The U.S. Air Force will expand a review of its aerial refueling modernization options to include the possibility of hiring private firms to perform refueling, according to the Defense Department. DOD revealed plans to widen the scope of the study, or analysis of alternatives (AOA), in response to a draft report by the General Accounting Office, which recommended that the AOA consider whether contractor-provided refueling could meet some of the Air Force's needs. The GAO's final report came out June 4.
NASA's Office of Exploration Systems has selected Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) to lead an independent study of the agency's research and development (R&D) portfolio to determine which efforts best support the nation's emerging vision for space exploration. The initiatives to be examined will come from the Advanced Space Technology Program (ASTP), which contains most of the medium- and long-term R&D work acquired by the exploration office following its establishment earlier this year.
NET-CENTRIC NATO: NATO is become net-centric, a new area for the alliance, according to two military officials involved with NATO transformation. The NATO Network Enabled Capability (NATO), stood up in June 2003, will activate a Joint Forces Training Center in Poland this month and plans an industry day in Berlin in September to encourage interoperable capability, says Canadian Forces Lt. Gen. Michel Maisonneuve, chief of staff at NATO's Office of Transformation. The NATO Response Force is another focus for NNEC, he says.
Boeing's Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) successfully demonstrated its new retargeting capability in a recent test, the company said last week. An F/A-18C Hornet, operating from the USS John C. Stennis at Point Mugu, Calif., launched a SLAM-ER to destroy a simulated radar site on San Nicolas island in the Pacific, Boeing said.
BUYING AUVs: Most major navies are planning to buy autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to cut manpower and large vessel expenses, according to a forecast from technology and market consultant Frost & Sullivan. Until recently, technical barriers restrained the development of maritime applications for unmanned vehicles, the report says, but shrinking fleet budgets in the post-Cold War environment will drive navies to shift to commercial-off-the-shelf AUV platforms with versatile payloads. For example, the U.S.
An effort by the Navy's Strategic Systems Programs unit to define a conventionally armed, submarine-launched intermediate range ballistic missile is now focusing on cost, a Navy spokeswoman said. When the effort started last summer, she said, the concentration was on the feasibility of such a system. "Now that they know what's feasible, they have to know how much it costs," said Lt. Amy Gililland.
June 7 - 10 -- AHS International 60th Annual Forum and Technology Display, "Vertical Flight Transformation," Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Md. For information go to www.vtol.org. June 11 -- NASA's Glenn Research Center Technology Showcase, Cleveland, Ohio. For more information go to www.grc.nasa.gov. June 14 - 16 -- International Armaments Technology Symposium & Exhibition, "Armaments Technology in Support of Current and Future Joint Military Operations," Hilton Parsippany, Parsippany, N.J. For information go to www.ndia.org.
RESERVE FUND: The Senate has approved the $25 billion reserve fund President Bush requested for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (DAILY, May 6), including $3 billion that would go to research and development, testing and evaluation, Coast Guard operating expenses, personnel and classified accounts. The fund also would provide $14 billion for the Army, $1 billion for the Navy, $2 billion for the Marine Corps and $1 billion for the Air Force. The measure was approved 95-0 as the Senate continued work on the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill.
NORWEGIAN AEGIS: The Fridtjof Nansen, the first of five Norwegian navy frigates equipped with the Aegis Integrated Weapon System (IWS), was launched last week, Lockheed Martin said June 4. The company provided the IWS, which is based on the Aegis Weapon System developed for the U.S. Navy. The frigate also carries the SPY-1F radar, a scaled version of the AN/SPY-1D radar, the company said.
FINAL REPORT: The final report of the President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy, known as the "Moon, Mars and Beyond" commission, will be delivered to President Bush the morning of June 10 and published later that day on the commission's website (www.moontomars.org). Commission Chairman E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will deliver the 60-page report to the White House. The commission was formed to advise the president and NASA on the implementation of the country's new vision for space exploration (DAILY, Feb.
The U.S. Defense Department is struggling to determine when the military services should take control of anti-missile systems that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency has developed for them to use, according to the head of MDA.
The international export control system can't prevent the proliferation of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), according to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
THAAD DELAY: The first flight test of the revamped Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is being delayed about three months, from September to December, because the program was forced to change sources for the interceptor missile's motor, says U.S. Army Col. Chuck Driessnack, who manages THAAD. Aerojet is taking over the motor work from Pratt & Whitney (DAILY, April 12), which was rocked by two explosions last year at its propellant-mixing facility in San Jose, Calif.
Although the acquisition of tank manufacturer Alvis by BAE Systems would be a loss for competitor General Dynamics, it wouldn't be devastating because the American company already has a large footprint in the European armored vehicle sector, according to an industry analyst. BAE Systems has offered to acquire the remaining 71 percent stake in United Kingdom-based Alvis that it doesn't already own. The offer values the entire company at 355 million pounds ($651 million), according to the Standard & Poor's rating service.
SWARM: The European Space Agency (ESA) has chosen a mission called "Swarm" as its next Earth Explorer Opportunity mission. A constellation of three magnetometry satellites, Swarm would provide the best survey of Earth's magnetic field, offering scientists new insights into the planet's interior and climate, according to ESA. After launch in 2009, the satellites would circle the Earth in near-polar orbits - one at 329 miles (530 kilometers) and two at 280 miles (450 kilometers) altitude.
Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne will attempt the world's first privately financed space flight on the morning of June 21st after taking off from the Civilian Flight Test Center at Mojave Airport in California. Although skies are almost always clear in Mojave, the flight could be postponed if winds are too high, according to Scaled spokeswoman Kaye LeFebvre. The flight will begin at 6:30 a.m. local time, before winds usually pick up.
JSF INTEROPERABILITY: The U.S. Defense Department is wrestling with a host of issues to ensure the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is interoperable among the countries that buy the stealthy strike aircraft, says Air Force Maj. Gen. John "Jack" Hudson, head of the JSF program. One issue being addressed is the sharing of data, including how the exchanges should occur and how much information should be transferred. Other issues involve maintenance and logistics, such as being able to repair a Dutch JSF at a U.S. air base.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he would restrict the number of e-mails and other documents released to the Senate Armed Services Committee relating to the U.S. Air Force-Boeing Co. tanker acquisition program. "A number of e-mails and documents that fit within certain categories of internally deliberative matters would not be made available for review," Rumsfeld said in a letter sent last month to committee chairman Sen. John Warner (R-Va.)
The Department of Defense is unable to determine the number of Stinger missile systems sold overseas and lacks procedures for conducting inspections of international inventories, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office (GAO).
CKEM: Lockheed Martin was tapped by the U.S. Army to develop the Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM), the company said June 3. The company competed with a Northrop Grumman-led team for the program, a next-generation hypervelocity anti-tank weapon. Lockheed Martin will proceed as sole contractor under a $21.3 million, 36-month CKEM Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) contract, with the remainder of the contract valued at $60 million, the company said. Once the ATD program is completed in 2006, a two-year system development and demonstration phase is scheduled.
The international Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is now less than 10 million miles from the planet Saturn as it prepares to swoop through the planet's rings and perform a critical orbital insertion maneuver June 30. Launched in 1997, the $3 billion mission is the most sophisticated spacecraft ever launched to the outer planets. NASA built Cassini, while the European Space Agency (ESA) developed the Huygens probe.
NASA officials provided details about how a robotic servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) could work during a meeting in Washington June 2, while touting the concept as a way for the program to "take back" its destiny from the uncertainties inherent in shuttle servicing.
