Following an Army request, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has accelerated system development and fielding of its Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) unitary rocket, a Lockheed Martin official said. The system is currently in test and evaluation, Rick Vallario, director of Lockheed Martin tactical missile business development, told The DAILY April 6. "Testing is under way and a Spiral 1 capability will be available this year. Then system development and demonstration (SDD) will continue," he said.
ATLAS V HEAVY: Lt. Gen. Brian A. Arnold, commander of Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center, speculates that in light of NASA's space exploration plans Lockheed Martin may choose to develop a heavy version of its Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). When the EELV program began some years ago, Lockheed Martin and Boeing were required to develop heavy boosters, but only Boeing did so.
TARGET LAUNCHED: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said it fired a new air-launched, medium-range target missile for the first time April 8. Initial indications are that the test was successful. The target was dropped from the back of a C-17 at about 7:30 a.m. Hawaii time (1:30 p.m. Eastern time) about 800 miles west-northwest of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. Although the actual distance traveled is classified, medium-range targets have ranges of 621 to 1,864 miles.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program office appears to be sticking with its $40.5 billion cost estimate for the current development effort, despite a Pentagon group's analysis suggesting that the price tag could be $2 billion to $5 billion higher. It remains to be seen which figure the Defense Department will embrace. A Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) is scheduled to meet May 5 to review the program, including the latest cost projections.
The Air Force and Boeing have formally closed the investigation into the premature engine cutoff that marred the first launch of the company's Delta IV Heavy Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) on Dec. 21, and have begun implementing hardware and software fixes that they say should not affect current launch schedules.
MODULAR GOALS: The Army's modularity program, which includes the National Guard and Reserve, will be completed by 2011, Army officials say. The modularizing of the regular force will be done by about 2009, while the Guard and Reserve, headquarters, and support units of action will be complete by 2011, Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey said April 6. The Army will begin funding modularity in its core budget starting in 2007, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker says.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The future of the North American Aerospace Defense Command isn't necessarily a question of grow or die, as some have said, according to Adm. Timothy Keating, the NORAD commander. Rather, he said it might be a question of getting "a little bit better at the current threat spectrum." He also said NORAD "may look slightly different, maybe a lot different, five years from now."
Jean-Yves Le Gall will remain chief executive officer. Jean-Marie Luton will remain chairman of the board of directors. Pascal Claudel, Claire Coulbeaux, Marc Grosheitsch, Francois Maroquene, Victor Nikolaev, and Eve Portier now make up the management committee.
General Dynamics Electric Boat will perform submarine modernization and other work under an $8 million contract modification awarded by the U.S. Navy, the company said April 7. Under the contract, Electric Boat will continue to do non-nuclear sub modernization and repair work at the Naval Submarine Support Facility at the submarine base in Groton, Conn. The work includes intermediate and depot-level overhaul, repair and modernization of subs and the Shippingport floating dry-dock, the company said.
The shuttle Discovery's crew has lingering doubts about the on-orbit thermal protection system (TPS) repair techniques that NASA is developing in the wake of the Columbia accident, and would not be comfortable relying on them during re-entry on STS-114.
Don Antonucci is retiring as company president. Judy F. Marks will replace Antonucci in October 2005. Marks also has been chosen vice president of the Transportation and Security Solutions business unit, effective May 1.
The Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) on April 6 approved an $80.58 billion supplemental spending bill for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as antiterrorism, homeland security and tsunami relief efforts.
The U.S. Air Force is evaluating whether to fix an F/A-22 Raptor test jet involved in a September mishap at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., according to a service official. Col. Arnold Bunch, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., who led the board that investigated the Sept. 28 mishap, said that no external damage is visible on Raptor 4003 but that some components would probably have to be replaced.
The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said April 7 that MDA plans to take several steps to avoid repeating the kinds of flight-test failures that have recently plagued the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.
COMBS CONTRACT: L-3 Communications' Vertex Aerospace subsidiary has been awarded a one-year, $6.6 million contract to provide Contractor Operated and Managed Base Supply (COMBS) for the U.S. Army National Guard's worldwide C-23 Sherpa aircraft fleet, the company said. L-3 Vertex will provide total contractor supply chain management services for the C-23 fleet, including worldwide procurement, spares repair, quality assurance and inventory tracking.
If Congress grants funding this year to restart a study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), defense officials would study one warhead and are confident they would soon find out whether the concept is realistic, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration has told lawmakers. Administrator Linton F. Brooks told the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee that officials selected the B83 warhead to study because that was where the RNEP study was when funding was pulled from the program last year.
Gen. John A. Gordon (USAF-Ret.) has been named to the board of directors. Gordon is a former homeland security adviser to President Bush and served as deputy director of central intelligence at the CIA. Gen. Richard Hawley (USAF-Ret.), Paul G. Kaminski, William Schneider Jr., and Fred Whitridge are returning for a second three-year term on the board of directors.
Jim Sweizer has been named vice president of federal programs, effective April 18. Sweizer is former chief of the U.S. Air Force voluntary education, dependent schools and veterans benefits programs.
Computer models of flight deck operations, ordnance handling and aircraft fueling show that the desired sortie generation rate (SGR) on the futuristic CVN-21 aircraft carrier can be achieved, Northrop Grumman Corp. has told The DAILY.
Aurora Flight Sciences announced April 7 that it has delivered the first aft fuselage for the RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle to prime contractor Northrop Grumman. Aurora also said it is building the first set of vertical tails and engine nacelle components for the RQ-4B, whose first flight is planned for 2006. The RQ-4B is a larger, more capable version of the RQ-4A that the U.S. Air Force is now using for high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance. The Air Force plans to buy 44 RQ-4Bs.
GRIFFIN HEARING: The full Senate Commerce Committee will consider the nomination of Michael Griffin to be the next administrator of NASA during a hearing in Washington on April 12. The former chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration at NASA, Griffin currently heads the space department at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. Before that he led In-Q-Tel, a venture-capital organization supported by the CIA that develops cutting-edge technologies for espionage and intelligence work (DAILY, March 14).
