The U.S. Air Force Research Lab wants proposals by Aug. 11 on development and demonstration of a conformal antenna for unmanned aerial vehicles. A contract would be awarded on Sept. 23. The Low Band Structural Array (LOBSTAR) would help fulfill a long-term Air Force vision of having total battlefield awareness, according to AFRL's Air Vehicles Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
The General Accounting Office has questioned the U.S. Navy's cost estimates for the Virginia-class submarine program and said future design changes could erode the potential benefits of a proposed multi-year spending plan for the program. The June 23 letter to Congress was written by GAO director of acquisition and sourcing Paul Francis, and was sent to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's defense subcommittee.
COMMUNICATIONS TESTING: Telenor Satellite Services of Oslo, Norway, said it is conducting in-flight testing of its new communications service, Swift Mobile Packet Data Service (MPDS). The service, based on Inmarsat's Swift64 technology, gives users Internet access, including web access and email, while in flight. Telenor's service is a mobile packet data service, which lets customers pay only for the data they transmit and receive, the company said June 26.
The House Science Committee's space subcommittee approved a bill designed to give NASA greater hiring flexibility June 26, over Democratic protests that any markup should be deferred until after the Columbia investigation delivers its final report. Sponsored by House Science committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), the "NASA Flexibility Act of 2003" (H.R. 1085) is intended to give the agency more flexibility to recruit and retain highly skilled employees (DAILY, March 7).
A hastily organized joint training exercise to be staged in August will evaluate dozens of new technologies and warfighting doctrines designed to avoid "friendly fire" accidents and more accurately identify battlefield targets. U.S. Joint Forces Command plans to sponsor the 12-day training event starting Aug. 4 in Gulfport, Miss., said Col. Greg Brown, commander of the Joint Combat Identification Evaluation Team (JCIET) at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The event was arranged in the weeks after Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) began.
With all 10 of NASA's field centers now using the same core accounting system, the agency is turning its attention to promoting acceptance of the new system among potentially reluctant users. NASA began its Integrated Financial Management Program (IFMP) last year to unify its field centers under the same accounting system. Two previous attempts to modernize the agency's bookkeeping were abandoned after 12 years and a reported expense of $180 million, according to the General Accounting Office.
NEW DELHI - Senior Indian government officials have issued conflicting statements about whether India's fleet of aging MiG-21 fighters will be retired. Indian Minster of State Chaman Lal Gupta said June 25 that they will be, but Air Chief Marshal Sriniwaspuram Krishnaswamy, head of the air force, said they won't. Krishnaswamy said at a press conference June 25 that the probability of a MiG-21 having a fatal accident is less than 1 percent, and that the short-range, multirole fighter will continue as the mainstay of the air force.
The House Appropriations Committee is proposing to cancel the Tactical Control System (TCS) for unmanned aerial vehicles but significantly expand the Tactical Air Directional Infrared Countermeasures (TADIRCM) program, which has the potential to protect military and commercial aircraft against missiles. The committee approved the TCS and TADIRCM measures June 26 as part of the report accompanying the fiscal 2004 defense appropriations bill.
The head of the House Appropriations Committee's homeland security subcommittee has indicated he will try to secure additional fiscal 2004 funding for the Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization program beyond the increase his panel already has approved. The subcommittee and full committee recently added $30 million to the Coast Guard's $500 million Deepwater request to help keep the Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle on track (DAILY, June 13, June 18). The House approved the increase June 24 as part of the FY '04 homeland security appropriations bill.
A 12-year effort to design a missile that can autonomously seek and identify targets is entering its final pre-development phase under a new $12 million contract awarded to Lockheed Martin. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)'s Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., selected Lockheed Martin's design over a rival bid submitted by a team of Boeing and Northrop Grumman designers.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Ministry of Defence will buy four Embraer Legacy aircraft for its executive service, a ministry official said. Three of the Brazilian manufacturer's 20-seat aircraft will be used by the Indian air force's New Delhi-based communication squadron, which ferries top government officials across the country. The fourth aircraft will be used by the Ministry of the Interior for the deputy prime minister and dignitaries visiting India.
ANALYTICAL GRAPHICS, Malvern, Pa. Gen. Howell M. Estes III (USAF, ret.), president of Howell Estes & Associates, has joined the board of directors. INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH SERVICES, McLean, Va. Chuck Burch, Mesut Ciceker, Ted McFarland, Scott Sobhani and Robert Twining have joined the sales and marketing staff. ITT INDUSTRIES, White Plains, N.Y. Mark E. Lang has been appointed corporate controller.
F-16 UPGRADES: Lockheed Matin will provide Common Configuration Implementation Program retrofit kits to upgrade 22 Block 40/42 F-16s under a $26.6 million contract option, the company said June 25. Follow-on options for nearly 400 more kits could bring the work's total value to $396 million, the company said.
NASA and the European Space Agency have detected a problem with the pointing mechanism of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft's high-gain antenna, which is expected to lead to a data transmission blackout this week. The blackout could last for two to three weeks, the space agencies said. The high-gain antenna is used to transmit large amounts of data from SOHO's scientific observations, but it is no longer moving properly across its horizontal axis, probably due to a problem with the motor or gear assembly that steers it.
The U.S. Navy is exploring the option of using the Tactical Tomahawk missile as an interim solution to support the Marine Corps' fire support requirement, according to a university researcher working with the Navy. Using the missile for fire support would involve changing its flight path before launch or during launch while in a loitering mode, said John Fletcher of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The laboratory is exploring the issue at the request of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
A joint review of the Pentagon's mobility needs could help justify the U.S. Transportation Command's (TRANSCOM's) plan to buy at least 42 more C-17s and phase out the C-5A fleet, Gen. John W. Handy said June 25. "I'm right in the middle of discussions [with the joint staff] on how quickly it should be initiated," Handy, commander of TRANSCOM and the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, said at a Defense Writer's Group breakfast.
LONDON - Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and the European Aeronautics Defence and Space Co.'s Systems and Electronics U.K. Ltd. will undertake two-year competitive assessments for the first phase of Britain's enhanced Ground-Based Air Defence (GBAD) system program. Announcing the contenders June 25, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) said the assessments, worth about 40 million pounds ($66.7 million) each, represent a major step forward for plans to build the GBAD.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) A160 Hummingbird unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) reached 112 knots forward airspeed in a June 25 flight in Victorville, Calif. The 94-minute flight was the 11th for the UAV since it adopted a four-blade rotor system to increase lift over the previous three-blade design (DAILY, Jan. 15). The flight took place in calm weather at Southern California Logistics Airport.
The U.S. Army plans to start soliciting bids to develop the Joint Common Missile (JCM) in mid-August, or about five months behind schedule, a senior officer said June 25. The procurement schedule for the missile - a ground- and air-launched weapon planned for the Army, U.S. Marine Corps and United Kingdom - was sidetracked by an unexpectedly intensive review by the Joint Staff's Force Structure, Resources and Assessment Directorate (J-8), which started in February, said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, program executive officer for tactical missiles.
The U.S. Air Force soon will begin the third in a series of major live exercises to test the vulnerability of GPS-dependent military systems to jamming, according to Charles South, vulnerabilities test manager with the 746th Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. Because of the low power of the GPS signal, a one- or two-watt jammer can jam an "unsophisticated" GPS receiver within a few hundred feet, South said. According to press reports, several attempts to jam GPS took place during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
NEW DELHI - A $3 billion U.S. aid package to Pakistan won't include F-16 Fighting Falcons, which the country has been seeking. President Bush said June 24 that the package, half of which is for military equipment, won't include Lockheed Martin F-16s, although Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf "has been a strong advocate for the sale of F-16s to Pakistan." At a Camp David briefing, Bush said despite the absence of F-16s, "we want to work closely with our friend to make sure that the package meets the needs of the Pakistan people."
The Patriot system may need to be integrated with airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft or a similar capability to improve its ability to detect cruise missiles, Defense Science Board (DSB) Chairman William Schneider said June 25.
