SHIELD ESTIMATE: How much will it cost to field a missile shield? The Council for a Livable World Education Fund, which is no fan of the Bush Administration's plan to step up work on missile defense, estimates the price tag for national and theater systems will be up to $273 billion if the White House has its way. That figure includes the 1996 Congressional Budget Office estimate that building, deploying and operating a layered system would cost $184 billion from 1996 to 2030.
SUPPLY MANAGEMENT: BAE Systems North American will soon begin helping its suppliers move from a traditional model of manufacturing for the aerospace industry to one involving lean manufacturing and Six Sigma principles, says David Herr, vice-president of operations for the company's Controls Sector. "Some aerospace suppliers are living in the 1980s," he says. Gary Mucha, vice-president of operations for the company, says BAE Systems North America will do more outsourcing in the future. As that happens, managing the supply chain will be more important.
DEFENSE DOLLARS: When the Congressional Budget Office and the White House Office of Management and Budget release revised federal revenue estimates later this month, House and Senate Democratic leaders will be looking to the Bush Administration for "ideas" on how to pay for its spending priorities for defense and other areas. In an Aug. 15 letter to President George W.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control of Orlando, Fla., delivered its first Hawkeye eXtended Range (XR) Target Sight System to Bell Helicopter, according to the company. The Hawkeye TSS will be installed on an AH-1Z Cobra helicopter in early 2002. It is the first piece of hardware that incorporates third-generation targeting system technology, Lockheed Martin said. The Hawkeye TSS is a suite of electro-optical and infrared sensors packaged in a stabilized turret to provide day or night surveillance and targeting for the AH-1Z Cobra.
The Costa Rican government is considering asking the U.S. for surveillance aircraft to shore up its anti-drug efforts, according to an aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). Lieberman learned of the possible request during an Aug. 6-14 trip to Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico, the aide told The DAILY Aug. 16. Costa Rica has no aircraft suitable for ocean surveillance of drug traffickers, the Senate staffer said. The aircraft would be used by Costa Rican police, since the country has no military.
The U.S. and Israeli governments signed an agreement Aug. 16 under which Israel's first astronaut will fly next spring aboard a space shuttle on a two-week research mission. NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and Aby Har-Even, a representative of the Israeli Space Agency, signed a Memorandum Of Understanding in a ceremony at Israel's Palmahim Air Force Base near Tel Aviv, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
FAA released a new initiative on Aug. 16 to enhance the safety of aircraft wiring from design and installation through retirement. The initiative, part of the agency's overall Aging Transport Non-Structural Systems program, follows several crashes in which questions about wiring systems and bundles were raised by safety experts, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported.
(Editor's note: This is an excerpt of comments U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made at a roundtable meeting with Russian political scientists during his visit to Moscow.) Q: ... The Russian side claims that the United States in raising the issue of revising the 1972 ABM Treaty is not putting forward any concrete proposals for revision ... now, is that the true situation? Now, is it true, therefore, that the United States does not have any concrete proposals on changing or amending the 1972 treaty?
A U.S. government decision on whether to allow Newport News Shipbuilding to be bought by General Dynamics or Northrop Grumman could be weeks or months away, a Department of Defense official said Aug. 15. E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the Pentagon is going to continue to ask the companies for more information about their competing merger proposals.
EMS TECHNOLOGIES, Inc., of Atlanta, will provide ground-based communications equipment to the Thailand department of aviation to support search-and-rescue operations over the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system, the company announced Aug. 16. The U.S., Russia, Canada and France jointly operate the Cospas-Sarsat system, which provides distress alert and location data to assist search-and-rescue operations.
NASA's International Space Station (ISS) Management and Cost Evaluation Team will meet for the first time in Washington, D.C. August 20. Administrator Dan Goldin created the team last month to help NASA address the quality of ISS cost estimates and requirements, as well as to identify high-risk budget areas and possible risk mitigation strategies.
Aerospace and defense analysts with Moody's Investors Service reaffirmed their ratings for Raytheon Co. on Aug. 16, following the company's announcement that contract obligations for two abandoned construction projects fell within the expected range. Raytheon announced Aug. 15 that the cost to complete two Massachusetts power plants abandoned by Washington Group International will amount to $633 million. Analysts had predicted losses between $450 million to $700 million.
NASA and industry partners Boeing Rocketdyne and Pratt&Whitney/Aerojet are already developing prototype engines in support of the next-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV), although the final configuration of the vehicle itself won't be decided until 2006. The two prototype engines, which are being developed under NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI), are Pratt&Whitney/Aerojet's COBRA (Co-optimized Booster for Reusable Applications - see photo, page 2), and Boeing Rocketdyne's RS-83.
Researchers participating in a NASA study are preparing to meet this year's hurricane season with airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles and sophisticated instruments, to gather data to improve hurricane modeling and prediction. They are participating in the Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX), the fourth in a series of field investigations sponsored by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, which involves researchers from 10 universities, five NASA centers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Khrunichev Space Center plans to market a complete remote sensing system, which will include a satellite constellation based on a Khrunichev bus, as well as a ground control and information processing center, the company announced during the Moscow Air Show. A key feature of the proposed remote sensing system is the use of VSAT-type "personal" ground stations to deliver information to end users, according to Khrunichev.
While F-22 Raptor prime contractor Lockheed Martin and program supporters in Congress said they were pleased with the decision made by the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) to recommend the aircraft for Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP), analysts expressed mixed views about what the decision will mean in the long run for Defense Department aircraft programs. The DAB Aug. 14 unanimously recommended starting LRIP, but it also cut the total planned F-22 buy from 331 to 295 (DAILY, Aug. 16).
SPACEDEV, of Poway, Calif., has test-fired its new miniature Maneuvering and Transfer Vehicle (MTV), the company announced. The 25 kilogram (55 pound) MTV is the smallest of a family of three SpaceDev orbital vehicles, and is designed to move payloads from standard geo transfer orbits to a variety of low-earth orbits or to geostationary orbits. The MTV is also designed to perform on-orbit rendezvous.
ARIANESPACE has delayed the planned Aug. 24 launch of its Ariane 4, carrying an Intelsat 902 satellite, to Aug. 30, the company announced. The delay will allow Intelsat engineers more time to conduct routine checks on the communications satellite, according to Arianespace. Final mission preparations are now slated to begin Aug. 20. The Aug. 30 launch window opens at 2:26 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
House Armed Services procurement subcommittee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) remained in extremely critical condition at a Mississippi hospital on Aug. 15, almost a week after he had surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, a spokesman for the congressman said. Spence, 73, entered his current condition hours after the Aug. 9 operation at St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Miss., his spokesman said. He has been breathing with the aid of a ventilator.
The use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products in military systems has its share of advantages and pitfalls, according to a panel of Navy and industry experts at the second annual Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference in Washington Aug. 14. A key issue for using COTS products is the choice of whether or not to adapt them to military requirements, which are often more stringent than those in the commercial world.
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY astronauts plan to conduct a spacewalk Aug. 16 to install the Early Ammonia Servicer onto the International Space Station's P6 Truss and will install a materials experiment onto the station's Quest Airlock, according to NASA.
INSPECTECH AERO SERVICE INC. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has completed installation of its Suspended Particle Device windows in a Learjet 25C owned and operated by National Jets of Fort Lauderdale. Instead of using windowshades, SPD windows use a thin plastic film capable of electrically controlling light transmission (DAILY, March 27). The company said the successful window use on the jet means the windows are ready to be used on a variety of aircraft.
A team from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is conducting flight tests of a prototype for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that may soar over the landscape of Mars later this decade. The prototype glider, nicknamed "Orville," had its latest test in the skies over Oregon's Tillamook airport August 9, when it was released from a helium balloon at an altitude of 103,000 feet.
Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) members reached a unanimous decision to recommend that the Air Force's F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter proceed to Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP), although they lowered the total production number from 331 to 295, Undersecretary of Defense E.C. "Pete" Aldridge said Aug. 15. "The program has met all its exit criteria for entering low rate production," Aldridge told reporters one day after the DAB met on the F-22. "It's performing to its design goals."
The Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite program has slipped a year and cost has increased more than $1 billion, an Air Force spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. The program, a follow-on to the Milstar communications satellite program, was originally to have cost $2.5 billion but its cost is now estimated at $4.3 billion, she said. Similarly, while the first launch had been planned for late 2004, it is now being slated for late 2005.
