CYBER LESSONS: Deterrence and warfighting tenets established through nuclear weapons, conventional warfare and other means do not necessarily translate reliably into cyberspace, a new Rand Corp. analysis stresses. In a recently released report on cyber-deterrence and cyber war, analyst Martin Libicki warns that attempts to transfer policy constructs from other forms of warfare will not only fail, but hinder policy and planning.
STERN FLAP: The U.S. Navy is estimating it will save over $540,000 annually in fuel costs after the installation of a new stern flap on the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship. The stern flap is installed at the aft end of a ship to reduce drag and make the ship more hydrodynamic. Kearsarge will get underway in November to begin evaluation of the installation. The dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island is expected to return to sea this year after its own stern flap installation.
COST CONTROL: The U.S. Navy will not publicly release cost information on the third and fourth Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for at least another two to three weeks, according to Rear Adm. Bill Landay, head of the program executive office for ships. He says the actual cost to build the two ships has not been published yet because the cost estimation process was “convoluted.” The Navy would like to lay out the cost figures “to make sure it’s very clear,” Landay says.
FLATTOP HAIRCUT: Defense authorizers will allow for the “temporary reduction” in the number of U.S. aircraft carriers next decade, as requested by the Pentagon. In recent years, lawmakers have chastised and lamented earlier requests — although they ultimately agreed to them also — because carriers represent unique power-projection capability, especially as the Navy and Air Force are called on to hedge against Russia, China and other strategic adversaries as the Army and Marine Corps are tied up in two land wars.
There are a lot of new faces at the top of the aerospace and defense industry, with a half-dozen CEOs named recently and a seventh appointment imminent.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 12 - 13 — Armoured Combat Mobility, “Survivability & Protection,” Crowne Plaza - The City, London, U.K. For more information go to www.smi-online.co.uk Oct. 13 - 16 — 60th International Astronautical Congress, Daejeon, Republic of Korea. For more information go to www.iac2009.kr
DOUBLE HELIX: Russia is shortly to begin delivery of a second batch of nine Kamov KA-28 Helix-A anti-submarine helicopters to China. The first three of the total of nine ordered by Beijing in 2007 are now completing factory tests, according to Russian Helicopters. China first purchased the type in 1998 — five anti-submarine Ka-28s, and three for search and rescue. The Ka-28s have been deployed onboard both the Chinese navy’s Russian-built Sovremenny-class destroyers and the Luhai-class ships.
NIGHT MOVES: Forecast International predicts that global spending on land and sea-based electro-optic (EO) systems will reach $7.9 billion over the next ten years, with the biggest industry winners being ITT, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Thales and Kollmorgen. “With a sustained focus on nighttime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, [night vision goggles] are quite simply indispensable,” Forecast analyst Andrew Dardine says.
NEW DELHI Controversy is brewing here over the delay in India’s attempt to buy 66 BAE Systems Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) Hawk Mk132s, which were ordered in 2004. The issue has become more urgent following the grounding of India’s roughly 120 basic trainers. While the Indian Air Force (IAF) has received 24 aircraft in fly-away condition, the remaining 42 to be assembled by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) have been delayed.
SHIPPING OUT: Thales Alenia Space is preparing to ship Eutelsat’s W7, a 70-transponder Ku-band satellite to be launched by an International Launch Services Proton M in mid-November. Intended to replace Seasat 1, W7 will double Eutelsat capacity at 36 deg. E. Long., a neighborhood the operator is developing to serve fast-growing TV and data markets in Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and southern Africa.
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) hit its target on the south pole of the moon early Oct. 9, but with no visible impact plume, only time will tell if the mission actually turned up any evidence of water or frozen hydrogen in the moon’s permanently shadowed craters.
NASA AERO: NASA begins a series of DC-8 research flights to the Antarctic on Oct. 15 to study sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. The flights are part of “Operation Ice Bridge,” a six-year campaign that represents the largest airborne survey ever made of ice in the Earth’s polar regions. The DC-8 will use laser mapping instruments, ice-penetrating radar and gravity instruments.
White House and NASA officials will get their first crack at the final report of the human-spaceflight review panel headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine as early as this week, after panel members compromised on the tricky issue of launch-vehicle safety in scoring exploration-architecture options.
ARMING UP: The U.S. Army wants a whole lot of foreign small arms — over 10,000 of them — including AK-47s. Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Independence, Mo., snagged a $21,081,648 firm-fixed-price contract for 10,697 non-standard weapons, 66,874 AK-47 magazines and 16,050 spare parts. Work is to be performed in Kazanluk, Bulgaria, (82 percent), Bulgaria, Serbia, (7.6 percent), Bulgaria, (2.8 percent), Cugir, Romania, (1.5 percent), Jamestown, Pa., (0.4 percent) and Pakistan (5.6 percent), with an estimated completion date of May 25, 2010.
AIRSHIP TIE-UP: L-3 Communications has signed a memorandum of understanding to act as system integrator and operator of the STS-111 medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned airship under development by US..-German joint venture Sanswire-TAO. German partner TAO Technologies has begun flying the initial STS-111, an 111-foot-long multi-segment non-rigid airship designed to carry a 20-pound payload at up to 15,000 feet for 60 hours.
Rear Adm. William Landay, head of the U.S. Navy’s program executive office (PEO) for ships, wants to drive shipbuilding toward a leaner, more competitive model. Landay hosted a reporters’ roundtable this week to outline the Navy’s commitment to revamping a somewhat beleaguered shipbuilding industry. There is not “one specific trigger” that drove the Navy to make changes, he said. The items Landay outlined are “fundamentally things we’ve talked about doing in individual programs and now we’re trying to address across the PEO.”
The U.S. Army is once again revamping its plans for the troubled Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) intelligence aircraft program. The new focus is on quick fielding of mature technologies integrated onto a turboprop aircraft, most likely the KingAir 350, that is suitable for operations in Afghanistan, says Col. Rob Carpenter, the Army’s ACS project manager.
Remote imaging company GeoEye will turn two of its Earth imaging satellites toward the moon Oct. 9 to photograph the impact plume from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The LCROSS spacecraft and the spent Centaur upper stage from its booster will deliberately plunge into the permanently shadowed Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole. A variety of Earth- and space-based sensors will observe the impact plumes looking for signs of water ice.
A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Oct. 8 with DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 commercial remote sensing spacecraft onboard, after a 13-minute delay while a battery problem in the rocket’s second stage was resolved. Liftoff came at 2:51 p.m. EDT. Built by Ball Aerospace for the Colorado-based satellite-imagery provider, WorldView-2 is the first eight-band multispectral satellite launched for the commercial market.
MARIETTA, Ga. — The U.S. C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) officially began its initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) on Oct. 1, after years of fitful funding from the Pentagon.
DISASTER RELIEF: Inmarsat and Vizada have agreed to help the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) improve its mobile telecom disaster relief service. Inmarsat and satellite communications provider Vizada will contribute 70 Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network terminals to the ITU and provide preferential airtime rates and technical training support.
Raytheon is currently in discussions with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) about a new technology that allows soldiers to train for combat using real-time 3-D simulators, company officials said at this week’s Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington.
