NASA's $28 million Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer mission will be launched in 2003 as the agency's latest mission in the New Millennium Program. The mission, managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will validate methods of operating several spacecraft as a system and test eight technologies in the environment near the boundary of Earth's protective magnetic field, NASA said.
A Brimstone anti-armor weapon was launched for the first time at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., Boeing reported yesterday. The launch took place earlier this month from a Brimstone launcher mounted on a specially constructed platform. The primary objectives of the launch, Boeing said, were to verify the attitude-controlled, closed-loop stability maneuvering capability of the missile, evaluate telemetry system performance under flight maneuvering conditions, and to determine inertial navigation system accuracy.
The number of inadequacies in the Navy's F/A-18E/F strike fighter are within the normal range for an aircraft at its stage, according to the Defense Dept.'s Inspector General's office.
August 18, 1999 Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $9,353,055 modification to a firm-fixed-price-with-economic-price-adjustment contract, F33657-95-C-2055-P00023, to provide for training, support equipment, spares, and interim contractor support for the C-130J aircraft. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is February 2001. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
Engineers at NASA's Stennis Space Center tested a hybrid rocket motor for 15 seconds earlier this month, demonstrating stable performance for the cross between a solid- and liquid-fueled motor. The motor, built by a consortium of Lockheed Martin's Astronautics and Michoud Space Systems units; Boeing's Rocketdyne, and United Technologies' Chemical Systems Div., measures 70 inches in diameter by 45 feet in length, and weighs 125,000 pounds. It burns a rubber-like solid fuel with a liquid oxidizer, and shuts down once the flow of oxidizer is halted.
The FAA has conditionally accepted Raytheon Co.'s Early Display Configuration for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) and is conducting operational test and evaluation of what is to be the U.S. air traffic control system for the next century. STARS will replace computer and display systems in 172 terminal air traffic control facilities and in up to 199 Dept. of Defense facilities.
A specialized set of national missile defense (NMD) target payloads was launched aboard a Minuteman III ICBM to a Pacific Ocean test site from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Friday. The payloads, designated Radar Credible Target-1 (RCT-1), occupied one of three reentry vehicle seats on the Minuteman III post boost vehicle, Army Space and Missile Defense Command reported.
U.S. Air Force pilots want more cockpit hours and the AF has requested more money from Congress to pay for it. The problem, says the General Accounting Office, is that the service has not used all its flight money for the past few years. The money has been routed instead to pay for unfunded requirements. The GAO has advised the service to change its accounting practices in order to build a case for more flight money in the next budget round, which begins in February.
The Pentagon's complaint of a shortage of about 2,000 pilots at the end fiscal year 1998 can be laid partly at the door of the airline industry, according to a General Accounting Office report to the House Armed Services Committee.
Despite allegations that chief Pentagon officials were not informed about the F/A-18E/F's wing drop characteristic before initial production of the U.S. Navy fighter was approved, there was no attempt to hide it, according to the Dept. of Defense's Inspector General. Boeing corrected the problem, which caused the aircraft to assume uncommanded bank angles in some parts of the performance envelope, by installing a production-representative porous wing fairing a year ago.
Litton Industries Inc. formed a new operating division, Litton Advanced Systems Div. (ASD), by consolidating its Applied Technology Div., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with the Amecom Div. based in College Park, Md., Litton reported Friday.
Pentagon Acquisition Chief Jacques Gansler has offered to discuss with lawmakers the decision to move the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile into engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) without a third planned intercept test. The Dept. of Defense announced the change while Congress is out of town for its month-long August recess. Gansler sent a letter to the House Armed Services Committee last Wednesday on the new plan. Some lawmakers may not be pleased. For example, Rep.
A group of Republican senators is angry that the Pentagon has decided to forgo deployment of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar to East Asia to monitor the apparently impending launch of a North Korean Taepo Dong II missile. The Pentagon has said no the idea, citing cost and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Moscow.
TriStar Aerospace Co., Dallas, won a contract from Northrop Grumman's Air Combat Systems Div. as its exclusive just-in-time (JIT) hardware supplier for Northrop's F/A-18 manufacturing program, TriStar reported Friday. Under the three-year, $12.4 million agreement, TriStar will provide all the procurement, warehousing and JIT delivery of Northrop's required hardware material for the main fuselage of the F/A-18 being made in El Segundo, Calif.
Lockheed Martin Government Electronic Systems (GES) has completed the first of four antennae for Spain's new frigate, the F-101 Alvaro de Bazan. The antenna will be tested later this month and delivered to the Spanish Navy in the fall of 2000.
The U.S. Army plans to field its first digitized unit in December 2000 with several key command and control systems and tactical operations centers. However, pivotal systems including Milstar, Maneuver Control Center and Tactical Command and Control System will not have been conclusively demonstrated at that point. The General Accounting Office has recommended establishment of detailed schedules and procurement plans to minimize risk.
While many think budget crunches favor defense electronics firms because upgrades are cheaper than replacements, Callan isn't so sure. "I think the upgrade argument has always been overstated," he says. "When budget crunches have come, the first thing to go is the upgrade programs. At least that's the way it's worked in the United States. Eastern Europe is a little different." While Romania is upgrading its MiG-21s with Israeli electronics, Callan says, "It's a difficult theme to really pick out and say, 'Aha, this is the way the world is going to be.' ...
Keith Calhoun-Senghor, director of the Office of Space Commercialization at the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, has resigned to join the private sector. Calhoun-Senghor, who has had an effect on a variety of areas including satellite navigation, launch services and remote sensing, will be joining a Washington biotechnology firm. No plans have been made yet for his replacement.
DRS Technologies Inc.'s Flight Safety and Communications Group, based in Carleton Place, Ontario, received $2.1 million in contracts from Boeing to provide Deployable Flight Incident Recorder Sets (DFIRS) for the F/A-18E/F. DFIRS consists of an emergency locator transmitter and a flight data recorder in a deployable, crash-survivable unit for fast recovery of flight data and an increased success rate for search and rescue teams. It is attached to the outer surface of an aircraft.
Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter team demonstrated savings in airframe assembly using advanced design and manufacturing processes, the company said Friday. The demonstration was conducted Aug. 16 on a wing carry-through assembly in the first phase of the Aircraft Affordability Demonstration (AAD). The AAD is part of a series of affordability and producibility demonstrations intended to reduce production cost and risk.
