The U.S. Navy's Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) program has completed a key design review three months ahead of schedule and with a positive outcome, according to a service official. "We were pretty pleased with the overall results of the design review," said Capt. Mick Outten, who manages surface-ship weapons programs for Naval Sea Systems Command. "We don't see any major issues."
GOES-N: The launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite has been rescheduled for the evening of Aug. 12 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., while engineers grapple with a possible problem in one of the Boeing-built spacecraft's communication subsystems. "Boeing is working with NASA and NOAA to complete testing and analysis of several communications subsystem components to more thoroughly characterize their expected on-orbit performance," the company said.
SLAM-ER ROLLOUT: Boeing rolled out the first Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) for the Republic of Korea's air force at a recent ceremony, the company announced Aug. 4. Korea is Boeing's first international customer for the 500-pound weapon and intends to field it on its F-15K fighter fleet, due to arrive in Korea this fall.
A new study from the National Research Council recommends that NASA update its procedures for preventing the contamination of Mars in light of new research suggesting that some Earth microbes might be hardy enough to survive in certain places there.
ITT Industries delivered its latest nuclear, biological and chemical training system to the Army at Fort Polk, La., the company announced Aug. 4. The Fox M93A1 allows the Army to detect and map contaminants on the battlefield. ITT developed the training system for the Fox in conjunction with the 83rd Chemical Battalion, the Department of Defense's Joint Program Manager NBC Contamination Avoidance, and the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI).
General Dynamics said Aug. 3 that it has agreed to buy Itronix Corp. of Spokane, Wash., which produces wireless mobile computing products. Financial terms were not disclosed. Both companies' boards of directors have OK'd the sale, but it must still receive regulatory approval. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2005. Itronix will become part of the General Dynamics C4 Systems business unit, which integrates secure communication and information systems and technology.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by Phillip Jackson Bell, nominated by President Bush to be deputy undersecretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He testified July 28 and was confirmed July 29.)
NASA has decided Space Shuttle Discovery is safe to re-enter Earth's atmosphere with the damaged thermal blanket under its port cockpit window left as is, formally putting to bed the last known issue standing between the orbiter and its scheduled return to Earth on Aug. 8.
HELO SERVICES: The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command on July 29 awarded Rockwell Collins a $477.1 million contract for helicopter work. The contract includes engineering services for command, control and communications systems and the modification, maintenance and enhancement of the avionics systems in several types of helicopters. The work, involving CH-47s, MH-47s, MH-6s, MH/UH-60s and other aircraft, will be performed at the company's Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facilities and is to be finished by Sept. 30 2009, the Army said Aug. 3.
Expedition 12 Commander William McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev hope to bring the International Space Station's crew complement back up to three when they welcome European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter aboard during shuttle flight STS-121, despite uncertainty over when that flight will take place. "We think we're quite prepared to continue ops with just the two of us, but we are very excited at the thought that Thomas will join us," McArthur said during a press conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston Aug. 4.
A bipartisan group of five western senators is telling the Bush Administration to keep transitioning to an intercontinental ballistic missile force made up of 500 single-warhead Minuteman IIIs. The senators want to reiterate U.S. policy on changes to the Minuteman III fleet as the military conducts the Quadrennial Defense Review. Under the Moscow Treaty, the U.S. is "downloading" Minuteman IIIs from carrying up to three independent warheads to a single one.
Ceremonies to celebrate the delivery of the first Lockheed Martin-built F-16 aircraft to Oman's air force were held Aug. 4 at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, facility.
ADVANCED DISPLAY: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has turned to Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Maritime Systems and Sensors for the Navy's AN/UYQ-70 (V) Advanced Display System, related accessories, spares sets, upgrade kits, software and services. The $14.5 million work will be performed mostly in Clearwater, Fla., and is supposed to be finished by July 2010. The contract was not competitively procured, the Navy said Aug. 3.
STS-114 Mission Specialist Steve Robinson performed a first-of-its-kind repair of shuttle Discovery during a spacewalk the morning of Aug. 3, pulling out two protruding gap-fillers that might have caused the orbiter problems during re-entry. Robinson "gently tugged" on the protrusions until they popped out, according to NASA, completing the repair just before 9 a.m. EDT. "It looks like this big patient is cured," he said afterward.
The "ideal" detection device against explosive threats such as improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers is about two years off, according to a top executive of a major detection provider. Stephen Phipson, president of Smiths Detection, also told The DAILY and affiliated publications that the U.S. and United Kingdom militaries are relatively happy with the state of chemical hazard detection systems, but their long-term plans call for developing better biological hazard sensor ability.
The U.S. Army has received congressional approval to pursue the Extended Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) unmanned aerial vehicle, clearing the way for the selection of a prime contractor in the near future.
While progress is being made, technology is limiting the extent to which researchers can respond to warfighter needs in the area of airborne detection and tracking of certain targets on the ground, according to an official of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
Yair Shamir has been named chairman of the board of directors. Shamir is chairman of Shamir Optical Industries and chairman and co-manager of the Catalyst Fund.
Two Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs) hit their targets in flight-tests Aug. 2, extending the stealthy missile's streak of successes in recent tests to four, according to the U.S. Air Force. During the latest launches, which took place at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., both long-range cruise missiles separated from an F-16 and flew as planned before striking their targets, the Air Force said in a brief statement Aug. 3. The targets were stacked shipping containers.
