The Jan. 6 Aerospace Daily article on the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser misstated the type of laser used to shoot down missiles. The actual kill is performend by the chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL). The deformable mirrors that correct for atmospheric distortion are elements of the beam control/fire control system, and not part of the COIL. The beacon illuminator laser has kilowatt-class power.
BRAZILIAN FIRST: Astronaut Marcus Pontes is making final preparations to become the first Brazilian in space with the planned March 22 launch of the Soyuz TMA-8/12S mission to the International Space Station. Pontes has been training in the U.S. and Russia to be a station astronaut since 1998, shortly after Brazil joined the ISS partnership. The Brazilian air force lieutenant colonel will join the 13th expedition to the space station - cosmonaut/expedition commander Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut/flight engineer Jeffrey Williams - in the third seat of the Soyuz.
PARIS - The French government has given the go-ahead to complete development of a new air defense system, while a comparable German effort has run into budget uncertainties that will likely keep the effort stalled for months.
Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev passed the halfway point in their six-month stay aboard the International Space Station last week, marking their 100th day in space on New Year's Day.
PURCHASE: Ducommun Inc. said Jan. 6 that it has purchased Huntsville, Ala.-based Miltec Corp. for $50 million. Miltec's 12-month sales ending Sept. 30, 2005, were about $42 million. Miltec provides missile and aerospace systems design, development, integration and testing. Ducommun provides engineering and manufacturing services for the aerospace and defense industries.
The U.S. Army is describing some of its requirements and acquisition plans for a synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) to be carried by the Extended Range Multi-Purpose and Future Combat Systems unmanned aerial vehicles. It says the sensor will give brigade combat team and division or corps battlefield commanders greater situational awareness by imaging stationary targets and detecting moving targets in bad weather and poor visibility.
Lockheed Martin's information technology unit's Application Development and Maintenance organization has received a top rating for process excellence for producing and supporting software applications used by civil government and defense agencies, the company said last week. The organization was given a Capability Maturity Model Integration Maturity Level 5, the highest possible rating, by the Software Engineering Institute. The evaluation was based on the SEI's Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement.
The U.S./French TOPEX/Poseidon oceanography mission has come to a close after 13 years and nearly 62,000 orbits of the Earth, following a failure in October that destroyed the spacecraft's ability to maneuver. A joint effort by NASA and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, TOPEX/Poseidon originally was designed for a five-year mission when it was launched in 1992. It ends operations as the longest-running Earth-orbiting radar mission in history, according to NASA.
NOT SIGNED: President Bush apparently has not yet signed the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, as worked out shortly before Christmas by House and Senate negotiators. The compromise measure was only presented to the president on Jan. 3. By contrast, the accompanying FY 2006 defense appropriations bill, which conferees finalized at the same time as the policy bill, was signed into law Dec. 30.
AMMO ORDER: Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Co. L.L.C. of Independence, Mo., has received a $156.3 million delivery order to provide small caliber ammunition to the U.S. Army, the company said. The work will be done in Independence, Mo., and is expected to be finished by Sept. 30, 2006. The Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., awarded the contract.
Spain's government in late December OK'd a pair of contracts for programs to upgrade its army ground troop capabilities and to design and develop a core combat management system for navy ships. The three-year, EUR 25.5 million (USD $30.1 million) Future Fighter program will provide Spanish soldiers with NATO-standard equipment and procedures that will allow them to fight and survive on a high-tech battlefield, the country's Council of Ministers said.
IEDs: Raytheon has been awarded a $12 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for hard-to-kill improvised explosive device countermeasure equipment, the Defense Department said Jan. 5. The work will be performed in Indianapolis and is expected to be completed by June 30.
The Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser project took a step forward with the delivery of the low-power beacon illuminator laser (BILL) last month. Northrop Grumman Space Technology delivered the solid-state BILL to the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kan., on Dec. 2, where a Boeing 747 is being converted into the YAL-1A prototype Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft.
The U.S. and Europe soon are expected to decide whether to embrace an upgraded Patriot interceptor for their Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), marking one of several important events ahead this year for ground, Navy and space-based missile defense projects.
President Bush on Jan. 4 appointed Gordon England as deputy defense secretary, fully empowering the former Navy secretary as the Defense Department's No. 2 official until at least late 2007. Bush also used so-called recess appointments to install former newsman Dorrance Smith as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, and Julie Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau in the Homeland Security Department.
Russia has set a fare of $21.8 million a pop for NASA astronauts to ride a Soyuz vehicle to the International Space Station. Detailed long-term arrangements remain to be negotiated, but the Russian Federal Space Agency has committed to the ticket price through 2011. The price tag emerged in negotiations over how ISS transportation will be handled now that the original barter deal has expired, and the U.S. Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 (INA) has been amended to allow NASA to buy station services from Russia.
Mark Krzysko has been named deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic sourcing, says the head of the Pentagon's Business Transformation Agency.
Northrop Grumman and Textron Systems have been chosen to proceed to the next phase of the effort to develop the Joint High Powered Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) for the U.S. military. Two other competitors, Raytheon Co. and a team of Boeing and Lawrence Livermore Lab, were eliminated, industry officials said Jan. 4. Increase power levels
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is organizing an "Armor Challenge" in which new types of lightweight passive vehicle armor will be tested against an array of projectiles. "The Armor Challenge is aimed primarily at inventors and small organizations who do not have the resources to initiate full-scale armor development programs," DARPA says. Proposals will be accepted from Feb. 20 through Aug. 31. The best-performing samples will be considered by DARPA for further development.
