Old U.S. Navy shipbuilding habits helped lead to soaring costs for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a CRS expert told Congress. "Navy and industry officials testified to this subcommittee on February 8, 2007, that concurrency between design and construction was a significant contributor to the recent cost growth in the LCS program," Congressional Research Service (CRS) defense specialist Ronald O'Rourke told the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee On Seapower and Expeditionary Forces earlier this week.
SABOTAGE: Federal authorities and NASA are investigating a case of alleged sabotage of a small computer box planned for launch to the International Space Station on STS-118 Aug. 7. An inspector at a subcontractor facility outside of Florida found damage to wires and other internal components of the network interface unit before it was shipped to Kennedy Space Center. The device will be repaired and launched to the station as planned, then mounted in the Destiny laboratory to receive data from strain gauges on the ISS truss and relay them to engineers on the ground.
The U.S. Navy's proposed shipbuilding plan omits elements and makes assumptions that could substantially mask the service's true funding needs, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says.
TANKER WORK: Northrop Grumman officials say some work on the military modifications for its first KC-30s will be handled at its Melbourne, Fla., facility where it has centered its Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems work. A portion of the work also will be handled by its new facility in Mobile, Ala., where the company plans to modify production models of its A330s into tankers if it wins the U.S. Air Force's $40 billion KC-X competition. The development program would include four tankers, with much of that work being handled in Melbourne.
Boeing's new X-48B, an unmanned blended-wing-body demonstrator, flew for the first time on July 20th at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The 21-ft. wingspan, 500-lb test vehicle climbed to 7,600 ft. and reached an airspeed of 70 knots during a half-hour flight. The goals are to reach 10,000 feet and 120 knots by the end of the program. Researchers want to test stability and flight control at low-speeds during takeoffs and landings. Later, researchers will switch emphasis to look at the design's low-noise characteristics.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope in Hawaii to study debris discs around distant stars believe a gigantic lopsided needle-shaped disk around a star designated HD 15115 holds clues to the formation of our own solar system.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2008 defense spending bill July 25 containing cuts for two Air Force space programs - the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) III.
A panel reviewing astronaut health issues in the wake of the Lisa Nowak arrest was told that on at least two occasions astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so intoxicated that they posed a flight-safety risk. The panel also reported "heavy use of alcohol" by astronauts in crew quarters before launch, within the standard 12-hour "bottle to throttle" rule applied to pilots of conventional aircraft.
Boeing's new X-48B, an unmanned blended-wing-body demonstrator, flew for the first time on July 20th at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The 21-ft. wingspan, 500-lb test vehicle climbed to 7,600 ft. and reached an airspeed of 70 knots during a half-hour flight. The goals are to reach 10,000 feet and 120 knots by the end of the program. Researchers want to test stability and flight control at low-speeds during takeoffs and landings. Later, researchers will switch emphasis to look at the design's low-noise characteristics.
The recent battles over supplemental appropriations may be the first jabs in a developing brawl between lawmakers and the executive branch, says a recent Congressional Resource Service (CRS) report. "In the past, Congress has sometimes, though rarely, used the power of the purse to cut off funding for military operations, to put limits on the numbers of troops that may be deployed in specific military actions abroad, and to set other conditions on the conduct of military operations," says the report released earlier this month.
House appropriators are looking to boost the Defense Department's shipbuilding, although not necessarily the way the U.S. Navy or the Bush administration wanted, and are providing more funds than House defense authorizers for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The House Appropriations Committee (HAC), in its fiscal 2008 defense spending bill that it marked up July 25, also significantly supported U.S. Air Force fighter programs but pushed the service to rein in Joint Strike Fighter costs.
The Mars rover Opportunity, nearly starved of electrical power by a dust storm that has blocked sunlight for a month, is beginning to see positive solar array power margins. If the trend continues, it would enable the rover's descent into Victoria crater by early August, says John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But that depends on whether the dust storm is really abating or whether Mars throws a fourth dose of impenetrable dust haze, further blocking sunlight for solar array power.
The U.S. Navy continues to struggle with its financial juggling act, looking to buy more ships than it may be able to afford, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. "The Navy is beset with long-standing problems that affect its ability to accomplish ambitious goals for its shipbuilding portfolio," wrote Paul Francis, GAO director of acquisition and sourcing management team, in July 24 testimony before Congress.
Trying to head off Democratic-led congressional doubts about its nuclear weapons strategy and budget requests, especially for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), the U.S. secretaries of defense, energy and state have provided Capitol Hill with a three-page statement on U.S. national security and nuclear weapons.
RELUCTANCE: The U.K. House of Commons defense committee says the reluctance of other NATO countries to commit more ground troops to Afghanistan, particularly in the south, is undermining the credibility of the NATO effort there, and wants the defense ministry to show it can persuade neighboring nations to take up the slack. The committee also found that NATO nations have met the organization's call for more helicopters, but provision of appropriate models and sufficiently trained air and ground crews remain a problem.
CANADIAN C-17s: The first of four C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft for the Canadian Defense Forces took flight for the first time July 23 in anticipation of its scheduled Aug. 8 delivery, manufacturer Boeing announced. The airlifter took off from Long Beach, Calif., at 3:36 p.m. Pacific time and flew for three hours and 45 minutes. The seven-person crew put the aircraft through a series of functional checks, flying west over the Pacific Ocean before returning.
Having secured a £7.7 billion ($15.8 billion) increase in its defense budget over the next three years, Britain's Ministry of Defense will now place orders for two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers, according to U.K. Defense Secretary Des Browne. The two ships, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, will enter service in 2014 and 2016, respectively. They will be the largest ever to sail in the Royal Navy and will be based in Portsmouth, Browne said July 25.
