INFORMATION THAW: Scientific evidence that global warming is melting ice at Earth's poles continues to stream out of NASA like fast-flowing glacial runoff, now that the agency's leadership has ordered political public affairs functionaries to lay off the spin. In the past two weeks NASA has reported dramatic melting in Antarctica, based on data from the twin Grace gravity probes it is operating with Germany. And a new Goddard Space Flight Center study synopsized in a NASA headquarters press release finds corresponding losses in Greenland.
LINGUISTS IN REAR: Technology is moving expert linguists from the collection point to rear areas in aircraft-based eavesdropping missions. A top strategic defense planner describes an Air Force experiment that points toward a change in current practice, in which RC-135 Rivet Joint and EP-3 aircraft carry linguists forward to a coastline or an adversary area so they can listen in on conversations. "How do you find the right conversation?" the planner asks. "You can't do it by moving the person to the conversation.
C4I MARKET: A Forecast International study anticipates that the global market for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) will continue to show strong growth through 2008 and then decline from 2009 through 2015. The decline is expected as all of the spending accelerated to combat terrorism and support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan draws to an end. The outlook for the period from 2006 to 2015 says Raytheon will remain the leading company with a 13 percent share of the $11.5 billion market (over 10 years).
The Defense Department is developing a framework to provide initial damage reconnaissance during hurricanes or domestic terrorist attacks, including capabilities provided by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, according to Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.
ST5 LAUNCH: NASA is in the final stages of preparation before the scheduled launch of the Space Technology 5 (ST5) spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California March 14. A combined systems test of the Pegasus launch vehicle and the spacecraft is scheduled for March 11, followed by a launch readiness review March 12. The mission consists of three 25-kilogram (55-pound) microsatellites built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center that will fly in formation in the Earth's magnetosphere.
SPECIAL APPROPRIATIONS: Bill Hoagland, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's director of budget and appropriations, thinks the annual defense and homeland security spending bills will be completed this fall, but possibly all other appropriations work will be wrapped into a continuing resolution that extends past Election Day in November - and even into 2007.
SORTIES: Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, more than 42,000 fighter, aerial refueling, and airborne early warning sorties have been flown, while more than 2,000 air patrols have responded to actual incidents and suspicious flight operations, according to Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.
GROWTH INDUSTRY: "We're in a growth area," says the Defense Department's chief information officer. Seems every country is trying to have a relationship with the DOD over defense-related information technology, John Grimes said recently at the UBS Government and Defense IT Conference. Grimes, who oversees more than $31 billion in DOD-wide IT management, had just returned from two weeks touring the Pacific Rim. He said there is a lot of focus on information sharing.
JAPAN AND ABL: Japan is "very interested" in becoming part of the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program, according to prime contractor Boeing. A study is under way to determine to what extent Japanese industry might participate in the program, says Boeing ABL Program Director Greg Hyslop. ABL is modifying a 747-400 freighter to carry a high-power chemical laser capable of destroying enemy missiles in their boost phase out to ranges of hundreds of kilometers.
COTS CASH: NASA says it's pleased with the number of bids it received March 3 from a variety of sources for its $500 million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program. But the space agency doesn't plan to announce any winners until this summer, and some industry insiders won't be surprised to find only familiar - and big - corporate names on that list. The COTS program was designed to spur private investment by space entrepreneurs willing to take some risks hauling cargo and eventually crew to the International Space Station.
FINANCING: The United States is well on the way to providing $15 million in C-130 parts to the Indonesian air force through the Foreign Military Sales system to help Indonesia improve its airlift capacity, particularly important in responding to natural disasters, according to Navy Adm. William Fallon, head of Pacific Command. Officials also plan to use $1 million in Foreign Military Financing to support critical improvement to the Indonesian navy maritime security infrastructure. Additional funding in fiscal 2007 would allow U.S.
The U.S. Coast Guard expects to start up its National Capital Region Air Defense program in midsummer after shifting helicopters among its fleet's missions, while the Homeland Security Department's armed service is moving to take on airlifting of federal leaders to safety in emergencies, the Coast Guard commandant told House homeland security appropriators March 9.
LOS ANGELES - Declaring that launcher reliability is too important to be left to the commercial market, the Air Force and its partner the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) have fully taken back the reins of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, returning it to the cost-plus contracts with full government technical oversight that have made up most of the history of the military space program.
LOS ANGELES - Scientists have known that Saturn's ice moon Enceladus sprays out plumes of water vapor and ice particles, but now after a period of studying observations by the Cassini spacecraft they have a better sense of where it might originate.
Observations from the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft have helped researchers develop a way of seeing through the sun and mapping its far side. The sun is filled with many kinds of sound waves caused by the convective motion of gas in its surface layers. The new observation method uses SOHO's Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument to trace sound waves reverberating through the sun to build a picture of the other side.
Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Truck Corp. said March 6 that it would build Bushmaster armored vehicles under a licensing agreement with its developer, ADI Limited of Australia. The trucks will be sold to North American customers and foreign countries under the Foreign Military Sales agreement. The accord was signed last month.
WING SECTIONS: Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded a $12.9 million contract to install wing center sections on seven U.S. Navy EA-6B aircraft and conduct a maintenance inspection on one of the installed sections, the Defense Department said March 9. The contract also provides for additional maintenance. The work will be done in St. Augustine, Fla., and is expected to be finished in November 2007. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) grilled Defense Department witnesses on the testing schedule for the VH-71 presidential helicopter during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 9, saying he remains concerned that the schedule is being accelerated at the expense of safety.
The fiscal 2007 Navy budget request provides $26.4 million for the development of the Navy's previously delayed Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft acquisition program, whose initial operating capability still is expected in FY '13, Navy Secretary Donald Winter has testified on Capitol Hill.
