Adding to earlier legislative attempts to shore up federally funded aeronautical research, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has proposed a Joint Aeronautical Research Working Group to study cooperative research across NASA and the Defense Department. Hutchison has proposed a six-month study in which the two agencies' heads would figure out how NASA's aeronautical research assets and capabilities could be applied to existing and planned DOD activities. They would report to the working group.
UNMANNED ROAD MAP: The U.S. Defense Department has set nine broad goals for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), including continued development of a joint unmanned combat aircraft system and improvements in the ability of unmanned aircraft to fly in bad weather, according to a "road map" released late Aug. 8. Another of the goals is to field secure common data-link communications systems for controlling aircraft and distributing sensor data. The road map introduces the UAS term to emphasize that unmanned aircraft are part of larger systems.
A British Scorpio 45 remotely operated vehicle freed a trapped Russian Priz minisubmarine and its seven occupants on Aug. 7 after it became tangled in cables and stuck about 600 feet underwater in the northern Pacific. The United Kingdom submersible and two U.S. Navy equivalents were sent on Aug. 5 after the Russians asked for help in rescuing the men trapped aboard the AS-28 (DAILY, Aug. 8). The Scorpio and its six-person crew flew aboard a Royal Air Force Boeing C-17 aircraft to Petropaclask, Russia, and arrived before U.S. counterparts from San Diego.
ON TOUR: Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS) said Aug. 8 that it is launching another U.S. tour of the C-27J Spartan military transport aircraft as part of its bid for the U.S. Army's Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) program. The tour started Aug. 8 at Fort Lewis, Washington, and is expected to include many bases in the western U.S. Stops will include flying and loading demonstrations and paratroop jumps.
Arianespace has begun final preparations to launch the Thaicom 4 satellite on Aug. 11 after completing a launch readiness review that validated all elements for the flight, the company said Aug. 8. Thaicom 4, also known as Ipstar, will be the heaviest commercial satellite ever delivered to orbit, Arianespace said. It is scheduled to launch from the European spaceport in French Guiana, Africa.
The U.S. Navy has been repairing its older small arms rather than performing more extensive refurbishments under cost-cutting "business process improvements" while buying more modern guns, according to a naval statement. These cost-cutting changes, along with more than $159 million in recent supplemental funding from Congress, are helping the Navy's small arms program better meet warfighting needs, officials said.
Programmatic and weather issues have forced NASA Ames Research Center's MATADOR Mars airplane program to push its next high-altitude flight-test back to no earlier than April 2006. A two-thirds scale version of the MATADOR unmanned aircraft built by the Naval Research Laboratory will launch from a balloon in restricted airspace over Canada's Suffield Range at an altitude of 105,000 feet, where the thin atmosphere approximates conditions on Mars.
Armor Holdings Inc. said Aug. 8 that it has received a contract modification from U.S. Marine Corps System Command for more ceramic body armor plates. The extension is a new $14.4 million delivery order on a previously signed $66 million contract, the company said. The plates are to be delivered through 2006.
The U.S. Army's RQ-5A unmanned aerial vehicle system, called the Endurance Hunter (E-Hunter), has received the backing of a well-known senator. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), the previous Senate majority leader, is calling for $5 million of the Army's procurement funds to go specifically to buying and installing E-Hunter kits. E-Hunter combines the fuselage of the Hunter UAV with a new tail assembly and a longer center wing to create a UAV that can fly missions up to 30 hours and higher than 20,000 feet.
Although the U.S. Missile Defense Agency recently announced plans to buy up to five more satellites for the missile-watching Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), the agency ultimately may acquire a larger number of spacecraft, according to MDA officials. To meet "evolving threat capabilities," MDA could eventually conclude that the five additional satellites are not enough, an MDA official told The DAILY in a recent written response to questions.
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) is proposing that the Defense Department look into a space launch system derived from space shuttle system components. Bennett wants the defense secretary to study the "feasibility and advisability of utilizing a space launch system derived from the space shuttle to meet current and future space launch requirements for medium and heavy payloads for national security purposes as a complement to current space launch vehicles."
ERMP WIN: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has beaten Northrop Grumman to win the $214.4 million contract for the Army's Extended Range Multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle. General Atomics' "Warrior" UAV draws on technologies developed for the company's Predator UAV. Work on the research, development test and evaluation contract will extend through August 2009. Northrop Grumman had proposed the Hunter II UAV, based on the Israeli Heron.
THREAT REDUCTION: Raytheon Technical Services will help the former Soviet Union reduce its weapons of mass destruction under a six-year contract worth up to $82.1 million, the company said Aug. 8. Under the contract, awarded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Raytheon will provide logistics integration support, equipment support and services, program support services, infrastructure services, an enterprise information management system and program management. The work is part of the U.S. government's Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
EDO Corp. will design and develop the sonobuoy launching system for the U.S. Navy's P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, the company said Aug. 4. P-8A prime contractor Boeing awarded EDO the contract, which could be worth as much as $100 million, EDO said. The initial contract, which includes system design and development and acceptance/qualification testing, documentation and training courses, is worth $12.7 million. Sonobuoys are sensors dropped into the ocean to detect submerged submarines.
Engineered Support Systems will provide power-assisted cupolas to General Dynamics Land Systems for use on reconnaissance and fire support variants of the Stryker vehicle, the company said Aug. 5. The company's Systems & Electronics subsidiary will produce 55 cupolas under the $2.4 million contract. The St. Louis-based company has produced more than 335 cupolas for Stryker vehicles.
WHILE YOU WERE OUT: In addition to asking the White House to make a recess appointment of Gordon England as deputy secretary of defense (DAILY, Aug. 3), Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) says Eric Edelman should get one, too. Edelman has been nominated to be deputy secretary of defense for policy. The Senate Armed Services Committee, which Warner chairs, approved his nomination, but the full Senate has yet to approve it and is now away on its August recess.
General Services Administration contracting officials and Defense Department management officials did not comply with the U.S. Constitution, appropriations law and the Federal Acquisition Regulation when making dozens of defense purchases through GSA last year, the DOD inspector general has concluded. Of 75 purchases reviewed, valued around $406 million in total, "74 were either hastily planned or improperly funded," the IG office said. Moreover, on 38 purchases, or 51%, either GSA or the requesting DOD entity "improperly" used government funds.
SLOWER SPENDING: Defense spending has grown more slowly this year than in the past three years, rising by about 7% through July compared with an average of 14% during the buildup of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in fiscal years 2002 through 2004, the Congressional Budget Office reports. Outlays for military personnel have been one of the fastest-growing elements of the defense budget this fiscal year, up about 8.8% after adjusting for payment shifts.
