Honeywell is looking at a combination of technologies to make its T55-series engines more resistant to sand contamination as it positions itself for the upcoming competition to provide the engine for the Navy's CH-53X heavy-lift helicopter. After several hundred hours of use in sandy environments such as Iraq, contamination can cause the smaller blades in helicopter turbine engines to wear down to a "nub," according to Rich Douglas, directory of military propulsion for Honeywell's engines division.
UNDERSEA WARFARE: SYS Technologies has been awarded a $1.6 million contract to develop the Undersea Warfare Decision Support System (USW-DSS) for the U.S. Navy, the company said March 21. The system aims to provide an integrated, near real-time, net-centric anti-submarine warfare and mine warfare command and control capability. The Navy also is planning how to spend $600 million in requested funds to design an undersea superiority system, which would generate new ideas that entail off-board sensors and systems (DAILY, Feb. 18).
On March 18 the crew of STS-114 tested some of the equipment they will use during the space shuttle's return-to-flight mission, NASA announced. The Payload Crew Equipment Interface Test took place at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The astronauts tested equipment for their three scheduled spacewalks and inspected the cargo containers installed in the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, dubbed Raffaello.
The first four VXX presidential replacement helicopters put into service will be manufactured at AgustaWestland's plant in Yeovil, United Kingdom, before production is transferred to the Bell Helicopter facility in Amarillo, Texas, program officials said March 21.
WEAPONS FUNDING: The U.S. Defense Department should aggressively modernize its weapon systems now because support for funding such programs will diminish once operations in Iraq and elsewhere wind down and the military assumes a lower profile, says Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel. "The minute this war's over, the money's going to dry up," Murtha says. The federal budget deficit "is going to drive everything that happens."
March 21 - 22 -- 13th Annual Conference on Quality in the Space and Defense Industries, "Strategies for Mission Success," Radisson At The Port Hotel & Conference Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. For more information call (254) 776-3550, email [email protected] or go to http://www.asdnet.org/cqsdi. March 21 - 22 -- AIAA Defense 2005, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/events/defense.
A U.S. Air Force-sponsored Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) industry day slated for March 22 in Arlington, Va., will be a time for industry to take a closer look at what it can contribute to the military's electronic warfare mission, a congressional staffer said. "Because the AEA capabilities are spread across so many industries and all the services, and there's so many people involved, it's very helpful to bring them together and focus on it in this way," Ken Miller, an aide to Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), told The DAILY on March 17.
ANTI-IED: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded iRobot Corp. of Burlington, Mass., a contract worth more than $18 million for its explosive ordnance disposal robots for "rapid deployment" to help the U.S. military defend against improvised explosive devices. The Navy says the contract was issued under 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(2), "Unusual and Compelling Urgency," although it was competitively procured with two proposals solicited and two proposals received. The company says it will deliver more than 150 robots to the Navy by the end of the year.
NO GROUNDING: The U.S. Navy won't retire air wings or ground aircraft early due to the proposed retirement of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, Navy officials say, although proponents of maintaining 12 or more aircraft carriers have warned it could happen. The Navy does have a plan to move to fewer platforms, integrate Marine Corps and Navy aircraft, dissolve five squadrons and cut acquisition by 1,296 planes.
The Naval Sea Systems Command Warfare Center and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory have electro-mechanically integrated commercial-off-the-shelf fire control system components onto two crew-served weapon systems: the M2 Heavy Barrel .50-caliber machine gun and the 40mm high-velocity grenade launcher.
DEEPWATER PLAN: Expect an overdue rebaselining budget plan on the Coast Guard's Deepwater acquisition program by March 25, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins promises lawmakers. The plan will provide a detailed, yet sweeping assessment of the service's legacy assets and new homeland security and defense requirements, he says.
DIRECTV's Spaceway F1 satellite has arrived at the Sea Launch home port in Long Beach, Calif., where it will undergo final preparations for a late April launch, satellite builder Boeing said March 16. Spaceway F1, based on a Boeing 702 model satellite, will be launched on a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle. It is one of four Boeing-built spacecraft DIRECTV plans to launch over the next three years as part of a company expansion.
NASA recently completed a series of flight-tests in which two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) autonomously collaborated to avoid obstacles in flight. The project, known as the Networked UAV Teaming Experiment, uses principles derived from studies of fish and bird motions to simultaneously guide the vehicles around obstacles. NASA is investigating cooperative flight strategies for airborne monitoring and surveillance of natural disasters as well as atmospheric sampling.
NEAR-SPACE: The Air Force Space Battlelab wrapped up flight-tests in its Combat Skysat near-space communications demonstration on March 16 and plans to transition the program to Air Force Space Command this summer for possible procurement and deployment. The flights demonstrated the capability to extend the range of a standard handheld Army radio out to 400 miles by attaching it to an inexpensive balloon, according to the battlelab. Space Data Corp. of Chandler, Ariz., provided the balloon and integrated the payload, which together cost slightly less than $20,000.
PEGASUS REBORN: Northrop Grumman is considering taking its X-47A Pegasus unmanned demonstrator out of storage and resuming flights to reduce risk on the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program. In 2003 the company briefly flew the company-funded Pegasus in support of the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV-N) effort.
UP AND AWAY: Acting Air Force Secretary Peter Teets has announced his pending resignation, effective March 25. Industry and defense officials had expected the departure. Observers says Teets had planned to leave earlier, but James Roche's January departure as secretary prompted him to stay for the annual posture hearings before Congress. Navy Secretary Gordon England is expected to be nominated by President Bush to be the next Air Force secretary.
MUOS REVIEW: The Mobile User Objective System team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. has successfully completed the system preliminary design review (PDR) with the U.S. Navy, the company said March 17. The PDR kicks off a design and development phase for the space and ground segments to ensure the system will meet or exceed requirements for a new narrowband tactical satellite communications system. The first MUOS satellite is scheduled for on-orbit handover to the Navy in 2010 along with the entire ground system.
Leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to push the Bush Administration to accelerate the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization plan, and say they likely will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the president's $966 million fiscal 2006 request.
A radio frequency technology aimed at countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs) recently suffered a test failure, a source told The DAILY. "The recent test failed when the generator that creates the radio frequencies damaged a counter-IED component ... in effect, frying itself," said the source, who asked not to be identified. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) mentioned the test failure in a March 9 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, calling it a "major setback."
The U.S. Air Force said March 18 that the federal government's next generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites is expected to experience a significant cost increase.
EARLY WARNING: The U.S. Defense Department's new national defense strategy and national military strategy documents both place a strong emphasis on improving the nation's early-warning capabilities. "The armed forces require new capabilities to detect and interdict a wide range of threats close to their source and throughout the strategic approaches," the military strategy says. "Decision makers require early warning of imminent crises - e.g. instability, terrorist threat or missile attack," the defense strategy says.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) late March 17 won the Senate's approval for a resolution opposing the U.S. Navy's proposal to have a single shipyard build the futuristic DD(X) multimission destroyer. The Senate approved the nonbinding resolution by unanimous consent as part of its markup of that chamber's fiscal 2006 budget measure. "This sends a strong message to the Pentagon that they should not proceed with a winner-take-all acquisition strategy for the DD(X) program," Collins said in a statement.
Raytheon Co. has been awarded a $275 million contract modification to provide 80 Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared full rate production III units for U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve F/A-18A, B, C, D, E and F aircraft, the Defense Department said March 17. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. The contract also provides for spares and nonrecurring and sustaining engineering.
