Eliminating sources of debris on the space shuttle's external tank remains the biggest challenge facing NASA as it attempts to return the orbiter to flight next March or April, according to the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group. "Probably the long pole in the tent right now would be the tank," Task Group Co-Chair Tom Stafford said during a teleconference Sept. 16.
The last two active-duty C-141B Starlifter transport aircraft will be retired Sept. 16 at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., the Air Force said Sept. 15. But the Air Force Reserve Command will keep flying the remaining 20 Starlifters until they are retired after 2006, Gen. John W. Handy, commander of the Air Mobility Command (AMC) and the U.S. Transportation Command, said in a statement.
CMC ELECTRONICS, Montreal and Ottawa, Canada Jean-Pierre Mortreaux has been appointed president and CEO. DIGITALGLOBE, Longmont, Colo. Yancey Spruill has been named chief financial officer. KOLLSMAN, Merrimack, N.H. Michael A. Williams has been appointed vice president of engineering. THE LUNDQUIST GROUP, Washington Timothy J. Kurth has been hired as a vice president. MANTECH INTERNATIONAL, Fairfax, Va.
GMD INTERCEPTOR: The third interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was installed Sept. 15 in an underground silo at Fort Greely, Alaska, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced Sept. 16. Three more interceptors are planned for emplacement there by mid-October. Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is slated to get its first two GMD interceptors by year's end.
Legislation passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's aviation subcommittee encourages President Bush to pursue diplomatic efforts to limit the proliferation of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and seek their destruction.
Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), the former Senate majority leader, said he will try to convince his colleagues to ignore U.S. Navy proposals to slash funding for ship construction. "These proposed shipbuilding cutbacks aren't official policy yet, but just the whisper of something as foolish as gutting our naval shipbuilding capacity or transferring skilled shipbuilding jobs overseas is enough to get this senator riled up," Lott wrote in a weekly column sent to newspapers.
Space Imaging will sell its Federal Civil/Commercial Solutions business unit to Geo360 Corp. of Denver, the company said Sept. 15. Space Imaging is selling the unit to focus on its core business of selling commercial satellite imagery and providing geospatial imaging products to defense and intelligence agencies, the company said.
The Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S. (FALCON) program has selected four teams to move into Phase II and produce preliminary designs for a Small Launch Vehicle (SLV). The SLV is intended to put 1,000 pounds of payload into low-Earth orbit on very short notice. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had been funding nine companies in the six-month first phase of the SLV effort (DAILY, Nov. 18, 2003).
The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a $257.8 million contract to provide ground support equipment, a Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) Kit and 153 PAC-3 Missile Four Packs for the PAC-3 Missile Program, the DOD said Sept. 15. The work is expected to be completed by April 30, 2006, and will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., awarded the contract.
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has grounded 29 KC-135E tankers because the struts that hold the engines on the aircraft need major repairs for corrosion, Air Mobility Command said late Sept. 15. The tankers, which account for more than a fifth of the Air Force's 133 KC-135Es, will remain out of service until the Air Force figures out what to do with them.
The U.S. Army is overcoming shortages and deficiencies in equipment for deployed troops uncovered by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve. "All of the kinds of things that are less visible until one begins to stress the force have come to the fore," Helmly said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington Sept. 16.
The Lockheed Martin-led US101 team has picked General Electric Co. to provide the engines for its entry in the Air Force's Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) competition, the companies announced Sept. 15. Based on AgustaWestland's EH101 helicopter, the triple-engined US101 will be assembled in the United States by Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter. In the PRV competition, the US101 will be up against Sikorsky's H-92, European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Company's NH-90 and Bell-Boeing's V-22 tiltrotor (DAILY, Sept. 15).
Telephonics Corp. will deliver an AN/SPN-41A all-weather instrument approach landing system for Italy's newest aircraft carrier, the Cavour, the company said Sept. 13. The Telephonics AN/SPN-41A is an all-weather, ship-based, radio frequency landing guidance system that provides azimuth and elevation data to aircraft as they approach for a landing.
The RainStorm Advanced Precision Targeting System, a new software product that locates and pinpoints targets for precision-guided munitions, has been unveiled by the Northrop Grumman Corp., the company said Sept. 14.
Boeing's upcoming X-45C unmanned aircraft may perform an aerial refueling demonstration as early as 2007 in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Autonomous Aerial Refueling (AAR) effort, according to Darryl Davis, Boeing's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program manager. AFRL partnered with Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2002 on the AAR effort, with the refueling of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) such as the X-45C in mind (DAILY, Aug. 21, 2003).
The U.S. Air Force's top two officials plan to fly aboard the V-22 Osprey for the first time to assess the performance of the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor aircraft, officials said Sept. 15. Air Force Secretary James Roche and Chief of Staff John Jumper intend to take their first voyage aboard separate Ospreys later this year. Details of their trip are still being finalized, but Jumper, a pilot, told reporters at the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference that he plans to steer one of the V-22s himself.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is slated to brief industry Sept. 16 on CrossHairs, a program to quickly detect and locate the point of origin of such threats as sniper bullets, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), mortars, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-tank missiles (DAILY, Aug. 19).
Joint Strike Fighter program officials dedicated the F-35 Robotic Component Finish Facility at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas on Sept. 14, the company said. The 82,000-square-foot building contains support and control areas, two robotic finish rooms and five multipurpose finish rooms. A variety of coatings will be applied to large and small F-35 parts by human and robotic workers. The building connects to the factory where F-35s are being assembled.
With $2 billion of extra funding a year from supplementals and reprogramming, the U.S. Army is providing soldiers with better body armor, helmets, boots and other pieces of clothing, said Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac, military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. Yakovac, along with other Army officials, spoke Sept. 13 at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Acquisition Symposium in Falls Church, Va.
The U.S. Air Force has implemented changes aimed at making private industry and warfighters more realistic about the weapon system acquisition process, a service official said Sept. 15.
NOMINATED: President Bush intends to nominate Duratek Inc. Vice Chairman Francis J. Harvey to be secretary of the Army and Arden Bement Jr. to be director of the National Science Foundation. Bement currently is the NSF's acting director.
The third of a class of four "air independent" non-nuclear submarines was christened Sept. 13 in Germany, according to HDW, the sub's builder. It said the submarine, designated U33, is slated to enter service in the German navy on Jan. 31, 2006. The Class 212 A subs feature HDW's air-independent propulsion system, based on the hydrogen fuel cell. The cell produces electricity from hydrogen and oxygen and enables the subs to remain submerged for weeks at a time, according to the company.
