UAV QUESTIONS: Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley has ordered a study that could affect the size and shape of the service's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) force. A central question is the future of the medium-altitude UAV mission, now handled by the General Atomics Predator. After years of unfettered support on Capitol Hill - Congress earmarked money for both the A and more powerful B models above Air Force requests - some question whether the service has put the cart before the horse. Moseley is interested in exploring a larger view of UAV operations.
Production of two Joint Strike Fighters -- three shy of the five requested by the Bush administration -- will be appropriated for fiscal 2007, according to a congressional compromise for defense spending that also fulfilled the White House's request for dual lead DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers and included other contentious decisions.
NEW MEMBERS: STS-114 Commander Eileen Collins, former White House Science Advisor Edward David and former Sandia National Laboratories Director Paul Robinson are among nine new members just appointed to serve on the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. Collins, the first female pilot and commander of the space shuttle, will serve on the NAC's Space Operations committee, which Robinson will chair. David will chair the Science committee. Other new additions to the NAC include retired Air Force Lt. Gen.
ABIZAID'S ASSESSMENT: Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid fears that a number of U.S. vulnerabilities in the Middle East could be important in a conflict with Iran. For example, U.S. network-centric capabilities have become a target. "The longer we fight in the Middle East, the more our enemies go to school on us," Abizaid says. "They understand how we fight, what we do, where our linkages are. In the event of a more serious conflict in the region, with a major power, I would expect our networks to come under attack." Intelligence-gathering is limited.
The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) plans Oct. 2 to ask several new space tourism and commercial space launch companies for data on their horizontally launched/runway recovered suborbital and orbital concepts to evaluate opening the KSC shuttle runway for use by such innovative space business operations. The plan is for Kennedy and the Federal Aviation Administration to use the data to smooth the bureaucratic path for commercial space business use of the 15,000 x 300-foot Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway.
CONTROL CENTER: The U.S. Air Force's Space Control Center (SCC) will move from Cheyenne Mountain Air Station (Colo.) to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and become part of a recently activated Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC). Run by Air Force Space Command's (AFSPC's) 1st Space Control Sqdn., the SCC is the command and control focus for all U.S. space surveillance activities, such as tracking space debris and satellites, and monitoring all launches. The SCC merger with JSpOC is expected to streamline AFSPC's support of combatant commanders.
ENGINE PRODUCTION: United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., has been awarded a $455.1 million contract modification for F-22/F119 engine (48) Lot 6 production and CY06 field support and training, the Defense Department said Sept. 21. The work is set to be finished by December 2006. The contract was awarded by Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
PROPULSION UNIT: Avio has handed over the propulsion unit for the Sicral 1b military communications satellite to prime contractor Alcatel Alenia Space. Set to be orbited early next year, the new spacecraft is intended to provide additional SHF, UHF and EHF bandwidth to support Italy's growing overseas forces and meet an Italian commitment to supply SHF and UHF capacity to NATO together with France and Italy. Sicral 1a, in service since May 2001, does not meet NATO hardening requirements.
A B-52 Stratofortress, with two of its eight engines fueled by a blend of synthetic kerosene and JP-8, will conduct at least two more test sorties after a mechanical problem cut short the initial flight on Sept. 19. An all-engine test, using the synthetic, will be performed in coming months if all test points are covered and the fuel proves out, said Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, Air Force Flight Test Center commander at Edwards Air Force Base.
The Defense Department used an "innovative" approach in its Mobility Capabilities Study (MCS) and its analyses are unclear, calling into question the Pentagon's assertion that already planned spending and capabilities will meet defense needs in air, land and sea transportation, the congressional Government Accountability Office reported Sept. 20.
As it continues its restructuring of the Space Based Surveillance System (SBSS) program, the U.S. Air Force is considering producing more than one first-generation Block 10 SBSS spacecraft to help inform its decision about whether and how to purchase follow-on Block 20 satellites, according to Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
One factor in NASA's decision to pick Lockheed Martin as prime contractor for the $8 billion Orion crew exploration vehicle was confusion over just how the losing Northrop Grumman/Boeing team works.
Separating war costs from Pentagon money meant for fielding the future military is no easy task, says a Congressional Research Service report released this month.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - The space shuttle program will decide by next week whether to push toward the launch of Discovery on the STS-116 mission as early as Dec. 7 for the next shuttle mission, following a safe predawn landing by Atlantis to end STS-115 at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 21.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded an initial $67 million contract to a Boeing-headed team Sept. 21 to begin work on securing a 28-mile stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico.
House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) questioned subcommittee hearing witnesses Sept. 21 about the decision to delay deployment of an Israeli active protection system (APS) for countering mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). In April 2005, U.S. Central Command approved a Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement request from troops in Iraq that included a requirement for a vehicle dubbed the Full Spectrum Effects Platform (FSEP), which would include a fully automated APS system.
NASA has cleared the space shuttle for a Sept. 21 landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after Atlantis' crew conducted a final survey of the thermal protection system (TPS) to ensure that several pieces of floating debris spotted near the orbiter were not the result of heat shield damage.
The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it notified Congress of a possible foreign military sale to Iraq of helicopters, vehicles and weapons, as well as logistics support, worth up to $500 million. Besides numerous small arms, Iraq has asked for logistics support services and equipment for Jet Ranger, Huey II and 20 Mi-17 troop-carrier helicopters, along with standard and nonstandard wheeled vehicles, tracked vehicles, and 600 infantry light-armored personnel carriers.
As Northrop Grumman battles to keep its Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) intact for the Pentagon's next generation surveillance aircraft, the E-10, the contractor is set to prove the MP-RTIP's capabilities during next week's initial flight-tests on a Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. The company will be moving the radar system from the Northrop test bed aircraft to a Global Hawk for tests at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., company MP-RTIP Director and Program Manager Patrick Collins said at a Sept. 20 briefing.
MOVING MONEY: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said aloud Sept. 20 that he was afraid that $1.83 billion that he and another conservative senator pushed to appropriate for building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border may get sidetracked into some other earmark. "We have to make sure that we don't play a shell game in the end because someone wants to spend the money on a pet project," he told colleagues on the Senate floor.
