REGULAR REVIEW: All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or “mine” personal data, including Web surfing, should be required to systematically evaluate the programs’ effectiveness, lawfulness and impacts on privacy, according to the National Research Council (NRC). Both classified and unclassified programs should be evaluated before they are set in motion and then regularly thereafter for as long as they are in use, the NRC’s report stresses. “The danger of terror attacks on the U.S.
Two more contestants will join the 12 already in the running for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition to land a robotic rover on the moon by 2012. A Malaysian team of engineers and business leaders has launched Independence-X Aerospace in cooperation with Malaysian University, Universiti Teknologi MARA and the Malaysian Entrepreneurs Development Center. Students Ruben Nunz, Jason Dunn and Justin Karl of the University of Central Florida will offer Omega Envoy as a competitor.
Despite a potential $6.6 billion cut in funding for the U.S. Army’s Black Hawk UH-60M upgrade program, as noted in the service’s draft Objective Memorandum (POM) for fiscal 2010-2015, Army aviation program executive officer Paul Bogosian is not troubled.
APS ADVANCES: A Raytheon-led industry team claimed major progress Oct. 6 after completing successful stationary and moving target intercept tests under the Active Protection System (APS), part of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. “We are looking forward to completing validation testing of this system for the Army and getting it to our soldiers as soon as possible,” said Glynn Raymer, vice president of Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems Combat Systems business.
Spaceflight planners at NASA are scrambling to rearrange the space shuttle flight manifest in the wake of last month’s electronics failure on the Hubble Space Telescope. With two shuttles already on the pad for a mission to service Hubble when the serious data-transmission problem forced a postponement, managers must find the best way to work around the delayed mission to avoid losing precious flight time as the shuttle’s scheduled 2010 retirement looms.
JPALS DEVELOPMENT: Rockwell Collins, as a member of the Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman and SAIC team, has been selected by the U.S. Navy to execute the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) Increment 1 program. Rockwell Collins’ share is $94 million, to provide Global Positioning System (GPS) and communications subsystems, systems engineering, test and logistics support. JPALS Increment 1 provides the Navy a secure, all-weather shipboard landing system.
Boeing is dusting off its failed bid for the U.S. Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), its so-called AH-6 Light Attack/Reconnaissance Helicopter, in a bid for a burgeoning international market, the company declared Oct. 7.
Congress has passed several contracting reform provisions, including one to create a governmentwide contractor misconduct database, as part of the belated fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill.
INFOTERRA ACQUIRES: Infoterra has acquired Imass Ltd., an integrated geospatial information service provider dedicated to civil defense, industrial engineering and public service. Newcastle, U.K.-based Imass employs 136 people, and will add valuable know-how in emergency response services, public safety and 3D modeling, while reinforcing Infoterra – an affiliate of EADS Astrium Services specialized in radar imaging – in the U.K. market. Astrium Services recently acquired full control of French optical imaging specialist Spot Image.
In the competition for defense funding sought by the next administration, only two U.S. Air Force production lines are likely to remain in operation – the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the replacement refueling tanker – a top congressional appropriator says. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, thinks the F-22 Raptor will “fall by the wayside,” as will the C-17 cargo lifter.
Two important European launches have been postponed because of payload or launch system problems. The sixth Arianespace mission of the year, which was supposed to loft Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 9 and SES New Skies’ NSS-9, has been pushed back a month, to late November, because of a satellite delay issue thought to concern NSS-9, which is built by Orbital Sciences Corp.
STARLite: The U.S. Army Robotics and Unmanned Systems program office continues to validate Northrop Grumman’s progress on the critical technologies necessary for delivery of the first, fully qualified STARLite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)/Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) sensor system. According to Northrop Grumman, STARLite is a cost-effective solution to the SAR and GMTI requirements of light and medium unmanned aerial systems and rotorcraft. The company was awarded a $47 million contract from the Army in April 2008 to manufacture the new STARLite radar sensor.
The National Research Council (NRC) has taken a close look at U.S. Army efforts to develop a high-energy, solid-state laser weapon system for counter-rocket, artillery and mortars (C-RAM), and suggests the land service would benefit from a $470 million program to field the technology more quickly.
USCG COMMS: The U.S. Coast Guard formally accepted and introduced its latest Rescue 21 communications system expansion during a ceremony Oct. 6 at its Key West, Fla., base. Rescue 21 – the “marine version of 9-1-1,” according to the armed service – has already proven its worth and is being installed at Coast Guard sectors nationwide, the Coast Guard said. Once rollout is complete, the General Dynamics program will provide communications coverage along 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline.
GREEN ARMY: The U.S. Army has empaneled a Senior Energy Council to serve as a board of directors focusing on the land service’s energy policy, programs and funding, as well as to try to leverage the Army’s nationwide energy conservation efforts. “We spend over $3 billion every year on energy and the majority of it is spent on our installations,” according to Army Secretary Pete Geren.
LONDON – Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says recommendations that the government set up its procurement organization as an executive agency, independent of the Defense Department, should be “further canvassed and considered.” The proposal is a key element of the Mortimer Review, an independent report commissioned by the government in May and now published. It examined the operation of the Defense Material Organization (DMO) and the extent to which previous reforms put forward in a 2003 review have been implemented.
QATAR C-130Js: Lockheed Martin has its first C-130 contract from Qatar, an order for four stretched versions of the C-130J valued at $393.6 million, with deliveries beginning in 2011. Since Qatar is a new customer, the contract includes training of aircrew and technicians, spares, ground support and test equipment, and equipment associated with cargo operations, such as fork lifts, pallets and loading vehicles. Qatar is Lockheed Martin’s seventh international customer for the C-130J.
AIRBORNE SURVEILLANCE: Northrop Grumman has flown its new Airborne Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Minefield Detection System (ASTAMIDS) for the first time aboard an unmanned aerial vehicle. ASTAMIDS, which is in development for the U.S. Army, flew on Northrop Grumman’s company-owned MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Unmanned Air System helicopter, designated “P6.” Two ASTAMIDS-P6 flights occurred on Sept. 12.
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PAM BOOM: Alliant Techsystems claims it successfully demonstrated the propulsion system for the proposed Non Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS) Precision Attack Missile (PAM). Three successful tests were conducted at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the company announced Oct. 6. NLOS-LS, developed for the Army’s controversial Future Combat Systems, is slated for initial fielding in 2011 (Aerospace DAILY, March 30, 2006). The Army plans to procure more than 25,000 PAM missiles, eyed for use against moving and stationary targets on the ground and at sea.
The United States is prepared to sell one of its premier airborne signals intelligence capabilities to one of its closest allies, the United Kingdom, U.S. defense officials responsible for foreign military sales (FMS) announced recently.
CBRNE RESPONSE: The Defense Department is formally assigning a new terrorist-attack management squad to U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to help local and federal civil authorities respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive (CBRNE) crisises in the U.S. homeland. The first of three CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces (CCMRF) represents a force of 4,000 to 6,000 personnel.
RADIO READINESS: Boeing has begun its final phase of system integration, testing and certification of the Joint Tactical Radio System, Ground Mobile Radios (JTRS GMR) engineering development model (EDM). The milestone follows the on-time availability of the EDM systems to the JTRS program on Sept. 17. The hardware and software integration includes new and more powerful versions of the operating software, combined with updated versions of both legacy and new networking waveforms. Industry and government testing is scheduled to begin in 2009.
Ten university and government teams have been awarded interdisciplinary grants for studies covering everything from the origin of water in the universe to the chemical evolution of life as new members of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Institute Director Carl Pilcher said work sponsored under the grants, which average $7 million each, “together with that of the four continuing institute teams, will bridge the basic science of astrobiology to NASA’s current and planned space exploration missions.”
