MOSCOW - Victor Remeshevsky, the deputy head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, is expected to suggest resuming production of the light Kosmos-3M launch vehicle, both for Russian launches and to serve the international market for small- and mid-sized satellite launches. Remeshevsky spent last week in Omsk, Siberia, discussing prospects for re-establishing Kosmos-3M production at the Omsk Polyot Association. The first Kosmos-3M launched in August 1964, so a decision to restart production would mark the rocket's 40th anniversary.
CUBIC DEFENSE APPLICATIONS is part of a group that has won a large services contract to support the U.S. Joint Force Command's (JFCOM) Joint Experimentation Program (JEXP) and Joint Futures Lab, the company said. CDA is on a 22-member team led by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (DAILY, July 13). The five-year contract has four option years with a potential value of $478.6 million. The total value to CDA cannot yet be determined. JFCOM's job is to transform U.S. warfighters into a Joint Fighting Force.
GENERAL DYNAMICS C4 SYSTEMS will develop and deliver 10 prototype tablet computers power by direct liquid fuel cells to the U.S. Air Force, the company said Aug. 23. The computers will be evaluated as a potential replacement for Air Force ground air traffic control computers, said the company, which is working on the program as a subcontractor to SRA International Inc. "This science and technology initiative will equip the U.S.
Wing assembly for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter began Aug. 23 at Lockheed Martin's plant in Fort Worth, Texas, where forward-fuselage production started in July, the company said Aug. 23. BAE Systems begins building the aft fuselage in England this week. Center-fuselage assembly has been under way since May at Northrop Grumman facilities in California.
More than 700 scientists from 50 countries are scheduled to meet early next month to discuss the early results of the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite mission, ESA said Aug. 23. The $2 billion Envisat, launched in 2002 (DAILY, Feb. 27), monitors environmental and climatic changes. At the Sept. 6-10 symposium in Salzburg, Austria, more than 650 papers are scheduled to be presented, including results from Envisat observations of oil spills, fires, floods, changes in the ozone layer, pollution and earthquakes, ESA said.
MTHEL TEST: The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) test bed shot down a mortar round for the first time Aug. 24 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., a U.S. Army spokeswoman said. The mortar round is the fourth type of target that the test bed has destroyed. Previous tests have knocked down artillery shells and two types of rockets.
The Naval Inventory Control Point (NICP) and its repair contractors have not followed U.S. Navy and Defense Department inventory management control procedures in shipping government furnished material to Navy repair contractors, leaving the Navy vulnerable to millions of dollars in fraud, waste and abuse, a new Government Accountability Office report has found. The DOD agreed with the GAO's findings and agreed to implement its recommendations.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is completing preparations for the launch of a spacecraft for conducting microgravity experiments in a reusable capsule. ISRO plans to launch the space capsule recovery experiment (SRE) payload along with the Cartosat-2 satellite in the second half of 2005 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in south India. The last of three airdrop tests of the instrumented SRE module were conducted successfully in August using a helicopter to qualify the module for the flight.
LABARGE INC. has been awarded a $3 million contract by General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products to manufacture Aegis combat system MK200 controllers, the company said. The controllers are a key part of the MK99 Fire Control System used in the Aegis. The Aegis system integrates electronic countermeasures, rapid-fire Gatling gun cannons and missiles to provide anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air warfare protection to the naval fleet. The controllers are deployed in fleets such as the Arleigh Burke class of guided-missile destroyers.
BAE SYSTEMS has been awarded a $41.9 million contract by the U.S. Navy to provide Digital Autopilot Systems (DAS) to upgrade 120 P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, the company said. The contract includes hardware qualification support, flight and ground testing and aircraft trial kit installations. Deliveries to the Navy will start in August 2005, and completion of the contract is set for 2009. The DAS consists of a combined autopilot control panel, two solid-state rate gyro assemblies and a digital autopilot computer.
NASA's Genesis mission is scheduled to culminate Sept. 8 when helicopter crews in the skies over Utah will attempt to catch in midair a sample capsule released by the spacecraft. Launched in August 2001, the Lockheed Martin-built Genesis spacecraft spent two years orbiting a libration point between the Earth and the sun collecting solar particles. Trapped on delicate wafers of gold, sapphire, silicon and diamond, the samples will shed light on the composition of the sun and the origins of our solar system, according to NASA.
EDO CORP. has successfully demonstrated new pneumatic-ejection equipment for the B-1B bomber in test flights at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the company said. Inert weapons weighing 500 and 2,000 pounds were released from a B-1B during tests in July and August. An improved weapons carriage and release rack were assessed under the B-1B Pneumatic Assisted Release (PAR) initiative. PAR equipment uses compressed air to eject weapons, rather than the pyrotechnics used in older ejectors.
The U.S. Air Force is considering buying more Theater Airborne Reconnaissance Systems (TARS) and adding upgrades to allow the fighter aircraft pod to work in all types of weather and send images directly to ground commanders, members of an F-16 squadron said Aug. 24.
Starting in fiscal year 2005, NASA's Mars Technology Program (MTP) will begin focusing heavily on technologies that will enable the agency's ambitious Mars sample return mission, scheduled for launch in 2013.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $400 million, 10-year contract by the U.S. Army Forces Command for the Aviation Joint Administrative Management Support Services (AVJAMSS), the company said Aug. 20. Lockheed Martin will provide aviation training and maintenance services under the indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract.
CRUISE MISSILE DEFENSE: Integrated fire control - along with improved combat identification, increased automation of battle management, the development of a single integrated air picture and better airborne sensors - will be key to meeting the U.S. Defense Department's goal of establishing a limited area defense against cruise missiles by 2010, says Capt. William Ault (USN), director of air and cruise missile defense interoperability for the Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense Organization (JTAMDO). The U.S.
CUTBACKS: Because of anticipated Department of Defense cutbacks on fighter aircraft and ships, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has removed a "trading buy" recommendation on the defense sector and now rates it at "market weight" on both an investment and a trading basis. "The key reason for the change is indications we are picking up that the three military services' new long-range spending plans (for fiscal 2006 through 2011) will begin to signal that some of the hard decisions on cutting back large defense programs are beginning to happen.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The U.S. Army has begun receiving money from the Pentagon to fix flaws that surfaced in the Patriot system during the Iraq war, according to service officials. The Army developed a reprogramming plan that transfers millions of dollars from various programs to pay for such things as software improvements for the Patriot's target identification capability (DAILY, Dec. 15, 2003). During the war, the Patriot, which is designed to shoot down enemy aircraft and missiles, mistakenly downed two coalition aircraft.
A new program to help the U.S. military quickly link multiple players in a targeting system is sparking the interest of officials who need a fast and reliable network that would be up to the challenges of future battlefields, according to Maj. Steve Waller (USAF) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Aug. 23 - 26 -- Joint ADL Co-Lab Implementation Fest 2004: Achieving the Military's Needs Through ADL, Holiday Inn Select UCF, Colorado, Fla. For more information contact Patrick Rowe at (703) 247-9471 or go to www.trainingsystems.org/events. Aug. 23 - 27 -- Aerospace Lighting Institute Short Course on Aircraft Crew Station and Exterior Lighting, Airport Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles, Calif. For information call (727) 791-0790 or go to www.aligodfrey.com.
ANTI-MISSILE OFFICE: The Joint Cruise Missile Defense Joint Test and Evaluation (JCMD JT&E) organization, which the Defense Department set up more than five years ago as a temporary means to promote improvements in cruise missile defense, is getting ready to close its doors in June 2005, says Col. William Holway (USAF), the group's director. But his organization, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., has identified several products that could continue to be useful to the military for training and testing, Holway says.
AUTHORITY APPROVED: Diedre A. Lee, director of the Department of Defense's defense procurement and acquisition policy, is giving U.S. Transportation Command the authority to establish a contracting activity to buy commercial transportation services. "This is a dynamic tool for the commander to streamline and accelerate support to the warfighter," says Gail Jorgenson, director of USTRANSCOM's acquisition office. "This will enhance and greatly improve our efficiencies for deploying, sustaining and redeploying forces."
SUIT WORK: International Space Station Science Officer Mike Fincke will continue to troubleshoot cooling system problems with U.S. space suits this week, NASA said Aug. 20. New space suit cooling system pumps were among the parts recently delivered to the station by a Russian Progress vehicle.
ADDRESS: Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and director of NASA advanced planning, will address the Wings Club luncheon in New York Oct. 21. Elachi will discuss how JPL achieved success with its Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, as well as how NASA will organize new exploration of the moon, Mars and outer solar system. Elachi also will discuss how new and dynamic medium-sized aerospace companies are helping lead these exploration programs.
