The ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services terrorism and unconventional threats and capabilities subcommittee - a vocal advocate for Massachusetts businesses - has called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to convene a special task force to address what he said was the growing threat of insurgent snipers in Iraq.
The aerospace and defense industry can expect a hotter, yet largely ineffectual spotlight on defense spending and acquisition regardless of the outcome of Nov. 7 elections, analysts and trade representatives continue to say. Federal procurement is under a more powerful microscope than ever before, said a report released Nov. 2 by the Professional Services Council (PSC), a major national trade association for the government professional and technical services industry.
The Bush administration should respond to Taiwan's request for pricing and acquisition data for the F-16C/D, the follow-on to the F-16 A/B, on a one-to-one replacement basis while continuing to promote Taiwan's current defense acquisition package, according to Heritage Foundation analysts.
NASA is working out the procedures it will need if it has to conduct a "launch on need" rescue mission to retrieve the crew of shuttle Discovery when it performs the final Hubble servicing mission in the spring of 2008.
Within the space of a week, NASA and the U.S. Forest Service flew the Altair unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) twice over forest fires in California, including an impromptu flight over the deadly Esperanza fire that investigators suspect was deliberately set.
James Webb Space Telescope prime contractor Northrop Grumman is testing a newly constructed full-scale prototype of the observatory's sunshield to verify its design concept and deployment techniques, the company announced Nov. 1. Intended to shade the telescope's sensitive thermal optics, the five-layer tennis court-sized sunshield is made from a polymer-based film. It will help the observatory see distant galaxies, early stars and planetary systems.
A push is under way in Canada to leverage $11.5 billion in planned military aircraft purchases to win domestic companies a larger role on hot new aerospace programs such as Lockheed Martin's Crew Exploration Vehicle and Boeing's 787 aircraft.
Military and industry leaders are looking for ways to better tap sensors and automate airborne freight and tanker services. Cargo hauling and refueling are ripe for the kind of improvements that net-centric connections and related sensor packages can bring, experts told attendees Oct. 30 at the Shephard UV North America 2006 conference and exhibition.
SALES UP: Rockwell Collins Inc.'s defense electronics systems and products sales increased $15 million, or 4 percent, to $378 million for the recently completed fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, the company said Nov. 1. Higher revenue from electronics systems upgrades for various helicopter platforms, as well as the Future Combat Systems Integrated Computer System and Ground Element Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network System development programs "more than offset" lower revenue from fixed-wing aircraft electronics systems upgrade programs.
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has surpassed 1,000 sols - Martian days - on a mission in which the rover's lifetime was designed to be only 90 sols. Each Martian day is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. That means that in Earth days, Spirit has been on Mars more than 1,026 Earth days.
Upgrades and repairs planned for the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in 2008 promise to bring the orbiting instrument to the "apex" of its capabilities, enabling it to point the way to some of the fundamental questions about the nature of the universe that it already has helped raise.
Raytheon Co. hopes to secure a U.S. Air Force contract in January for its Universal Control System (UCS), which the company claims is the first-of-a-kind ground-based cockpit for simultaneous operation of up to eight different unmanned vehicles in the air, on land or at sea.
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s recent earnings reports paint a picture of a company that has been masterful in squeezing more profits out of its operations. Going back over the last six quarters, the defense and information technology giant posted only modest year-over-year revenue increases of 4 percent, 7 percent, 9 percent, 5 percent, 9 percent and 6 percent. But net income during the same period has risen 47 percent, 26 percent, 60 percent, 44 percent, 39 percent and 56 percent.
One of America's biggest strengths - its command and control of space - may become one of the country's most vulnerable points, says Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of Air Force Command's Space and Missile Systems Center. "My greatest nightmare, what keeps me awake at night, is that an enemy will be able to disrupt our asymmetric edge," Hamel said Oct. 30 at the Shephard UV North America 2006 conference in Tysons Corner, Va.
The 5.1-ton Chinese SinoSat-2 direct broadcast satellite is being maneuvered toward its geosynchronous orbit parking location at 92.2 east longitude following liftoff from the Xichang launch site on a Long March 3B Sept. 29.
The U.S. Air Force's vaunted transformational satellite (TSAT) network - the backbone for the Pentagon's electronic information grid and operational strategy - could see further launch delays because of recent budget cuts, says Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of Air Force Command's Space and Missile Systems Center. "It's very likely we'll see delays on the first launch," Hamel said Oct. 31 at a breakfast briefing with reporters in Washington.
