The U.S. Marine Corps plans to send a high-level team to the Persian Gulf to assess the long-term maintenance needs for its aircraft deployed in Iraq. The team is scheduled to head to the region in about a week and a half and return to the Pentagon with its findings in mid-June, said Lt. Gen. Michael Hough, deputy commandant of Marine Corps aviation. The trip's leader will be U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Emerson, the assistant deputy commandant for aviation for the Marines.
Boeing is on track to launch the next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), called GOES-N, for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 1, according to Mark Spiwak, director of NASA/NOAA programs for Boeing Satellite Systems.
The "ideological trench warfare" over missile defense has subsided over the past few years and the U.S. appears to be moving towards a consensus on the issue, according to Baker Spring, F.M. Kirby Research Fellow in National Security Policy at The Heritage Foundation. "The broader ideological debate is not going to be as sharp upon this issue in the future as it has been in the past," Spring said during a May 13 breakfast in Washington sponsored by the National Defense University (NDU). "And I think that the progress in that direction will continue.
AUTHORITY: The recently established NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has the authority to halt milestones or stop flights if it has safety concerns about a particular NASA program that haven't been resolved, according to NESC Director Ralph Roe. "We can impose that on a program," Roe says. "If the program still doesn't agree with our position, then the ...
To adapt to post-Cold War needs for U.S. strategic strike forces, the Department of Defense (DOD) will have to create systems and processes that will provide a more flexible, integrated and reliable set of strike options on a global scale, according to a Defense Science Board (DSB) report. The report, "Future Strategic Strike Forces," made recommendations for new capabilities by 2030 relating to command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), battle damage assessment (BDA), delivery systems and payloads.
PATRIOT FRATRICIDE: U.S. Central Command is blaming a faulty identification-friend-or-foe transponder on a British Tornado GR-4 fighter jet for the aircraft's March 22, 2003, shoot-down by a U.S. Patriot missile unit. "The investigation board determined that the Patriot crew fired in perceived self-defense in accordance with existing procedures and rules of engagement," Central Command says in a statement. The command has not yet announced the results of another friendly-fire incident, in which a Patriot battery shot down a U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornet.
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. - The U.S. Air Force, which recently indicated it wants to buy a second variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, plans to work out the details of that revised acquisition strategy by year's end, Air Force Secretary James Roche said May 14.
MORE FOR MEP: Fifty-five senators have asked Department of Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to restore funds to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program, which assists defense contractors and others with technical and business support. The senators are hoping to recover funding lost in fiscal 2004. The appropriated level of $39.6 million - $63 million less than the previous year - is not sufficient to maintain the national network of MEP centers, the lawmakers wrote in a May 13 letter.
SATCOM CONTRACT: The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $30 million contract to L-3 Communications' Narda Satellite Networks division, the New York City company said May 12. The contract is for Satellite Communications (SATCOM) systems, subsystems, components and maintenance for the Space and Naval Warfare System Center in Tampa, Fla. The SATCOM systems include FlyAway Tri-Band Terminals and Mobile Quad-Band Dual Hub Terminals.
MOON TO MARS: The President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration ("Moon, Mars and Beyond" commission) hopes to have its final report delivered to the president in early to mid June, according to commission spokeswoman Susan Flowers. By law, the report is due no later than June 7, but it won't be delivered to President Bush until time can be found on his schedule. Commission Chairman E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will deliver the report personally.
May 17 - 20 -- 2004 Global Demilitarization Symposium & Exhibition, Adam's Mark Hotel, Dallas, Texas. Contact Dawn Harper, (703) 247-2566 or email [email protected]. May 17 - 20 -- Force Project Symposium V, "Projecting the Joint Force - Assuring Strategic Mobility and Agility," Norfolk Marriott Waterside Hotel, Norfolk, Va. Contact Angie DeKleine at (703) 247-2599, email [email protected] or go to www.safeassociation.com.
TANKER SCRUTINY: The House Armed Services Committee wants Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to name a panel of experts to review future negotiated tanker contracts. The HASC placed the recommendation in the language in its markup of the Department of Defense authorization bill that it completed last week. And in an effort to address concerns about aerial refueling tankers, it recommends the Air Force enter into a multi-year contract for the aircraft.
TOP-MOUNTED RADAR: Putting the radar for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system on top of the Airbus A321 instead of on the bottom would save money and reduce the risk of schedule delays, says Alan Doshier of Northrop Grumman Corp. That would require fewer modifications to the plane, which is the primary platform for the AGS, he said. Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) lead the industry team that recently won the AGS competition (DAILY, April 19).
The number of payload launches projected for the next 10 years is down 14 percent from last year and down for the third year in a row, a consultant's annual report shows. The Teal Group projects 1,209 payloads from more than 100 prime contractors will be launched in 2004-2013, down from 1,410 projected in last year's report. "What is noticeable is the continuing decline in the number of commercial payloads relative to government payloads," said Marco Caceres, lead analyst for the report.
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has received 49 requests for technical assistance with various NASA projects since its establishment six months ago, according to NESC Director Ralph Roe. The NESC is an independent organization chartered in the wake of the Columbia accident to coordinate and conduct technical and safety assessments of high-risk NASA programs (DAILY, July 17, 2003). The center has approximately 60 full-time employees spread out over the agency's 10 field centers.
Northrop Grumman expects sales in 2005 to grow more than 7 percent over 2004 sales, said Chuck Noski, Northrop Grumman's corporate vice president and chief financial officer. Noski spoke May 12 at the company's annual conference for institutional investors in New York City. In 2005, the company anticipates sales of approximately $30 billion, while the guidance for 2004 is $28 billion in sales. Also in 2005, the company expects continued margin expansion and solid double-digit growth in earnings per share.
The Department of Defense disagreed with a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report stating that the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) provides mixed visibility over DOD's projected spending for the current budget year and at least four succeeding years, and has too many programs for the available dollars. This situation often leads to program instability, costly program stretch-outs, and delayed program termination decisions, the report, issued May 7, said.
Demand for satellite services exploded in the early months of 2004, with major providers DirecTV and EchoStar adding nearly 9,000 net new subscribers every day for the first quarter, according to Richard DalBello, president of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA).
To begin procurement for the Air Force of Boeing 767 tanker aircraft, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) voted to add $98.5 million in its mark-up of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill, which it approved May 13. President Bush's budget request sought no procurement funds for the aircraft, which the Air Force had planned to lease from Boeing, and wouldn't have had to pay for until delivery in 2006, a Boeing representative told The DAILY.
Arianespace has signed a customer for the first launch of a Russian Soyuz vehicle from the company's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and expects to announce its first customer for the smaller Vega launch vehicle "quite soon," according to company CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall.
A report by an advocacy group finds that the national missile defense system scheduled for deployment this year is not likely to be effective against a real missile threat. "By deploying a missile defense before it is tested in a combat-realistic way, the administration seems intent on making political points at the expense of developing a working defense for the United States," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement May 13.
SHUTDOWN: A Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion spokesman said May 13 the company will shut down its San Jose, Calif., plant over the next year. Operations in space propulsion and liquid and hypersonic propulsion there will be shifted, program by program, to the company's plant in West Palm Beach, Fla., he said.
The House Armed Services Committee voted 60 to 0 on May 13 to authorize $422.2 billion for the Depart-ment of Defense after a day of deliberations in which the panel recommended more money for force protection, science and technology programs and munitions. The House is expected to consider the measure next week. The committee authorized $25 billion in supplemental funding for military operations in Iraq and a proposed supplemental "bridge fund" that would provide money for at least the first quarter of the next fiscal year.
Conceived more than two decades ago, the Eurofighter Typhoon is finally starting to take the field as Europe's next-generation fighter. But the aircraft is still being defined in many ways.
