with a DAILY request for information related to a key performance parameter (KPP) change made during a crucial time in the CSAR-X acquisition because members of Congress had requested additional information of the same nature. McCain's interest
U.S. diplomatic and military officials remain perplexed and unsatisfied with China's nonexplanatory responses to international protests regarding the Asian giant's January anti-satellite (ASAT) ballistic missile test. But they appear to be pushing Congress to support increased situational awareness efforts for U.S. space assets first over developing offensive, defensive or even so-called operationally responsive space capabilities, according to several remarks made May 23 on Capitol Hill.
