Defense Department officials, providing more specifics about their missile defense deployment plans, revealed late Feb. 2 that nine interceptor missiles for the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system will be deployed by the end of 2004. DOD had previously estimated that it would field "up to 10" interceptors in 2004. Officials said the department will deploy the interceptors as they become available.
NEW DELHI - India has begun development work on a reusable, two-stage space vehicle, named Avatar, that would be able to take off and land like an aircraft, according to an official with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Avatar would be the size of a MiG-25 fighter aircraft would be able to put a 1,000-kilogram (2,204-pound) payload into low-earth orbit, the official said.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to award development contracts in fiscal 2005 to promote what it hopes will be a sizable foreign role for its new Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program.
Boeing has selected Hamilton Sundstrand and Rockwell Collins as partners for selected portions of the systems for the new Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner passenger jet, the company announced Feb. 2. Boeing has entered into the final stages of negotiations to define work statements and pricing with these companies. Additional 7E7 systems partners will be announced in coming weeks ahead, the company said.
Two contractor teams, led by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, are turning in proposals Feb. 17 for the final downselect for the Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). MUOS is the Department of Defense's next-generation, advanced narrow band communications satellite constellation. The system will "increase support to 'communications on the move' to disadvantaged platforms in stressed environments [such as Navy SEALS and other special forces]," the Navy said in its fiscal 2005 budget briefing.
The U.S. Department of Defense budget for fiscal 2005 likely will gain congressional support, according to a member of the House Armed Services Committee, but some portions of it, such as a proposed $1.5 billion increase in funding for the Missile Defense Agency, won't get "carte blanche." Rep. John M. Spratt Jr., (D-S.C.) told The DAILY Feb. 2 that the DOD budget request signals spending at full speed ahead without regard to the deficit.
LAUNCH READY: The AMC-10 telecommunications satellite, built for SES Americom by Lockheed Martin, is ready for its Feb. 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., the company said Feb. 2. AMC-10 will carry 24 C-band transponders to provide cable TV services to the U.S. Mexico and the Caribbean.
The Defense Department's fiscal 2005 budget request for space programs contains a significant funding increase compared with the previous year, according to senior defense officials. The request, which the Bush Administration sent to Congress Feb. 2, includes $12.4 billion for unclassified military space programs, up $1 billion from the FY '04 request, the officials told reporters Jan. 30. The FY '04 request was slightly higher than FY '04 enacted funding, though the exact amount of the difference was not immediately available.
The U.S. Air Force plans to brief House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) on its future plans for long-range strike, according to a senior Air Force budget official speaking at the Pentagon Jan. 30. A major topic of the briefing will be the future of the B-1 bomber fleet. The Air Force had planned to cut roughly a third of its B-1 fleet and use the savings to modernize the remaining aircraft, although it repeatedly has clashed with Congress over the plan.
RENEWED SPIRIT: The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is healthy again, according to NASA. The rover is now booting up normally after engineers resolved a problem with its computer that was causing it to restart continuously (DAILY, Jan. 26). Spirit will resume examination of a rock nicknamed "Adirondack" later this week and possibly move on to another rock by the end of the week, according to NASA.
The Budget continues to focus on improving program performance. Three DOD programs were assessed using the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), which evaluated the programs' design and purpose, strategic planning efforts, how well they aremanaged, and whether they are generating positive results for taxpayers. Below are some of the highlights and recommendations from the PART evaluations. For further details on DOD's performance assessments, see the White House budget website at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.
A plan to outfit U.S. Army helicopters in Afghanistan and Iraq with the best possible electronic countermeasures to deflect heat-seeking missiles has been completed and is funded at $28 million, an Army spokesman said Feb. 2. The plan, sparked in November by a memo from acting Army Secretary R.L. Brownlee, "is finished," Maj. Gary Tallman said in response to a question from The DAILY. He said the plan was "being treated as very sensitive information" and the details were "sketchy."
NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget spells out the agency's strategy for reprogramming $11.6 billion in funding over the next five years to support its new space exploration program. Before the loss of the shuttle Columbia, NASA planned to spend roughly $86 billion total over the five-year period starting in 2005. The FY '05 budget proposes redirecting approximately $11.6 billion of that funding, as well as adding $1 billion, to implement the president's space exploration goals (DAILY, Jan. 15).
COOPERATION: Lockheed Martin has signed a memorandum of understanding with Poland's Przemyslowy Instytut Telekomunikacji (PIT) defense electronics company to cooperate on missile defense projects. The companies will focus initially on radar technologies, Lockheed Martin said.
HYPERSONIC FUTURES: While NASA gears up for the next flight attempt of its X-43A demonstrator (DAILY, Jan. 30), doubt is being cast over the agency's future hypersonics programs. The X-43A was to have been followed by the larger X-43C and the X-43B, a reusable hypersonic vehicle that would have landed on a runway. However, both follow-ons are part of the Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) program, which now falls under the management of NASA's new exploration office (Code T). Rear Adm.
SHARING: Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News sector and General Dynamics' Electric Boat division will share an $8.4 billion multi-year buy of five Virginia-class submarines for the U.S. Navy, the companies said. The contract replaces an earlier block-by agreement.
TRANSMISSION: The NRF and NATO's Allied Command Transformation also will help to serve as "a transmission belt for the latest technology, the latest doctrine, the latest thinking on defense," de Hoop Scheffer says. "We cannot let technology divide us. We cannot afford a world where the U.S. is forced to act alone simply for technical reasons. That would make U.S. unilateralism in military affairs inevitable, and I guarantee you that that is not healthy for this country, for NATO, or for international relations," he says.
The Bush Administration plans to seek a $1.2 billion increase in ballistic missile defense (BMD) spending in fiscal 2005, partly to buy additional interceptors and radars for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, according to officials and documents. The Administration's FY '05 budget request, which the White House sends to Congress Feb. 2, provides $10.2 billion for BMD, up from $9 billion in FY '04. The Missile Defense Agency, DOD's primary entity for BMD, would get $9.1 billion in FY '05, up from $7.6 billion the previous year.
RENEWED SPIRIT: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit" is regaining functionality and NASA is confident it will be able to conduct scientific investigations even as NASA engineers continue nursing it back to health. "We know we still have some engineering work to do, but we think we understand the problem well enough to do science in parallel with that work," says Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. On Jan. 28, Spirit took and transmitted its first picture since succumbing to a computer failure on Jan. 21 (DAILY, Jan.
F/A-22 SCHEDULE: A Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting that will confirm whether the F/A-22 Raptor is ready for its initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) has been delayed from Feb. 29 to March 22 due to a scheduling conflict, according to the Air Force. The new DAB date is not expected to delay IOT&E, which is scheduled to start March 31, the Air Force says.
