The Defense Logistics Agency will search for alternatives to military Meals, Ready to Eat to feed natural disaster victims after discovering that MREs are too high in calories for some civilians, the DLA's director says.
WEIGHING IN: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has weighed in on a year-long Senate debate over potential oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, saying new drilling east of the so-called Military Mission Line would be "incompatible with military activities, such as missile flights, low-flying drone aircraft, weapons testing and training." Rumsfeld's opinion was issued Nov. 30 at the request of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who has been fighting efforts by other senators to extend Outer Continental Shelf drilling closer to Florida.
The unique X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle has returned to flight-testing in Yuma, Ariz., roughly 19 months after the crash that ruined the first Dragonfly demonstrator. Following a 30-second "pop-up" flight in early November to build confidence, the X-50A completed a four-minute hover flight Dec. 2 in which it reached an altitude of roughly 20 feet.
The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Naval and Marine Systems Division a potentially three-year, $44.7 million contract to develop "collaborative and networked autonomous vehicles demonstrating transformational, scalable and persistent anti-submarine warfare barriers" using large numbers of autonomous underwater vehicles.
CORRECTION: A Dec. 5 DAILY story incorrectly described some actions by NASA. The agency will no longer work on aviation security but will continue research related to aviation safety.
FIRST LCS: The U.S. Navy said the USS Freedom, the first Littoral Combat Ship, will be homeported at Naval Station San Diego. The homeports for the 20 future Freedom-class ships have not yet been determined, the Navy said Dec. 2. The Navy said it expects Freedom to be delivered in December 2006 and arrive in San Diego in early 2007. The Lockheed Martin Corp.-led team building the ship at Marinette Marine in Wisconsin said Nov. 21 that Freedom would be delivered in early 2007 (DAILY, Nov. 22).
IED LEADER: Ret. U.S. Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs will lead Defense Department efforts to counter improvised explosive devices. Miegs "will expand upon existing efforts to ensure innovative solutions ... by integrating technology and training with battlefield tactics, techniques and procedures, while leveraging outside sources for rapid acquisition of technical solutions," DOD said Dec. 5. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel has been overseeing anti-IED efforts, but a spokesman said in November that DOD was considering putting a higher-ranking officer in charge.
POSTPONED: The launch of the AMC-23 satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Proton rocket was postponed Dec. 5, International Launch Services announced. Managers chose to delay after preflight testing showed anomalous behavior in the flight control unit on the Breeze M upper stage. The rocket will be returned to the processing facility for further investigation. No new launch date has been set. The satellite is being launched for Alcatel Alenia Space, which built AMC-23 for SES Americom.
The Naval Sea Systems Command has turned to VT Halter Marine Inc. of Pascagoula, Miss., for functional design of the Egyptian Navy's Fast Missile Craft under the Foreign Military Sales program. Under the almost $30 million contract, which was not competitively procured, the company will provide analytical, design, engineering and model testing services for the three vessels. VT Halter is expected to finish its work by December 2006.
Raytheon's APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar is slated to undergo a series of improvements after it becomes operational on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet late next year, a U.S. Navy official said Dec. 5.
Elbit Systems Ltd. will upgrade 18 helicopters for Bulgaria's military under a $70 million contract, the company said Dec. 4. The Haifa, Israel, company will upgrade 12 Mi-24 combat helicopters and six Mi-17 transport helicopters over a three-year period to comply with NATO standards. Bulgarian aerospace and defense industries will take part in the process.
NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers are entering their second martian year of operations, having spent nearly 700 days exploring the red planet. Spirit started its new year three weeks ago and Opportunity starts its second martian year Dec. 11. Each Martian year is roughly two Earth years. The rovers' baseline mission was for 90 days.
LASER CRIME: The House is expected to pass a bill Dec. 7 or 8 that would create a new federal crime for aiming lasers at aircraft cockpits in the United States. Since 1990, there have been more than 400 such incidents, with more than 100 reported since November 2004 alone, according to the bill (H.R. 1400) sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
SPAWAR HEAD: U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, announced Dec. 5 that one-star Rear Adm. Michael Bachmann is has been assigned to head the service's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego. Bachmann currently is serving as vice commander of the Naval Air Systems Command in Washington.
BIZ OPPS: Up to 134 companies are hoping a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman is interested in their technologies as part of the U.S. Coast Guard's $24 billion, 25-year Deepwater recapitalization program. The companies - 18 percent of an original 740 firms that expressed interest in a recent Deepwater industry day - are waiting for the joint venture, Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS), to wrap up evaluations and contact them. That is expected by mid-December, ICGS says.
FIRE SCOUT CDR: Northrop Grumman completed the critical design review of its MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle for the U.S. Navy in mid-November, the company announced Dec. 2. The review covered air-vehicle design, avionics and payload architecture, communications and data links, ship- and land-based launch and recovery and the ability to integrate future payloads, Northrop Grumman said.
DISCOVERY PLAN: European space ministers plan to meet in Berlin this week to consider a plan for "discovery and competitiveness for Europe in space," and to decide on future programs. The ministers will be "invited to take decisions that will provide Europe and its citizens with a competitive space sector able to lead the search for new discoveries, guarantee access to strategic data and new services, and consolidate its share of the worldwide commercial market," ESA says.
J-2 REVISITED: NASA is pondering whether to resurrect the J-2 engine that sent Apollo spacecraft from Earth orbit to the moon or develop a new engine to perform the same task for the upcoming Crew Exploration Vehicle during its lunar voyages. Producing roughly 260,000 pounds of thrust, the last version of the Rocketdyne-built engine was the J-2S, which was tested in the mid 1970s before the Apollo production lines were canceled.
