The Air Force has decided to deactivate the 564th missile squadron at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., to meet the recent Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) mandate to trim 50 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles from the 500-unit force, according to Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Burg.
CONFIRMED: The Senate on April 6 confirmed Gordon England to be deputy secretary of defense, a job he has held since President Bush recess appointed him Jan. 4. England, who was confirmed by voice vote, first was held up by an internal Senate Armed Services Committee ethics rule related to his defense-industry pension, and later was blocked by senators upset over decreased and changing naval shipbuilding plans. England previously was Navy secretary and has otherwise been praised for his management skills.
The U.S. Marine Corps plans to send two V-22 Ospreys to the Farnborough Air Show this year, according to program officials. While participation in the show will allow manufacturers Bell-Boeing to market the V-22 to potential international customers, the Marine Corps is more interested in demonstrating the tiltrotor aircraft's self-deployment capability. "No ships, no terra firma - just tank across the pond," Program Manager Marine Col. Bill Taylor said.
Expedition 12 to the International Space Station returned safely to Earth April 8 after more than six months in orbit, accompanied by a Brazilian test pilot who was the first of his countrymen to travel in space.
RAM: Raytheon Co. said April 10 that it has won a $17.4 million Foreign Military Sales contract for production of the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) for South Korea, in which half the work will be done by RAM-System GmbH of Ottobrunn, Germany. The U.S. Navy contract calls for production of 30 RAM Block 1/HAS (helicopter, aircraft, surface) tactical-guided missile round packs and test equipment design maintenance for the South Korean RAM program.
Army BAE Systems, Anniston, Ala., was awarded on March 31, 2006, an $18,511,502 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for Overhaul and Upgrade on the M113A3 family of vehicles. Work will be performed in Anniston, Ala., and is expected to be completed by April 30, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Sept. 30, 2005. The Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-05-C-0463).
CHINA TRIP: NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is considering an autumn trip to China following a renewed invitation from the China National Space Administration. Luo Ge, one of two vice administrators at CNSA, reopened his agency's invitation to the top U.S. civil-space official during an April 3 drop-in on Michael O'Brien, assistant administrator for external relations, and NASA didn't say no. "An invitation has been extended," says Dean Acosta, Griffin's press secretary.
NATIONAL FLEET: The Coast Guard and the Navy recently signed agreements allowing both services to temporarily take command of the other's assets, according to the vice commandant of the Coast Guard. Vice Adm. Terry Cross told the Navy League's SeaAirSpace symposium that Navy ships, planes and crew can be put under Coast Guard field commanders' authority for homeland security responses under one deal inked recently by the Homeland Security and Defense secretaries. Navy field commanders previously could command Coast Guard assets as they do now near Iraq.
The U.S. is planning to have a smaller and more efficient nuclear weapons stockpile by 2030, an Energy Department official says. Tom D'Agostino, deputy administrator for defense programs at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, told a House subcommittee that he foresees "a smaller, safer, more secure stockpile, with assured reliability over the long term," according to an April 6 State Department statement.
DIGITAL FIRES: The first Navy battle group, the Iwo Jima, with digital-fires capability will deploy in the fall, the Navy says. A mid-March test verified for the first time that a Supporting Arms Coordination Center-Automation (SACC-A)-equipped ship could work with a Naval Fires Control System (NFCS)-equipped ship. SACC-A is an automated command and control digital system for planning and execution of fire support performed aboard Landing Helicopter Dock- and Landing Helicopter Assault-class ships. An NFCS ship receives fire mission tasking from SACC-A ships.
Modernizing the B-52 bomber fleet with additional conventional weapons and systems while cutting the total number of aircraft is the right plan and will foreshadow changes to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Burg.
The U.S. Navy says the first DD(X) destroyer will be designated DDG-1000 and will be named for former chief of naval operations Adm. Elmo "Bud" Zumwalt Jr. "The youngest man ever to serve as CNO, Zumwalt cemented an acclaimed reputation as a visionary leader and thoughtful reformer," the Navy said in naming its futuristic -- and contentious (DAILY, April 4) -- new class of destroyers after him.
PENTAGON CALLING: The Pentagon still is asking industry to help the Defense Department connect its information and communications systems, according to Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command and NATO's supreme allied commander for transformation. Once, there were more than 300 data systems in Iraq dealing with counter-improvised explosive device (IED) information, Smith said.
LUNAR LANDING: NASA has decided to mount a surface probe on its 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) for "high-risk and high-return research of the lunar surface." The agency will announce details April 10 of its decision to send a piggyback lander into a deep crater at one of the moon's poles. The mission will attempt to find out what is generating strong hydrogen signatures detected by past orbiters in permanently dark crater bottoms there.
The U.S. Navy expects to complete an internal design readiness review of its Multimission Aircraft (MMA) by May 2007, about seven months ahead of deadline, which would clear procurement of four P-8As from the Boeing Co. for operational testing, program officials told The DAILY.
FINDING IEDs: Marine Corps officials say the service is having "great success" using its Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle to find and counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Pioneer has been spotting insurgents in the act of emplacing IEDs, as well as locating suspicious objects, disturbed earth, and hot or cold spots along roadsides. In the last six months Pioneer has flown 1,106 hours, more than a third of its flying time, focusing on IEDs.
Members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) say they have witnessed a slight de-emphasis of safety within NASA's Exploration Systems organization as it firms up plans to develop the agency's next generation of manned spacecraft. During a meeting at NASA headquarters in Washington April 7, ASAP panelist and former Stafford-Covey member Dan Crippen said he feels that NASA's exploration directorate has "lost a little of the focus on safety as being one of the most important criteria in the design process."
TOTAL LOSS: Russian Satellite Communications Co. will boost its failed Express-AM11 satellite into a graveyard orbit to prevent its destruction from making the orbital slot at 96.5 degrees East Longitude. RSCC declared AM11, a 2 kW, 30-transponder satellite launched in April 2004, a total loss. Prime contractor NPO PM blamed an orbital debris or meteoroid impact for the failure, which knocked out the thermal control system and caused the spacecraft to veer out of control.
