"Numerous changes and improvements" have been implemented to dramatically upgrade the defense of U.S. airspace in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a North American Aerospace Defense Command statement said June 17.
The U.S. Air Force should set its depot maintenance prices high enough that the maintenance activity group will recover all its estimated costs, the General Accounting Office said in a report issued last week. GAO said that prices charged to customers were not set high enough to recover about $1.1 billion of the group's reported costs for fiscal years 2000 through 2003. The average price for Air Force depot maintenance in-house labor work also increased from $200 per hour of work in fiscal 2000 to $238 per hour in fiscal 2004, the report said.
The House Appropriations Committee said the U.S. Navy's development of the DD(X) guided missile destroyer is on a "rush to failure" as it recommended scaling back program funding from the requested level and delaying construction by a year. "The committee believes the DD(X) development schedule does not provide sufficient time for the proper maturation and testing of transformational technologies prior to initiating construction of the first ship," the committee said in its report.
If successful, the June 21 flight of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne could boost the fortunes of other suborbital space companies and finally pave the way for a viable space tourism market, according to analysts.
COMET ANSWERS: The European Space Agency's Rosetta comet rendezvous mission could help determine whether Earth's oceans came from icy comets hitting the planet, ESA says. Rosetta was launched in March on a mission to visit Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 (DAILY, March 3). It carries an instrument named Ptolemy that is to analyze the mix of isotopes on the comet to see if the water frozen on comets is similar to water in the Earth's oceans.
JSF DELAYS: The Defense Department is expected to announce within a week or so that a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) has formally approved a series of delays for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The delays, which have been revealed over the past several months, are intended to give the program more time to fix lingering weight problems.
ENROLLMENT SPIKE: Enrollments at science and aeronautics classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have "spiked considerably" following the successful Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and President Bush's announcement of a new vision for space exploration, according to Maria Zuber, head of MIT's Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a member of the President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy. "It happens every time something like this is announced," Zuber says.
NASA's authorization bill for fiscal year 2005 urges the agency to give private industry responsibility for flying an unmanned probe to the moon within three years, according to Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who introduced the legislation June 17. Such a mission would "ensure America remains in the lead in understanding and utilizing this body," Brownback said while chairing a hearing of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space in Washington June 17.
Dassault Aviation's Rafale is a multirole combat aircraft with low observability intended to perform missions including air superiority, air defense, air-to-surface attack and reconnaissance. Powered by two French Snecma M88-2 turbofan engines, the Rafale entered service with the French navy about a year and a half ago and has flown off the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. The French air force is expected to begin fielding the new jet in late 2005 or early 2006.
The House Appropriations Committee says the Coast Guard must "rebaseline" the Deepwater program. The huge project - which involves the replacement or improvement of ships, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, command and control equipment, and support of such items for 40 years - "has reached a critical juncture within its development," the committee says in its report on the Department of Homeland Security's fiscal year 2005 budget request. The Coast Guard is an element of DHS.
Union and small business officials told House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members June 17 that they support language in the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill that would discourage or eliminate offset agreements with other countries. Offsets are the compensation required by countries as a condition for buying aerospace and defense products and can include co-production, subcontracting, technology transfer and other requirements.
A Lockheed Martin-Northrop Grumman team successfully completed a recent two-day space segment requirements review (SSRR) for the Transformational Communications MILSATCOM (TCM) Space Segment at Lockheed Martin Space Systems facilities in California, Lockheed Martin said June 17. More than 120 government representatives took part, including DOD service representatives. The review was an important milestone in the program's risk reduction and system definition phase, the company said. Two teams
Rolls-Royce has assembled a team of engineers to assess how the company's aircraft engines can be ruggedized for the harsh environmental conditions that U.S. troops have encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq. Scott Crislip, president of Rolls-Royce's Defense North America, said during a press briefing June 17 that the team will examine such things as keeping sand out of engines and making engines more resistant to corrosion. Engines used on C-130 transports and V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft are among those that could be examined.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has ordered the leaders of the agency's field centers to begin dialogues with employees on the findings of the Aldridge commission report, which recommends a number of sweeping changes at NASA to help it carry out its new vision for space exploration.
House appropriators eliminating funding for a study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) and other small nuclear weapons programs when it approved the fiscal 2005 energy bill, which funds the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and other agencies. The House Appropriations Committee approved the bill June 16. "I am very pleased that the House Appropriations Committee recognized the need to halt funding for nuclear 'bunker busters' and an arsenal of new nuclear weapons," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.).
LAUNCHED: Intelsat's 10-02 satellite was successfully launched June 16 on an International Launch Services Proton vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The launch had been delayed a day due to minor technical problems. The satellite, built by EADS Astrium based on its Eurostar-3000 bus, is the largest spacecraft in Intelsat's fleet.
The Senate approved an amendment to the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill June 17 that would require the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to conduct more tests on its proposed missile defense system. The amendment, introduced by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sets parameters for what lawmakers called "operationally realistic" testing and sets an Oct. 1, 2005 deadline for completion.
Congressional appropriators see little future for the Space Based Radar program unless the U.S. Air Force redirects its technology to less expensive program efforts and concentrates on seeking breakthroughs to lower its cost.
BURNHAM AWARD: Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin's executive vice president and general manager of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, was awarded the Donald C. Burnham Manufacturing Management Award by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers on June 11. The award recognizes Burbage "for exceptional success in the integration of the infrastructure and process manufacturing," Lockheed Martin said June 17.
The U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF), set up as an experiment two years ago to speed the deployment of urgently needed tools, is taking steps to expand its reach and effectiveness, a spokesman said June 17. The REF expects to receive a formal charter in about a month, which will make it easier to work through the government bureaucracy to secure funding and personnel, spokesman Frank Phillips told The DAILY.
FLIR Systems Inc. will delivery Star SAFIRE II airborne thermal imaging systems to the U.S. Air Force Space Command, the company said June 16. The work will be done under a $6.3 million contract from Science Applications International Corp. The units are to be installed on UH-1N helicopters for use on ICBM security missions, the company said. Deliveries are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year and be completed within 12 months, the company said.
EMBEDDED DIAGNOSTICS: DRS Technologies Inc. will provide new embedded diagnostics systems for installation on the Army's M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the company said June 14. The contracts are valued at $33 million. DRS will design, develop, and manufacture chassis modification and embedded diagnostics sets that will provide a redesign, function upgrade and embedded diagnostic integrated capability for the vehicles, the company said. Product deliveries are expected to begin in March 2005.
SFW HARDWARE: Herley Industries will provide microwave hardware for Textron's Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW), the company said June 16. The work will be done under a $2.3 million contract that includes one $2.3 million option, Herley said. The company received a similar contract last year (DAILY, June 6, 2003). The work will be done at the company's facility in Woburn, Mass. The SFW is an air-dropped dispenser that can eject 40 seeker-equipped submunitions, each of which is capable of detecting and firing on a target.
