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.
FCS MEETS MODULARITY: The U.S. Army will give the deputy secretary of defense's office its plan to integrate its Future Combat Systems (FCS) with its modularity programs on April 1, an Army source says. By the end of fiscal year 2006, the Army plans to move to 44 modular, standardized brigade combat teams. The cost of revamping the Army will be about $48 billion in current dollars, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
EXTENDED SEARCH: James Bell, Boeing's interim head, is telling employees that it could be several months before the company finds a replacement for former CEO Harry Stonecipher, says Paul Nisbet, an aerospace industry analyst with JSA Research. "I'm disappointed. This is too long, given the fact the fellows in charge are not experienced operators in the aerospace industry," he says. Bell is a comptroller and board Chairman Lew Platt was in an operating position with Hewlett Packard, "but that experience is different than running an aerospace company," Nisbet says.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.'s new Horizontal Collimator Assembly (HCA), which tests large telescope systems in a space-like environment, is now operational, the company said last week. The HCA allows testing of optical systems up to 30 inches in diameter, Boulder, Colo.-based Ball said. The WorldView camera, which Ball is developing for DigitalGlobe on behalf of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other customers, will be the first optical instrument tested in the HCA.
MORE PREDATORS: The U.S. Air Force plans to establish as many as 15 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle squadrons to meet the need for "persistent command, control and surveillance capabilities" to fight the war on terror, Peter Teets, the outgoing acting Air Force secretary, said in a statement. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems builds the vehicles. The service currently has three active-duty Predator squadrons.
Scheduled budget cuts to NASA's Integrated Financial Management Program (IFMP) could delay its completion until as late as 2011, according to program officials. IFMP saw its budget cut by $41.5 million in fiscal year 2005 and is scheduled to lose another $8 million in FY '06 and $11 million in FY '07. All told, the cuts equal roughly 20% of the program's budget over the next four years.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has completed the first fuselage section for the U.S. Navy's next-generation EA-18G "Growler" aircraft, the company said March 18. The company's Integrated Systems sector of El Segundo, Calif., produces and integrates the center/aft fuselage and associated subsystems for the EA-18G and the F/A-18 Super Hornet on which it is based. The fuselage will be shipped to EA-18G prime contractor Boeing in St. Louis.
PRAGUE - Swiss aerospace and defense specialist Ruag Electronics, in partnership with French company Gavap, has won a tender to supply more than 4,000 weapon laser-firing simulators and sensor equipment for the French army.
NEW NAME: EMS Technologies' Space & Technology/Atlanta Division has changed its name to Defense & Space Systems Division to reflect its increasing defense work, the company said March 16. The division provides microwave systems, including to customers such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and defense work now makes up 70% of projected revenues for 2005.
IT WORK: RGS Associates of Arlington, Va., said March 15 that the Navy awarded it a five-year, $26 million contract to provide information technology and change-management services across the Chief of Naval Operations staff. Industry partners on the contract include Virtual Workgroup Technologies, CACI International Inc. and Competitive Innovations LLC.
The joint Surface Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM) is completing its systems engineering activities and moving into the design of hardware and software, Guy Shields, media relations manager for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, told The DAILY March 17. "It's basically still on schedule," he said. A preliminary design review is set for the coming months. "The critical design review is planned for late summer or early fall, and fielding is planned for the end of 2008," he said.
