The Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft appears to be in line for the addition of a reconnaissance camera currently carried by the U-2, as well as installation of new engines.
An article in the March 24 issue of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, headlined "DARPA OAV and MAV programs flying ahead, official says," misstated Booz Allen Hamilton's role in the OAV program. It is under a DARPA contract to provide systems engineering and technical assistance. The article also misstated the status of the Organic Air Vehicle (OAV) II program. DARPA completed the second phase of its OAV-I program in July 2004. The OAV II program began in December 2004 and is now in its first phase.
LONDON - A committee made up of members of Parliament has recommended the Ministry of Defence (MOD) set up a single organization to decide whether military helicopters are fit for operations, instead of the current practice of leaving that to the individual services.
The U.S. Army has already started improving many of the Stryker deficiencies cited in a December Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) report, according to Lt. Col. Perry Caskey, Stryker system synchronization officer, Army Force Development. The Army "was not surprised at the observations" in the report, which found fault with numerous aspects of the vehicle (DAILY, April 1). " ... Many of the improvements were already in progress or have been completed," he told The DAILY April 1.
DEFENSE BILLS: Congress is expected to start mulling over the annual defense authorization and appropriations bills this month. Having reconvened from their Easter recess, lawmakers face the annual legislation, which also covers some defense-related Energy Department programs. This year, they also must process an additional fiscal 2005 supplemental spending request from President Bush covering U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
After repeated problems that caused a six-month delay and $10 million price increase, NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous (DART) spacecraft appears ready for its April 15 launch, NASA and industry officials said April 1. DART was delayed repeatedly due to excessive solar radiation and several equipment problems and concerns (DAILY, Jan. 4), but "we're ready to fly," NASA Launch Director Omar Baez said at a press briefing.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION: The U.S. Army has been asked to submit to Congress by April 8 an estimate of how much the price of its Future Combat Systems (FCS) would increase if its current Other Transaction Authority (OTA) acquisition strategy is converted to a Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 15 contract. The FAR regulation would require FCS to comply with the Truth-in-Negotiations Act, the Procurement Integrity Act and Cost Accounting Standards. In a March 16 letter to Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, Sen.
NAVAIR TRAINING: Computer Sciences Corp. announced March 31 that it won a contract to provide a range of support services for the Fielded Training Systems Support II program through the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla. The multiple-award contract has a ceiling of $800 million for all contractors involved. Companies will compete for task orders, and CSC said its part of the work will not go above $100 million.
IT SPENDING: The Defense Department will spend $21.1 billion on information technology this fiscal year and $22.6 billion in FY '06, predicts federal IT consulting firm Input of Reston, Va. Input expects DOD to spend $24.1 billion on IT in FY '07, $25.5 billion in FY '08, $26.9 billion in FY '09 and $28.3 billion in FY '10. That makes for a 6.1% compound annual growth rate, the company says. Meanwhile, the Navy Marine Corps Intranet is leading the department's nearly $7 billion IT outsourcing efforts because it is a test case for other agencies.
NASA will set up an office at headquarters in Washington to begin planning for moving away from the space shuttle, Michael Kostelnik, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the International Space Station and the shuttle, said April 1. NASA opened its third Integrated Space Operations Summit on March 30 in Nashville, Tenn., and Kostelnik said in a telephone conference that "one of the most important outcomes was to establish a dedicated activity at NASA HQ ... to start looking at the issues of transitioning the [shuttle] program over time."
A U.S. Air Force panel has launched several studies to find ways to improve the service's view of the battlespace. "The ability to rapidly and accurately detect, identify and track both stationary and mobile targets will enable the Air Force to more effectively conduct operations, reduce sortie rate and minimize collateral damage," according to the "terms of reference" (TOR) that charters one of the studies. The TOR for the "automatic target recognition" study cites a host of challenges in tracking targets.
CEC AIRBORNE DECISION: The program office for the U.S. Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) effort plans to seek full-rate production approval for the airborne version in September, according to a Government Accountability Office report released March 31. CEC is a sensor networking system that integrates radar measurements in real time. During operational testing last year, the airborne version was found operationally effective but not operationally suitable.
Information technology (IT) is upending the way U.S. naval researchers view the hierarchy of systems and platforms, top admirals said March 30, but further IT development and help from industry is critical for achieving the kind of networked Navy that leaders want. Networks and technology are tying together platforms and weapons, from missiles to ships, allowing for improved C4ISR.
IT SPENDING TO FALL: Dramatic federal spending increases on information technology for homeland security after the 9/11 attacks will start waning by fiscal 2007, Input analyst Payton Smith says. The federal IT consulting firm expects the next few years to show a decline in the growth of homeland security related IT acquisitions. But nascent intelligence reform may be the next big spur for federal IT spending, he says.
DOD DEPUTY: U.S. Navy Secretary Gordon England, who has been a vocal advocate for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, has been nominated by President Bush to replace Paul Wolfowitz as deputy defense secretary. Wolfowitz is leaving the Defense Department to head the World Bank.
OPEN COMPETITION: The U.S. Navy intends to issue a solicitation in the second quarter of 2005 for the system development and demonstration phase of the Extended Range Munition (ERM) guided projectile, says a Naval Sea Systems Command spokeswoman. "This full and open competition will be open to all vendors, including concepts such as the Extended Range Guided Munition [ERGM], developed by Raytheon, and the Ballistic Trajectory Extended Range Munition [BTERM], developed by ATK," she tells The DAILY.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace is working on an advanced version of its FanTail mini unmanned aerial vehicle for the country's homeland security requirements and also for export, according to a company official. The FanTail is being designed and developed in-house using commercial off-the-shelf products, a spokesman said. Work now is focused on refining the vehicle configuration and aerodynamics, integrating payloads and data link systems and developing a compact ground control station.
The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) will meet June 7 to review the futuristic CVN-21 aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy expects 10 of 14 "critical" technologies will be mature or close to mature by the design review in November, according to a Government Accountability Office report March 31.
MARS ROAD MAP: NASA's post-2009 Mars exploration schedule is in flux as the agency continues its road mapping activities, according to Curt Niebur, Mars Exploration Rover Program Scientist at NASA headquarters. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover mission, set to launch in October 2009, is "really the farthest that the Mars exploration program goes right now," Niebur says.
MATADOR: This fall, NASA Ames Research Center's MATADOR (Mars Advanced Technology Airplane for Deployment, Operations, and Recovery) Mars airplane project plans a high-altitude flight-test in which a 67%-scale aircraft will demonstrate deployment along with a special maneuver that engineers hope will allow it to survive landing on the red planet. The test will take place in Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada.
UAV DEMO: NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are gearing up to conduct a demonstration over the eastern Pacific using the Altair unmanned aerial vehicle, made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. The effort is designed to see whether long-endurance UAVs like Altair could be useful for weather research and other missions. The aircraft, equipped with several kinds of sensors, is slated to fly six times for a total of 53 hours.
NEW DELHI - Completing two years of operations in India, Thales International India Pvt. Ltd. (TII) is establishing maintenance services and improving after-sales services to prepare for future orders. Using the opportunity following the opening of defense production to the private sector, TII is looking at partnerships. Talks are said to be on with engineering giants and information technology companies Larsen & Toubro and the Tata Group. TII also has asked for a request for proposals from software companies for work it expects to get.
