March 24 - 25 -- Society of Experimental Test Pilots' 36th San Diego Symposium, Catamaran Resort Hotel, J.T. Daugherty Conference Center, Lexington Park, Md. 1 661-942-9574 or go to http://setp.org. March 28 - 30 -- Aerospace Corp.'s Spacecraft Ground System Architectures Workshop, Manhattan Beach Marriott, Calif., 310-336-6805, www.aero.org/conferences
RADAR WEAPONS: Boeing missile defense officials refuse to answer questions about whether they are developing techniques to produce high-energy weapon effects from their SBX sea-based radar. However, since large distributed-array devices can be focused to deliver large spikes of energy, powerful enough to disable electronic equipment, the potential is known to exist and is being fielded on a range of U.S., British and Australian aircraft.
The Pentagon announced its fiscal 2006 Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) as well as its first-ever Joint Capability Technology Demonstrations (JCTDs) on March 16. ACTDs exploit mature technologies to serve pressing military needs. In the coming years they will be supplanted entirely by JCTDs, which will move faster and be tailored specifically to needs identified by combatant commanders (DAILY, March 11, 2005). The projects were chosen from more than 100 proposals, according to DOD.
ODYSSEY IMAGES: Hundreds of images from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have gone into a new simulated flyover of the planet's huge Valles Marineris canyon produced by JPL and Arizona State University. Infrared daytime views from ASU's Thermal Emission Imaging System multiband camera on Odyssey, which show features as small as 1,000 feet across, were combined in the moving mosaic, along with false coloring to simulate what human eyes would see. A computerized topographic model for Valles Marineris, which has walls as tall as Mt.
The Navy's renewed riverine force will be equipped with several existing patrol boats already used by special forces and the Marine Corps, although defense officials are envisioning new boats for future acquisitions, admirals and a general have told lawmakers. The existing small boats are made by United States Marine Inc. (USMI), SeaArk Marine Inc. and Safe Boats International.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending that the Department of Defense limit production of the Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) until the program demonstrates an integrated system and develops a better business case to justify future investments. Because of cost and schedule problems, planned quantities of the Northrop Grumman-built UAV have decreased 19 percent and unit costs have increased 75 percent since the approved beginning of system development, according to GAO.
CANCELLATION REVIEW: Rex Geveden, who oversees all technical operations at NASA as associate administrator, expects to report this week on his review of the agency's March 2 decision to terminate the Dawn asteroid-exploration mission. Geveden, formerly NASA's chief engineer, has been evaluating new information provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the wake of the cancellation, as well as the work of the independent assessment team that triggered the cancellation.
HELP FROM ABOVE: In Poland, Alcatel and EADS Astrium have demonstrated the role that space-based systems can play in European crisis management. A 2 million euro ($2.4 million), 14-month project called Astro+ was funded as part of preparatory activities in anticipation of the EU's 7th Framework Research Program, intended to run from 2007 to 2013.
SMALL PRICE: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) isn't buying industry complaints about overzealous Pentagon enforcement of the Berry Amendment, the decades-old law that requires metals in military hardware to be of U.S. origin. Contractors protest that government lawyers are holding them to an impossible standard by demanding verification of domestic metal in every component, right down to screws and bolts that literally cost pocket change. But Hunter, Congress' leading "Buy America" advocate, isn't swayed.
SUPPLEMENTAL: The House late March 16 passed its version of the second fiscal 2006 supplemental for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for hurricane relief, including affected Gulf Coast shipbuilding. The final House version includes $67.6 billion for Defense Department operations and maintenance, personnel and procurement among other warfighting costs.
The Air Force has to convince a House subcommittee that Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 Raptor design is stable, as well as provide other required analysis, before it will authorize a multiyear procurement deal requested by the Defense Department, the panel's vocal chairman said March 16.
The U.S. Joint Forces Command is trying to come up with a joint command and control system to replace about 150 systems now in use, as well as the "phraselator," a handheld translator device used by troops and Marines when there's no linguist around.
Congress and the Pentagon are butting heads over who has the right to control the fate of the Joint Strike Fighter's alternative engine program. Meanwhile, the U.S.'s closest allies and industrial partners are livid about not being consulted on top-level joint program decisions and the slow progress in resolving technology transfer roadblocks.
NOMINATION: The Senate Commerce Committee has approved the nomination of Vice Adm. Thad Allen to be the next Coast Guard commandant. Allen's nomination, as well as his promotion to admiral, now goes to the Senate floor.
Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) says he has accepted the Navy's proposed early retirement of the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, but financial constraints aside, the need for more flattops remains. "I appreciate where they are budget-wise," the congressman told The DAILY March 15. "There's been nothing that I've been shown that has suggested to me that we don't need 12 carriers. This is more a budget issue, a monetary issue."
The White House is protesting House appropriators' cuts from the latest fiscal 2006 supplemental spending request for Iraq and Afghanistan military operations and hurricane response, and claimed one particular move would cut Air Force funding for intra-theater airlift of special forces and ongoing "critical" intelligence programs. The House has been deliberating over its $91.8 billion in extra appropriations for the current fiscal year this week, including $72 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan military operations and other foreign aid (DAILY, Feb. 21).
The Navy is awaiting a RAND Corp. study to help it find more submarine design work to keep experienced General Dynamics workers and others employed so they don't lose their skills, Navy and Marine Corps officials told lawmakers March 15. The work includes speeding up the design of future SSBN or post-Virginia SSXN subs. The RAND study is expected in late summer or early fall, Rear Adm. Joseph Walsh, director of the Submarine Warfare Division, told the House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee.
The fiscal 2008 Air Force budget will put greater emphasis on operationally responsive space (ORS) systems, Undersecretary Ron Sega told lawmakers during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 16. "I believe [ORS] should have a greater role in our look forward in space," Sega told members of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee. Responsive space already has been part of early discussions on the FY '08 budget request, Sega said. "I would look on that as having a more prominent role going forward."
China, already identified by the Pentagon as a potential future military rival, is making inroads with Latin American's militaries by supplying training and equipment, the head of U.S. Southern Command told Congress March 16.
Problems pulling control-fin locking pins on its Pegasus launch vehicle March 15 delayed the start of NASA's ST-5 constellation-control mission for at least 48 hours. Orbital Sciences' L-1011 ferry was at 39,000 feet and almost ready to drop the Pegasus for ignition when at least one of the pins that hold the fins in place failed to withdraw during the pre-launch sequence. The aircraft returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where engineers planned to replace the batteries in the unlocking mechanism and troubleshoot the problem.
