RAPTOR TESTING: An F/A-22 Raptor from the Combined Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., was tested at the Benefield Anechoic Facility for the first time last month, the Air Force said Aug. 2. The tests were to ensure the aircraft's systems didn't interfere with its communications, navigation and identification systems, the Air Force said.
SOFTWARE AWARD: An aerospace engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has won Marshall's 2004 "Software of the Year Award" for a flight simulation program, the center said July 28. The software was developed by James McCarter, an aerospace engineer in the Guidance, Navigation, and Control Group in Marshall's Space Transportation Directorate. The directorate pursues advanced navigation, control, and guidance research and technology to improve safety and reliability for space transportation vehicles.
Department of Defense (DOD) contract awards to U.S. small businesses increased nearly $9 billion in 2003 from the previous year - rising to $42 billion from $33.3 billion, DOD said July 30 in an annual report titled "Procurement from Small and other Business Firms." Defense awards to all U.S. businesses in 2003 totaled $187.5 billion, compared with $157.1 billion during 2002. Of that $187.5 billion, 22.4 percent were made to small businesses versus 21.2 percent in fiscal 2002 (see chart on page 7).
In an effort to protect every soldier in the operational Army from bullets and blast fragments, the U.S. Army plans to procure 840,000 Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) sets by fiscal year 2006, according to Col. John Norwood, program manager for soldier equipment at Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier. "That's a lot in anybody's book," Norwood said at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's (IDGA) Lightweight Materials conference in Washington last week. "We're approaching the halfway mark at this point in time."
SYPRIS DATA SYSTEMS has retained AEROGEAR TELEMETRY to sell its products in nine southeastern states, Sypris Data Systems said July 28. AeroGear Telemetry represents manufacturers of telemetry and aerospace products and systems such as receivers, transmitters, antennas and data storage and acquisition products. Sypris Data Systems designs, manufactures and supports high-performance storage and data acquisition systems for industry and governments worldwide.
A government advisory body has formed a committee to study see-and-avoid and operator training issues associated with the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles in U.S. airspace, the president of the body said Aug. 2. David S. Watrous, president of RTCA Inc., said the new committee, established July 29, could meet for the first time next month on the task of developing recommendations for the Federal Aviation Administration. He said the recommendations will reflect a consensus view of the aviation community and the public at large.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN SPACE TECHNOLOGY and PRINCETON UNIVERSITY will conduct advanced electric-propulsion technologies research for NASA's space exploration plan, NASA said July 29. The program is within NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and part of Project Prometheus. NASA awarded Northrop Grumman Space Technology a 2.5-year, $3 million contract to develop a nuclear-electric pulsed inductive thruster system. Princeton will advance the technologies of a lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster system under a three-year, $4 million contract.
In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Department of Defense (DOD) delay the Space Based Radar's (SBR) product development phase to allow more time to determine if the technologies needed for the system are maturing fast enough. If, however, DOD decides that SBR should proceed to product development with "less than mature" technologies, GAO recommended the department be prepared to add time and money or make tradeoffs with other DOD space programs to address SBR's requirements and resources.
SPACEWALK: The Expedition 9 crew onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will begin a spacewalk in the early morning hours of Aug. 3 to refresh experiments on the Zvezda Service Module, according to NASA. Attached to the outside of Zvezda, the experiments monitor residue from jet thruster firings and measure the effects of space on a variety of materials. Commander Gennady Padalka and ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke will exit from the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock in Russian space suits at approximately 3:10 a.m.
PROPER USE: The Department of Defense (DOD) is soon to require contracting officers to review contract requirements before a non-DOD contracting vehicle is used, says Tom Essig, director of program analysis and business transformation at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. "DOD has restrictions on its use of funds, and these restrictions are not being used when applied to contracts gotten through the General Services Administration (GSA). DOD needs to ensure that regardless of the contract vehicle, it will include DOD's unique restrictions," he says.
The Italian government has approved its country's participation in the next phase of the trinational Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), leaving Germany as the only country that still has to give its endorsement, according to an industry source. The United States, the third country involved in the MEADS program, signed off July 1 on the upcoming phase of design and development (D&D) (DAILY, July 7, July 15). Italy followed suit July 28. The German government is expected to endorse D&D this fall.
A July 29 story on the V-22 Osprey, "V-22 passes interim Defense Acquisition Board review," contained some incorrect information on the acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics' directions to the Navy. The service does not have to produce metrics charting the V-22's progress in addressing vortex ring state.
PROWLER PARTS: Northrop Grumman Corp. delivered the 75th aircraft wing center section for the EA-6B Prowler aircraft to the U.S. Navy five months ahead of schedule, the company said July 30. The delivery is a milestone in the Navy's plan to replace wing center sections for the fleet of high-demand electronic attack aircraft, the company said.
PORK BARREL: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is criticizing "pork-barrel" spending in the fiscal 2005 defense appropriations act approved by Congress on July 22. McCain says he questions the $110 million earmarked for the advanced procurement of F-15 fighters. "The Air Force has decided to procure the [F/A-22] to replace the F-15. Yet this earmark keeps the F-15 production line open, so I question the necessity of the [F/A-22] procurement in the numbers of aircraft and at the funding levels requested by the Air Force. Apparently we just decided to pay for both," he says.
REDUCING BILLETS: The Naval Sea Systems Command is "challenging [naval] aviation to reduce the number of billets on its future air wings. Naval aviation has a 10-30 percent reduction target," says Capt. Mike Schwartz, program manager for the Future Aircraft Carrier Program Office. Schwartz spoke July 28 on the next-generation CVN-21 at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's Total Life Cycle System Management conference in Washington.
The Department of Defense (DOD) doesn't have a clear investment and oversight strategy for the future Global Information Grid (GIG), says a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. DOD plans to spend at least $21 billion to field a core GIG capability through 2010, with full implementation to occur by about 2020.
The U.S. Army has received Pentagon approval to begin full-scale development of the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS), clearing the way for the selection of the program's prime contractor in early August. Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne signed an acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) July 29 approving the program's entry into its system development and demonstration (SDD) phase, according to an "information paper" released by the Defense Department July 30. The ADM also authorizes the low-rate production of seven aircraft.
Aug. 3 - 5 -- AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America 2004, "The World's Largest Unmanned Systems Symposium and Exhibition, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Calif. For information call (703) 845-9671, email [email protected] or go to www.auvsi.org. Aug. 3 - 6 -- Smart TechTrends 2004, Global Gateway for Science & Technology, Strengthening the Mid-Atlantic Region for Tomorrow, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pa. For more information go to www.techtrends.org.
GRAND CHALLENGE 2005: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will hold a "Participants Conference" on Aug. 14 for groups and individuals interested in participating in Grand Challenge 2005 in Anaheim, Calif. DARPA will begin accepting applications for Grand Challenge 2005 at the conference. Grand Challenge is an outdoor robotic ground vehicle race with a cash prize. The first Grand Challenge, held in March 2004, failed to produce a winner (DAILY, March 16). To be held Oct.
JTRS DELAY: The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF) cluster is experiencing a slight delay. The U.S. Air Force and Navy had planned to award $54 million pre-system development and demonstration (SDD) contracts by the end of July to two industry teams (DAILY, June 3, July 8), but that event has now shifted to mid-August. "It is common that the date can shift a bit as the final contracting documents are finalized," an Air Force spokesman tells The DAILY.
Congressional appropriators approved $305 million for advanced procurement of the DD(X) next-generation destroyer in the fiscal 2005 spending bill, increasing the funding proposed by the Senate and adding funds the House had voted to remove. The funding, however, came with the caveat that no funds would be available for the procurement of long-lead-time materials for items that are dependent upon delivery of a DD(X) key technology, unless that technology has undergone testing, as a result reducing the risk of overall program costs.
ANTI-MISSILE TIES: Industry pledges to cooperate internationally on missile defense are increasing, fueled by a growing political push to develop a global missile shield. MBDA, the European missile maker, and Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), which developed the Arrow missile defense system, have signed an agreement to explore ways the two companies could collaborate on anti-missile projects. U.S.-based Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.
