OPEVAL: The U.S. Navy this week will begin operational evaluation (OPEVAL) of the MH-60R weapons system, a submarine-hunter and surface-attack helicopter to replace the legacy SH-60B and SH-60F aircraft, Lockheed Martin Corp. said May 11. Navy evaluators authorized OPEVAL at an April 22 operations test readiness review meeting. The decision followed the helicopter's successful completion of the Navy's six-month-long developmental test phase, known as technical evaluation, in February (DAILY, March 23). The OPEVAL is expected to be finished by September.
The Defense Department will go ahead with the multiyear procurement of the C-130J Super Hercules due to the cost of killing the program, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has told the chairs of the House and Senate armed services committees.
A new contract to Lockheed Martin marks the beginning of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to study the feasibility of deploying an unmanned aerial vehicle from submarines, a DARPA spokeswoman said. The UAV, called Cormorant, after the sea bird, would "provide close air support for vessels such as the Littoral Combat Ship and SSGN," a specialized version of the Trident ballistic missile submarine, Jan Walker said. "This is the very first award ... this is the beginning of the program," she said.
AIR SCARE: A Cessna aircraft violated Washington airspace restrictions May 11, prompting an evacuation of the White House and Capitol. District of Columbia Air National Guard F-16s and a Black Hawk helicopter assigned to the Homeland Security Department escorted the aircraft to an airport in Frederick, Md. Air Force Master Sgt. Arthur Powell called the interception mission "a standard response" to threats against the U.S. capital.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has asked the Defense Department to expand a study of Air Force tanker modernization options to include the Boeing 777 and contractor-provided aerial refueling.
The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct modeling and simulation activities in August to ensure its systems will be able to communicate with the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), an Air Force general said May 10. The Air Force intends to study whether networks will be able to move large amounts of information, and how quickly that information needs to be transferred, said Lt. Gen. William "Tom" Hobbins, deputy chief of staff for warfighting integration.
GOES-R: A Lockheed Martin-led team has submitted a proposal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the program definition and risk-reduction phase (PDRR) of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R), the company said May 10. PDRR contracts are expected to be awarded this fall.
Navy Secretary Gordon England has selected the name "Freedom" for the first new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the Defense Department announced late May 9. "These new, fast and capable ships will increase the effectiveness of our naval forces and provide us with an ability to operate in the littoral areas of the world where the enemies of freedom seek to operate and hide," England said in a statement.
Science and technology firm Battelle of Columbus, Ohio, has purchased Bluefin Robotics Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., which develops autonomous underwater vehicles, Battelle said May 10. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Spaceflight pioneer Burt Rutan says all the new technologies for commercial, passenger-carrying space flights essentially have been developed and while "a lot" of early spaceflight companies will fail over the next several years, those that succeed should reap significant profits. "This is going to be a much, much bigger market than anyone imagined," said Rutan, whose Scaled Composites created the SpaceShipOne that won the Ansari X Prize last year.
Commercial space company Spacehab Inc. of Houston reported a loss for its fiscal 2005 third quarter of $500,000, and said NASA's delay of the space shuttle's return to flight had a "small impact" for the quarter, which will continue into the fourth quarter. The company reported revenue of $14.3 million for the quarter, down from $14.8 million in the same period last year.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to release a request for proposals (RFP) within the next month or two for an unmanned aerial vehicle to fly border surveillance missions.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Maj. Gen. James Pillsbury, head of the U.S. Army's Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), is seeking to accelerate the implementation of condition-based maintenance (CBM), which would require maintenance of aircraft components only when they show signs of wear. Most inspections of Army aircraft today are performed according to regular schedules, which require automatic inspections whether a component is showing signs of trouble or not.
Australia has increased its defense budget to $17.5 billion Australian dollars ($13.5 billion) for the 2005-06 fiscal year with an infusion of $507.3 million, Robert Hill, the defense minister, said May 10. "Australians can be confident that our defense organization is now better placed than it has ever been to meet the complex security challenges we face," Hill said. Australia will spend: * $139.3 million to protect its offshore gas and oil platforms on the North West Shelf
The U.S. Air Force is almost done designing an initial set of upgrades to the F/A-22 Raptor and will soon start similar work on a later package of improvements, the service said May 10.
While a repeat of the Darleen Druyun case is unlikely, there's nothing to prevent it, according to the Defense Science Board. To make sure it doesn't happen again, the Defense Department must "simplify and streamline" its acquisition system, DSB said in a new report. Druyun, the former Air Force principal deputy assistant secretary, tilted work to Boeing Co. In the wake of the scandal, a DSB task force reviewed the acquisition processes of the military services and some Pentagon agencies, and met with a number of outside experts.
