The U.S. Navy on Oct. 13 finished at-sea experiments off the coast of Norfolk, Va., for the Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future) (MPF(F)) program. The demonstrations used a heavy lift, or float-on/float-off, ship and a Large, Medium-Speed, Roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) ship to simulate the future planned Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) and LMSR "skin-to-skin" cargo transfer. The event also tested automated stowage and retrieval systems in the at-sea environment, as well as initial experiments with "dynamic positioning" up to middle seastate 4 conditions.
DOD IG: Rep. Joel Hefley, chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee, is urging the Senate to confirm David Laufman as the Defense Department's inspector general. "The Pentagon needs David Laufman to provide oversight," the Colorado Republican says. "He's needed to investigate personnel and the more than $400 billion a year budget we have allocated." President Bush nominated Laufman five months ago and Senate defense authorizers hosted a nomination hearing July 18.
In an odd twist, a recent RAND Corp. report says intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft and other border security equipment are needed to keep insurgents from leaving Iraq, as well as from entering the country. The report, released in October, says the insurgents have become so proficient that they could export insurgency and must be kept from leaving Iraqi war zones. "The ongoing insurgency in Iraq has introduced a new variation on the problem of border control," says the report, "Air Power in the New
A Boeing team has begun flight-testing the modified U.S. Air Force C-130H gunship that next year will be outfitted with a chemical oxygen/iodine laser (COIL) for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) program. ATL is a $200 million advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) that began in 2001 and is scheduled to wrap up next fall. The kilowatt-class COIL for ATL is intended to destroy or disable ground targets such as trucks or other vehicles. The program's fiscal 2007 budget is $45 million. Began Oct. 10
Alenia Aermacchi is exploring the possibility of selling its newest trainer aircraft, the M-346, in the United States. Giuseppe Giordo, Alenia North America's president and chief executive officer, says he's gauging interest with top officers of various U.S. companies for a position as prime contractor on the project. The option of forming a joint venture to lead the sales effort is also on the table, Giordo said in an Oct. 10 interview.
OTHER NEEDS: Opponents of the $276 billion Joint Strike Fighter like to point out that the one American military service that seems to want the aircraft the most -- the Marine Corps -- has apparently delayed buying the planes in the service's long-term funding scheme. But Marine officials say the delay has nothing to do with their desire for the JSF. The service's budget was cut before more money was restored, but only in discreet chunks that made it impossible to put funding toward the aircraft. The Marines had to use the money for other needs.
APS TESTING: The next major testing milestone for the Active Protection System (APS) being developed for manned Future Combat Systems (FCS) vehicles will be a live-fire test from a moving vehicle, which should happen some time next year, says Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, the U.S. Army's FCS program manager. Dubbed Quick Kill, the APS system is being developed by Raytheon to protect vehicles against incoming rocket-propelled grenades, mortars or other projectiles.
BACK FROM COMANCHE: Paul Bogosian, program executive officer for Army Aviation, says the service has nearly made good on its plan to fund a variety of aviation programs following the termination of the Comanche armed scout helicopter. The remaining step is picking a contractor for the Joint Cargo Aircraft, which is expected soon. However, the post-Comanche plan lacked a clear way ahead for science and technology (S&T) spending, which funds basic research for systems that may be fielded decades later.
ViaSat Inc. is introducing the VDC-800 Data Controller to offer secure IP and USB connections to warfighters, the company said. The VDC-800 Data Controller uses the ViaSat Data Controller (VDC) products to create systems that help warfighters accomplish their missions by adding the high-speed, plug-and-play USB interface to the VDC product line. VDCs extend IP and TCP/IP networking to servicemembers on the leading edges of the battlespace.
RAILGUNS: The proliferation of weapons guidance, navigation and control systems should lead to smaller, more robust precision-guided projectiles at lower cost, the Naval Sea Systems Command says. In turn, affordable, hypersonic, guided projectiles for railguns could result. The Navy next year expects delivery of a 32 mega joules railgun built by BAE Systems. The size of an electromagnetic railgun facility at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., will be increased to accommodate the gun by fiscal 2009.
LANGUAGE IN ACTION: Overzealous security reviewers at the Defense Department have helped add a new word to the bureaucratic lexicon. It happened after the Pentagon redacted some charts that former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird used in a 1971 public report, and then reversed their decision and released unredacted versions after an administrative appeal. The charts included 35-year-old U.S. nuclear bomber and missile counts, and about a generation later, someone decided they needed reclassifying.
SECOND GENERATION: Alcatel Alenia Space could wind up building 48 new low-Earth orbit communications satellites for Globalstar Inc. if an initial agreement bears fruit. Under the new authorization to proceed, Alcatel Alenia will conduct a program readiness review and develop program milestones, and the manufacturer and the operator will try to negotiate a definitive contract for a Globalstar second-generation constellation by Nov. 15.
The U.S. Marine Corps recently conducted its second round of testing with a surveillance system that manages multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or other sensors to provide reconnaissance information directly to dismounted troops. Developed by Northrop Grumman and sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the system is known as the Heterogeneous Urban RSTA (reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition) Team, or HURT.
Lockheed Martin is developing a half-scale variant of its Multifunction Utility/Logistics & Equipment (MULE) unmanned ground vehicle that it hopes to have in limited testing by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in 2008. Known as the Squad Mission Support System (SMSS), the six-wheeled amphibious vehicle is based on the Land Tamer commercial chassis built by PFM Manufacturing Inc. of Montana. The SMSS is designed to carry one infantry squad's worth of equipment, or roughly 1,000 pounds of payload.
NASA wants to continue the barter approach originally pursued in the International Space Station (ISS) partnership as it joins with other countries to explore the moon. Administrator Michael Griffin tells the International Astronautical Congress in Valencia, Spain, that while he realizes not all potential partners share his view, a "no exchange of funds" approach to partnership will work best. With the exception of some direct purchases of goods and services from Russia, that is how all ISS cost-sharing deals are handled.
Deputy Attorney General Paul Mc-Nulty has unveiled a new national procurement fraud initiative within the Justice Department's Criminal Division to promote early detection, prevention and especially prosecution of procurement fraud in light of increased contracting for national security and other government programs.
DHS CONTRACTS: The Department of Homeland Security is about to award multiple contracts totaling up to $10 million to study alternatives to laser jammer countermeasures against shoulder-fired missile attacks on commercial aircraft. DHS is seeking either ground-based systems, airborne or a hybrid of the two. The department anticipates making an announcement "sometime soon" about the award of 18-month multiple contracts, a spokesman said.
With the ink still drying on the fiscal 2007 defense appropriations law, ruminations over the FY '08 budget request are expected to start preoccupying Wall Street and the Beltway, observers say. "With FY '07 budget signed, we expect outlook for FY '08 budget and benefit of recent supplemental to be focus during defense Q3 [conference] calls," said David Strauss of UBS Investment Research on the upcoming slew of quarterly financial updates from the aerospace and defense industry.
Contrary to what critics argue, the advanced modeling and simulation used to develop and build the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter reduce the risk to buy the aircraft before traditional flight-tests are done, says U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz, JSF deputy program executive officer.
Eutelsat engineers are attempting to sort out two in-orbit problems that have hampered operations on two different spacecraft, in one case permanently.
