LE BOURGET, France - Lockheed Martin Corp. says it plans to begin conducting tests in about six to nine months to determine whether a submarine could retrieve an unmanned aerial vehicle at sea. The concept for the recovery system calls for a submerged Trident submarine to deploy a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) after a UAV has splashed into the water. After the ROV connects the aircraft to a cable on the submarine, the submarine is supposed to pull the UAV into one of its missile tubes.
ARMY AM General L.L.C., South Bend, Ind., was awarded on June 13, 2005, a $120,817,716 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for M1114 High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle Chassis. Work will be performed in South Bend, Ind., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 2000. The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
Ericsson Microwave Systems said it has added protection against mortar and rocket attacks to its Giraffe Agile Multi-Beam air defense radar system. The system's fast antenna rotation allows it to scan the incoming weapon "several times early in its flight, allowing computation of the type of weapon that fired it and a full 3D picture of its trajectory," the company said in a statement, giving troops in the impact area a 25-second warning.
Polish airmen recently underwent training to fly the Lockheed Martin-built F-16 Fighting Falcon that their country will be receiving during the Sentry White Falcon 2005 exercise in Poland, the U.S. Air Force said. Airmen from the Illinois Air National Guard's 183rd Fighter Wing were in Poznan, Poland, last week with six F-16s for training with MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-22 jets during a U.S. European Command exercise that ended June 17.
DOCKED: On June 19, a Progress M-53 ferry spacecraft successfully docked to the International Space Station. Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev played an important role in the procedure, as the usual automatic procedure was aborted at the rendezvous phase due to lost communication between the Flight Control Center in Korolyov, Moscow region, and one of the Russian ground space communication stations. Krikalev used the Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous Unit to bring Progress safely to the rear berth of the station's service module.
IEDS: The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled June 21 to host a closed briefing on the nature of evolving improvised explosive devices and the Defense Department's approach to addressing them. IEDs continue to plague U.S. military personnel in Iraq, with insurgents changing tactics seemingly as fast as new technologies are introduced, Pentagon officials have described.
NASA should review its test operations support contract award to Sverdrup Technology Inc. for work at two field centers, and should possibly hold a new competition, the Government Accountability Office said June 20. NASA awarded Sverdrup the work, which consolidated previously separate contracts for test operations at the Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is scaling back some of the requirements for the High Altitude Airship (HAA) in hopes of getting the weight-challenged project back on track, MDA officials said June 20. While the demonstration of an HAA prototype now is slated to last 35 days, five days longer than previously planned, the prototype's altitude of 65,000 feet will be reduced to 60,000 feet and its 4,000-pound payload will shrink to 500 pounds.
COUNTING DOWN: Sea Launch has begun a 72-hour countdown in preparation for the June 23 launch of the Intelsat Americas-8 satellite from the company's Odyssey Launch Platform at the equator, the company said June 20. The satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, will be launched on a Zenit-3SL rocket.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The annual Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) is again showing its value as a test bed for new information exchange capabilities, according to one general. CWID 2005 is demonstrating industry-developed command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) equipment designed to enhance interoperability between the military, first responders, and strategic allies of the United States.
NASA has stood up its new Program Analysis & Evaluation Office, which Administrator Michael Griffin has established to give him strategic advice as NASA nears critical decision points in its efforts to complete the space station, retire the space shuttle and execute its vision for space exploration. The PA&E office is led by former NASA Deputy Chief of Staff Scott Pace. It will "help the administrator make hopefully better decisions than would otherwise be the case without us," Pace told reporters during a teleconference June 20.
Charlotte, N.C.-based General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has been awarded a $4.8 million contract to develop a storage and retrieval system for U.S. Navy ships, the company said June 20.
The U.S. Navy enjoys a large lead over potential competitors, perhaps the greatest in history, and U.S. leaders should not be afraid to "ride it" for several years, especially with an annual shipbuilding budget limited to $9-11 billion for the near future, a defense expert said June 20.
United Defense Industries Inc. of Arlington, Va., has been awarded contract modifications worth up to $471 million to speed up component and technology development of two variants of the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems' manned ground vehicles, the company said June 20.
New Zealand's military is seeking a new training/light utility helicopter (T/LUH) to replace its Bell 47 Sioux aircraft, according to the ministry of defense. The trainer must be capable of training pilots and air crews day and night, including while using night-vision goggles and carrying underslung loads. "Respondents will be assessed on the helicopters' ability to provide pilots and air crewmen with the skills and experience necessary to progress to the [NH Industries] NH90 and the [Kaman Aerospace] SH-2G," the ministry said.
ARMY Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., was awarded on June 10, 2005, a $36,292,500 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment System. Work will be performed in Elizabeth City, N.C. (25 percent) and Bedford, Mass. (75 percent), and is expected to be completed by April 30, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on May 17, 2005. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity (W9113M-05-C-0188).
NEW PLATFORM: The European Space Agency, French space agency CNES, EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space have agreed to begin work on Alphabus, the new European platform for next-generation telecommunications satellites. The program was approved by ESA's member states in 2001 and the companies signed the contract at the Paris Air Show last week, and plan to produce the first flight model around 2009. EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space are the joint prime contractors for the platform, ESA said.
The House on June 20 moved to pass the $408.9 billion, fiscal 2006 defense spending bill without substantially changing what the House Appropriations Committee approved last week. A final vote was not expected until late June 20, but early afternoon debate on H.R. 2863 revolved around Democratic amendment attempts - later withdrawn - to shift money from missile defense initiatives to other efforts such as nonproliferation measures. Later, House consideration was held up over contentious debate over religion and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The scheduled June 24 launch of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-N, from Cape Canaveral has been postponed to June 26 to allow technicians time to check for possible damage to the Delta IV rocket's electrical systems from nearby lightning strikes off the coast on June 16.
