DATA DISPUTE: L-3 Communications said it plans to appeal a ruling in a trade dispute that an Atlanta federal district jury decided in favor of Lockheed Martin this week. Lockheed won a $37 million decision against L-3 over P-3 Orion support data after the jury decided L-3 violated a Georgia trade secrets statute and breached a nondisclosure agreement related to its work, according to several news reports.
RUDDY GLOW: With the help of NASA’s Aqua satellite, researchers have performed the first global analysis of the health of ocean plants. Using Aqua’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), scientists observed the fluorescent red light emitted by phytoplankton in the open ocean and assessed how efficiently the microscopic plants are converting sunlight and nutrients into food using photosynthesis.
Six years after Aviation Study I guided the U.S. Army’s decisions on the Comanche helicopter, the service is wrapping up Aviation Study II in an effort to learn from its mistakes. The pace of Aviation Study II was very quick. The service announced the study at the annual Army Aviation Association of America, or Quad-A, show in early May. Less than a month later, senior staff is being briefed on the results. Brig. Gen. William Crosby, program executive officer for aviation, said the Aviation Study II team “pulled together for two weeks of hard work.”
Testing of two threshold modes for the U.S. Air Force’s new ground surveillance sensor is complete, but the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) remains behind its original schedule and still has yet to tackle testing on more advanced variants.
Layoffs in the work force that builds hardware for NASA’s space shuttle fleet have started, and with it the gap in NASA’s ability to deliver its astronauts to orbit. Since the end of April about 250 workers involved in manufacturing shuttle hardware have been taken off the program because their products are no longer needed, and another 650 will be gone by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
GOES-R: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has picked Harris Corporation to develop the ground segment for the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) system. Harris beat rival Raytheon for the $736 million award. Set to begin launching in 2015, the GOES-R weather satellites are expected to double the clarity of today’s satellite imagery and provide at least 20 times more atmospheric observations from space, according to NOAA.
NEW DELHI — The first of three Indian Air Force (IAF) AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) IL-76 heavy airlifters has arrived at Jamnagar Air Base from Israel. The three aircraft, being produced by Ilyushin Corp. under a $500 million deal, will be used as platforms for three Phalcon airborne early warning and control radars. The $1.1 billion radars are being manufactured by Israel Aircraft Industries.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems company has won a contract to develop two heavy telecommunication satellites, Express AM-5 and Express AM-6. The customer, state-owned Russian Satellite Communication Company (RSCC), will sign a 11.880 billion rubles ($371 million) contract with Reshetnev ISS by the end of August. The satellites will supply broadcasting, data transmission, Internet access, telecommunications and VSAT services.
NEW DELHI — India’s supposed long-running air force “acquisition holiday” has bottomed out and is beginning to recover, according to the departing Indian chief of air staff. “What was a long acquisition holiday was completed a few years ago and growth got momentum,” Air Marshal Homi Major said during his final meeting with reporters before he hands over his duties May 31. Air Marshal P.V. Naik will succeed him.
THREE MORE: Expedition 20 Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko, Frank De Winne and Robert Thirsk launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in their Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:34 a.m. EDT May 27, kicking off a planned six months in space. They are scheduled to dock with the ISS on May 29, marking the beginning of six-person operations onboard the orbiting outpost as they join Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, NASA astronaut Michael Barratt and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
OSAN AIR BASE, SOUTH KOREA – Gathering intelligence about North Korea is tough, U.S. military experts say, given the fact that scarce human intelligence sources, rugged terrain, underground facilities and a lack of permissive overflight all conspire against scrutiny. But the United States and South Korea work hard at it, representatives say, because they may not have much more to go on.
Taiwan’s growing closeness to China could be troublesome to some U.S. lawmakers, just at a time when the United States has started to notch up arms sales to the longtime U.S. ally, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) trying to figure out escape maneuvers for the stranded Spirit rover on Mars have received some partial good news after tests of the vehicle’s left middle wheel show it is operating normally. The tests have been conducted over recent days to assess whether the problem might be associated with the wheel itself, rather than the vehicle simply becoming bogged down or grounding on a small area of rocky soil.
A May 22 DAILY article misstated the U.S. Air Force’s budget request for the F-35. The service hopes to get 110 F-35s in the fiscal 2010 budget, although the Pentagon’s request calls for purchasing 30 of the aircraft next fiscal year, including 10 for the Air Force.
LONDON — One apparent victim of Britain’s Planning Round 09 review of defense spending is its Soothsayer electronic warfare program for ground forces, which has been lagging way behind schedule. “The Ministry of Defence and Lockheed Martin have reached a decision to suspend work on the Soothsayer electronic warfare program, pending a review on the future of the program,” reads the only official statement on the project’s fate. “This review is ongoing and therefore we cannot comment until it has been completed.”
Former Navy Secretary John Lehman says procurement officers and program managers need to stay in their posts for up to four years, for continuity and experience. “The procurement issue is the most important problem facing the Navy,” Lehman said last week. He noted that the staff of Navy ship procurement has grown from 1,000 since World War II — when the Navy was turning out nearly 1,000 ships in a year — to 25,000, although the number of new ships has dwindled to less than 10.
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — North Korea’s second underground nuclear test and a series of missile launches there are certain signs of more trouble to come, top U.S. military officials stationed in South Korea say, although a major military event — either civil war or a major strike south — is considered remote. High on the list of expectations, however, are clashes in the western sea where South Korean, North Korean and Chinese fishing interests conflict. Military analysts point to the upcoming start of crabbing season as a flash point.
The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on the morning of May 23, touching down at 11:38 a.m. EDT after almost 14 days in space on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Key senators are praising the Obama administration’s choice of four-time space shuttle astronaut and retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden to be the next administrator of NASA. Announced May 23, Bolden’s nomination makes him the first African-American, and only the second former astronaut — after Richard Truly — to be tapped to head the space agency. The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Space Forces on May 22 launched a Meridian military/civilian communications satellite from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, although an apparent booster stage failure placed it in an incorrect orbit. The Soyuz-2 launch vehicle with Fregat upper stage delivered the spacecraft to a high elliptical orbit described as “close to designated,” and it operates properly, according to an official statement from satellite maker Reshetnev ISS.
Japan will drop its blanket ban on arms exports in a potentially far-reaching move that should result in the country finally beginning to integrate itself with the military industries of Western democracies. After decades of trying to go it alone or seeking only inward technology transfer, Japan will now accept joint development and production of weapons.
