NEW VICE BOSS: Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, Joint Chiefs chairman, on Aug. 12 swore in Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr. as the nation's second-highest uniformed military leader at a Pentagon ceremony. Giambastiani became the seventh vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who himself replaces a retiring Myers as chairman at the end of September.
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - Marines securing the volatile western part of Iraq need more satellite capabilities to spread their messages to citizens of Anbar province, says the top Marine commander in Iraq. "Every chicken coop around here has a satellite dish on it," Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commanding general of 2nd Division Marines, told the DAILY Aug. 12.
Construction of new Australian facilities worth AUD 82 million (USD $63.3 million) to house 17 Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters is ahead of schedule, the Australian defense department said Aug. 12. The facilities, to be manned by the 1st Aviation Regiment at Robertson Barracks in Darwin, will include maintenance, flightline, command, training and accommodation buildings, along with a helicopter apron and taxi-way.
Defense electronics maker Argon ST saw revenues and earnings for the third quarter 2005 increase sharply, the company said Aug. 11. Quarterly revenue for the company went up by $36.5 million to $75.6 million, an increase of 94% over the same quarter last year, the Fairfax, Va.-based company said. Revenue for the first nine months of the company's current fiscal year increased 111%, to $188 million.
ROBOTIC GUARD: The U.S. Army and General Dynamics Corp. expect their Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS), a robotic watch-guard vehicle loaded with sensors, to enter the final preproduction phase next year and then full production in fiscal 2007. Brian Frederick, program manager, told reporters Aug. 9 that eight military depots in the United States are to get about 50 of the autonomous unmanned ground vehicle systems, costing about $200,000 each. A dozen will go to Hawthorne Army Depot, Nev.
CHECKING MRO: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team will spend this week checking out the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft and its subsystems following its successful launch from Cape Canaveral Aug. 12. The spacecraft's first science measurement will be when its Mars Color Imager (MARCI) instrument looks back at Earth to measure its ultraviolet radiation as a basis of comparison for later Mars measurements. Fifteen days after launch MRO will perform its first trajectory correction maneuver, firing its six thrusters for eight seconds.
GETTING READY: The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is undergoing final tests before its scheduled Oct. 26 launch, ESA says. An Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft carried the spacecraft and associated equipment to Baikonur from Toulouse, France. Venus Express is intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a global observation of Venus' atmosphere.
PROMOTED: NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is appointing William Gerstenmaier as the agency's new associate administrator for space operations, replacing William Readdy. Mike Suffredini is taking over Gerstenmaier's previous job as program manager for the International Space Station. As head of the Space Operations Mission Directorate, Gerstenmaier will direct the agency's human exploration of space and oversee the ISS and space shuttle programs, among others. Gerstenmaier first joined NASA in 1977 as an aeronautical engineer at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
UNMANNED AIRCRAFT: When it comes to unmanned aircraft, the U.S. Defense Department seems to know what it wants researchers to do for the foreseeable future. "For the next 25 years, DOD will focus the [government] labs and industry" on such mission areas as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), destruction and suppression of enemy air defenses, electronic attack, anti-surface ship and anti-submarine warfare, communications relay and mine warfare, according to DOD's new roadmap on unmanned aircraft systems.
The U.S. Navy plans to establish an office as early as October that would control and manage how the service handles information technology funding allocation, according to Navy officials.
EMBRAER AGAIN: Lockheed Martin Corp. is expected to propose sticking with an Embraer aircraft, although a bigger one, for the U.S. Army's Aerial Common Sensor, according to a source. Lockheed Martin said in June that the Brazilian aircraft maker's ERJ-145 regional jet turned out to be too small for the program (DAILY, June 30).
BAE Systems' Nimrod MRA4 maritime reconnaissance and attack aircraft has successfully completed a series of hot-weather trials during a 10-day deployment to Sicily, the company said Aug. 11. The tests were conducted by a joint BAE Systems-British air force crew in daytime temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The aircraft was based at an Italian air force facility in Sigonella. A contract bid to produce a 12-aircraft Nimrod MRA4 fleet was submitted to the United Kingdom defense ministry last month. A decision is expected later this year.
EADS Defence Electronics will supply electronic core components for the EuroDASS Eurofighter self-protection system, the company said Aug. 12. The contract, to provide the systems for the 236 aircraft of the tranche 2 delivery, is worth EUR 260 million (USD $312 million) and is part of the EuroDASS (Defense Aids Subsystem) program, a system designed to increase the survivability of combat aircraft.
With congressional staff working to hammer out a compromise between the House and the Senate over the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, a picture is emerging that President Bush's $966 million request won't be met and elements of the program will at least be trimmed.
Aug. 15 - 16 -- IPv6, "Understanding DOD's compliance requirements and latest challenges for implementation," Holiday Inn Tysons Corner, McLean, Va. For more information go to www.technologytraining.com. Aug. 15 - 19 -- Rotary Wing Technology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Penn. For more information go to www.outreach.psu.edu/c&i/rotarywing. Aug. 16 - 20 -- International Aviation & Space Salon / MAKS, Zhukosky, Moscow. For more information go to www.maks.ru.
A trio of Republican senators and one Democrat are looking to boost authorized funding for various missile defense efforts, including the U.S.-Israel Arrow ballistic missile defense system and futuristic interceptor materials. The efforts, via possible amendments to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, follow proponents' acknowledgements that missile defense spending may have to be sacrificed in light of ongoing war costs and testing setbacks (DAILY, May 16).
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee, remains skeptical about the U.S. Navy's next-generation DD(X) destroyer, despite considerable efforts by the ship's proponents to buttress the program. Speaking to reporters Aug. 9 in Westminster, Md., Bartlett said the Navy's latest plans to build just one DD(X) a year over the next five years makes the program more a catalyst for technology than a shipbuilding effort.
The Army's Rapid Equipping Force is developing a "very promising" new mini unmanned aerial vehicle called TACMAV that the service picked up from classified users, according to REF Director Col. Gregory Tubbs. Manufactured by Applied Research Associates Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., the TACMAV (Tactical Mini Air Vehicle) has a wingspan of roughly 21 inches. Its flexible wings can be folded around its fuselage, allowing the entire UAV to be stored in a tube or in a soldier's backpack. When pulled out of the tube, the folded wings automatically snap into place.
Australia's government has approved the first phase of a navy amphibious ships project worth AUD 2 billion (USD $1.5 billion), the country's department of defense said Aug. 11. The government has committed AUD 29.8 million (USD $23 million) to the design and development of two ships that will be used for combat operations, regional disaster relief, humanitarian aid, peacekeeping and peace monitoring, Defence Minister Robert Hill said in a statement.
Northrop Grumman said Aug. 10 that it will provide two additional RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles to the U.S. Air Force under a $21 million contract. The new Global Hawks will join an advanced concept technology demonstration version already in service supporting anti-terrorism operations, the company said. Global Hawks have flown more than 4,300 combat hours during 200 missions, the company said.
NASA and Boeing are flight-testing new technologies for making aircraft quieter using a specially modified 777 passenger jet as part of NASA's Quiet Technology Demonstrator 2 program, the agency announced Aug. 10. Technologies under consideration include new designs for "scalloped" edges on jet engine exteriors and toboggan-like fittings that cover landing gear. Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., conducted initial testing on the concepts using wind tunnels and computer simulations.
