THALES TEAMS: Thales has teamed with Furuno Electric of Japan to develop and market hybrid surveillance systems to detect and track small surface targets. The first product, Coastwatcher 10, will be a low-cost system combining Furuno’s FAR-2157 navigation radar with a Thales postprocessor. It will be targeted at asymmetric surface threats and unidentified targets with very low signatures in a wide range of sea conditions.
The next likely chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force promised senators July 22 that he would review the service’s aircraft fleet requirements with an eye toward better mixing different platforms within – and between – aircraft types such as fighters, airlifters, tankers, unmanned systems and ISR aircraft.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz asked senators July 22 for more time to weigh arguments for and against boosting the number of unrated unmanned aircraft pilots, but promised that as chief of staff, he would have USAF intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) experts work closely with combat commanders and the nascent ISR Task Force set up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Despite the cancellation of the so-called Red Integrated Strategic Offensive Plan (RISOP), the U.S. continues to analyze its nuclear strike options, including broadening planning beyond Russia, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
HARTFORD, Conn. – A flexible ground and space infrastructure, rather than reusable launchers or micro satellites, is the fundamental requirement for enabling operationally responsive space (ORS), a senior U.S. Air Force official says. “We need a common architecture we can plug satellites into, big or small,” says Brig. Gen. John Hyten, director of requirements for U.S. Air Force Space Command. “ORS is limited by not having an infrastructure to plug into.”
MUOS MILESTONE: General Dynamics C4 Systems recently mounted three 18.4-meter satellite antennas on 53-foot-tall pedestals in Wahiawa, Hawaii, as part of preparations to deploy the new Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), the U.S. military’s next-generation narrowband global mobile satellite communications system. General Dynamics, under contract with Lockheed Martin, is responsible for the ground-based segment of the MUOS system. The first MUOS satellite is scheduled for on-orbit handover to the U.S. Navy in 2010, along with the entire ground system.
Boeing’s HyFly hypersonic missile technology demonstrator will get another chance to prove it can fly at Mach 6. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has agreed to fund a third flight of the air-launched demonstrator, says Kathy Stevens, propulsion director of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), DARPA’s partner on the project.
Germany has orbited the fifth and final satellite in its SARLupe X-band constellation, providing the German armed forces and Europe with its first full space-based radar imaging capability. Like the four preceding spacecraft, the 1,700-pound satellite was orbited from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia atop a Cosmos 3M launcher.
ARMY EBV Explosives Environmental Co., Joplin, Mo., was awarded on July 15, 2008, a $15,301,687 firm-fixed price contract for demilitarization of multiple launch rocket system M26 basic rocket and/or compounds. Work will be performed in Joplin, Mo., and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Seven bids were solicited on Dec. 21, 2007, and three were received. U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-08-C-0398).
ARMY Alliant Techsystems Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., was awarded on July 17, 2008, a $7,608,465 firm-fixed price contract for production of the M1028 canister cartridge. The work will be performed primarily in Jonesborough, Tenn., as well as other locations across the United States. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Web bids were solicited on Feb. 21, 2008, and two bids were received. The Joint Munitions and Lethality LCMC, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-08-C-0473).
BEAM CONTROL: Boeing has completed the preliminary design of a rugged beam control system for the U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) program, the company announced July 21. Under the Phase I HEL TD contract, Boeing and rival Northrop Grumman are designing a beam control system for a truck-mounted solid-stage laser weapon capable of countering rocket, artillery and mortar projectiles.
Aerojet has conducted another test of the solid-fuel motor that will jettison the launch abort system (LAS) being developed for NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, generating more data for a full-up test of the abort system at the end of the year. The test occurred July 17 at Aerojet facilities in Sacramento, Calif. NASA termed the test a success. The first test of the motor occurred in April.
Buffeted by government scandals and the artificially high costs of developing defense gear, Japan’s new defense ministry has decided to adopt a more competitive style of acquisition, according to Japan-based U.S. analysts. With the current government’s defense team already savaged once by claims of gifts and other kinds of influence peddling by the trading companies, the defense ministry has adopted a plan to cut the growth in procurement costs, which includes radically revamping the way it orders its materiel to allow for competition.
NEW DELHI – India’s defense ministry apparently has received only a single industry bid to build 140 ultralight howitzers for the country’s artillery modernization program, leading to speculation that the program may be rebid. Singapore Technologies (ST) Kinetics was the only company to respond to the original request for proposals, but India does not encourage single-vendor bids.
The bodies of two crew members from a U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress that crashed early July 21 off the coast of Guam have been recovered, while the fate of the other four remains uncertain, according to the U.S. Air Force. The bomber was engaged in a training mission and was scheduled to perform a flyover celebrating Guam’s Liberation Day when it went down around 9:45 a.m. local time.
AESLA AWARDED: The U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research has awarded Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems a potentially $14 million-plus contract under its Active Electronically Scanned Lens Array (AESLA) program. Dual efforts under pursuit involve a high-power transmit-receive radar module enabled by gallium nitride monolithic microwave integrated circuits; as well as a low-loss, reliable phase shifter employing radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems technology.
A U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program to demonstrate a rotorcraft capable of flying 400 mph will proceed, despite the financial difficulties of its developer, Groen Brothers Aviation (GBA). DARPA has announced it plans to award a contract for the next phases of the Heliplane program to the Georgia Institute of Technology, which was a subcontractor to GBA in the first phase.
The U.S. Air Force is rolling out an “intensive” leadership development program for civilians new to the armed service. The Civilian Acculturation and Leadership Training program will be hosted by the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and is modeled after Officer Training School, the course attended by new USAF officers before their commissioning. The first class runs Oct. 27 to Nov. 7.
HITS KEEP COMING: Critics at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) in Washington have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates questioning two programs to build supposed luxury aircraft accommodations for military and senior civilian leadership. The accommodations are called the Senior Leader In-transit Conference Capsule (SLICC) and Senior Leader In-transit Pallet (SLIP).
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Boeing-led contractors and missile defense proponents are hailing the success of a radar tracking test July 18, although the Pacific event was scaled back from a full-fledged ballistic missile interception.
FARNBOROUGH – The U.S. government says that there are still thousands of shoulder-fired missiles on the black market, and as BAE Systems modifies one of its military countermeasures systems to protect commercial airlines, one of the first beneficiaries is turning out to be the military.
