CWID RESULTS: Brig. Gen. Thomas Verbeck, director of command, control, communications and warfighting integration for U.S. European Command (EUCOM), hopes to improve upon the historical track record of the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWIDs) when EUCOM hosts the event in 2006. In the past, the services have had little success in fielding the interoperability innovations arising from CWID, he says, which formerly was known as the Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID). "In fact, JWID, now CWID, has been going on probably for 10 years.
NASA would get $15 million more than President Bush requested for its fiscal year 2006 budget, or $16.5 billion, according to a budget approved May 24 by the House Appropriations Committee's science panel. The bill would fund the space exploration program at $3.1 billion, restore the aeronautics research program to the FY '05 level of $906 million, and give $40 million to "partially restore NASA's science programs," a committee statement said.
NASA's Voyager 1, launched in 1977, has become the first spacecraft to enter the heliosheath, its final step before leaving the solar system, the aerospace agency said May 24. "Voyager 1 has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space," Ed Stone, the Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., said.
Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. have been chosen to proceed to the next stage of the Innovative Space Based Radar Antenna Technology (ISAT) program, according to an Air Force spokeswoman. Northrop Grumman was also competing for the program, which is to develop and demonstrate a 325-foot-long satellite antenna. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were given the go-ahead, said Connie Rankin, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Research Lab's Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
MAINTENANCE, INSPECTIONS: Lockheed Martin Services Inc. Aircraft and Logistics Center of Greenville, S.C., has been awarded an $81.2 million contract modification to exercise an option for P-3 phased depot maintenance, special structural inspections, and enhanced special structural inspections, the company said May 20. The work will be done in Greenville. It is expected to be finished in May 2006. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., awarded the contract.
To overcome the challenges of maintaining continuous real-time satellite communications with hypersonic vehicles, the DARPA/Air Force FALCON (Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S.) program is planning a communications demo for the second of its three hypersonic test vehicles.
P-3C DELIVERED: Lockheed Martin has delivered the U.S. Navy's 65th P-3C aircraft to be modified as part of the Anti-Surface Warfare Improvement Program, the company said May 24. The AIP upgrades use commercial-off-the-shelf software and nondevelopment technology to improve the P-3C's capabilities.
VEHICLE ARMOR: Armor Holdings Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., has been awarded a $12.2 million contract to provide heavy vehicle armor to the U.S. Army, the company said May 24. Armor Holdings will produce armor panels, ballistic glass and gun turret assemblies and provide product support for the family of medium tactical vehicles, the heavy expanded mobility tactical truck and palletized loading system vehicles. The work will be done in 2005 at Armor Holdings Aerospace and Defense Group facilities in Fairfield, Ohio and Phoenix, Ariz.
PRAGUE - European Union defense ministers have agreed to a series of steps designed to tackle the fragmentation of defense equipment markets and boost the effectiveness of defense spending across Europe.
NEW DELHI - After ironing out some differences, India and Russia are close to concluding an intellectual property rights agreement to cover the co-production of weapon systems and missiles. Moscow has insisted that New Delhi sign the agreement because the two countries' defense cooperation has shifted from a buyer-seller relationship to joint development of high-tech weapons like the BrahMos cruise missile.
PRAGUE - Plans by European Union leaders to introduce the bloc's own rapid-reaction forces were boosted May 23 when EU defense ministers agreed to an accelerated decision-making and planning process for operations involving the proposed "battle groups."
The U.S. Defense Department's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program has recruited a fourth team to demonstrate electrically driven laser technology later this year, a program official said May 24.
Boeing successfully tested the 500-pound Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) against a moving target for the first time, Boeing said May 24. In the test, conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., a Laser JDAM was released from an Air Force F-16. The fighter was flying at 20,000 feet and was about four miles from the target, a slow-moving unmanned truck, when the JDAM was released. The inert JDAM tracked the laser to the target and scored a direct hit, Boeing said.
The Cosmos-1 solar sail spacecraft is being shipped from its test facility near Moscow to Severomorsk, Russia, where it will be integrated with a Volna converted ICBM so it can be launched from a submerged Russian submarine June 21. A joint effort by the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, Cosmos-1 will attempt the first controlled flight of a solar sail. Solar sails use the pressure of solar photons bouncing off the reflective sail material to provide propulsion.
Northrop Grumman Corp. said the fire control radar it is providing for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has passed a key system integration test by detecting airborne targets in the company's integration laboratory. The AN/APG-81, which incorporates an active electronically scanned array, is to support air-to-air, air-to-surface and electronic warfare missions. The company delivered the first AN/APG-81 to JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin earlier this year (DAILY, March 4).
Lawmakers are "raiding" defense operations and maintenance (O&M) accounts to pay for pet defense spending projects, a questionable move in light of ongoing military operations, a panel of defense spending analysts said May 23 on Capitol Hill.
Spain's cabinet has approved a 2.5 billion euro ($3.1 billion) military moderization that includes the purchase of ships, helicopters and missiles, the Spanish Council of Ministers said May 20. Spain will buy one F-100 frigate, four naval operations vessels, 45 NH-90 medium helicopters, and short-range missiles for its ground forces and marines, the council said. The purchases are funded under the country's 2005 budget and have been given immediate authorization.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Clearfield, Utah, is being awarded a $23,961,022 cost-plus award-fee contract modification to provide for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Security Modernization Program Fast Rising B-Plug Low Rate Initial Production. Fifteen B-Plug Kits, and six B-Plug Kit Installation. Total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by September 2007. Negotiations were completed May 2005. The Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42610-98-C-0001).
LONDON - British defense research company QinetiQ reported last week that it had achieved the world's first automatic landing of a short takeoff, vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft on a ship.
