X-38 TEST: NASA plans a test of the X-38 vehicle Dec. 13 at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The test will be the highest, fastest and longest free flight of the vehicle to date. The X-38 is intended to lead to a space station Crew Return Vehicle, although its future is in doubt due to a station budget crunch.
India's Department of Space (DOS) may begin its ambitious Mission to the Moon program with the launch of a satellite that would orbit the moon at a height of 100 kilometers. DOS officials outlined the program in a presentation to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology.
The Hunter Standoff Killer Team program, which links an Apache Longbow helicopter with the Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, will be fielded beginning in 2004, according to Col. Waldo Carmona, the commander of the Applied Aviation Directorate at the Army Aviation and Missile Command.
Following the United States' lead, the United Kingdom is trying to extend its attack helicopters' capabilities by linking them to unmanned aerial vehicles, according to U.K. Army Brig. Richard Folkes, the director of army aviation.
The Commission of the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry has launched a web site to provide policymakers, industry representatives and members of the public with updates on its progress, commission chairman Robert S. Walker announced Dec. 11. The site (www.aerospacecommission.gov) will also allow visitors to provide input on the commission's work, Walker said. "The commission is focused on creating a forward-looking vision and roadmap to ensure the U.S. aerospace industry remains healthy now and in the future," Walker said.
The United Kingdom's intention to join the U.S. Army's Common Missile program was formally ratified Dec. 10. Officials from the U.K. Ministry of Defence and the U.S. Department of Defense signed the agreement to create a new multipurpose common attack missile. The U.K. announced in July 2000 it would join the program, after it withdrew from the European man-portable MR TriGAT anti-tank missile (ATM) program.
Though sales of commercial helicopters are approaching near-record levels, helicopter production will likely drop steadily during the second half of the decade as current backlog orders for new models are filled, according to a report from Forecast International/DMS. Deliveries of commercial helicopters from 2001 to 2010 will average about 925 per year, according to the report, entitled "The World Commercial Rotorcraft Market."
NASA OFFICIAL: NASA Associate Administrator Frederick D. Gregory has been named acting associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight, the aerospace agency announced.
President Bush said Dec. 11 that the war in Afghanistan affords a view of the future of the U.S. military. An unprecedented combination of nearly continuous monitoring of Taliban and Al Qaeda forces, precision-guided munitions, good intelligence and highly flexible special forces is leading to victory and is a harbinger of the future, he said.
Two shipbuilding advocates in the Senate have expressed concern about indications they have received that the Navy procurement rate for the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer may fall below three ships a year in fiscal 2003.
A House-Senate conference committee has tentatively agreed to a fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill that would provide $8.3 billion for missile defense while giving the president authority to use some of that money for anti-terrorism, according to congressional sources. Despite the anti-terrorism language, Bush Administration officials have indicated that they would use the entire $8.3 billion for missile defense, according to an aide to a House Armed Services Committee member.
The Air Force's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) must find its own operational niche, rather than compete with other systems, before the program can truly mature, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper. "My plan for the UCAV - the plan I think would work the best - is to aim the UCAV at something that won't be directly competitive with the kinetic missions we're doing today," said Jumper, speaking at a UAV conference in Arlington, Va. Dec. 10.
It is unlikely that any combination of arms control agreements, deterrence measures or efforts to control proliferation could fully secure an area against a nuclear, chemical and biological weapons attack, says a recent report from a defense scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It is uncertain whether efforts to stop the regional proliferation of such weapons could be achieved without the tacit threat by the U.S. to retaliate with nuclear weapons if necessary, the report adds.
SECURITY NOMINEE: President Bush will nominate John Magaw to be undersecretary of transportation for security, the White House announced. Magaw is the former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Secret Service.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) already are being integrated with other systems in day-to-day military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper. "We are entering a new era for unmanned air vehicles," Jumper said, speaking at a UAV conference in Crystal City, Va. Dec. 10. However, "UAVs are only as good as the effects they're able to create. The problem is integration."
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $13,412,056 modification to a previously awarded fixed-price contract (N00019-01-C-0024) to exercise an option for services associated with the Special Progressive Aircraft Rework for the VH-3D and VH-60 executive helicopters. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed in September 2002. Contract funds in the amount of $13,412,056 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
The Senate passed legislation late Dec. 7 that would fund a major study of the nation's military aircraft industrial base and allow the president to divert money from a proposed tanker aircraft lease to other defense programs. The provisions were attached to the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill, which the Senate approved later the same night.
TEETS CONFIRMED: The Senate Dec. 7 confirmed former Lockheed Martin executive Peter Teets to be undersecretary of the Air Force. His appointment to the service's No. 2 civilian job received approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee the previous day (DAILY, Dec. 10). Teets, who will also serve as director of the National Reconnaissance Office, indicated at his nomination hearing in November that he would spend much of his time trying to streamline the military's space management (DAILY, Nov. 9)
SPARTA Inc. is being awarded a $39,891,157 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Ballistic Missile Defense System scientific, engineering and technical assistance to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Work will be performed primarily in Arlington, Va., and is expected to be completed not later than Nov. 23, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is the contracting activity (HQ0006-02-C-0004).
The Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $5,866,877 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the non-recurring development effort associated with modifying Operational Test Program Sets (OTPSs) to function on the Remotely Transportable-Consolidated Automated Support System. OTPSs are used to test the avionics on the V-22. Work will be performed in Philadelphia, Pa. (60%), and Fort Worth, Texas (40%), and is expected to be completed by December 2005. Contract funds in the amount of $1,500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Boeing Co. has tested two Small Smart Bomb Range Extension (SSBREX) weapons at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The tests were conducted last week from an F-16 flying at 25,000 feet. The tests, carried out with a combination of Air Force and Boeing funding, were part of a cooperative miniature munitions demonstration program, Boeing said. SSBREX, Boeing said, uses the same type of guidance system as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), and uses a 250 pound-class warhead that has demonstrated penetration of more than six feet of reinforced concrete.
Computer Sciences Corp. is being awarded a $60,837,156 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to contract HQ0006-00-C-0009 for scientific, engineering and technical assistance in the areas of program planning, joint systems engineering and analysis support, information management, test and evaluation integration and assessment and technology management. Work will be performed in Arlington, Va., and is expected to be completed not later than Dec. 31, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Navy has cancelled the Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle program and instead will acquire the long-range, high-endurance Global Hawk UAV, said Brig. Gen. Joe Weber, commanding general of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Weber spoke Dec. 10 at Shephard's UAV conference in Arlington, Va. Weber told The DAILY that the decision came out of the Department of the Navy last week, and that the department will now move towards acquiring approximately four Global Hawk systems in place of the Fire Scout.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $13,958,213 firm-fixed-price contract modification for award-fee earned for the fiscal year 2001 firm-fixed-price portion of this contract and Period 2 (April 2001 through September 2002) for performance of the C-17 flexible sustainment contract. At this time, the total amount of funds has been awarded. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-2002, P00039).
