DOD TESTIMONY: The nation's military commitments and its ongoing military operations abroad will be the subject of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing after the August congressional recess. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are among those scheduled to testify at the Sept. 9 event.
RADAR BASING: The Missile Defense Agency announced Aug. 15 that Adak, Alaska, will host the primary support base for the Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar. Adak was one of six sites under consideration (DAILY, Aug. 15). The radar, which will support the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, is being installed on a self-propelled, modified oil-drilling platform.
NASA should consider two shuttle servicing missions to the aging Hubble Space Telescope to extend its life and maximize its scientific achievements, an independent panel of astronomers said in a report delivered to the aerospace agency this week. NASA had planned to bring the Hubble back to Earth in the shuttle, but in the wake of the Columbia loss, now plans to de-orbit it into the ocean, possibly by attaching a propulsion device.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, has been a staunch defender of the Pentagon's controversial plans to conduct research on new and modified nuclear weapons. But the congressman may be breaking that alliance.
MR. PRESIDENT: Former NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin will become president of Boston University on Nov. 1, BU says. The longtime NASA chief will succeed longtime BU President John Silber. "My ultimate goal is to develop a shared vision for the university that will take all of us to new levels of knowledge and accomplishment through the power of education," Goldin says.
COAST GUARD INFLUENCE: Coast Guard officials participated in the selection of the three industry teams that are providing preliminary designs for the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), according to Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, the Navy's program executive officer for ships. That doesn't mean the Coast Guard and Navy will be buying the same LCS model. "I would say that the National Security Cutter, [which the Coast Guard] is working through the detail design and construction process on, will be influenced but will not be fundamentally altered by LCS," Hamilton says.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is urging President Bush to become personally involved in protecting the nation's commercial airliners against missiles, saying Bush Administration officials are moving too slowly to equip such aircraft with military-style countermeasures.
NEW DESIGNATION: The U.S. Air Force is reshaping its navigator training to produce airmen equally proficient at operating manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Air Force Secretary James Roche. "They will be known as Combat Systems Operators," Roche says.
NORFOLK, Va. - In addition to blue force tracking technology, training is key to reducing fratricide in future conflicts, according to participants in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) attending the National Training Systems Association's conference here last week. Twenty-nine "blue on blue" fratricide events took place during OIF, according to Navy Capt. Roy Rogers, who served in the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) and currently is director of the Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Program Office.
TANKER HEARING: The Senate Commerce Committee likely will hold a hearing Sept. 3 to examine the Air Force's proposal to lease 100 Boeing KC-767A tankers. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the panel's chairman, is the leading congressional critic of the proposed deal. The Senate Armed Services Committee, whose membership includes McCain, already has announced it will hold a Sept. 4 hearing on the Air Force plan (DAILY, Aug. 11).
GPS JAMMING: Although attempts by Iraqi forces to jam the Global Positioning System (GPS) during Operation Iraqi Freedom were unsuccessful, the U.S. should not assume it has the threat of jamming completely under control, according to Navy Capt. Roy Rogers, director of the Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Program Office. "We did well against seven GPS jammers that they employed in a pretty stupid fashion," Rogers says. "There's a lot of folks running around saying we've got the GPS [jamming] thing whipped.
BEAUTY HELP: The cosmetics firm L'Oreal will use satellite-derived maps of pollution and ultraviolet rays to investigate the possibility of producing skin-care products customized for local conditions, according to the European Space Agency. "... Satellite data can give us global maps of UV levels, and we can use them to work out realistic doses, as well as fine-tune the doses simulated in laboratory tests," says L'Oreal's Francois Christiaens.
One proposal to protect airliners from shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles relies on the synchronization of relatively inexpensive infrared sources on an aircraft to fool a missile's guidance system, according to the president of a company advancing the idea. "What we have is a system that typically would have an infrared source on the wingtips and the tailtip," said Al Hastbacka, president of Sanders Design International Inc. of Wilton, N.H.
The U.S. Army could take several steps to reduce risk as it moves ahead with the Future Combat Systems program, the General Accounting Office (GAO) says in correspondence sent to lawmakers and military officials. The correspondence, based on a briefing provided earlier this year to House staff and Army and Defense Department officials, lays out three options the Army could take, along with potential consequences (see chart).
The majority of international satellite operators find that Lockheed Martin's A2100 satellite is the easiest to operate, according to a report by the Futron Corp. Boeing's 601 and 702 satellites were rated the most difficult to operate because of their performance complexity and declining levels of customer support, according to the report, entitled "Geo Commercial Satellite Bus Operations: A Comparative Analysis." The report, released Aug. 13, is based on a survey of eight major satellite operators in North America, Europe and Asia.
The U.S. Army is expected this fall to give senior defense officials a detailed proposal for combining the Patriot and Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) programs, according to the Defense Department.
A U.S. Air Force review targeting the C-5A fleet for possible retirement is beginning on Oct. 1, at least four months later than scheduled. The Air Force Fleet Viability Board (FVB), launched last spring by former Air Force Secretary James Roche, plans to scrutinize the cost-benefit trade-offs of operating several aging aircraft fleets in the service's inventory, starting with the C-5A fleet.
A software glitch has caused a one-day delay in the launch of a proposed new interceptor booster for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, according to the Missile Defense Agency. The test, known as Booster Verification-6 (BV-6), is now scheduled for Aug. 16 instead of the previously announced date of Aug. 15 (DAILY, Aug. 8, Aug. 11). The booster, developed by Orbital Sciences Corp., is expected to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., sometime between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. East Coast time.
Goodrich Corp.will supply Full Authority Digital Engine Control Systems (FADECs) for U.S. Army CH-47 Chinooks, the company said Aug. 14. The work will be done under several Army contracts expected to generate up to $50 million in revenue by the end of 2004, the Charlotte, N.C.-based company said. Goodrich's Engine Control Systems facility in West Hartford, Conn., is the prime supplier of fielded FADEC systems to the Army, the company said.
NORFOLK, Va. - Use of the Litening II advanced targeting pod on the Marine Corps' AV-8 Harrier jets was highly successful during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Marine Corps officials attending the National Training Systems Association's Fighter Training symposium here Aug. 14. The Northrop Grumman-built pod contains a high-resolution, forward-looking infrared sensor (FLIR) that displays an infrared image of the target to the pilot, as well as a laser designator. It originally was designed for Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard F-16s.
