Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be "ubiquitous" in the future and stratospheric airships will stay aloft for years at a time as communications platforms, according to a speaker at the 49th annual Air Traffic Control Association Conference on Nov. 2 in Washington.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has until Jan. 28 to make a recommendation on the bid protest filed by Space Imaging of Thornton, Colo., following the company's loss of the $500 million NextView contract to rival Orbimage of Dulles, Va.
Lockheed Martin will use third-generation (3G) commercial cellular technology to build the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), the company announced Nov. 2. MUOS is to replace the Navy's Ultra High Frequency Follow-on (UFO) communication satellites, providing narrowband communications for mobile troops across the services. It will consist of a constellation of satellites in geostationary orbit. Lockheed Martin won the $2.11 billion prime contract for MUOS in September, and the program's total value is estimated at $6.4 billion (DAILY, Sept. 27).
During the next decade, the U.S. Air Force will need new programs to improve aircraft survivability and track friendly forces, the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) predicts in its 40th annual 10-year defense forecast. New, multispectral sensor systems and other precision targeting sensors will be key, as will enhanced ability to assess battle damage in the wake of combat missions, the report says.
The European Space Agency, EUMETSAT and Alcatel Space signed a contract for a fourth Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) spacecraft, ESA said Nov. 2. France's Alcatel Space is the prime contractor for MSG-4, which is expected to be delivered in 2007 under the 135 million euro ($172.8 million) contract. ESA is managing the satellite construction contract, and EUMETSAT - the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites - will finance, launch and operate the satellite.
SINCGARS radios can be used for combat identification, judging by recent demonstrations and tests by the U.S. Army, Joint Forces Command Joint Interoperability Test Command, ITT Industries said Nov. 1.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems successfully completed the integrated baseline review for the Space Based Surveillance System (SBSS), Boeing said Nov. 1. The baseline review precedes the program's preliminary design review, Boeing said. "SBSS Pathfinder is an essential element in providing space situational awareness capability for the warfighter," John Fuller, Boeing's vice president of Air Force Space Systems, said in a statement.
Montreal-based CAE plans to sell its Marine Controls unit to L-3 Communications Corp. of New York City for about Cdn $328 million ($270 million), CAE said Nov. 1. The deal includes $225 million in cash and the assumption of $43 million in project finance debt, CAE said. The closing is expected before CAE's current fiscal year ends on March 31, 2005, the company said.
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) will begin building the Intelsat Americas-9 satellite after reaching an agreement with Intelsat on its design, the company said Nov. 1. Intelsat awarded SS/L a contract for the work in March. The satellite is to carry C-band and Ku-band transponders to provide communications services to North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It also carries an adjustable Ku-band spot beam.
BAE Systems of London has chosen Mountain View, Calif.-based Actel Corp.'s Axcelerator field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as part of its Archerfish naval mine disposal system, Actel Corp. said Nov. 1. The Archerfish system can be deployed from a ship or a helicopter. The launch platform lowers a pod that releases a small, one-shot mine disposal vehicle that contains a warhead. The vehicle is guided with sonar and a remote camera as it looks for sea mines. When a mine is found, the weapon is exploded and the mine is destroyed, Actel Corp. said.
Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. shipped its first fuel cell vehicle to the U.S. Army, the company said Oct. 25. Nicknamed the "Aggressor" and also called the Quantum AMV, for Alternative Mobility Vehicle, it has advanced technologies that have potential military and commercial dual use, the company said.
NASA is pressing ahead with an accelerated plan for its Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission, despite a warning from the National Academies that the agency may be moving too quickly for TPF's design to take full advantage of lessons learned from previous planet-finding missions.
An agreement between Lockheed Martin and Metal Storm Ltd. is intended to establish the feasibility of a Metal Storm torpedo defense concept that calls for many bullets to hit a target at the same time with the same muzzle velocity, according to a Metal Storm official. Metal Storm's approach allows multiple rounds, stacked in line in multiple barrels, to be launched at very high rates in a pattern that can't be achieved any other way, said Russ Zink, the company's senior vice president for business development.
International Space Station (ISS) mission controllers have approved the Elektron oxygen generation system to operate around the clock rather than only when the astronauts are awake, NASA announced Oct. 29.
Boeing has established a new organization, Analysis, Modeling & Simulation (AMS), to coordinate activities in those areas across its Integrated Defense Systems sector, the company said Nov. 1. "Boeing recognizes that, with the increasing complexity of network centric operations and system-of-systems engineering, modeling, simulation and analysis will play an increasingly important role in helping us understand and meet the requirements of our customers," John Tracy, vice president of engineering for IDS, said in a statement.
Ceradyne Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif., has received a $75.7 million delivery order for its lightweight ceramic body armor from the U.S. Army Unique Missions Division at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., the company said Nov. 1. The order is the second issued under a $461 million contract Ceradyne won in 2004. The first delivery order was worth more than $28 million. Shipment is scheduled for the first three quarters of 2005, the company said.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has received an $8.8 million contract for research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E) of a modified MK44 30mm Automatic Cannon on the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Commands' AC-130U gunship. This will be the first time the MK44 has been flown on a fixed-wing aircraft, the Minneapolis-based company said. The MK44 is used on the U.S. Marine Corps' Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle and other armored vehicles.
NASA's upcoming Swift spacecraft will bring a new quick-response capability to the field of astronomy, slewing within minutes to observe gamma-ray bursts and possibly other fleeting astronomical phenomena, according to program scientists.
The U.S. Army has awarded Jacksonville, Fla.-based Armor Holdings Inc. two contracts worth $56.6 million for body armor and heavy truck armor kits, the company said Nov. 1. Armor Holdings will provide $26.6 million in Small Arms Protective Inserts (SAPI) under a contract modification from the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command. Armor Holdings' Aerospace and Defense Group in Phoenix and Pittsfield, Mass., will do the work, the company said.
POSTPONED: The first flight of the Air Force Space Battlelab's Near Space Maneuvering Vehicle (NSMV), or "V-Airship," from Tillamook, Ore., was postponed from its Oct. 29 target date to Nov. 15 for technical reasons, according to an Air Force spokesman. Built by JP Aerospace of California, the 175-foot long, v-shaped helium balloon will carry a small communications payload to an altitude of 100,000 feet (DAILY, Sept. 15).
Although the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program currently doesn't have funding to deploy its future unmanned aerial vehicles before the first scheduled full unit of action in 2014, much of the technology will be ready before that, a Boeing official said.
