The Senate Nov. 18 approved the fiscal 2004 NASA appropriations bill, sending the legislation to a conference with the House. Among the issues the conference will have to resolve is funding for the International Space Station (ISS). The Senate bill cuts $200 million from the Bush Administration's $1.7 billion request for ISS (DAILY, Sept. 5), while the House bill, which the House approved in July 25, fully funds the request (DAILY, July 16).
UFO ARRIVES: The U.S. Navy's UHF Follow-On (UFO) F11 satellite has arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., where it will undergo final launch preparations for its December launch, satellite building Boeing Satellite Systems said Nov. 18.
Accurately detecting and tracking weapons of mass destruction (WMD) requires technology that can be deployed on the ground rather than from a distance, according to a former Defense Department official. Programs that take an "outside-looking-in" approach, like missile programs, are "just not good enough," said Ashton Carter, former assistant secretary of defense for international security policy.
U.S. Air Force officials defended new space acquisition rules before the Senate Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces subcommittee Nov. 18, saying they will improve mission success.
Existing sensor systems are inadequate for tracking dismounted individuals and must be improved if the U.S. military is going to find people like Saddam Hussein, according to William Schneider Jr., chairman of the Defense Science Board. "A lot of our sensor systems that support military operations are designed to find military forces and look for signatures that are associated with the movement of forces and their equipment," Schneider said Nov. 18 at the Defense Research & Engineering Conference & Exposition in Washington.
DRS Technologies Inc. has received an $8.5 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop and demonstrate new technology to improve day and night infrared sensing of targets, the company announced last week. The contract, plus options, supports the Adaptive Focal Plane Array (AFPA) program establish by DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). The Parsippany, N.J., firm will perform the first phase of the program and be eligible for the second and third phases as well, the company said.
STEREO LAUNCH: NASA has tapped Boeing's Delta Launch Services Inc. to launch the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the aerospace agency said Nov. 14. STEREO is to include two spacecraft that will study interactions between the Earth and sun. The launch is scheduled for Nov. 15, 2005. The launch option is included under the Launch Services Contract that NASA awarded Delta Launch Services in 2000.
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems will continue work on the Common Network Interface under an $11 million contract from the U.S. Navy, the company said Nov. 14. The interface is a software package intended as an upgrade to combat systems aboard several classes of Navy combat ships, the company said. The interface receives inputs from sensors and data links, resolves inconsistencies and outputs the results to display devices and other command and control systems.
NEW DELHI - India will refurbish Vietnam's MiG-21 fleet under a $200 million agreement signed Nov. 17. The deal was completed at a meeting between defense officials from both countries, headed by Ajay Prasad, India's defense minister, and Lt. Gen. Nguyen Huy Hieu, Vietnam's vice defense minister. India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) competed for the contract with original aircraft builder RAC MiG of Russia, said senior defense ministry officials here.
Loral Space & Communications reported losses in revenue and profit for the third quarter. Net income for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30, fell from a net loss of $57 million a year ago to a net loss of $128 million this year. Third-quarter revenues fell from $211 million a year ago to $47 million. Company officials partially attributed the loss to a reversal of an $83 million sale of the Telstar 18/Apstar V satellite. The sale was converted to a lease arrangement.
The U.S. Air Force has begun looking at the possibility of assigning a "long-dwell asset" the responsibility of tracking friendly forces on the battlefield, a service official said Nov. 17 at a conference on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force have chosen the contractor teams that will compete in the six-month first phase of the Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S. (FALCON) program.
ROCKWELL NOTES: Aviation electronics and communications company Rockwell Collins will issue $200 million in long-term debt notes, the company said Nov. 17. The proceeds will go to repay outstanding commercial paper and help finance the acquisition of training and simulation company NLX.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy are looking at the possibility of merging the third and fourth clusters of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program, officials said Nov. 17.
The cost to build and deliver the U.S. Army's Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) is expected to total around $5.9 billion, according to a senior Army official. The Defense Department is expected to release its cost estimate for the ACS program in January. It is expected to be considerably higher, said Edward Bair, program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors.
The FAA's Joint Planning Office is slated to brief government officials in Washington Nov. 20 on the Access Five plan, which envisions routine operations of unmanned aerial vehicles in the national airspace system in about five years, industry and government officials said Nov. 17. Frasier Jones, an FAA spokesman, said the seminar is closed to the public.
The Army is considering making Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle part of the Hunter Standoff Killer Team (HSKT) advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD), according to Col. William Gavora, commander of the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) at Fort Eustis, Va.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has won a $39.4 million contract extension, plus an option for $40.5 million more, for continuing work on U.S. military early-warning satellites that detect missile and space launches and nuclear detonations, the company announced Nov. 17.
KC-135E RETIREMENT: The fiscal 2004 defense authorization conference report, newly approved by Congress, will prevent the U.S. Air Force from retiring more than 12 KC-135E tankers in FY '04. The Air Force has been planning to phase out 68 KC-135Es by the end of FY '06, including 44 in FY '04 (DAILY, July 25). But lawmakers say that while some of the aging aircraft may be difficult to maintain, large numbers should not be retired until an overall approach to modernizing the Air Force's aerial refueling fleet is better understood.
LARGER ROLE: European militaries may yet play a larger role in Iraq, but not before substantial progress is made in Afghanistan operations, Robertson says. "That is a big job we've got to get right," he says. "There's no point in dabbling in Afghanistan and then going in and dabbling in Iraq, and risking two half-done operations. NATO has to succeed in Afghanistan." Eighteen of 26 NATO countries have supplied a total of 5,700 troops in Afghanistan, Robertson says.
GRAND CHALLENGE: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to evaluate and qualify up to 25 robotic ground vehicle teams to participate in its "Grand Challenge" race (DAILY, July 29). DARPA has invited 19 teams to participate in the Qualification, Inspection and Demonstration (QID) event to be held March 8-12, 2004, and expects to invite up to six more next month. The entrants selected range from high school teams to independent engineers and academic groups, according to DARPA.
