Israel is taking several steps at home and abroad in hopes of boosting its weapons exports and shoring up the defense industry, according to military and industry officials.
TO SUBSIDIZE OR NOT TO SUBSIDIZE: Government subsidizing of space launches will continue until technological advances increase launch rates, says space analyst Robert W. Eleazar, "because if you get the flight rate up to the point where [customers] can pay just a little bit, you can run the entire [launch] installation.
NANO, NANO: In addition to larger scientific satellites for such applications as X-ray and radio astronomy, nanosatellites may feature prominently on the wish lists of future astronomers. "But we'll need lots of them," says astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, webmaster of 'Jonathan's Space Report.' Such a collection of very small satellites could be very useful for near-Earth study. "A cluster of four spacecraft to study the magnetosphere is a start, but I want to instrument the magnetosphere like you would telemeter a rocket.
ROTORCRAFT PLANS: The U.S. Army, aiming to boost the efficiency and affordability of helicopters now in its fleet and to demonstrate technologies that could be used in future rotorcraft, has mapped out a challenging plan to come up with better rotors, structures and drive systems. Several technology efforts at the component or systems level will lead to an advanced technology demonstration program set to run from fiscal 2005 to 2009, which in turn will lead to development of a Large Cargo Transport Rotorcraft beginning in FY 2010.
Canadian civilian, industry and military experts agree that unmanned aerial vehicles are likely to take a big role in Canadian Forces surveillance and reconnaissance duties by 2010, and Canada's military - with virtually no UAV experience - is wrestling with just how to make that happen. "The hurdles are not in the technology," said Col. Mark Aruja, who heads Canada's Joint Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Surveillance Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS) project. "We need to grapple with doctrine, concepts of operation and command and control processes."
SENSOR SERENDIPITY:The Joint Experimentation Directorate (JED) of Joint Forces Command is seeing improved sensor capability by serendipity, says Jack Klevecz, director of the Futures Alliance Deptartment of the JED. While working on attack operations on critical mobile targets, JED took certain sensors designed for different functions and found that by using their algorithms in a different manner and changing some of the protocols, "they were very, very effective in detecting hard-to-get targets and their launchers," Klevecz explains.
REVIEWS UNVEILED: The findings of some of the strategy reviews that the Pentagon has undertaken since the Bush Administration took office will begin to be revealed this week, sources say. Release of detailed budget numbers and procurement quantities has been held up until officials have analyzed each major program to determine if it fits into the overall structure of President Bush's emerging national security strategy.
NO NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: While U.S. officials should not focus so exclusively on one means of delivery of a weapon that they don't think about others, a suitcase nuclear bomb smuggled in from North Korea, Iran or Iraq is not terribly likely, says Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. The U.S. does have at least minimal defense against suitcase bombs today, he notes, with its use of intelligence, customs and the Coast Guard.
NEED FOR R&D: The Air Force must invest more money in space R&D efforts for which the financial returns are uncertain, says Maj. Gen. Mike Hamel, director of Space Operations and Integration at Air Force headquarters. "As our budgets have declined, we've sort of imagined that somehow we could leverage commercial investment" in R&D, Hamel says. "But when you start talking about fundamental R&D, where the payoff is totally uncertain and at minimum could be many years away, we certainly realize now that that strategy does not work.
SUCCESS ORIENTED: The first payload customer for the first Atlas V launch next May has not yet signed on the dotted line, but Mark Albrecht, president of International Launch Services, is optimistic. "We're very, very close," he says. He rebuffs reporters' requests to identify the customer, saying, "It's like a wedding. [The groom] never [looks] at the bride's dress [before the ceremony].
The first P-3 Airborne Early Warning Aircraft equipped with a next-generation "glass" cockpit had a successful first flight from Lockheed Martin's Aircraft Logistics Center in Greenville, S.C., the company announced May 3.
MAKE IT LIKE LEO: Humanity must make operations in the inner solar system as routine as work in low Earth orbit is today. "I believe, in the next 50 years, the inner solar system has to become that kind of plum territory," says McDowell. "We will expand the infrastructure," he says. "We'll have communications and tracking. We're going to have to have air traffic control for the solar system." But we shouldn't stop there, he says. "I do think that we need to go beyond low Earth orbit.
The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory recently conducted experiments on using guided parafoils as a way of delivering supplies to soldiers on the battlefield. The system, called the Guided Parafoil Aerial Delivery System, can be guided manually, by beacon or by the Global Positioning System. During the April tests, the Marines made 14 drops of GPADS carrying from 300 to 1,100 lbs. of cargo.
After five months of review, the U.S. Justice Department has approved General Electric Corp's. $45 billion buy of Honeywell Corp., pending the sale of Honeywell's military helicopter engine unit. Justice Department officials announced the conditional approval May 3.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Space Systems Co. has launched a new website, www.gps-future.com, to allow Global Positioning System users to provide input for shaping the next-generation GPS, called GPS III. The company said the site was created to complement its work on the U.S. Air Force's GPS III architecture and requirements study.
Lockheed Martin is proposing to demonstrate portions of its new Atlas V rocket as a flyback booster for the space shuttle to help cut the cost of access to space. The proposal - one of a number submitted by industry to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center as part of an effort to lay the groundwork for future space launch efficiencies - includes Russia's RD-180 engine.
The Army could run into problems if it begins low-rate initial production of a new radar countermeasures system before it is sure the systems' new key components will work as intended, says a new report from the General Accounting Office. The Army is acquiring a new, state-of-the-art radar countermeasures system, called the Suite of Integrated Radio Frequency Countermeasures (SIRFC), to enable its helicopters and other aircraft to identify, track and defeat radar-guided missiles.
Ametek Aerospace, of Paoli, Pa., has been selected to provide the engine sensor suite for GE Aircraft Engines' new CF34-10D/E jet engine, the company announced May 3. Ametek will supply a full complement of engine sensors for the new regional jet engine, including sensors for temperatures, pressures, speeds, oil level/temperature and vibration, according to the company.
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Assoc. Ltd. has been selected by the Air Force to develop a system to help AF specialists design Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs). IAPs are published instructions to pilots specifying maneuvers that must be done for an aircraft to safely move from an airway to a runway final approach when flying by instruments. MDA's system uses digital terrain, elevation and navigation data to build and display a virtual model of the physical environment around an airport.
Using power from U.S. Navy vessels to help ease the energy crunch California is facing is "technically feasible," according to the Pentagon's spokesman, but not really worth the effort.
A new joint missile venture announced April 27 between three European defense contractors might help the companies face the challenge of international competition, but it could also stifle competition within Europe and all but shut out non-European companies, analysts said.
Although they admit the business case is presently "insufficient" to support commercial operations, in the next decade NASA officials still hope to leverage industry into furnishing a second generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV) to replace the space shuttle. The space agency is currently evaluating proposed concepts from industry - which run the gamut of stages and configurations - and will begin downselecting candidates by late next year.
Air Education and Training Command, Randolph Air Force Base, Tex., has issued an operational stand-down from flying to all 180 T-1A Jayhawk training aircraft while the planes undergo inspection for discrepancies. On April 30, Gen. Hal M. Hornburg, AETC commander, issued a 72-hour stand-down, which has now been extended at least another 24 hours, Lt. Col. Billy Birdwell, spokesman for the training command, told The DAILY.
In an effort to focus federal efforts to combat terrorism and deal with its aftermath, U.S. senators representing several key committees will conduct hearings May 8-10. "These hearings are an important first step toward a coordinated federal effort to combat terrorism," said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) in announcing the hearings. "They represent a willingness among congressional committees to join forces to address this important national security issue."
Three miniature robot airplanes equipped with sophisticated instruments have been buzzing over the Arctic sea ice near Barrow, Alaska, providing University of Colorado-Boulder researchers and North Slope residents with critical new data on atmospheric and environmental changes. Known as aerosondes, the three-foot-long, 30-pound drones made a series of flights last month to help researchers monitor temperatures, humidity and wind speeds, said Judith Curry, an aerospace engineer at the university.
