The Defense Dept. is making plans for shutting itself down in case President Clinton doesn't sign appropriations legislation by the time fiscal year 1996 begins Oct. 1, Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre said last week. Hamre, General Counsel Judith Miller and Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Walter Kross briefed Defense Secretary William Perry Wednesday on their "very sketchy [shutdown] outline," Hamre told reporters during a breakfast in Washington. Perry then asked the trio to come up with a full plan, which Hamre said will take about two weeks to do.
The U.S. Air Force's Special Operations Command wants to integrate the electronic suite on its AC/MC/HC-130s to improve those systems' response time, an AFSOC officials says. "The big difference the EW [electronic warfare] bus makes is it allows the system to react faster," Lt. Col. Mike Kemerer, AFSOC's systems branch chief said Friday in an interview. A 1553 data bus would link all EW systems, allowing, for example, the radar warning receiver to pass information directly to the dispenser and automatically initiate dispensing, he said.
McDonnell Douglas expects this week to start low-speed wind tunnel tests of a 15% scale model of its proposed command and control warfare variant of the two-seat F/A-18F (DAILY, March 13, page 373), says Paul Summers, C2W Variant program manager. The company, which is doing all C2W development on its own dime, will test eight different wingtip pod shapes to reduce drag. The current pods, which would replace AIM-9 Sidewinders and house antenna and receiver circuitry, added about 1.5-2% drag, Summers says. "We just want to get back to where we were," he says.
Even as it studies consolidating its 85 Space Shuttle contracts under a single prime contractor (DAILY, Aug. 22, page 273), NASA is also studying a consolidation of all of its space operations management, "not just for human spaceflight, but for all of NASA," according to Bryan O'Connor, Shuttle program director. O'Connor told industry representatives interested in the Shuttle prime contract bidding that a study of placing all space operations under a single directorate is underway at Johnson Space Center.
AF officials have talked about controlling UAVs from manned aircraft as well as from ground stations, Hampton says, cautioning that no decisions have been made. With this capability, UAV operators could control drones deeper into the battlefield. If intelligence can be fused onboard as well, data possibly could be transferred directly into the cockpits of the warfighters as well, he speculates.
Members of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board working on uncovering the 21st century's "New World Vistas" (DAILY, March 2, page 321) are getting data any way they can-including a World Wide Web home page with links to all 12 study panels that displays pop-up forms where virtual passers-by can offer their ideas on how "the explosive rate of technological change will impact the Air Force." Six technology panels are examining Information, Space, Sensors, Aircraft&Propulsion, Materials and Human Systems&Biotechnology.
In July, MDC evaluated how well a two-member crew on the C2W Hornet could do the job that's routinely done by four crew members in an EA-6B Prowler. Playing in simulation scenarios set in 2010, 26 air crews representing EA-6B and F/A-18 pilots had "very favorable" results, Summers says.
The Defense Dept. has accepted roughly two-thirds of the 100-plus recommendations made last spring by the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces, but the jury's still out on whether the Pentagon will adopt the remaining suggestions, Deputy Defense Secretary John White told reporters Friday. Military officials are studying the merits of "bigger, more complicated" issues, White said in a response to the commission's report, an effort he led before taking the Pentagon's No. 2 slot. DOD rejected about 10 of the panel's recommendations.
Three of China's Long March rocket customers are involved in a behind- the-scenes dispute over whose payload will get priority after the rocket's scheduled return to flight in November. The AsiaSat 2 communications satellite, owned by Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd., is at the top of China Great Wall Industry Corp.'s manifest, which was delayed after a January launch mishap.
The AF is considering the feasibility of training senior enlistees to be air vehicle operators (AVOs), Hampton says. The minimum requirement now for operating UAVs is having a private pilot's license and some type of instrument rating. The AF will start training operators in March. Hampton will go to the Army's Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., in October to learn how AVOs are trained there. "They have some of the corporate knowledge I need," he says.
The Marine Corps needs to stop having a short-range focus and start developing policies "without regard to the tenure of any one Commandant, one administration, or one congressional session," according to the planning guidance developed by Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak. "[O]ur policies must be based on a long-range view with a singular focus on where and what we want the Marine Corps to be in the 21st century," the guidance says.
The Air Force plans to base all of the 11th Reconnaissance Squadrons's unmanned aerial vehicles at Nellis AFB, Nev., although it is thinking about assigning Tier II Plus high-altitude endurance drones at Beale AFB, Calif., says squadron commander Lt. Col. Steve Hampton. Home of the 9th Recce Wing and the 7th Space Warning Squadron, Beale is attractive from a supportability point of view, he says. The II Plus's low-observable counterpart, the DarkStar, definitely will be at Nellis and not with the service's other stealth assets, he says.
NASA MANAGERS set a Thursday launch date for the Space Shuttle Endeavour after certifying that repairs in the solid rocket nozzle joints are safe for flight. Liftoff of Endeavour on STS-69, the second flight of the vacuum epitaxy Wake Shield Facility, is scheduled for a window opening at 11:04 a.m. EDT. Tommy Holloway, Shuttle program manager, told reporters Friday agency engineers and safety experts were satisfied that a vacuum repair technique used on the joints had worked.
The U.S. Air Force still must decide whether to make the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) part of the B-1B Block F upgrade. Initially, both the Joint Standoff Missile (JSOW) and the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) were slated to make up the third phase of the bomber's upgrade for conventional missions, but with the cancellation of TSSAM only JSOW remained for that effort.
THE BELL-BOEING V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft team will develop modifications for special operations forces under a new contract from Naval Air Systems Command, the team reported Friday. In addition to developing specific terrain following/terrain avoidance radar systems and aircraft changes to accommodate them, the team said it expects to get another contract next year to convert one of the existing engineering/manufacturing development V-22s into a CV-22 SOF version. The team didn't disclose the contract's value.
The first two C-17 airlifters flown to Kuwait Thursday as part of the U.S. show of force to Iraq carried 157,000 pounds of cargo and 23 passengers, Air Force officials reported Friday. Cargo included "various communications vans," trailers, air surveillance control radars and "other tactical equipment," along with food and other basic supplies, said a spokesman at Charleston AFB, S.C., where the C-17s are based.
With the crew-vehicle interface evaluation done, MDC will now concentrate on two new areas: communications jamming with an eye to additional controls and displays, and how to factor in HARM and smart stand-off weapons like JSOW, JDAM and SLAM-ER. MDC wants to use the "inherent Hornet capability with the C2W mission" to be able to cue a radar to a target site and then launch a stand-off missile to kill it, Summers says.
Accepted recommendations: -- Improve the effectiveness of unified operations and create an operational vision for joint operations. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili will finish Joint Vision 2010 this fall. -- Pursue joint training. -- Integrate the C4I architecture. DOD will accelerate its ongoing development of this, offering a status report in November. -- Designate a single executive agent for space and combat search and rescue. Rejected recommendations:
Congressional actions to date on fiscal 1996 U.S. Army research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) for selected programs are listed below. The figures do not include Army RDT&E for military space, which was listed in a separate chart that appeared in The DAILY on Aug. 3.
Congress should think about restricting the Army's access to Apache Longbow program funds until the service answers questions about testing shortfalls and overstated missile requirements, and completes a full cost and operational effectiveness analysis, or COEA, that includes the Comanche helicopter as an alternative, the General Accounting Office said last week.
Airbus Industrie yesterday rolled out its A319 twinjet, the third and final member of its single-aisle transport family. About 500 persons, including representatives of customers Air Canada, Air Inter, International Lease Finance Corp., Lufthansa and Swissair, attended ceremonies at Daimler-Benz Aerospace production facilities in Hamburg, Germany.
GENTEX CORP., Carbondale, Pa., received two contracts totaling $4.1 million on July 21 from U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command for Aircrew Integrated Helmet Systems (AIHS) work. The first, for $3.1 million, involves compatibility pre-planned product improvement for the Comanche helicopter's HGU-56/P AIHS. The second, for $1 million, is for AH-64 Apache AIHS Pilot Retained Unit (PRU)/Aircraft Retained Unit (ARU) pre-planned product improvement.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS, Baltimore, has won a $5 million contract from the Royal Australian Air Force to upgrade the radars of 12 RAAF C-130 aircraft. The company said it will supply and install its AN/APN-241 weather and navigation radar and supply spare parts. Deliveries are to be completed in January 1996. Westinghouse said the agreement marks the second international sale of the APN-241.
