CASEY CONFIRMED: The Senate voted 83-14 on Feb. 8 to confirm President Bush's nomination of Gen. George Casey Jr. to become the next Army chief of staff. His nomination was opposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee's ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), among others due to how the Iraq war has been prosecuted. But opposition senators never blocked his nomination as they could have done. Following the Senate's vote on Casey, the Senate Armed Services Committee favorably reported to the Senate the fiscal 2007 intelligence authorization bill.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Ball Aerospace and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are trying to determine the cause of detector degradation in the critical HiRise High Resolution Imaging System on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that has forced managers to cut imaging operations by 50 percent.
At the same time the Army is cutting four of the 18 elements of its Future Combat Systems (FCS), the service is also stretching out procurement while spinning out some of the program equipment earlier to help troops in current battle zones. But the Army also has development issues it needs to solve for some of those early spinouts, according to a recently released Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) report.
COUNTER-IED SPENDING: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command will award Pegasus Global Inc. $36.9 million for 1,001 Revolving Frequency signal jamming systems against improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon said Feb. 6. Work on the contract, which was not competitively procured, will be performed in Reston, Va., and runs through June. Pentagon leaders on Feb. 5 proposed to spend $2.4 billion more in supplemental fiscal 2007 funds for development and fielding of anti-IED measures.
The U.S. Navy is delaying the Mission Reconfigurable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle System (MRUUVS) program, pushing back the contract award by two years due to a budget reshuffling. The MRUUVS is a torpedo-like 21-inch diameter UUV designed to be launched and recovered from submerged submarines for countermine and surveillance missions.
Underwriters don't expect the Sea Launch disaster to affect the space insurance market, provided there are no further loss events in the near term. Benito Pagnanelli, of London-based Pagnanelli Risk Solutions, notes that although the floating launch pad was insured for some $250 million -- about equal to the supposed cover for NSS-8 itself -- and ground equipment for unknown amounts, the bulk of this coverage was placed in the energy sector and other markets, not by space underwriters.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that strategic military risks have increased because U.S. forces are not training for the full range of operations they may face. U.S. armed forces have such a short turnaround time before heading back to Iraq and Afghanistan that some aspects of their training for higher-end, conventional wars are being shorted, Pace said Feb. 7. For example, combined arms training is being purposely cut to concentrate on aspects of war that soldiers will need in Iraq.
NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria holds the new U.S. record for time spent spacewalking -- 61 hours, 22 minutes -- following his completion of a third extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in nine days. His spacewalking partner, NASA's Sunita Williams, gained the all-time women's record on the 6-hour, 40-minute EVA Feb. 8. She has now spent 29 hours, 17 minutes outside in four EVAs, all of them since she arrived at the International Space Station on the space shuttle Discovery in December.
Despite concerns about the fairness of the U.S. Air Force request for proposals for the $40 billion KC-X tanker competition, Northrop Grumman and EADS North America say they will enter the race against Boeing. The team had threatened to back out if the Air Force did not restructure performance metrics to objectively judge the A330-based tanker compared to rival Boeing's 767 candidate. A European industry official said there was concern that too much emphasis was on the low-cost offering, which would handicap the larger and newer A330.
While the Army searches for common causes of the handful of recent helicopter losses in Iraq, military aviation analysts say it appears that insurgent sniper teams are purposely targeting the aircraft. "With the number of losses, these aren't just a bunch of lucky shots," said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of the Teal Group. "It's evidence of an adaptable enemy. It's just like they started doing in Vietnam." Analysts agree that if there were any suspected mechanical problems, the Army would have started to ground some of the helicopters.
Civilian operators at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite-control facility at Suitland, Md., have taken over F-17, the newest Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite, for operational use worldwide. Launched Nov. 4, 2006, it was the second mission carried by a Delta IV from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and the first use of that new booster in a direct insertion. F-17 is the second Block 5D-3 built by Lockheed Martin for DMSP and includes a number of system upgrades.
The Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) "easily" could be available in a human-rated form capable of launching passengers by 2010 or 2011, according to George Sowers, vice president for advanced programs at United Launch Alliance (ULA).
NASA hopes to keep adding partners to its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program beyond the four companies signed up so far, according to Dennis Stone, assistant manager for commercial space development in the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at Johnson Space Center.
REVIEW: NASA will review its psychological screening process in the wake of the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak, news service reports said Feb. 7. Nowak has been charged with attempting to murder a woman who she believed was her rival for the affections of another astronaut, authorities say.
Researchers hope to learn more about seasonal changes in the hydrocarbon rain and evaporation processes they believe shape the moon Titan by using cameras on the Cassini Saturn probe that have spotted this expected cloud of organics over Titan's north pole.
The Defense Department's budget is now forecast to grow at a 2.8 percent compound annual growth rate through fiscal 2012, slightly slower than some Wall Street analysts' prior forecast, although still coming off a significantly higher FY '08 baseline budget.
The new African Command (AFRICOM) will have more civilians in key positions than other more military-centric commands, Pentagon Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Ryan Henry said during a Feb. 7 briefing. The Defense Department also does not have plans to increase the number of troops in operations on the continent, he said.
