HURRY UP, THAAD: Although it won't be deployed for several more years, the need for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system exists right now, says Cosumano. "The Missile Defense Act of 1991 said we wanted to have a deployment of THAAD, I think, by 1997. Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't do it, and we will not deploy this system until about the 2006-2007 timeframe on the current schedule.
The Boeing-led Joint Strike Fighter team is wrapping up flight testing of its X-32B concept demonstrator here and preparing for the JSF program's Engineering Manufacturing and Development phase. The Boeing X-32 team is in an intense competition with the X-35 team headed by Lockheed Martin for the EMD contract. Announcement of a winner, which had been expected as early as October 1, now is planned for late October, JSF Program Office spokesperson Kathy Crawford said July 19.
The Air Force in coming months will decide whether to proceed with a program to develop the Extended Range Cruise Missile (ERCM), a longer-range weapon that would supplement the low-inventory Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM). CALCM is a conversion of the nuclear-tipped Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM).
The U.S. Army is requesting its first funding for kits to make the avionics of its fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft compatible with evolving air traffic control systems around the world. Newly released materials prepared for Congress to justify the Army's amended fiscal 2002 budget show that the service is asking $54.6 million to install Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) kits in some 250 of its aircraft.
Engineering and technical support for the Army's AH-64 Apache helicopter is underfunded, meaning some projects that could affect its flight safety have been limited or delayed, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. "In fiscal years 2000 and 2001, the Apache's identified sustainment systems technical support requirements have not been fully met," the report says.
Boeing said yesterday it has cleared a "major hurdle" in the development of its air traffic management system with the licensing of a new mobile satellite service by the Federal Communications Commission.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted July 19 to cut the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 request for the International Space Station by $150 million, saying it has "lost confidence" in the program's ability to manage its budget in light of cost overruns. The space station would get about $1.7 billion in FY '02, reflecting not only the cut but a transfer of the station research budget to another account.
International Space Station crewmembers have set up a hatch between the new Joint Airlock's equipment lock and crew lock, getting the gateway ready for its July 20 debut as the station's gateway to outer space.
NASA's X-43A mishap review panel still hasn't found a cause for the program's June 2 launch failure, which forced the agency to destroy the hypersonic test vehicle after its Orbital Sciences Corp.-built Pegasus booster veered out of control.
A House-Senate conference committee reached agreement July 19 on a fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill that cuts previously enacted V-22 procurement funding by $513 million but adds $80 million for research and development to fix deficiencies in the Bell-Boeing aircraft.
(Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the transcript of a briefing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave reporters in the Pentagon on July 18.) Q: Secretary Rumsfeld, as I understand it, earlier this week you told the service chiefs and others in a meeting, quote, "We have a big problem," unquote, on the QDR, and that you then asked them to go back and re-look the terms of reference and come up with new answers on force structure. Is that correct?
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to order inspection and modification of certain lap joints on 1,600 older 727 and 737 aircraft in the U.S. fleet, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported. FAA said the cost of compliance would range from $54,000 to $264,000 per aircraft. At the higher estimate, the cost to operators would be $422.4 million.
Much of the Air Force's strategy for the future will be based on the weapons systems and platforms it already has - but those systems must be modified to play more than one role and support the missions of the other services, Secretary of the Air Force James Roche said July 19. Roche said instead of modifying the platforms themselves, the Air Force may try to modify the weapons carried by those platforms.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Dallas, held a second successful test of the Line-of-Sight Antitank (LOSAT) missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the company announced July 19. The missile was remotely launched by a contractor gunner located in the Auxiliary Test Center from a stationary LOSAT fire unit located on the LOSAT launch pad at the Small Missile Range.
The European Space Agency has outlined a lengthy process to try to fully recover its Artemis telecommunications and technology demonstrator satellite, which was left in a too-low orbit when an Ariane 5 booster malfunctioned (DAILY, July 16). An ESA/Alenia Spazio-Telespazio team plans to use the satellite's chemical boosters to bump its orbit to 31,000 km. (19,300 miles) from its current 17,487 km. (about 11,000 mile) orbit.
While expressing guarded support for missile defense, several Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee challenged Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on key points of the Bush Administration's accelerated test plans and their possible impact on the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. Ranking Minority Member Ike Skelton (D-Missouri) opened the July 19 hearing by saying that the Administration's proposed $3 billion increase in missile defense funding would pay the salary of the entire enlisted Marine Corps for a year.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. of Dulles, Va., has completed the sale of its interest in MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. of Richmond, British Columbia, with the public sale of the company's remaining 1.65 million shares, at $21 per share CDN. MDA is Canada's leading space and information systems company, according to Orbital Sciences, and is the world's primary supplier of space robotics technology. A company subsidiary provided the robotic arms used on both the International Space Station and the space shuttle.
The deployment test flight for the Cosmos 1 solar sail project test craft has been bumped a day, from July 18 to July 19, according to the Planetary Society. Pre-launch preparations have uncovered no technical problems, but Viacheslav Danyelkin, the deputy director of Russia's Makeev Rocket Design Bureau, decided on the delay to allow more time to place the Volna booster rocket on the Delta III-class submarine that will launch the test craft.
BAE Systems Aviation Services has signed a base maintenance agreement with TNT airways of Liege, Belgium, and Pan Air, based in Madrid, to handle heavy maintenance checks to support the five BAE Systems Airbus A300B4 passenger-to-freighter conversions currently in service. The three-year contract is worth $18 million, the company, part of BAE System's Aircraft Services Group of Filton, Bristol, United Kingdom, announced July 17.
LANDSEA SYSTEMS of Virginia Beach, Va., has signed an agreement with Thales Airborne Systems for rights to distribute the Thales Inmarsat Aero-I Satellite Communication System. Under this agreement, LandSea will exclusively market and support the JetSat Aero-I to government and military agencies in the United States. "The JetSat allows for voice, fax and data (email) transmissions as well as meeting Global Air Traffic Management under the CNS/ATM communication requirement," said Ken Ravenna, vice president of LandSea's Aeronautical Division.
Space-based assets will eventually provide integral, near real-time information to the individual soldier, according to Col. Glen Collins, director of the Force Development and Integration Center at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Speaking at a media briefing here July 17, Collins said that with the help of future space-based systems - such as Space-based Radar and the Space-based Infrared System (SBIRS) - experiences such as those narrated in the book "Black Hawk Down" could become a thing of the past.
NASA plans two more tests of the Electro-Mechanical Actuator (EMA) technology used in the now-defunct X-33 program's Linear Aerospike XRS-2200 engine set, and will then turn the results over to industry so the technology can be integrated into next-generation spacecraft. The goal is to replace complicated rocket engine hydraulic systems with more trouble-free electro-mechanical systems that are cheaper to run.
MACDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD. of Richmond, British Columbia, has been asked by the Canadian Space Agency to evaluate options for a Canadian hyperspectral mission, the company announced. Hyperspectral sensors look at Earth in hundreds of colors that can be used to determine important information about natural resources and the impact of mankind on the planet.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has successfully completed final testing of the thrust vector control (TVC) system on its first-stage motor for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment. This completes all requirements to qualify the motor for flight, the Minneapolis-based company announced July 18.
Magellan Aerospace Corp. of Toronto has shipped the first flying test bed titanium aft nozzle for the Airbus A318 aircraft, the company announced July 18. The final production configuration acoustic panel will be mated with components produced by Snecma's Hurel-Hispano of LeHavre, France, and the Pratt&Whitney 6000 engine. The complete assembly will be used to verify the engine-to-nacelle combination in the A318 flight test program before certification and full-scale production.
