The Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as currently configured isn't suited for drug interdiction flights, but certain enhancements may make it a candidate for missions of this kind, according to a Pentagon report.
EASTMAN KODAK has introduced a digital camera that automatically records global positioning system data along with color images. When the Kodak Digital Science 420 GPS camera takes a picture, the camera's latitude and longitude are stored at the same time, using select commercial GPS receivers to interpret navigation signals from the orbiting GPS constellation. Potential applications include forestry, agriculture, mapping, surveillance, law enforcement, military and intelligence.
NASA's Ames Research Center has adapted neural net software to drive microscopic probes that could some day help surgeons remove brain tumors with less danger to the patient. The Mountain View, Calif., field center's NeuroEngineering Group has developed a Neurosurgical Computational Medicine Testbed to study robotic brain surgery, using neural net techniques to enable the robotic surgeon to "learn" the densities of different types of brain tissue, including tumors.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Tactical Systems Inc., Tactical Defense Systems, St. Paul, Minn., won a $38.6 million contract from Naval Sea Systems Command for AN/UYK-43(V) computers (maximum of 221), with related accessories, spares sets, upgrade kits, software and services. The Dept. of Defense announced the contract on May 29.
Senate Democrats yesterday kept Republicans from starting debate on legislation to speed development and deployment of a national missile defense (NMD) system, but the fight could be revived as early as this week when the defense authorization bill comes to the floor.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has received a $53.5 million contract to upgrade high performance computers for the Naval Oceanographic Office, Stennis Space Center, Miss., that could result in a total contract value of $170.2 million, the company announced yesterday. Under the eight-year modernization contract, Northrop Grumman's Data Systems and Services Div. will improve the office's ability to predict sea and atmospheric conditions. It will also improve the man-machine interface with better graphics and improvements in network interoperability, according to Northrop Grumman.
ILEX SYSTEMS, INC., Moorestown, N.J., received an addition to an earlier $17.4 million contract from the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command for services to support system and software engineering development for the Avionics/Intelligence Electronics Warfare Div., Software Engineering Directorate. The Dept. of Defense announced the award on May 30.
NASA's DC-XA testbed is scheduled to make its second and possibly its third flight on Friday, meeting the target date despite minor fire damage the subscale reusable launch vehicle (RLV) suffered on its first flight last month. Liftoff of the vertical takeoff and landing testbed is set for 10 a.m. EDT at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., with the one-minute flight scheduled to take the lightweight vehicle to an altitude of about 2,000 feet before its tail-down landing.
The Pentagon has awarded Lockheed Martin and a Hughes/Raytheon joint venture the initial contracts to begin international cooperative work with their European partners on the Medium Extended Air Defense Systems program. The Hughes/Raytheon joint venture, known as H&R Company, received $4 million to proceed with the integration between itself and its European team-members, the companies announced yesterday. The contract allows the team to establish the program requirements as part of the project definition and validation phase.
The Pentagon is confident that the U.S. ammunition industrial base is healthy enough to meet its peacetime and combat needs, even though it only gathered detailed financial data from a little more than half of the companies comprising the industrial base and despite a host of private studies that take a more pessimist view, the General Accounting Office reported.
Boeing engineers completed another pressure test on the first U.S. element of the International Space Station Friday, taking Node 1 to 15.2 psi in an effort to test their theory as to why strain gauges maxed out before reaching target levels on an earlier pressure test. The Station prime contractor plans to present its get-well plan to Marshall Space Flight Center Director Wayne Littles on Friday (DAILY, May 31). Last Friday's test took place at U.S. Army facilities on Redstone Arsenal, Ala., near the MSFC facility where Boeing fabricated the node.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP., Fort Worth, Tex., was awarded an additional $24.8 million for three Improved Avionics Intermediate Shops for the F-16 aircraft. The Defense Dept. said May 17 that the work comes under foreign military sales to Taiwan. The U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, awarded the contract.
The FAA said Friday it is "confident" that its dispute resolution process will reaffirm its decision to take the Wide Area Augmentation System contract away from Wilcox and award the work to Hughes, which had been a Wilcox subcontractor. Earlier in the week, Wilcox challenged FAA's award to Hughes of a WAAS contract (DAILY, May 29). A spokesman said that FAA has no specified time to settle the dispute, but that "our goal is to resolve protests in about three weeks."
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, got a $7 million increase to a U.S. Air Force contract for six kits (three prototype and three kitproof) to incorporate Cockpit Working Group changes into the Pacer Crag (Compass, Radar and Global Positioning System) upgrade program for the C/KC-135 aircraft. The contract, from the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., was announced by the Dept. of Defense on May 31.
Europe's new Ariane V booster is scheduled to make its inaugural flight from Kourou, French Guiana, this morning, carrying the four- spacecraft Cluster series of scientific satellites. Liftoff is scheduled for a two-hour window opening at 7:34 a.m. EDT to place the four satellites in large, elliptical polar orbits where they will study the interaction of solar particles with the earth's magnetic field. The new booster is able to put 18 metric tons into low Earth orbit, or a single satellite weighing 6,800 kilograms in geostationary transfer orbit.
McDonnell Douglas insists it will maintain "business as usual" if 6,700 Machinists in the company's St. Louis facilities go through with threats to walk off their jobs tomorrow. Although the Machinists are a big part of McDonnell Douglas' production workforce, a walkout wouldn't affect another 23,000 employees in the St. Louis area. Aerospace companies typically have used supervisory and management personnel to close the gap during recent strikes. And a company spokesman was quoted in wire service accounts as not ruling out the use of replacement workers.
BRIG. GEN. JOHN W. BROOKS took command yesterday of the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein AB, Germany. His predecessor, Brig. Gen. William E. Stevens, was fired after an investigation of the April 3 crash of a CT-43 transport in Croatia that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others. Brooks had been commander of the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
LITTON SYSTEMS INC., Woodland Hills, Calif., received a $12.1 million increase to an earlier U.S. Air Force contract for 96 ring laser gyro inertial navigation units and 17 associated shop replaceable units applicable to the F-16 aircraft. The Defense Dept., announcing the contract May 17, said the effort supports foreign military sales to Turkey. The contract was awarded by the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla.
Lockheed Martin's Fairchild Systems unit will develop an all solid- state framing reconnaissance camera for the Naval Research Lab that it says will help it win the U.S. Air Force Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS) program. Syosset, N.Y.-based Fairchild Systems, formerly of Loral Corp., will use the largest charge-coupled device detector for the NRL program. Lockheed Martin said it will use "unique on-chip image motion compensation technology" that eliminates moving parts for greater performance on supersonic platforms.
