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.
Northrop Grumman Corp. will continue to support the transformation of U.S. Army intelligence systems and capabilities for future operations under new task orders, the company announced June 21. The task orders are part of a $13 million contract the company was awarded in March from the Army Intelligence Command to provide professional and technical support services to develop and maintain the Army Intelligence Master Plan. The company has performed similar work for the Army Intelligence Command for 17 years.
The Defense Technology Security Administration's (DTSA) Space Directorate may have overcharged U.S. satellite exporters almost $2.6 million for the monitoring of overseas launches of U.S. satellites between fiscal years 1999 and 2002, according to the Defense Department's inspector general (IG).
AURA: Northrop Grumman Corp. has moved NASA's Aura spacecraft to Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for its July 10 launch, the company said June 22. Aura will carry four instruments to monitor the Earth's ozone, air quality and climate. It was built by Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector and is to be launched on a Boeing Delta II rocket.
The U.S. Navy's Fleet Response Plan (FRP) does not reduce depot maintenance intervals between deployment cycles and the potential impact of the plan on the Navy's maintenance budget is uncertain, the General Accounting Office (GAO) said in a June 18 letter to House lawmakers.
CZECH JAVELINS: The Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin Joint Venture will supply the Javelin weapon system to the Czech Republic, Raytheon said June 22. Raytheon provides system engineering management and support for the joint venture and produces the Command Launch Unit (CLU), missile guidance electronic unit and system software. Lockheed Martin provides missile engineering and production support. The Czech Republic's decision to purchase the system ensures its military's interoperability with the U.S. Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces, Raytheon said.
Italy's Finmeccanica and France's Alcatel have signed a memorandum of understanding to merge their space activities by creating two sister companies containing their satellite industrial and service activities, according to Finmeccanica.
The U.S. Air Force says it has received almost two dozen responses to its request for ideas to improve its long-range strike capabilities. The 23 submissions by private industry "effectively address a wide array of capabilities," the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) told The DAILY in a recent written response to questions. The Air Force said it is reviewing the responses, which were due at the end of May, and has not set a firm deadline for deciding how to proceed.
The U.S. Air Force plans to wage a campaign to save the Space Based Radar (SBR) from congressional attempts to dramatically downsize the program, a service official said June 21.
The Department of Defense's inspector general (IG) criticized the MH-47G Chinook Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) in a June 16 report, saying that Army Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has not done enough to ensure the helicopter's interoperability with other aircraft and SOCOM equipment.
A decision on the long-pending A-12 Avenger court case, concerning the 1991 cancellation of the U.S. Navy aircraft program, is expected this September, according to a source close to the case. "An oral argument will take place on June 29 in front of Judge Hodges [in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims] and a decision is expected in September," Jim Stevenson, author of "The $5 Billion Misunderstanding," a book about the collapse of the A-12 program, told The DAILY.
Flight testing of a digital flight control system for the EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft is slated to begin next April, according to officials of the U.S. Navy and BAE Systems. The digital system will have a mean time between failure rate that is far better than the analog system now used in the EA-6B, and its cost will be relatively low because it is a modification of the system used in the F-14 fighter, they said. The MTBF is the average amount of time before the digital system would be expected to experience a problem.
COMBAT READY: A Germany-based U.S. Army battalion recently completed eight months of training with the Boeing Co.'s AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters, the company said. The 2nd Battalion, 6th Cavalry Brigade, based in Illesheim, Germany, was certified combat ready after completing extensive training at Fort Hood, Texas. Battalion members completed a series of comprehensive classroom, flight and field exercises, Boeing said.
Test pilot Mike Melvill conducted the world's first private space flight June 21, piloting Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne into suborbital space after taking off from Mojave Airport in California. SpaceShipOne's carrier aircraft, the White Knight, took off with SpaceShipOne attached to its belly at 6:45 a.m. PDT. After an hour of climbing, SpaceShipOne dropped away and fired its hybrid rocket motor for approximately 80 seconds, reaching speeds above Mach 3 and a peak altitude of roughly 62 miles (100 kilometers).
The United States and the European Union (EU) have resolved a dispute over their satellite positioning systems and will sign a pact codifying their agreement in Ireland on June 26. "We have reached completion of a GPS-Galileo cooperation agreement," a U.S. State Department official said at a June 21 briefing.
JSF DELAYS: The Defense Department is expected to announce within a week or so that a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) has formally approved a series of delays for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The delays, which have been revealed over the past several months, are intended to give the program more time to fix lingering weight problems.
HORIZON LINE: Texas lawmakers have been seeking new programs for Lockheed Martin's Horizon City facility, which has paid off with the news that the company will set up a pilot production line there for the Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM), state lawmakers say. "We have been working with Lockheed Martin for several years to secure new programs for this facility," Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes says. During the CKEM's system development and demonstration phase, work in Horizon City will include engineering integration, testing and limited production.
COST OF EXPLORATION: Congress must begin thinking about the cost of space exploration in a new way, according to members of the President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy. "A lot of people have asked us, well, how much is this going to cost?" Commission Chairman E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. says. "And the answer is, I don't know. I'll ask the same question: How much is the cure for cancer going to cost? I don't know that either, but I know what I can afford on an annual basis to try to get there.
