While Pentagon officers acknowledge China is building and improving its cyber skills, they disagree over how the growing Asian power plans to employ those capabilities. While the recent annual Defense Department report on China points toward a military use of those capabilities, the Air Force general in charge of setting up the service's new Cyber Command sees it differently.
The $2 billion contract scored by the C-27J Spartan team to initially build 78 Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) for the U.S. Army and Air Force likely will be a springboard for Alenia North America to enter the U.S. defense market and for the aircraft to penetrate the international market. Army officials announced June 13 that the contract had been awarded to the Spartan team, an international union of L-3 Communications, Alenia North America and Boeing (DAILY, June 14).
After years of inter-service feuding and continual speculation that the program would be grounded, the U.S. Army and Air Force have agreed to buy up to 78 C-27J Spartans for the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program. The C-27J Team - consisting of L-3 Communications, Alenia North America and Boeing - beat out the Raytheon/EADS North America-led Team JCA and its aircraft, the C-295.
NRO LAUNCH: Two top secret National Reconnaissance Office/U.S. Navy ocean surveillance spacecraft to track terrorist movements at sea are being readied for launch from Cape Canaveral June 14 (DAILY, April 30). Liftoff from Launch Complex 41 is planned between 11:18 a.m. and noon EDT on board a nearly 200-foot-tall U.S. Air Force Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. The rocket was scheduled be rolled to the launch pad late June 13. The loading of tons of kerosene, and liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants will begin early June 14.
Northrop Grumman Corp., L-3 Communications and Lockheed Martin Corp. have successfully completed the first in-flight communications link with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, Northrop announced June 13. "We took our targeting radar and turned it into a "talking" radar by enabling it to transmit and receive unprecedented amounts of information," said Teri Marconi, vice president of Northrop Grumman's combat avionics business unit.
Controllers and flight crews on the International Space Station/Space Shuttle Atlantis hope to finish retracting an old solar array June 14, after getting a good start the day before by carefully applying lessons learned from a mirror-image mission in December 2006 that wrestled half of the array back into its box. Astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson systematically lined up folding solar-array panels to get them in the best position to retract at the tedious beginning of the second spacewalk in the ongoing STS-117 station assembly June 13.
USCG RHIBS: Aluminum Chambered Boats said June 13 that it was awarded a $9.88 million, U.S. Coast Guard contract for 47 rigid-hull, inflatable boats for the Cutter Boat-Large (CB-L) fleet. The five-year contract calls for the first boat to be delivered within three months.
The U.S. Navy is eyeing a "Future Weapon System Concept" that could provide a far smaller, long-range, submarine-based ballistic missile that is "very distinguishable," provides "near precision accuracy" and is "extremely responsive," according to Navy Rear Adm. Stephen Johnson, director of strategic systems programs. The "notional design" revolves around a 40-foot, two-stage booster missile carrying a payload of 500 to 1,000 pounds up to 3,000 nautical miles, Johnson said June 13 at a National Defense University Foundation (NDUF) briefing on Capitol Hill.
FAA released its concept of operations for the Next Generation Air Transportation System, dubbed "NextGen," on June 13 while government and industry leaders urged Congress to find funding before the agency's authorization runs out Sept. 30. "We've got 109 days, guys, to get it done, so let's get at it," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey told a packed gathering of Capitol Hill lawmakers, staff and industry representatives.
Around the globe, terrorist groups are finding ways to circumvent a host of defensive technologies meant to thwart their actions, according to a recently released RAND report.
China's ability to challenge the U.S. military is no longer just a future concern but actually exists today with the Asian giant's proven ballistic anti-satellite and cyber warfare capabilities, among others, Defense Department officials told lawmakers June 13. "That challenge is already in front of us," said Richard Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia-Pacific affairs.
The U.S. Air Force is shifting about $500 million from other programs into developing and accelerating technologies and capabilities desired for the new Cyberspace Command, said the service general responsible for getting the command up and running. "It's money within current programs, about a half billion dollars, we're moving around," said Lt. Gen. Robert "Bob" Elder, commander, 8th Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., the home of the new cyber command.
If the decision is made to reinstate the climate sensors cut from the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) back onto the second, third or fourth spacecraft, it shouldn't add cost or risk to the program, according to prime contractor Northrop Grumman. The suite of sensors to be carried on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) pathfinder spacecraft in 2009 and on the first NPOESS spacecraft in 2013 already have been finalized, Northrop spokeswoman Sally Koris said, so adding sensors to those would add cost.
TARGET ORDER: The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $25 million contract to purchase 80 BQM-74E aerial targets. The targets are scheduled to be delivered before January 2009. The BQM-74E is a subsonic, subscale, jet-powered aerial target capable of being launched from the air or surface (land or shipboard) and recovered on land or at sea. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Despite recent media reports regarding the level of protection and amounts of body armor available for deployed service members, the U.S. Army and Marines are managing the programs well, according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report. The report says the body armor capabilities and service controls are done according to U.S. regulations and need.
A new set of solar arrays for the International Space Station (ISS) deployed as planned June 12, giving the orbiting facility a symmetrical shape reminiscent of the old Space Station Freedom design.
A new Israeli military imaging reconnaissance satellite is undergoing checkout in space following liftoff from Palmahim Air Force Base June 11 onboard a solid-propellant Shavit rocket. The new Ofek-7 spacecraft will replace the five-year-old Ofek-5 satellite and also bring the Israeli space-based reconnaissance program back to full strength following the loss of the Ofek-6 satellite in a 2004 launch failure. The 660-pound satellite was placed into a 193 x 372-mile orbit.
Democrats on the House Science Committee shouldn't be so eager to kill funding for a troubled $63 million vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft program that has yet to fly, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said June 12.
The current strong emphasis on financial and technical program management should continue with key Defense Department acquisitions despite the changing of many guards near the top of the Pentagon hierarchy, defense analysts say. Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his vice chairman, Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, who is also chairman of the Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), are both leaving (DAILY, June 11).
The U.S. Air Force exercised an option June 11 on its Alternate Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) contract with Northrop Grumman Corp. to prove the engineering and analysis needed to take AIRSS to System Design Review (SDR) for an estimated $8 million.
