U.S. responses to attacks on space-based assets are not restricted by current treaties and could range to military strikes on ground-based operations, although President Bush likely would first call on a wide range of options such as international condemnation or even economic persuasion against adversaries, a U.S. Air Force lawyer said Jan. 22.
LONG DEPLOYMENT: RC-135 signals intelligence and network attack aircraft operating as the 763rd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron have won the dubious distinction of being the first aircraft to have been deployed continuously for 6,000 days. They were first deployed to the Iraq theater on Aug. 9, 1990. Upgraded, re-engined aircraft now carry a crew of 34 and 40 tons of electronics equipment.
The U.S. Army has decided to drop the Armed Robotic Vehicle (ARV) from the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, bringing the total number of systems in the mammoth modernization effort down to 14. Last week, Brig. Gen. Thomas Cole, deputy program manager for FCS program integration, said the ARV is being cut from production and put back into the science and technology base (DAILY, Jan. 22). Another possible casualty is one of the unattended munitions being developed for FCS, a source told The DAILY.
CBM SUMMIT: The U.S. Army plans to begin convening a semi-annual summit with industry to discuss condition-based maintenance for Army aircraft, according to Maj. Gen. James Pillsbury, commanding general of U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. During the first summit, held shortly before the holidays, industry was not invited because "we wanted the government to get its act together [first]," Pillsbury explains.
Joseph J. Ensor has been named vice president of surveillance and remote sensing. William J. Schaefer has been appointed sector vice president of business development.
INTELSAT SENIOR NOTES: Intelsat's wholly owned Bermuda affiliate plans to issue some $600 million in senior notes intended, along with cash, to repay a $600 million senior unsecured bridge loan. The note, priced at the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (Libor) plus 350 basis points, will come due in 2015. The move follows plans announced Jan. 3 by Intelsat's Subsidiary Holding Co. to redeem $1 billion in floating rate senior bonds due in 2012. The measures are part of an ongoing effort to restructure and pay down debt amassed in the takeover of PanAmSat last summer.
DEFENSE TRAINING REVIEW: The British Defense Ministry has selected a consortium led by Qinetiq and Land Securities Trillium, and also including Raytheon, AgustaWestland and Serco, for its Defense Training Review program. The project is aimed at rationalizing its defense-training infrastructure and provision by creating tri-service centers of excellence. The overall program could be worth 16 billion pounds ($31.5 billion) over a 25-year period.
Russia's RSC Energia reported a record 469 million ruble ($16.4 million) net profit in 2006, with a 37 percent increase in revenues, and expects to maintain strong sales and earnings through the end of the decade, according to chief executive Nikolay Sevastiyanov.
Gregory W. Davis, Jacqueline A. Dedo, Mazen Hammoud, Douglas Patton, Nicholas K. Petek, Ahmed Soliman, and Leonard Tedesco have been named to the board of directors.
The United States should harden defenses around its space-based assets, experts say, and a recent Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) attack test could lift the space segment of the defense industry and finally force a widespread debate over U.S. national security space policy, analysts suggest. "You'll need a balance of defensive and offensive capabilities," Heritage Foundation analyst Baker Spring said Jan. 22 at a Capitol Hill forum hosted by the Marshall Institute's ongoing National Security Space project.
TOMAHAWK TEST: The U.S. Navy successfully tested a Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile from the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Gulf of Mexico sea ranges off the Florida coast on Jan. 17, the service announced Jan. 22. After launching vertically and transitioning to cruise flight, the Raytheon-built missile flew a 645-nautical mile course guided by Global Positioning System satellites and digital scene matching. The flight lasted 90 minutes and ended at a recovery site on the Eglin Air Force Base land range.
