TRAINING DEALS: InterSense said it will deliver its hybrid IS-900 inertial-acoustic helmet tracking systems to support various L-3 Link flight simulator programs, including the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard F-16 Aircrew Training Device Program and the Navy's programs for F/A-18 C through F model trainers. The company said its IS-900 motion tracking system also has been installed in BAE Systems' Active Cockpit Rig for the Typhoon fighter aircraft.
European Space Agency (ESA) managers are working toward a mid-November launch date for the first flight of the new Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to the International Space Station (ISS), following a meeting between ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and NASA Administrator Mike Griffin late last month.
Providing situational awareness with a variety of sensors from a spectrum of platforms is the key thread running through the efforts of several companies competing for the interest and funding of the Pentagon and prime contractors.
APKWS: BAE Systems said it conducted a successful test flight of its 2.75-inch guided rocket, the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), on May 8. The test, funded by the U.S. Navy program office, was the first with the APKWS - a joint Army, Navy and Marine Corps program - in its production-ready configuration. The rocket hit the target within the 2-meter requirement of a laser spot that was designating it.
Personnel from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Edwards Air Force Base in California conducted a training exercise at the base May 5 in which they simulated the rescue of a space shuttle crew in the event of a landing mishap. The exercises are held periodically to train U.S. Air Force fire/rescue and medical crews in helping astronauts out of the shuttle and away from the mishap area, as well as safely evacuating injured crew members after triage assessment.
The defense budget just tabled by Prime Minister John Howard's government in Australia calls for $2 billion (Australian) in increased spending for the coming year and a total of $14 billion more over ten years. This funding increase comes on top of $4.1 billion in additional spending for an Army initiative to form two extra battalions of troops. In all, the Australian Defense Force will grow from 51,000 to 57,000 personnel over ten years.
House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee chair Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) fended off challenges to her fiscal 2008 defense authorization markup late May 9, although she agreed with Republicans to add $150 million back into the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program to keep it moving forward and allow for its long-awaited shootdown test.
The political logjam over war supplemental funding is causing the U.S. Army to commandeer money from spare parts and other accounts to pay for immediate battle needs, said acting service Secretary Pete Geren. We're robbing the rest of the Army," Geren said May 10 during a breakfast speech before the Association of the U.S. Army's (AUSA) Institute of Land Warfare in Arlington, Va.
While all the services are clamoring for more situational awareness, the U.S. Navy is trying to see if it is doing all it can do effectively with the data and information once the service has it. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has been funding Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs to measure, monitor and manage situational awareness.
IBM Global Business Services has lost a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest over the U.S. Air Force's decision to appoint Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) as system integrator for the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), the congressional agency said. The Air Force had awarded CSC last fall - twice, in fact, after an initial protest - saying the company's bid represented the best value. IBM planned initially to deploy ECSS to Air Logistic Centers, while CSC planned to start ECSS at Air Force bases, according to GAO.
Sikorsky Aircraft on May 9 announced the four subcontractors that will design and fabricate the major fuselage sections for the U.S. Marine Corps' new CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter. The fuselage team will consist of Aurora Flight Sciences, EDO Corp., GKN Aerospace and Spirit AeroSystems.
HOT JUPITERS: Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to shed light on the atmospheric conditions of two "hot Jupiters" - distant gas giant planets that orbit closely around their parent stars. One team of scientists has used the infrared telescope to map temperature variations over the surface on one planet and found that it is likely whipped by winds up to 9,600 kilometers per hour (6,000 mph). Another team has found that another gas giant, HD 149026b, is the hottest yet discovered, with temperatures of 2,038 degrees Celsius (3,700 Fahrenheit).
NASA is considering an alternate stage separation scheme for its Ares I rocket that would use struts driven by compressed gas rather than the modified shuttle hardware in the current design, and is asking industry to weigh in. The current design uses Space Shuttle Booster Separation Motors (renamed Booster Deceleration Motors, or BDMs) to separate the Ares I after the first stage has spent its fuel and prior to upper-stage ignition.
The U.S. Air Force's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) proved ineffective during four recent flight tests, which were conducted as the Pentagon weighs whether to terminate the new stealthy cruise missile program due to cost increases.
Newly installed Democratic leaders on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) are prevailing so far on controversial cuts and changes to the Bush administration's fiscal 2008 defense request, including maintaining a 24 percent reduction to the Army's Future Combat Systems request and approving language favoring more Boeing C-17s over improving Lockheed Martin C-5s.
Lockheed Martin has said the U.S. Army's award to provide a Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar (TRACER) capability, or low-frequency synthetic aperture radar systems, into Predator-class unmanned aerial vehicles is worth $40 million.
The Pentagon is looking into possible duplicative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs in the U.S. Army and Air Force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Senate appropriators May 9. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said he has ordered the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) to look into the Army's Warrior UAV and its similarities to the Air Force's Predator program.
KC-30B: EADS has completed ground vibration testing of the Royal Australian Air Force's first KC-30B Multi-role Tanker Transport (MRTT), the company announced May 9. Designed to validate airframe structural response, the tests were conducted with the centerline fly-by-wire Aerial Refueling Boom System and two underwing hose-and-drogue pods installed. Completion of the ground-based evaluations clears the way for the start of flight tests with the no. 1 KC-30B MRTT, including in-flight refueling contacts with a variety of receiver aircraft.
Looking to cash in on the Navy's desire to use - but still protect - the service's P-3s, small defense contractors are developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be launched by the fleet for a variety of up-close-and-personal missions from the stalwart stand-off aircraft.
