PLAYING NICE: After months of Army-Air Force wrangling over whether they should buy the same variant of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle -- the senior Pentagon civilian leadership says they must, to curb costs -- Defense Department sources say the Air Force is agreeing to buy the Army version. This variant has a heavy-fuel engine, enabling Army operators throughout the battlefield to use the same type of fuel used for ground vehicles rather than jet fuel. This reduces logistics requirements and costs.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" is beginning to explore the half-mile wide Victoria Crater, with assistance from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, after spending 21 months and traveling nearly six miles to reach it. Victoria is roughly 200 feet deep, exposing layers of rock that provide scientists with "a window on the past of the planet," according to Principal Investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
KEEP IT SIMPLE: "Learning to live and work in space" is a long-established, never-questioned reason for building the International Space Station, and one lesson learned so far is not to try it again in the same way.
SBIRS DECISION: Lockheed Martin officials are proposing to accelerate a decision whether to go ahead with procurement activities for a third Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High satellite. In December 2005, after SBIRS' fifth major cost overrun, Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg delayed a decision on the third geosynchronous satellite and launched risk-reduction activities for an alternative system. A decision between the two will come in 2008. But that schedule opens up a production gap should the Air Force opt for SBIRS over alternatives.
ARMORED VEHICLES: General Dynamics Land Systems says it has been awarded a $189 million contract modification to provide the Marine Corps with 151 new eight-wheeled light armored vehicles. The company will produce armored personnel, anti-tank, command and control, logistics and mortar variants, with delivery starting in in July 2007. The work will be done in Sterling Heights, Mich.; Woodbridge, Va.; and London, Ontario, Canada. It is expected to be finished by December 2008.
Oct. 9 - 11 -- Association of the U.S. Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call (703) 841-4300 or go to www.ausa.org. Oct. 17 - 18 -- Ninth Annual New Zealand Defense Industry Association Seminar, Te Papa, Wellington. For more information email [email protected] or go to www.defencetech.co.nz.
Facing an annual $20 billion budget shortfall starting this year and running through the next five years or so, the U.S. Air Force is looking for tried, true and even novel ways of closing the gap between what the service can afford and what it needs to do its job, said Maj. Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., director of programs, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Programs.
A team of experts at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston is performing a "C.S.I.-type" analysis of a small orbital debris impact hole discovered in shuttle Atlantis' right-hand payload bay door during a routine post-flight inspection last week, according to a NASA spokesman.
Lawmakers want defense officials to settle on more traditional contract vehicles when authorizing system development and demonstration or a similar stage, reflecting some concern within Washington that more flexible contracts such as "other transaction authority" (OTA) had been misapplied.
UNKINDEST CUT: Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, NATO's supreme commander, says taking the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of the command loop was an unintended consequence of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act that he'd like to fix. The law concentrated authority in the combatant commanders, leaving the Joint Chiefs of Staff and their chairman off to the side, says Jones, a former JCS member.
Funding for shorter-term, conceivably less antagonist prompt global strike alternatives -- compared with the Defense Department's desire to refit some Trident nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles -- could be funded in the next supplemental request or fiscal 2007 reprogramming efforts.
From counter-improvised explosive device (IED) patrols in Iraq to monitoring the Mexican-U.S. border, lightweight manned surveillance aircraft are getting notable earmarks in recent legislation.
The U.S. Coast Guard wants to set up 34 permanent safety zones on the Great Lakes to conduct live fire training exercises. But the plan touched off a firestorm among politicians, fishermen and boaters on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border.
BUSINESS SECRETS: The Precision Strike Association's annual fall symposium now will be entirely off limits to the general public, following a growing trend of closed-door business briefings and workshops for the aerospace and defense industry. All attendees must have a secret-level clearance to participate in the three-day PSA event. PSA is associated with the National Defense Industrial Association, which also has increasingly hosted closed-door briefings, such as for counter-improvised explosive device business opportunities.
STRYKER UPGRADES: General Dynamics Land Systems said Oct. 5 that it has been awarded a $3.3 million contract to perform support work for future U.S. Army Stryker wheeled combat vehicles. The work includes fabrication, engineering development, testing and design of a Power and Data Management Architecture (PDMA) for Stryker upgrades and improvement, the company said. The PDMA contract will be conducted in three phases through fiscal year 2011. The initial contract runs through September 2007.
Col. Eileen Collins (USAF, Ret.), Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Pat Condon (USAF, Ret.), Dr. Edward David, Dr. Owen Garriott, Dr. Thomas Jones, Benjamin Montoya, Dr. C. Paul Robinson, Dr. Alan Stern, and Dr. John Sullivan have been named to the NASA Advisory Council.
The iRobot RedOwl robot prototype, which uses acoustic signatures to pinpoint the location of snipers, is under evaluation by the U.S. Army at Ft. Benning, Ga., as part of the ongoing Air Assault Expeditionary Force Experiment. A modified version of iRobot's PackBot, the RedOwl project includes participation by Boston University and Insight Technologies of New Hampshire, which provides tactical lighting and laser systems to U.S. Special Operations Command.
SHADOWS: AAI Corp. has been awarded a $32.6 million contract modification to produce SHADOW unmanned aerial vehicle systems and related support equipment, the Defense Department said Oct. 5. The work will be done in Hunt Valley, Md., and is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2009. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
LASER FIRED: The Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate has conducted the world's first firing of a laser using recycled fuel at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. A chemical laser was supplied Aug. 24 with its two main fuels - basic hydrogen peroxide and chlorine - which were regenerated from waste products produced during prior laser operations. Testers fired the laser at high power, on the order of several kilowatts.
Nanette M. Bouchard has been named vice president of engineering and mission assurance for integrated defense systems. Jim Jamieson has been appointed chief operating officer for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. John J. Tracy has been named senior vice president of engineering, operations and technology.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of 24 King Air 360ERs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The Pentagon has identified airborne ISR as one of the most desired capabilities in securing Iraqi borders and other parts of the country.
