ORLANDO, Fla. - The U.S. Air Force is "negotiating" with lawmakers over how many B-1B Lancers should be brought out of retirement, a general said Feb. 13.
SHUTTLE DRILL: NASA will conduct a drill at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Feb. 18 to test the readiness of emergency personnel, equipment and facilities during a scenario in which astronauts must be rescued from a downed space shuttle, according to NASA. In the simulated scenario, an orbiter crash-lands in a wooded area south of the shuttle runway. Emergency personnel will care for injured astronauts inside a shuttle crew compartment mock-up, provide emergency on-site treatment, and transport them by ambulance or helicopter to one of three hospitals.
Naval Sea Systems Command plans to release a request for proposals late this month for development of a single-track management function for the Navy's Open Architecture (OA) program, according to a Feb. 11 FedBizOpps notice. The RFP would lead to a five-year contract. NAVSEA wants a "system integrator/design agent" to implement the function "with a model driven architecture framework on Navy platforms and address evolving Open Architecture initiatives related to track management and sensor netting," the notice says.
S&T FUTURE: The defense industry must make science and technology careers more attractive to counteract the anticipated shortage of scientists and engineers in the near future, according to the CEOs of several large firms who spoke last week at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' conference in Washington. "Scientists and engineers are an aging part of the workforce," says Northrop Grumman CEO Ronald Sugar. "There's been a lull in the tech industry, but the lull will end shortly and we'll face a wave a competition with the commercial economy.
LOW-POWER COM: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is kicking off the first phase of its Connectionless Networks program, an effort to develop high-efficiency, low-power radio communications. The U.S. military is expanding the role of low duty cycle radio frequency transmissions systems for the battlefield. The goal of the program is to develop technology that will require less energy for data transmission.
HUMVEE FIRES: The U.S. Army's Tank, Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) is investigating three Humvee fires aboard transport ships headed to Iraq. The U.S. Army Safety Center issued a Feb. 11 safety notification alerting users that an electrical system defect was suspected. One fire was categorized as Class A, an incident resulting in more than $1 million in losses. That incident occurred in a ship hold where a suspected "protective control box" allowed a starter to overheat and catch fire destroying four communication Humvees and damaging four others.
BRIDGING THE GAP: DARPA is gearing up for its 23rd Systems and Technology Symposium, "DARPATech 2004, Bridging the GAP" to be held March 9-11 at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, Calif. The Tactical Technology Office will hold presentations on the battlefield of the future and a briefing on hypersonic systems including propulsion, high temperature materials, optimizing flight trajectories, flight control algorithms and dynamics.
Several members of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel said Feb. 12 they are dissatisfied with the level of proposed funding for procurement, equipment maintenance and replacement in the fiscal year 2005 defense budget. "There is a lack of flexibility in this budget. I am disappointed this budget does not contain what the troops need," said Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.).
The chances are "very low" that the space shuttle will fly again in September or October as NASA had been planning, according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. Answering questions before the House Science committee in Washington Feb. 12, O'Keefe said the schedule is likely to slip because of ongoing modifications to the shuttle's external tank, as well as the development of a boom camera that will be able to examine the shuttle's underbelly for damage while in orbit.
STOVL: The U.S. Air Force is considering buying a second variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to give it more options, Air Force officials said Feb. 12. The Air Force already plans to buy about 1,700 of the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) version, but it now intends to study buying the Marine Corps' short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version, which would give the Air Force access to "many more runways," according to Gen.
The U.S. Air Force and a Northrop Grumman Corporation-led team developing the service's E-10A Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) successfully completed the program's systems requirements review (SRR), the company announced Feb. 12. The review, completed on Feb. 5, ensured that all system-level technical requirements have been identified, analyzed and understood.
SAN DIEGO - Oversized joint staffs may not be the best way to develop true operational jointness, according to Vice Adm. Albert H. Konetzni Jr., deputy commander and chief of staff of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
More than 10 percent of contractors to the U.S. Department of Defense are evading taxes totaling more than $3 billion, General Accounting Office (GAO) officials told senators Feb. 12. A GAO report found that more than 27,000 DOD contractors have pocketed payroll taxes and used the money to pay for luxury items, rent and utility bills. Because tax evasion reduces their overhead, many of these contractors are in advantageous positions to bid on contracts, the GAO officials said.
House Science Committee Ranking Member Bart Gordon (D-Texas) unsuccessfully pressed NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and White House Science Advisor John Marburger to provide a specific cost estimate for returning humans to the moon by 2020 during a hearing in Washington Feb. 12. President Bush's space exploration program calls for robotic probes to begin visiting the moon this decade to begin mapping resources and scouting landing sites, followed by a human landing no later than 2020 (DAILY, Feb. 5).
GOOD REPORT: Orbital Sciences Corp. Chief Financial Officer Garrett E. Pierce said Feb. 12 that the company had "a very robust quarter" for new orders and completed 2003 with "another solid quarter of strong cash flow and profitability." The company reported operating income of $13.5 million on revenues of $157.8 million, an increase of 25 percent over the same period in 2002. Revenue for the year was $582 million, up 5 percent from 2002, the company said.
Raytheon has joined the Lockheed Martin-led team competing to develop the Army's Aerial Common Sensor (ACS). With Raytheon's addition, Lockheed Martin hopes to ensure that ACS, an intelligence-gathering aircraft, is interoperable with an upgrade Raytheon plans to make to the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS). The DCGS upgrade is supposed to integrate a series of ground stations that process intelligence.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Air Force Space Command's top budget priority in the mid- and far-term is the development of an Operationally Responsive Spacelift (ORS) capability, according to Col. Bill Doyle, under whom the latest edition of the command's Space Master Plan was composed. The capability has "a very high priority," he said in a Feb. 10 telephone interview from Peterson Air Force Base here. "We have very little capacity to ... provide that capability right now."
Boeing's Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) has passed a major milestone by receiving approval from the U.S. Air Force and Navy to begin full-rate production, government and industry sources said Feb. 11. The decision was made jointly Jan. 29 by Maj. Gen. Richard "Rick" Lewis, Air Force program executive officer (PEO) for fighters and bombers, and by Rear Adm. James Godwin, the Navy's PEO for tactical aircraft, said Mike Rietz, Boeing's JHMCS program manager.
The commission formed to advise the president and NASA on the implementation of the country's new vision for space exploration held its first public meeting in Washington Feb. 10, where members discussed how best to sustain support for the policy over the long term. The new policy, announced by the president last month, would return astronauts to the moon by the middle of the next decade to gain the knowledge required for future visits to Mars and elsewhere in the solar system (DAILY, Jan. 16).
