Oct. 30 - Nov. 1 -- National Defense Industrial Association's 44th Annual Targets, UAVs & Range Operations Symposium & Exhibition, Marriott Baypoint Resort Village Golf & Yacht Club, Panama City Beach, Fla. For more information call (703) 247-2596 or go to www.ndia.org. Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Wildlife Hazard Management Workshop, Daytona Beach, Fla. For more information call (386) 947-5227 or email [email protected].
TASK FORCE ODIN: The U.S. Army is running a secretive initiative to provide an integrated array of sensors and even weaponized platforms for field commanders to tackle the improvised explosive device (IED) problem in Iraq. The effort, dubbed Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify and Neutralize), could include existing systems, modifications to existing systems, and possibly new systems. In discussion are the I-Gnat unmanned aircraft and modifications to C-12 aircraft, although officials shy away from specifics.
COROT LAUNCH: Arianespace affiliate Starsem plans to orbit a modified Soyuz 2.1b launcher, equipped with a new Khimavtomatika RD-01124 third-stage engine, on December 21. The launch, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will orbit France's Corot planet-finding mission. A new variant with digital control system and a larger fairing derived from that of the Ariane 4 orbited Europe's Metop polar orbiting weather satellite on Oct. 19.
High-resolution radar returns from the moon's poles strongly suggest that future lunar explorers won't be able to mine deep craters there for water ice to convert into oxygen and rocket fuel. The finding by U.S. and Australian researchers, if true, could have a dramatic impact on the infrastructure NASA is developing to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2020.
Whether U.S. and Iraqi forces can beef up security in Baghdad over the next week could have a lasting impact on how many Virginia-class submarines the U.S. Navy receives in the near future, as well as the total U.S. submarine fleet in coming decades. This unlikely connection is just one example of how the Nov. 7 congressional elections, expected to be a national referendum on the U.S. occupation, could impact seemingly unrelated U.S. defense spending elsewhere. In this case, the impact of who occupies one Senate seat could reach deep into the ocean.
BLENDED WING BODY: NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Boeing soon will begin ground testing of the X-48B Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept in preparation for flight testing early next year. Testing will take place at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, where two 21-foot wingspan unmanned prototypes have been delivered. The BWB resembles a tailless flying wing, featuring a wide airfoil-shaped body for maximum lift and minimum drag.
U.S. Air Force officials said that the multiyear procurement contract for the C-130J cargo aircraft has been converted from a Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12 to a FAR 15 contract. The conversion, which recrafts the Lockheed Martin Corp. contract into a more traditional acquisition from less-rigid requirements, comes after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other leading Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) members have pressed the Defense Department to default toward more accountable contracting (DAILY, Oct. 9).
STOVL DECISION: A high-level Pentagon decision over whether to delay the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is expected in the next two weeks, a program source says. Ahead of final fiscal 2008 budget-making, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England called an Oct. 26 meeting with secretaries and chiefs of staff from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as a few assistant and under secretaries of defense (DAILY, Oct. 27).
Orbital Sciences Corp. on Oct. 27 announced growth in revenues, operating profit and net income for the third quarter that company officials said could help make 2006 the best year ever for the company, provided fourth-quarter projections are met.
MISSILE POLITICS: Missile defense is sharing the spotlight with Iraq and other national security issues ahead of the Nov. 7 congressional elections. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, highlighted their parties' differences Oct. 25. Schumer - echoing President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - says the greatest threat posed by a nuclear North Korea is over proliferating technology and missiles.
ABL ROLLOUT: The Airborne Laser (ABL) team is "ready to go fly" following its Oct. 27 roll-out ceremony in Wichita, Kan., according to Pat Shanahan, vice president and general manager of ABL prime Boeing Missile Defense Systems. "We are ready to demonstrate the aircraft's ability to close the fire control loop against a flying target," Shanahan says. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is developing ABL to shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost phase. Northrop Grumman is providing the chemical laser for the system.
The Air Force last week outlined plans for not only a near-term KC-135 refueling tanker replacement program, called KC-X, but also for a long-term strategy that will include two additional buys in later years called KC-Y and KC-Z.
FAB-T: Boeing has completed hardware and software integration of the Block 4 Software-Defined Radio for the U.S. Air Force's Family of Advanced Beyond-line-of-sight Terminals (FAB-T) for the B-2. FAB-T includes software-defined radios, antennas and user interface hardware to support a multitude of waveforms for data rates in excess of 300 Mbps.
CMWS: BAE Systems said Oct. 25 that it has received an additional $95.6 million from the U.S. Army for its Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) to protect Army fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft from heat-seeking missiles. BAE Systems received a five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which gives the Army flexibility to order at various times any number of systems with a ceiling of $1.4 billion. To date, BAE Systems has delivered more than 600 CMWS units. The company said production is more than a year ahead of schedule.
Two NASA Stereo spacecraft are climbing outbound on the first of four loops to the moon's orbit to set up low altitude lunar flybys that will hurtle them far from Earth for the first 3D imaging of the sun. The piggyback mounted spacecraft were launched from Cape Canaveral's Pad 17B at 8:52 p.m. Eastern time Oct. 25 onboard a Boeing Delta II with nine solid rocket boosters.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gor-don England hosted a high-level Pentagon meeting Oct. 26, which comes ahead of finalizing the fiscal 2008 defense budget request and after he met with the Pentagon's Cost Analysis Improvement Group and a special team assembled to study FY '07 congressional mandates. No decisions were reached, although the short takeoff and landing version was discussed.
ITALIAN TRANSITION: Sergio Vetrella will remain as president of the Italian Center for Aerospace Research (CIRA) but has stepped down as head of Italian Space Agency ASI with the recent change of government. It remains to be seen who Research Minister Fabio Mussi will select to replace Vetrella, or even if Mussi will do so, because the government may name someone from outside the ministry to perform a top-down ASI reorganization.
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors onboard unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) show considerable promise for helping counter improvised explosive devices, although so far the technology has not been used to its full potential by soldiers in theater, according to Lt. Col. Reed Young, product manager for robotic and unmanned sensors at Ft. Monmouth, N.J.
Questions about the position of an orientation antenna on the Progress resupply vehicle that arrived at the International Space Station Oct. 26 delayed hatch opening until Oct. 27 and required a partial station powerdown, but posed no other major issues for either spacecraft.
NASA is quickly mounting an alternate effort to develop thermal protection system (TPS) materials to protect the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) during a return from lunar orbit, after having disappointing results from the primary development program.
