A story in the April 7 DAILY on a ScanEagle UAV demonstration for the FBI incorrectly identified the head of the FBI Operational Technology Division. He is FBI Assistant Director Marcus C. Thomas.
NASA and Lockheed Martin have pushed back by three months the first test that will actually get the Orion crew exploration vehicle off the ground, citing “procurement problems.” Originally set for September at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the 90-second Pad Abort Test-1 will begin to validate the solid-fueled rockets designed to pull Orion off a failing Ares I launch vehicle.
NASA plans to send a low-cost spacecraft to the moon in 2011 to study dust in the lunar “atmosphere” and help scientists get a better handle on how it could affect future lunar explorers. The $80 million Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft will gather detailed information about conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust, NASA says.
Fear of both known and unknown vulnerabilities of the expanding U.S. military’s computer networks – as well as the Chinese test of an anti-satellite missile last year – has given the U.S. armed forces’ quest for cybersecurity a new sense of urgency.
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CYBERSCURED: The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) said the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) will join ITAA to create a cybersecurity public advocacy and awareness program. “The global reach of CSIA, with its Brussels office, will bring valuable new perspective and resources to ITAA’s own Information Security program and complement our work with the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA),” ITAA chief executive Phil Bond announced April 8.
The U.S. Senate’s second-ranking Republican, responsible for the minority party’s policymaking and vote-organization in that chamber, says missile defense and nuclear weapons supporters on Capitol Hill should try to solidify the Bush administration’s related budget requests ahead of possible change of political control in Washington. Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) said he would like to see funding for a once-killed study over space-based ballistic missile interceptors secured, as well as another study effort regarding the Reliable Replacement Warhead.
AIRSS SENSORS: Two global-scanning missile warning sensor prototypes – one developed by Science Applications International Corp. and another by Raytheon – that U.S. Air Force missile officials hope will cut program risk under the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) have been delivered. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center initiated the $80 million risk-avoidance effort in September 2006 to try “to mature” wide-field-of-view infrared sensor technology and manufacturing readiness for AIRSS.
Lockheed Martin has received its 12th and final annual production contract from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to manufacture components for Japan’s F-2 close air support fighter. The $250 million contract covers the last eight of the 94 aircraft ordered by Japan’s air force. Lockheed Martin, MHI’s principal partner in the program, is to provide aft fuselages, wing leading-edge flaps and stores management systems. It also will provide 80 percent of all lift wing boxes, avionics, and avionics support equipment.
Warning lights are flashing all over Washington as analysts and military officials point to a determination in the 2007 Selected Acquisition Reports’ (SARs) estimate that top defense programs have gone down in cost. Critics contend that “upfront spending increases” are real, but estimates of decreasing inflation and production costs are little more than guesses and not inspired ones at that.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a $172 million follow-on production contract for the Arrowhead electro-optical system, which rounds out the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation System (MTADS) on the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. “This is state-of-the art,” said Col. Derek Paquette, Apache project manager for the Army, at an Army Aviation Association of America (Quad-A) symposium briefing April 7. “It’s the most advanced forward-looking-infrared (FLIR) on the market today.”
COLORADO SPRINGS – ATK, which is building the first stage of NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle by recycling the solid-fuel booster it builds for the space shuttle, wants to make the same capability available to other users for missions without crews. Ron Dittemore, president of ATK Launch Systems, said the human-rating that led NASA to build the Ares I first stage around the shuttle booster should also be attractive to other customers with “high-value” payloads, including the Defense Dept. and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
COLORADO SPRINGS – Despite an uptick in Washington rhetoric about the need for improved space situational awareness (SSA), it doesn’t appear that the funding is materializing, according to industry experts.
DEFENSE INTEL: Science Applications International Corp. announced April 7 that it was a prime contract award winner under the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) high-profile Solutions for Intelligence Analysis (SIA) program, potentially a $1 billion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide military intel collection and analyses.
The Japanese SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (Selene) team revealed its first preview of the world’s first-ever global topographic map of the moon April 9. The preview map includes two weeks of data taken by the Laser Altimeter (LALT) instrument, which was then analyzed by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and processed into map form by the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute (GSI).
Bell Helicopter Textron plans to test condition-based maintenance (CBM) technologies it is developing to support the U.S. Army by the end of this year. The cost-sharing program, conducted with the Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (ADDT), aims to help Army Operations Support and Sustainment (OSST) transition to a CBM philosophy with new diagnostic, prognostic and system health assessment technologies, according to Bell.
PARIS - The European Defense Agency (EDA) has been asked to draft an armaments strategy for the European Union (EU) members part of the organization. A just-completed steering board asked EDA to present the plan by its next meeting in November. The strategy is supposed to spell out how to move from agreed to common defense capabilities, and then to joint programs.
The anti-air and surface warfare combat capability of 16 Canadian and Netherlands frigates could be significantly enhanced in the near future now that a new, long-range dual-band infrared search and tracking (IRST) sensor developed by DRS Technologies and Thales has passed its final test and qualification milestone.
RADAR PROTOTYPE: The prototype radar for Lockheed Martin’s Enhanced AN/TPQ-36 counter-fire target acquisition (EQ-36) radar has completed performance testing in 360-degree counter-fire mode against mortars and rockets at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, the company announced April 9. The prototype was developed by Syracuse Research Corporation. During the testing, which was conducted in November and December, the prototype located the firing positions of both rocket and mortar launchers in 360-degree mode.
The Russian commander and engineer for the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 17 crew, accompanied by South Korea’s first astronaut, will dock their Soyuz transport to the ISS April 10 after a flawless launch April 8 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Defense Department comes up short when it comes to following the money and effectiveness of programs funded by Congressional earmarks, a recent DOD Inspector General (IG) report says. “We determined that the DOD does not have criteria for centralized tracking of funding execution of Congressional earmarks at the DoD level,” the March 31 IG report says. The report does not make any recommendations or say what the lack of oversight means.
Aerojet and Orbital Sciences have conducted the first static test firing at Aerojet’s Sacramento, Calif., facility of the jettison motor for the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) built by Orbital. The March 27 ground test firing lasted less than 2 seconds to meet program criteria for the motor, which weighs less than 500 lb. and uses four nozzles. The test sets up the LAS for the first full-scale pad abort test at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico this fall.
TOKYO - The Japanese Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS) has successfully tested a 155Mbps connection with a 45-centimeter (1.5-foot) ground antenna. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says it is the world’s fastest internet connection between a satellite and an antenna of such size.
