To help restore credibility to military space acquisition, Peter Teets, undersecretary of the Air Force for space, is "intent" upon increasing the funding reserve available to managers of high-risk space development programs. "I believe we have ... in recent years, set many of our program managers up for failure, by giving them extremely small and heavily restricted management reserves," Teets said at a Maryland Space Business Council meeting in Greenbelt, Md., Oct. 29.
The next several months of tests on the MV-22 Osprey will see the use of static line parachutes to deploy paratroopers, and further analysis of the aircraft's susceptibility to vortex ring state, according to Navy program officials.
NEW DELHI - India's proposed lunar satellite will cost $10 million and should launch in the next four to five years, a senior official with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) told The DAILY. India announced in August it will plan a moon mission, after a task force reported to ISRO that the country has the technical expertise to place a satellite in lunar orbit (DAILY, Aug. 14).
A federal court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Oct. 31 on a lawsuit challenging President Bush's authority to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty without congressional approval. More than 30 House members led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) filed the lawsuit in June, contending that treaties have the status of laws and cannot be terminated without congressional consent.
The Bush Administration will not be able to sustain projected levels of defense spending while simultaneously working toward a balanced budget by 2005, according to defense industry analysts. James McAleese, principal attorney of McAleese & Associates, said the Administration's plan to return to a balanced budget by the end of fiscal year 2005, combined with lower capital gains taxes and pressure to increase social spending, will compete with spending for the war on terrorism.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. will build a communications satellite for Indonesia's state-owned telecommunications company, PT Telkomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (TELKOM). The satellite will be based on the company's STAR-2 platform and will carry 24 CV-band transponders. The satellite, with a planned 15-year lifetime, is scheduled for launch in late 2004. Ali Atia, head of Orbital's geostationary communications satellite unit, said the company's small satellite design is useful for companies like TELKOM, who don't need a large, expensive spacecraft.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Commander of the 7th Coast Guard District called on industry to develop the technology to help his service counter the threat terrorism poses to the U.S. economy. "Prosperity here at home depends on our ability to accommodate global trade that will at least double, and is likely to triple, in the next 20 years," said Rear Adm. James Carmichael.
PLEDGED: Defense Minister Robert Hill formally pledged Australia's $150 million contribution to the Joint Strike Fighter's development program Oct. 29, signing a Ministerial Exchange of Letters with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington. Hill plans to visit Lockheed Martin's facility in Fort Worth, Texas, to meet with JSF program managers.
TRW Inc., the prime contractor for the planned National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), plans to build a network of ground systems that will get weather data to civilian and military users in a fraction of the time it takes to supply information from existing polar-orbiting satellites, government and industry officials said Oct. 29.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun a 50 million euro ($50 million) initiative to help European aerospace companies develop lightweight technologies ESA can use for future missions in a "plug and play" fashion. The program is called DevILS, which stands for "developing intelligent, lightweight spacecraft systems," ESA said. This approach can save money, according to ESA, which already has been recycling some designs on recent missions.
South Korea announced Oct. 28 it will equip its new fleet of F-15K Eagle fighters with an improved version of Northrop Grumman's AN/ALQ-135 radar jamming system. The decision follows an announcement by the Boeing Co. in September to award Northrop Grumman the contract to develop and produce the system for the F-15K program.
The first deployable command and control headquarters for a joint forces commander is slated to receive its most realistic tryout to date in early December, including a personal encounter with Central Command chief Tommy Franks. Scrutinizing the performance of the Deployable Joint Command and Control (DJC2) capability is at the heart of Central Command's biennial Internal Look exercise, which will be based in Qatar this year and involve several Persian Gulf countries and at least 600 U.S. troops.
October 22, 2002 NAVY Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $23,259,915 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-00-C-0242) for the production of 10 wing center sections for the EA-6B aircraft. Work will be performed in Bethpage, N.Y. (83%), and St. Augustine, Fla. (17%), and is expected to be completed in February 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. is the contracting activity.
PRAGUE - A commission has been set up in Romania to investigate a third crash involving a MiG-21 Lancer this year. Romania's national defense ministry told The DAILY Oct. 25 that the crash occurred on Oct. 22 as the aircraft was approaching the military airbase at Bacau, about 100 miles north of Bucharest. The pilot ejected and is reported to be recovering in a hospital. "A commission is investigating the cause and we expect preliminary results within three or four days," said defense spokesman Major Nezir Jlaledin.
A successful crash test of the NH-90 military transport and naval helicopter on Oct. 24 should answer concerns about the strength of the 15-ton aircraft's composite materials structure, a spokesman for the European consortium NH Industries said. The NH-90 is the first helicopter of its size completely manufactured from carbon fibers, a composite material lighter than metal. NH Industries, majority-owned by Eurocopter, plans to pitch the aircraft to the U.S. military as a replacement for its aging combat search and rescue helicopter fleet.
LONDON - Air Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup was named by the Ministry of Defence as the Royal Air Force's next chief of air staff on Oct. 28. He will succeed Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire after his retirement in August 2003. Stirrup has been deputy chief of defense staff (equipment capability) since March, and will be promoted to air chief marshal for his new job.
One of a handful of companies with NASA's blessing to perform private experiments on the space shuttle is trying to sell vacant space on a life sciences experiment module scheduled to fly on Endeavour next May.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Navy/Marine Corps concept of sea basing, which allowed Marine Task Force 58 (MTF-58) to operate successfully in the initial stages of Operation Enduring Freedom, will be the "preferred method for responding to crises in the 21st century," according to Lt. Gen. Edward M. Hanlon. "It will provide assured access and enable power projection by U. S. forces," he told the National Defense Industrial Association's 7th Annual Expeditionary Warfare Conference here Oct. 23.
Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp. of Boulder, Colo., will develop optics and detectors for a camera on the Kepler planet-finding spacecraft, due to launch in 2007, NASA said Oct. 28. The work will be done under a contract potentially worth $28.4 million, NASA said.
Goodrich Corp. announced Oct. 28 that its third quarter income fell due to the ongoing weakness in the commercial aviation market. However, company officials predicted its military sales would rise between 5-10 percent next year. Net income for the third quarter fell from $88 million a year ago at this time to $46 million this year. The drop included a $27 million charge taken for losses on contracts related to Boeing 717 and 757 aircraft as well as Airbus A330 aircraft.
The CVN-75 Harry S. Truman Carrier Battle Group embarked Oct. 28 on a three-week exercise designed to incorporate and test equipment, systems and concepts adopted since its last deployment ended nearly 18 months ago. The Joint Task Forces Experiment (JTFEX) 03-1, denoting the first such exercise of this fiscal year, launched off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina.
JOINT VENTURE: Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Ness Technologies recently signed a joint venture agreement to cooperate on command and control systems, Israel's Ness said Oct. 27. The new venture initially will develop new projects for foreign clients. Ness said the venture is expected to lead to new business connections with an annual volume of "tens of millions of dollars."
NEW DELHI - India is considering upgrading and overhauling Myanmar's Russian-built MiG-29s, a senior official of the Indian Ministry of Defence said Oct. 25. Myanmar bought 10 MiG-29s from Russia between 1998 and 2001. The first lot of eight aircraft are due for an overhaul, according to sources.
