TANKER RFP: The U.S. Air Force is set to release the formal request for proposals (RFP) for the $200 billion KC-X aerial refueler competition on Jan. 30. The final RFP defines an integrated, capability-based, best-value approach, an Air Force statement said. "Along with cost and assessments of past performance and proposal risk, these factors provide the source selection authority with means to determine the best value between proposals of significantly differing capabilities and cost," the service said Jan. 26.
MORE ADVICE: There's more advice to the Pentagon to slow its plans to spend roughly $16 billion for the Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future) (MPF(F)) program. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Defense Department has not developed a comprehensive management approach to guide and assess joint seabasing. In a report issued Jan.
Air Force officials say there are reports the Chinese have stood up a dedicated facility in Shanghai for anti-satellite operations. Loren Thompson, military space expert for The Lexington Institute, said the Chinese would need and possibly could build such a facility for laser anti-satellite operations. But no dedicated facility would be needed to launch anti-satellite weapons that are meant to destroy spacecraft by blowing up near the targeted satellites.
Northrop Grumman Corp. should work through issues with the F-16 Block 60 development and the Hellenic Air Force's Advanced Self-Protection Integrated Suite (ASPIS) II electronic warfare equipment program this year, but resolution of the Mesa radar issue for Australia will go into next year, a top executive says.
Recently released Defense Department Program Budget Decision (PBD) memos show the Pentagon's desire to invest in future capabilities for the Army and Air Force while keeping the services primed to fight current conflicts. The Army's fiscal year 2008 baseline budget is about $123 billion, or about $2 billion more than had been expected. The Air Force top line budget of $135 billion in fiscal 2008 represents a modest 4 percent increase.
DIPLOMACY FIRST: President Bush says diplomacy remains the primary avenue for solving problems between the United States and Iran - although U.S. troops will defend themselves against any elements that threaten their security in Iraq. After meeting Jan. 26 with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, and Joint Chiefs Chairman and Army Lt. Gen.
AMP GROWING: The Air Force's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) development, managed by Boeing, is "experiencing significant cost and schedule growth," according to Pentagon budget documents. The Air Force plans to strip $168.4 million from procurement funding, decreasing the number of kits bought, to backfill development. The program has never been far from controversy.
U.S. Navy acquisition officials say they will start a full and open competition in coming months for a small, tactical unmanned aerial system (STUAS) for both the Navy and Marine Corps, based on experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The desired system would provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for tactical-level commanders and unit-level defense needs, as well as protection for Navy ships and Marine landing forces, the Navy said Jan. 25.
Scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will get to analyze two different sets of samples from space following the Jan. 22 retrieval by India's navy and coast guard of the Space-capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) from the Bay of Bengal. The 550-kilogram spacecraft was launched Jan. 9 on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island in the Bay of Bengal, and returned to a nominal splashdown and recovery about 140 kilometers east of the launch site.
DIGITAL RADIO DEMO: A team led by the European Space Agency has begun demonstrating an experimental digital audio radio system that offers two potenital advantages over existing hardware used in networks such as XM Radio and Sirius in the U.S. The system, being tested at the Noordwijk Space Expo in the Netherlands, near ESA's Estec engineering center, uses a special mobile conformal antenna that allows signals to be received from Ku-band satellites only, without the need of a costly terrestrial ancillary component (ATC).
EU CONCERN: The European Union is "very concerned" about a Jan. 11 anti-satellite weapons test in which a Chinese missile destroyed a Chinese weather satellite. In a statement, the EU said the test was inconsistent with international efforts to avert an arms race in space and undermines security there.
Forecast International says the world's militaries are likely to spend much more money for electronic warfare (EW) systems over the next 10 years, and a DAILY analysis of Pentagon contracts shows the U.S. Defense Department since 2001 has already more than quintupled its investment in airborne radar systems, a key EW component.
In recent Program Budget Decision (PBD) memos, the Pentagon focuses funding on the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Air Force aircraft modernization projects starting in fiscal year 2008. The Defense Department also directs the Air Force to make sure it keeps to its proposed manpower cuts, apparently as part of the effort to retain the proposed F-22 multiyear buy.
Northrop Grumman's revenues were flat in 2006, but improved profit margins helped the company achieve a 10 percent gain in net income, according to financial results released Jan. 25.
Brian Green, assistant defense secretary for policy, says he's confident negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic to secure sites for the U.S. missile defense system will continue. The Czech Republic will provide locations for basing a radar, while Poland will house up to 10 interceptors. The cost is about $3.5 billion, including $1 billion for construction, and some of that work could go to local firms.
Sen. John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Jan. 25 suggested setting benchmarks for the performance of Iraqi security forces in the Bush administration's new "surge" strategy. McCain, a staunch supporter of the Bush plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq to stem increasing violence in the insurgency against the government, denied his proposal was an attempt to soften two pending Senate resolutions criticizing the strategy.
NASA is studying the possibility of building an interim variant of its Ares rocket that could allow the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to take a test swing around the moon and back prior to a lunar-landing attempt, akin to the Apollo 8 mission of 1968. Although such a flight is not currently part of NASA's plans, if the agency decides it is worth pursuing it could probably be mounted by 2015, NASA officials estimate. That is five years prior to the White House's deadline for returning astronauts to the moon.
Sparked by extra work created in current military conflicts, the defense electronics industry is firmly grounded now, but likely to lose some of its juice by the end of the decade, a recently released Forecast International report says. The "Overview of the U.S. Defense Electronics Market," which scrutinizes market trends and conditions for 2007 through 2016, forecasts the U.S. defense electronics market will be worth more than $107.5 billion during the 10-year period. Some fluctuation
QDR DEAD: It took less than 12 months, but top uniformed Army leaders are declaring the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review essentially dead. "We're being asked to do more than the strategy, and we weren't resourced for the strategy," Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Jan. 23. "Current demands exceed the strategy that was outlined in the Quadrennial Defense Review," Chief Gen. Peter Schoomaker told lawmakers.
The U.S. Air Force's fledgling Cyberspace Command is pursuing a "pretty aggressive" startup schedule to influence the Pentagon's fiscal 2010-2015 program objective memorandum (POM) process and achieve full operational capability by 2009, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of Eighth Air Force.
SpaceX has delayed the next attempt to launch its Falcon 1 rocket until February, skipping an opportunity after it discovered a problem with the vehicle's second-stage thrust vector control pitch actuator. A planned static test at the U.S. Army's Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands is still on the books for Jan. 27 since the second stage won't be involved. But after the planned 4-second hot fire test, crews will roll the Falcon back to its hangar for a second-stage checkout aimed at fixing the actuator.
International Space Station crew members are unpacking a fresh Russian Progress cargo capsule, which made an automated rendezvous and docking at the station's Russian-side Pirs docking compartment on Jan. 19. Progress 24 delivered more than two and a half tons of supplies, including 1,720 pounds of propellant for the station's Russian thrusters and 110 pounds of oxygen.
