This week, California-based SpaceDev is test-firing a hybrid rocket motor designed to provide an extra orbital boost for supplemental payloads on Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) or space shuttle missions.
The U.S. Army has been having general discussions about a potential replacement for its aging C-23B Sherpa light-transport aircraft, according to a spokesman for the Army's Program Executive Office, Aviation (PEO Aviation). The spokesman, Bob Hunt, emphasized that the discussions are in the early stages and that the Army has developed no concrete plans for starting a competition for a C-23B successor. "They've been talking about it, but nothing's firm," Hunt told The DAILY Nov. 3.
Lockheed Martin delivered the first HC-130J Super Hercules airlifter to the U.S. Coast Guard Oct. 31. The HC-130J is intended eventually to replace the Coast Guard's oldest HC-130H maritime patrol aircraft, some of which were built in the early 1970s, Lockheed Martin said.
The first Coast Guard cutter installed with new electronics equipment as part of the Integrated Deepwater Systems program has gone to sea, officials with Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) said Nov. 3. The Coast Guard Cutter Northland was outfitted with international maritime Satellite B Services, which connects the ship with the Defense Department's Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNET).
Leaders of the congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group (EWWG) have asked two top defense officials to meet with them to discuss ways to improve the military's electronic warfare (EW) capabilities.
The U.S. Air Force has authorized International Launch Services (ILS) to begin integrating the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite #3 (WGS-3) on the Lockheed Martin-built Atlas V for a 2006 launch - the first of the seven Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) assignments that were transferred from Boeing as a punitive measure.
PRAGUE - In a surprise move, the Swedish government said it has offered new supersonic fighters to the Czech Republic as part of a competition that was expected to involve only older aircraft. Sweden's ambassador to the Czech Republic, Harald Falth, told journalists in Prague Oct. 3 that the Swedish offer of 12 new one-seat and two two-seat JAS-39 Gripen fighters is within the Czech ministry of defense's stated available budget.
ORBITAL OFFICE: Boeing has established an integrated Orbital Space Program office in Huntsville, Ala., the company said Nov. 3. The office includes the company's Orbital Space Plane and Alternate Access to Station programs, and its creation should help lead to the "best solution" for NASA's Orbital Space Plane program, Boeing said.
To avoid an unacceptable launch delay, Arianespace has transferred the launch of the DirecTV 7S satellite to Boeing's Sea Launch for a flight in the first quarter of 2004, Arianespace announced Oct. 31. DIRECTV 7S is slated to serve 60 local television markets across the U.S., making it a high-priority launch for the company. However, a manufacturing delay caused the launch to slip until it conflicted with the Rosetta scientific spacecraft, which is slated to lift off on the Ariane 5 in February.
LOWER TIER: The Army Lower Tier Project Office in Huntsville, Ala., which oversees the Patriot system and the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), is getting a new leader. Col. John Vaughn, just promoted from lieutenant colonel, is replacing retiring Col. Tommie Newberry as the office's project manager.
FRIEND OR FOE: Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division will provide 10 AN/UPX-24(V) shipboard interrogators, part of an identification, friend or foe system, the company said Oct. 31. The contract is worth $14 million and calls for the company to deliver the systems through October 2005. The UPX-24 has been operational on CG 47 Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruisers, DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers and LHD 1 Wasp-class amphibious assault ships since the mid-1970s, the company said.
EARTH STUDY UAVS: NASA and Aerosonde North America of Denver will establish a facility at the Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) to study the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles for earth science studies. An Aerosonde UAV will begin flight tests at WFF in November and begin research flights in January 2005, NASA says. Long-endurance UAVs could fill a gap between satellites and surface networks for global observation, NASA says, and would not be limited by the endurance of a pilot.
ENVISAT FORECASTING: Data from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite is helping the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy provide a global ozone forecasting service in near-real time, ESA says. The institute has developed a service called the Belgian Assimilation System of Chemical Observations from Envisat (BASCOE), which maps and forecasts the concentration of ozone and in the stratosphere, as well as the concentration of 56 other chemicals - including some that can deplete ozone.
FLEET RESPONSE: The U.S. Navy's Fleet Response Concept to prepare ships for rapid deployment to trouble spots could affect defense contractors differently, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. "Clearly, if fewer ships are forward deployed, then the Navy might be able to live with a smaller fleet," Callan says.
UNSATISFIED: House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Ranking Member Ralph Hall (D-Texas) aren't satisfied with NASA's response to their letter urging the agency to defer the development of the Orbital Space Plane (DAILY, Oct. 30), according to a joint statement. "Unfortunately, NASA's response does not directly address either of the concerns we raised in our letter," the statement says.
The House approved two measures late Oct. 30 that will provide billions of dollars for extra spending on defense equipment and help pave the way for new aviation development efforts at the FAA. The $87.5 billion fiscal 2004 supplemental appropriations conference report mostly is for military operations and reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq but contains $5.9 billion for military procurement and research and development, including hundreds of millions for the purchase of aviation, communications and radio-jamming equipment (DAILY, Oct. 31).
The international market for radars over the next 10 years should be worth a total of $18.36 billion based on based on existing programs, according to a report from Forecast International/DMS. The top radar manufacturers today are expected to dominate the market, the report says. Those companies, which include Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Thales, BAE Systems and Ericsson, should capture 61.3 percent of the market, or roughly $11.2 billion in contracts, according to the report, entitled "The Market for Radar Systems."
MOSCOW - A Russian Rockot launch vehicle delivered Japan's Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System (SERVIS) satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Oct. 30, following a one-day delay due to bad weather. The satellite will test commercial electronic components in the harsh environment of space. Sergey Ivanov, the Russian defense minister, visited Plesetsk to observe the launch but the weather-related delay caused him to leave before it occurred.
The U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has completed its series of flights in Germany intended to demonstrate a new European-built electronics intelligence (ELINT) sensor and pave the way for the Euro Hawk procurement by the German ministry of defense (MOD).
URBAN GLOBAL HAWK: Northrop Grumman plans to partner with the Department of Defense to begin training Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators to collect data over urban areas, according to David Stafford, vice president for business and strategy development for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems. "We're going to do some training on that subject, hopefully with the National Training Command, in the near future, as they go to their next exercise, which is going to be about urban [operations]," Stafford says.
