Boeing's Unmanned Little Bird helicopter is gearing up for a second round of weapons testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., in November, according to Waldo Carmona, Boeing's general manager and director of advanced Army systems. During a previous round of tests at Yuma in August, the Unmanned Little Bird fired nine 2.75-inch rockets and three Hellfire missiles. Two of the missiles hit their target, while the third went into the ground and failed to detonate. The Defense Department later determined that the missile itself was faulty, Carmona said.
ARMOR ORDERS: Ceradyne Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif., said Sept. 30 that it will fill two orders worth $9.1 million for ceramic body armor for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. The Army's order is worth $4.9 million and the Marine Corps' is worth $4.2 million. Shipments will start in October 2005 and be finished by February 2006.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., and Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., will lead a team to develop a lunar lander spacecraft, the aerospace agency said Sept. 30. The lander, tentatively scheduled for launch in 2010, would be the second mission in the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, after the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is being built at Goddard and is scheduled for launch in 2008.
DEFENSE BILLS: Attempts to speed the fiscal 2006 defense authorization and spending bills through the Senate apparently have fallen apart. Defense-related committee leaders have not tried to attach a version of the authorization bill to the appropriations bill - now on the chamber floor - as they discussed last week (DAILY, Sept. 26). Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) says Republicans and Democrats could not agree to set an Oct. 3 deadline for other amendments to the bill. While the Senate will be in session Oct. 3 and Oct.
An exercise to demonstrate and assess equipment designed to help military forces avoid friendly fire is under way in England, the U.S. Army said Sept. 27. The U.S., Britain, and seven other countries are taking part in Exercise Urgent Quest at Salisbury Plain Training Area, United Kingdom. The U.S. is leading the exercise. Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden are also participating. The event began this week and will run through Oct. 7.
DARPA WIRELESS: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking proposals for the Wireless Network after Next (WNaN) program, which is aimed at enabling "intelligent adaptive wireless networks consisting of densely deployed low cost wireless nodes," the agency says. With WNaN, DARPA hopes to provide "reliable and highly available battlefield communications at a low system cost." Proposals are due to DARPA on Nov. 15.
A recent study performed by Langley Research Center for NASA's science mission directorate recommends an airship as the best vehicle for the future exploration of Saturn's moon Titan. The success of the Cassini-Huygens mission, which landed a probe on Titan earlier this year (DAILY, Jan. 20), has sparked considerable interest in the mysterious moon - the only moon in the solar system known to have an atmosphere.
The U.S. Navy will host a three-day workshop for industry on the development of unmanned surface vessels (USV) and related technologies for anti-submarine warfare on Oct. 18-20 in Washington. The Navy said Sept. 29 it has experimented with USVs and will discuss its results in this forum. The workshop is supposed to bring together government and industry participants on control systems, sensors, unmanned operations and the adaptations of small craft design for support of Littoral Combat Ship missions.
General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin said they have successfully demonstrated key technologies in the system design for the U.S. Army's Warfighter Information Network-Tactical program.
The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct a study in a few years to help it determine what long-range strike capabilities it should begin fielding about three decades from now. Preliminary work for the study, or analysis of alternatives (AOA), probably will begin in 2007, and the two-year AOA likely will start in late 2008 or early 2009, said Lt. Col. Jim Pillar, chief of long-range strike at Air Combat Command (ACC).
The integration of United Defense Industries into BAE Systems following the acquisition of the company in June 2005 is essentially complete, according to company officials. "I could not be more delighted with the progress made so far," BAE Systems Chief Operating Officer Mark Ronald said during a press luncheon in Washington Sept. 30. "We've announced a reorganization, we've got an IT structure, everybody knows what their day job is, and the integration is complete."
SDB NEWS: Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which planned to brief reporters Sept. 29 on their joint bid for the second increment of the U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program (DAILY, Sept. 29), are looking for a new date for the media teleconference, citing a scheduling conflict. Raytheon also plans to submit a bid for the second increment, which is designed to give the small, precision-guided bomb the ability to destroy moving targets. The Air Force is expected to release the final request for proposals for SDB II in late October.
JASSM CUTS: Proponents of the U.S. Air Force's Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program are seeking to clarify the Senate Appropriations Committee's intent for the Lockheed Martin-built stealthy cruise missile. Citing two flight-test failures in the spring, the committee's version of the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill cuts $50 million from the Air Force's $150 million request for JASSM procurement. But despite leaving $100 million for purchases of JASSM, the committee approved explanatory language telling the Air Force not to buy more missiles.
LCS CENTER: Lockheed Martin Corp. is opening a new Mission Systems Integration Center specifically for the first Littoral Combat Ship. The facility, to be unveiled in Moorestown, N.J., is a full-scale version of an LCS mission control center with live equipment, combat management system software and simulations of all combat systems equipment. Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, U.S. Navy program executive officer for ships, and Fred Moosally, president of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors, will announce the center on Oct. 6.
GMD DISPUTE: The Senate Appropriations Committee says it "disagrees emphatically" with a plan the Missile Defense Agency is apparently considering for "breaking apart" the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program. "Fragmenting the fire control loop seriously jeopardizes the functionality of the weapon system and should not be undertaken until such time as it is fully developed, spiral upgraded and in a final, stable configuration," the committee says in a report explaining its version of the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill.
The secretary of defense should give Congress an annual plan outlining the costs of the U.S. Army's move to modular brigade-based units, because Army plans are evolving and the price tag has "increased substantially," the Government Accountability Office says in a new report. In March, the Army estimated it will need $48 billion to fund the move through 2011, a 71% increase from the estimate given the year before. However, the latest estimate doesn't include $27.5 billion in personnel and construction costs, the GAO said.
DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT: The robotic ground vehicle teams competing for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's second Grand Challenge prize already are demonstrating "dramatic progress" from last year, DARPA says. During the first day of the semifinals on Sept. 28, seven of 16 robotic hopefuls completed a 2.2-mile trial course. In comparison, only two teams made partial runs on the first day of last year's semifinals, with six failing to get past their starting chutes. During last year's finals, the best team completed only 7 miles of the 142-mile course.
SHIPBUILDING: The new chief of naval operations, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, is "actively" reviewing shipbuilding programs and considering "several options for controlling long-term costs," Senate appropriators say in the report accompanying their fiscal 2006 defense spending bill. To help the Navy in the short term, the Senate Appropriations Committee has recommended providing the Navy financial management authorities that previously have been denied (DAILY, Sept. 27).
The House and Senate are expected soon to approve an appropriations conference agreement on the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security Department spending bill, which was hammered out Sept. 29. In addition to $933.1 million for the Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization program, the appropriators agreed to provide $400.2 million to the DHS for operations, maintenance and procurement of marine vessels, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other related equipment of the air and marine interdiction program, according to the conference report.
