After scrubbing three previous launch attempts, the U.S. Air Force successfully deployed a replacement Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, GPS IIR-12, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:54 p.m. EDT June 23. Bad weather prompted launch officials to scrub launch attempts on June 19, 20, and 21. June 22 was spent rechecking the rocket, according to Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva.
U.S. laws and policies governing defense contractors working in Iraq will remain in effect once the new government assumes power on July 1, military officials told a House subcommittee June 24. Members of the House Armed Services Committee's readiness subcommittee questioned Department of Defense officials about the management of defense contractors in Iraq and force protection, particularly for contractors working in convoys that have often been attacked with small arms fire and roadside explosives.
The Senate approved a $447 billion defense authorization bill late June 23 that would set aside a $25 billion reserve fund for military operations in Iraq, allow continued study of nuclear "bunker buster" weapons and provide funding for the missile defense system set to be deployed later this year. The bill, approved in a 97 to 0 vote, includes spending for the Department of Defense and defense programs handled by the Department of Energy.
MORE STRYKERS: The U.S. Army has ordered 116 Stryker vehicles to complete a fourth Stryker Brigade, vehicle maker General Dynamics Land Systems said June 24. The additional order for 106 infantry carriers and 10 engineer squad vehicles is valued at $163 million, the company said. Deliveries of the vehicles, and another 212 vehicles ordered in March, are scheduled to be completed in February 2006.
A study of options to replace the aging Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is slated to formally get under way in about a month and will take a year or so to complete, according to a U.S. Air Force general.
New York-based L-3 Communications, which provides aircraft modernization and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, has acquired commercial aircraft protection system provider AVISYS Inc. for $8 million in cash, L-3 announced June 23. L-3 Communications does all of AVISYS' aircraft modifications, an AVISYS representative told The DAILY. The merger will allow customers to procure aircraft protection systems and aircraft modifications from one source.
NANOTECH: NASA's Ames Research Center, Calif., and the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, Calif., are collaborating to pursue innovative nanotechnology research, NASA said June 22. The work will help develop advanced aerospace systems for NASA's space exploration initiative, NASA said. "Nanoscience has the potential to both increase capability and decrease weight, which reduces cost," G. Scott Hubbard, the director of the Ames center, said in a statement.
A National Academies panel explored the potential technical risks of a robotic servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope during a meeting June 23, with astronauts on the panel expressing concern that the initial capture of the observatory could be more difficult than some at NASA believe.
The U.S. military needs to develop a "full spectrum" of electronic warfare (EW) capabilities and should consider accelerating programs that could meet those requirements, a senior Air Force general said June 23.
The commander of an Air Force test unit has become the No. 2 official in the Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Brig. Gen.-select Charles "C.R." Davis became JSF's deputy director on June 14, a program spokeswoman said June 23. Davis previously headed the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., which has been involved in testing various aerospace systems, including the F/A-22 Raptor.
NEW DELHI - NASA is considering collaborating with Indian industries to transfer biomedical spinoff technologies, according to an aerospace agency official. Robert W. Mah, director of the Smart Systems Research Laboratory at NASA's Ames Research Center, Calif., said some U.S. companies with Indian facilities already are collaborating with NASA on promoting such technology. Mah spoke at the first World Congress on Nano-Biotechnology in Mumbai.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) has concluded that NASA lacks disciplined cost-estimating processes and many of its programs are being put at risk as a result, according to a report released June 22. "NASA's basic cost-estimating processes - an important tool for managing programs - lack the discipline needed to ensure that program estimates are reasonable," GAO says.
The fiscal 2005 defense appropriations bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee June 22 would provide nearly the same funding level as the $416.9 billion version passed by the House that same day, but fully funds many programs that were harshly criticized or scaled back by the lower chamber.
INFRARED SYSTEMS: DRS Technologies has received $37.5 million in new contracts to provide infrared assemblies for U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, the company said June 23. The contracts were awarded by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando. The contracts are to design, manufacture, assemble and test the pilotage and targeting receiver assemblies for the Apache Arrowhead Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) System.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and private industry say they are wrestling with a host of complicated financial, logistical and technological issues as they try to adapt military-style countermeasures for use on commercial airliners.
The Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) approved a $416.2 billion fiscal 2005 Defense bill June 22 that includes $25 billion in a contingency emergency fund for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and $500 million more for National Guard and Reserve equipment. The Senate bill is $1.7 billion below President Bush's amended fiscal 2005 budget request of $417.8 billion and just below the $416.9 billion defense bill the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) approved June 16 (DAILY, June 17).
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe defended his decision to cancel further space shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope before the National Academies' space panels in Washington June 22, emphasizing his desire to minimize possible risks to astronauts.
The U.S. Army of the future will be more modular, employ more joint expeditionary forces and be more "rotationally based," according to Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon, deputy director and chief of staff of the Army Futures Center at Fort Monroe, Va. "There is a true transformation of Army capabilities, and we're doing it right now," Mixon said June 22 at the Defense News Media Group Conferences' Joint Warfare Conference in Arlington, Va.
