Lockheed Martin Information Systems has been awarded the U.S. Air Force's Theater Aerospace Command and Control Facility operations and maintenance contract, which is worth about $25 million over the next five years. The contract could grow to cover 10 years, according to the company. It covers operations and maintenance, hardware, software and systems development, as well as studies and analyses for the Air Force training facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
LOW-TECH TERROR: "Over the last decade there has obviously been a tendency to focus on the exciting, high-end threats, and the expensive solutions to them," says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. "I have been of the view all along that it's the technologically less sophisticated threats that are far more likely to actually confront us. Terrorist organizations are extraordinarily risk averse.
NASA is developing cockpit display technology that will use digital terrain and elevation data to paint real-time pictures of the landscapes pilots are flying over. Limited terrain visibility, due to weather or other factors, is still a major element in most fatal aircraft accidents, according to NASA.
Three days after a terrorist-controlled plane slammed into the Pentagon, about two-thirds of the building is "operating in a normal matter," said John Irby, the federal facilities division director at the Pentagon. The Pentagon is approximately six million square feet, Irby estimated, so that would mean four million square feet is now open. It is difficult to say how long reconstruction of permanently damaged areas will take, according to Irby. "It will take more than a year, but certainly less than a decade."
SECOND-STRIKE ADVANTAGES: In addition to providing a critical level of deterrent to potential adversaries, maintaining survivable second-strike nuclear forces makes a nuclear exchange resulting from a false alarm less likely, according to Henry Cooper, former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. "False alarms will happen," says Cooper.
Once the focus of many policy studies but few applications, homeland defense may emerge as a central focus in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist incidents. What the outcome of this focus will be, however, is far from clear. "After seven years [of study], I am a little bit frustrated that things have not moved forward," said retired Air Force Col. Randall Larsen, now the director of the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security. The U.S. needs to act quickly to establish a cabinet level official in charge of homeland defense matters, he said.
The Modern Day Marine Military Exposition scheduled for Sept. 18-20 at Quantico, Va., has been cancelled by the Marine Corps, according to information on the organizer's website at www.marinecorpsexpos.com. No details were provided. Earlier, the Air Force Association announced cancellation of its annual national convention and aerospace exposition, which had been set for Sept. 16-19 in Washington, D.C.
The Space Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) at Kirtland Air Force Base has recently patented a launch system that allows a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) to be launched from a variety of military cargo aircraft. The system uses gas pressure to expel a missile-like 73-foot two-stage RLV from a pneumatic launch tube integrated into the cargo bay of a C-141B, C-5A, or C-17A aircraft with modified cargo doors.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center will lead to changes for the defense and commercial aviation industries - budgetary changes for military programs, safety-related changes for civil aviation, according to some industry analysts. "This is clearly not going to have a damaging effect on the defense budget," said John Williams, a spokesman for the National Defense Industrial Association. "The discussions on defense budgets and lock boxes we've had over the past several months have become completely irrelevant."
House Armed Services readiness subcommittee Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) has introduced a fiscal 2002 emergency supplemental authorization bill to provide $6 billion for readiness-related needs, including aircraft spare parts. The bill, formally introduced Sept. 12, is not a result of the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center but was planned in response to a congressional tour of more than 20 military bases that Weldon led in late August (DAILY, Sept. 10).
F-22 REVIEW: The White House Office of Management and Budget, which has been reviewing the Pentagon's recent decision to begin low-rate initial production of the F-22 Raptor, will weigh in with its own opinion "very, very quickly," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers told the Senate Armed Services Committee Sept. 13.
The Defense Department would have to conduct a study of alternatives to the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft under the Senate version of the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill, according to the newly released legislation. The bill also would impose a series of conditions that would have to be met before production of the Osprey could go higher than the minimum rate needed to sustain the industrial base.
Rolls-Royce inaugurated a new gas turbine research center at Cambridge University, allowing the company's long-time university partner to extend its research areas to include combustion technologies and other engine-related issues. The company plans to support research and development work at Cambridge under a five-year agreement, worth about $2.2 million a year.
Indian military airfields around New Delhi, Mumbai, Jammu and Kashmir and other sensitive areas are "ready to scramble at a 120-second notice," following the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, a defense source said. All radars on India's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh are on high alert, as are radars in other parts of the country. The Flag Officer, Defense Advisory Group has moved in sailors and divers to protect the Bombay High oilfield against both aerial and underwater attacks.
Khrunichev Space and Rocket Center General Director Aleksander Medvedev announced Sept. 11 that European aerospace companies may participate in the Baikal winged stage program now under development at Khrunichev. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Germany's Astrium GmbH have already presented their proposals for participating in the program, and Medvedev is slated to meet with 10 Belgian companies later this month to discuss their proposals for cooperation.
BAE Systems of the United Kingdom announced Sept. 13 that its corporate earnings for the first half of 2001 reached expected targets. Company officials said profits rose 8.7 percent to 551 million pounds (about $810 million), excluding exceptional items and goodwill amortization. Sales rose to 6.3 billion pounds ($9.3 billion) and the company maintained a strong order backlog, which by June 30 totaled some 45.4 billion pounds ($66.7 billion).
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington are not expected to delay the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's (BMDO) test schedule, a BMDO spokesman told The DAILY. "We're going to adhere to our test schedule as it's currently planned," said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner. BMDO's next intercept test for its Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment (formerly National Missile Defense) is scheduled for late October. A seeker test for the Navy Area system is also scheduled for the fall.
A $20 billion supplemental funding request for 2001 that President Bush requested in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks "is just a down payment" that will be needed to support a "broad and sustained campaign" against terrorism, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said Sept. 13. While the money is for government-wide operations, DOD will receive a large amount of the allocated funds. "Obviously, a great portion will be to prepare our armed forces for whatever the president might want them to do," Wolfowitz said.
At least two military aerospace companies lost employees in the crashes of four hijacked planes on Sept. 11. Raytheon Co., headquartered in Lexington, Mass., announced it lost four employees in the crashes, including one executive. The deceased include Peter Gay, 54, of Tewksbury, Mass., who was vice-president of operations for the company's Electronic Systems unit based in Andover, Mass.
FAST Training Services Ltd. - equally owned by CAE of Canada and Alenia Marconi Systems of Italy - has signed a contract with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence to provide training for Astute Class submarines. The contract is valued at about $414 million, according to CAE. CAE will provide simulators for the submarine's platform and propulsion systems, and Alenia Marconi will provide simulators for its combat and weapons systems.
If anyone knows how to create a defensive system that would guarantee the United States and its people never again would be subjected to barbaric and cowardly terrorist attacks like those the nation suffered Tuesday, let him come forth. Unfortunately, ironclad security against suicidal terrorists is virtually impossible, even in nations having less regard for civil liberties than the United States does. But there is much that can and must be done to strengthen defenses against terrorism.
Japan's National Space Development Agency announced that the Laser Ranging Equipment (LRE) payload that was lofted by the H-IIA on its maiden launch (DAILY, Aug. 30) has been located. NASDA has been searching for the LRE since the launch, but was hampered by bad weather. It was located on Sept. 4 by observation stations in Japan and Germany. The LRE is flying on a 250 by 36,000 kilometer (155 by 22,369 mile) elliptical orbit, exactly as planned, according to NASDA.
The Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center underscore the need for the U.S. to continue modernizing its intelligence capabilities, according to several members of Congress.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security has been stepped up at NASA centers across the country, with all but non-essential personnel asked to remain home. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said no decision has yet been made as to any permanent changes in NASA's security procedures. "The administrator recognized early that there was a need for comprehensive security coordination, which was why we recently named a security director for the agency," he said.
Onboard security systems provide only limited effectiveness against knowledgeable hijackers such as those who apparently perpetrated the Sept. 11 attacks, and cannot substitute for proper security on the ground, say aviation and security analysts. "There's not a whole lot of technology on the aircraft itself [for thwarting hijackers]," Dr. Dale Oderman, assistant professor of aviation technology at Purdue University and a retired Air Force colonel, told The DAILY.
