AMERICAN DATA: Boatloads of data from the recent sinking of the USS America aircraft carrier will help shipbuilders design stronger, better naval ships for decades, but first analysts have to interpret the information, according to U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Denny Dwyer. The two-star admiral, program executive officer for aircraft carriers, says the May 14 controlled sinking led to no surprises. The 78,000-ton aircraft carrier, built by Newport News Shipbuilding and named by President John F. Kennedy, first was honored with full naval rites before the exercise.
ROLLOUT: Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to begin rolling back out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early morning hours of June 14, equipped with an upgraded external tank featuring a new heater to prevent ice formation. Mounted atop the Crawler Transporter, the fully stacked shuttle and its mobile launcher platform will take six hours to make the four-mile trip to the pad. Launch of Discovery on mission STS-114 to the International Space Station is scheduled for a launch window lasting from July 13 to July 31.
MORE SPACE: The National Air and Space Museum plans to expand the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to add three new components to the facility. The expansion, which will proceed as privately raised money pays for it, will add 216,000 square feet, for an eventual total of 760,000 square feet. The expansion plan would create space for a restoration hangar where visitors could watch the work being done, a "collections care" center including an archive for paper, photographs and film, and a collections storage unit.
NASA'S PREDATOR: NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., is scheduled to receive a new Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle in early 2006. The agency is purchasing the UAV, ground control system and related equipment from the Air Force for $5.9 million in fiscal 2005 funds. Dryden will receive the Predator in its Air Force configuration, then modify it to fly missions in support of its high-altitude/long-endurance UAV technology program.
PAYING LESS: South Korea's portion of the expense of hosting U.S. military forces has been cut for the first time under a new cost-sharing agreement, the Voice of America says. South Korea will pay about $676 million to finance the U.S. military presence in 2005 and 2006, almost 9% less than last year, VOA says. The deal was announced June 9. About 32,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, but the Pentagon's planned global redeployment of forces would reduce that number. The U.S.
TESTING GALILEO: Two experimental satellites being developed for Europe's planned Galileo satellite navigation system will be launched in about six months, the European Space Agency says. The satellites are being readied for the Galileo System Test Bed - Version 2, which will be the first phase of the in-orbit validation of the system. Their main purpose is to secure Galileo frequency filings, validate new technologies for operation, study the radiation environment where the operational satellites will be and experiment with live Galileo signals.
NASA is keeping close watch on asteroid 2004 MN4, which Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart thinks has a remote chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, but agency officials don't feel at this point that placing a transponder on the asteroid for better tracking would be worth the expense.
ON DISPLAY: A model of a new Extended Range Artillery (EXTRA) munitions system being developed by Israel Aircraft Industries and Israel Military Industries will be exhibited during the Paris Air Show this week. EXTRA can be launched from multiple platforms and is packaged in a four-unit pod configuration for land-based launches. It can be installed on a truck or in a fixed installation and comes in a disposable sealed canister, IAI says. EXTRA munitions have a range of more than 81 miles and carry a 275-pound warhead.
PRAGUE - Gripen International is well ahead of schedule in creating offset projects tied to the leasing of 14 JAS-39 Gripen fighters to the Czech Republic, official figures show.
The U.S. tactical military communications market will grow in revenue from $4.9 billion in 2005 to about $5.7 billion by 2010, according to a Frost & Sullivan research report. The report, "U.S. Tactical Military Communications Markets," released last week, said the primary growth drivers of this market during the next few years will be the need to replace and upgrade worn out military communications equipment, to supply more units with more communications equipment, and the Department of Defense's decision to adopt network-centric warfare as doctrine.
ACQUISITION CHIEF: Michael Wynne, whose tenure as Pentagon acquisition chief recently ended, has not quite left the building. That's because he is helping his successor, Ken Krieg, with the transition. By June 25, though, Wynne intends to be "off the roster," a spokeswoman says. The Defense Department announced June 6 that Krieg had assumed his new post (DAILY, June 7). Wynne has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Air Force secretary, but his chances may have been hurt by recent allegations that he did not properly oversee a now-defunct tanker aircraft deal.
The European Union continued its efforts to become a key player in the space sector at a second meeting of the new European Space Council in Brussels. The Council, made up of EU ministers and European Space Agency member states, agreed June 7 to encourage the European Commission to complete proposals for a European space policy and program. The EC said afterward that this marks the first time that there has been a consensus of 29 European countries on a new European approach in the space sector. Space policy
June 13 - 14 -- Terahertz Systems, "The Latest Information on R&D and Emerging Military and Commercial Applications," Washington, D.C. For more information call (310) 563-1223 or go to www.technologytraining.com. June 13 - 19 -- Paris / Farnborough Air Show, LeBourget, LeBourget, France. For more information go to www.paris-air-show.com.
OVER THE REQUEST: Senate appropriators have announced their fiscal 2006 allocations, including $407.7 billion for defense, or $7 billion more than President Bush requested. The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a $409 billion FY '06 defense spending bill, including $45.3 billion in supplemental "bridge" funds for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate Appropriations Committee also is expected to approve a bridge fund, although not necessarily the exact same amount.
NO TIPS: The aerospace and defense industry should not expect any tips out of the Pentagon on the direction of defense acquisition over the next two decades until Feb. 6, 2006, when the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review is sent to Congress. At least that's what Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, tells an American Enterprise Institute audience in Washington. However, come that day, industry and Congress will get lots of information, as the Bush Administration will submit the QDR and its fiscal 2007 budget requests concurrently, he says.
The United States is at a "strategic crossroads" and the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review will be the most unique and important national defense review in decades, but one where a few precepts already are known, according to Ryan Henry, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.
Lockheed Martin successfully completed additional flight-tests of its Dual Mode Guided Bomb (DMGB) recently at the U.S. Navy's China Lake test range in California, the company said June 8. The weapons were released from Navy aircraft, maneuvered through controlled flight and hit their targets, the company said. The DMGB uses Global Positioning System/inertial navigation in addition to laser guidance, which would be used when the weapon is near its target for "improved endgame performance," Lockheed Martin said.
MOSCOW - Russian aircraft manufacturers hold the top two positions in a new annual rating of defense industry performance in 2004. The Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, based here, rates the companies mostly based on their own official data, not on the rankings of outside experts. The Sukhoi holding company held the top 2004 spot, with sales of $1.5 billion. Eastern Siberia's Irkut aircraft company, which builds some fighters developed by Sukhoi, came in second, with sales of $624.5 million.
NASA released the latest revision to its shuttle return-to-flight implementation plan on June 9, including the latest cost estimates for return to flight initiatives in fiscal 2005 and 2006. NASA estimates that it will spend a total of $602 million on return to flight activities in FY '05, of which $413 million has been formally approved by the space shuttle's Program Requirements Control Board.
Efforts to develop the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) Common Operating System (COS) are moving ahead with plans for an industry day on June 24. Organizations with human systems interface expertise are "strongly encouraged" to attend. Officials of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will present an overview of the business arrangement for development of COS, and the need for technology contributions, according to a June 6 FedBizOpps notice from DARPA.
APACHE GEAR: Boeing Co. has awarded Northstar Aerospace Inc. of Chicago $500,000 to continue developing a gear product for a transmission technology expected to be used in the Boeing-made AH-64 Apache multirole combat helicopter, Northstar Aerospace said June 9. Northstar will use the money for manufacturing, tooling and vendor development of its Face Gear technology, which would improve engine horsepower without adding weight, the company said.
