The U.S. Marine Corps is developing a unique nonlethal weapon that would hamper an enemy's mobility by making the ground exceedingly slippery. This "anti-traction" system's polyacrylamide powder is mixed with water and sprayed over flat surfaces to make them slicker than ice. The powder compound is used by the drilling industry, according to George Gibbs, a nonlethal weapons engineer at Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM).
TOW SIGHTS: DRS Technologies will produce and test upgrade kits for night-vision targeting sights on the Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missile system, the company said Nov. 10. The AN/TAS-4(X) TOW Sights will be produced under a $9.3 million contract from the Applied Research Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University Center for Electro-Optics Research.
Nov. 10 - 12 -- Airline Industry Workshop: "Securing Customers in a Down Market," Hilton Airport Hotel, Miami, Fla. For more information contact call Virginia Brooks at (903) 532-9714, email [email protected], or go to www.sabrearlinesolutions.com. Nov. 11 - 14 -- Productronica 2003, "The Latest Developments in Electronic Production," New Munich Trade Fair Centre, Munich, Germany. For more information contact Randi M. West at 312-377-2650 or go to www.munichtradefairs.com.
NASA has awarded an International Space Station cargo mission services contract to Lockheed Martin Space Operations of Houston and a station mission integration services contract to Barrios Technology, also of Houston, the aerospace agency said Nov. 5. The cargo mission contract is to help plan, prepare and carry out cargo missions to the space station. The four-year, nine-month contract has two one-year extension options and could be worth up to $165.8 million.
AEROSPACE COMMISSION: The U.S. aerospace commission, which issued a series of recommendations a year ago to help shore up the American industrial base, is getting set for a mini-reunion. Four members of the congressionally mandated panel, including its chairman, former Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.), plan to brief reporters Nov. 11 on what actions the government has taken to implement the commission's suggestions.
The likelihood of a major transatlantic merger occurring in the near term is remote, according to some defense analysts and former industry executives. Speaking at a defense symposium last week in Washington, Gordon Adams, director of the George Washington University's Security Policy Studies Program, said the Pentagon first would have to create a favorable climate for transatlantic mergers by initiating more transatlantic programs.
NEW DELHI - Talks on India's proposed buy of 22 MiG-29K fighters to be used on the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov have hit a snag after aircraft manufacturer RAC MiG refused to drop the price. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had hoped to complete the deal before his Nov. 11 trip to Russia, but Navy officials here said he will not be able to announce any defense deals during his visit. Talks between India and Russia on the MiG buy began late last month and ended Nov. 7 with no resolution.
MODEST INCREASE: Despite political and civil unrest in Latin America, defense spending is expected to rise only modestly over the next five years, according to Latin American defense analyst Tom Baranauskas of Forecast International/DMS. Total military spending for the region will rise from about $24.5 billion in 2003 to about $27.3 billion through 2008, Baranauskas says, but much of that depends on economic recovery and sustained growth.
Almost one-fourth of the House's membership has signed a letter urging President Bush to boost funding for NASA. Among the 100-plus signers are House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), Science Committee ranking Democrat Ralph Hall (Texas) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee's NASA panel.
Faced with a grim budget outlook, the European Space Agency (ESA) has canceled its Eddington planet-finding mission and cut the lander from the BepiColombo mission to Mercury. ESA's committee on science programs met Nov. 5 and 6 and faced with a tight budget, and "an outlook with no budget increase or other relief," made the tough decisions, ESA said Nov. 7. Several "sudden demands on finance" occurred in the spring to worsen the situation, including the grounding of the Ariane 5, which forced a delay in ESA's Rosetta and SMART-1 missions.
TARGET WORK: Orbital Sciences Corp. will design, build and test a Medium Range Target (MRT) vehicle for the Missile Defense Agency under a $19 million contract, the company said Nov. 7. The vehicle is scheduled to be launched in 2005 as a risk reduction flight.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The U.S. Air Force is studying several space technologies that could help ground forces in combat, according to Brig. Gen. Daniel J. Darnell, commander of the Space Warfare Center at Schriever Air Force Base here. One is a "near-space maneuvering vehicle" that could help in several arenas, including communications, and another is a short-pulse laser for combat identification.
Raytheon's AIM-9X air-to-air missile has become operational, according to Naval Air Systems Command. A ceremony to mark the milestone will be held Nov. 13 at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, NAVAIR said Nov. 7. The short-range, heat-seeking missile is the latest in a line of Sidewinders that goes back to the 1950s. More than 110,000 Sidewinders have been produced for 27 nations, including the U.S. Some 10,000 AIM-9Xs are expected to be produced throough 2018. About 1,000 already have been produced in low-rate quantities.
MORE CAPABLE: The Pentagon plans to reduce the number of troops in Iraq next year, but defense officials say a reduced quantity doesn't mean a lack of quality. "The current plan is that if the security situation permits, to go from four divisions and 17 brigades in Iraq today to three divisions and 13 brigades U.S. next year," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says "numbers do not equate to capabilities.
Tension has developed between the U.S. Defense Department and its prime contractors over the last decade over the best way to develop transformational weapons technology, according to some defense analysts. The Pentagon, which has sought to streamline its procurement practices, has implemented reforms like Total Systems Procurement Responsibility (TSPR). Under the TSPR arrangement, large defense programs are given to prime contractors, who manage the programs and make acquisition decisions about which transformational technologies to buy.
Boeing has licensed some of its advanced network systems technologies to L-3 Communications for use across multiple industries, the company said Nov. 7. Boeing developed the patented IntelliBus technology for network systems on military aircraft. A bus is a high-speed electronic network allowing multiple sensors, actuators and other devices to operate over a shared communications link, using less wiring and fewer connectors, the company said.
DEFENSE INVESTMENT: Investors should focus on patterns of discretionary spending to get good a sense of how the defense budget will grow over the next 10 years, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray of Deutsche Bank. "DOD accounts would have grown to a near record high of some 40 percent of discretionary accounts had Congress not added money to many other accounts against the White House's spending requests," Mecray says.
SEEING CLEARLY: The moon also could be used as a home for large, cryogenically cooled space telescopes, says Roger Angel, director of the Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory. Such telescopes can be put in orbit, but "the moon's south pole is an alternative location," he says. "The pole is down in the Shackleton crater where the sun never shines and cryogenic temperatures prevail ... the moon has no atmosphere, so light from the stars would have the same pristine quality as in free space.
MOON POWER: Solar energy could be beamed from the moon to power electrical systems on Earth, according to David R. Criswell, director of the Institute for Space Systems Operations at the University of Houston. Criswell was among witnesses who testified before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee about reasons for returning to the moon. "By 2050, approximately 10 billion people will live on Earth, demanding [about] five times the power now available," Criswell predicts.
AUSTRALIAN BUYS: in a revision of its 2000 white paper on defense, Australia plans to replace the army's aging Leopard tanks and equip its forces with combat identification systems, better communications and more night vision equipment, the Australian Defence Organisation says. It also plans to equip four navy guided missile frigates with Standard Missile-2s and buy three air warfare destroyers, and to withdraw the air force's F-111s from service a few years earlier than previously planned.
ARMY HEARING: Although the Senate Armed Services Committee is done with its major legislative job for the year - helping draft the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill - it still plans to get in at least one more hearing before Congress wraps up the 2003 session. Current Army issues, likely including ongoing military operations in Iraq, will be explored on Nov. 13 with testimony from Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker.
