Third and fourth-generation cellular telephone technologies, with their wider channel width (3G) and faster data rates (4G), are being adapted and reshaped to fill the needs of military cyber-warriors, according to top electronic warfare researchers. Military organizations around the globe, including those in the U.S., are using commercially developed attack and network exploitation technologies to build an arsenal of rapidly upgraded, flexible and hard-to-avoid cyber weapons. Organized crime
Lisa Porter, NASA associate administrator for aeronautics research, will leave the agency on or around Feb. 1 to become the first director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). In a Jan. 9 notice to colleagues at the civil space and aeronautics agency, Porter said the new organization will sponsor innovative research that will yield revolutionary game-changing capabilities for the intelligence community.
The U.S. Coast Guard's maritime security workload, already stretched since the 9/11 attacks, is likely to increase in the future as more liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities are added, requiring more escorts of LNG tankers, a new congressional report concludes.
KILLER BEES: Northrop Grumman successfully demonstrated its beyond line-of-sight tactical communications relay (BTCR) using two 4th-generation Killer Bee (KB4) tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (TUAVs) built by California-based Swift Engineering. The KB4s were launched sequentially and deployed to link remote ground squads in a Dec. 13 test at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. A Swift Engineering ground station established a ground-to-air, air-to-ground network that extended the over-the-horizon communications ranges.
MKV DEVELOPMENT: Lockheed Martin's Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) is on track for flight-testing in the 2012-2014 timeframe, officials said in a Jan. 8 teleconference. The program is in the development phase with a focus on component testing. Lockheed officials noted several successes in testing of the Advanced Divert and Attitude Control (DACS) systems and said the company will continue work on testing the additional subsystems required to make the flight-test a reality.
NEW HQ: MBDA has opened a new research, development and headquarters facility in Plessis-Robinson, near Paris, that will replace three former Paris-area plants. Construction of the 70,000 square meter, five-building complex, which will house 3,000 employees, is part of an ongoing consolidation plan involving facilities in France, Italy and the U.K.
Lawmakers on Jan. 9, especially Democrats, chided President Bush's "surge" of U.S. land forces to Iraq last year for not achieving policy benchmarks and called for a quick resolution over a confused debate about the status of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization measure.
Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) has won a contract to provide facility support services at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. The company estimates the value of the contract - which has a two-year base period, two one-year options and six one-year performance-based award terms - to be $544 million if all options are exercised. The award follows a contract signed with NASA in January 2002. CSC will operate the mission control power plant and provide operations and maintenance support services for facilities at JSC.
Boeing will deliver the last of 61 MH-47Gs to the U.S. Army's Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) by 2010, enabling the service to double the size of its force structure, said Col. Newman Shufflebarger, cargo helicopter project manager. The MH-47G is the seventh iteration of Boeing's heavy-lift helicopter. SOAR currently operates 23 E-models and 11 D-models. "With 61 G's, [SOAR can] establish another battalion," Shufflebarger said. The D-models will eventually be phased out.
The Air Force has cleared about 60 percent of its F-15A-D fleet to a limited flight status after having grounded them following a catastrophic Nov. 2, 2007, F-15C crash.
A decision on the winning design for the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial system has been delayed until March. The Navy planned to announce the winner from among three bids next month. However, a program review by defense acquisition czar John Young that was scheduled for Jan. 16 was moved to Feb. 13 to "ensure due diligence in making a best value determination for the Navy," said a spokesman for Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md.
Advances in adaptive optics hold promise for ground-based telescopes with resolutions as good or better than the Hubble Space Telescope, although the upcoming final shuttle servicing mission will set an upgraded Hubble performance benchmark some 90 times better than the original.
Lockheed Martin's beleaguered High Altitude Airship (HAA) program, or something like it, "is going to happen" in the long term despite the challenges HAA has repeatedly faced, Dave Kier, vice president of program management, told reporters in a teleconference Jan. 8. "In the near term, I don't know exactly how [the HAA program] will work," Kier said. "We're having difficulty finding a sponsor and keeping it alive."
RADIO SIGNALS: Boeing has begun production of the engineering design models (EDMs) of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) ground-mobile version. JTRS is an ambitious program to develop and produce software programmable radios for use on ground, air and maritime platforms. It will replace legacy radio systems, though the program's size, scope and technological demands have contributed to cost overruns and delays. These first EDMs will undergo field and system regression testing this year, with formal certification and field testing late in the year.
ROTOR LIFT: The Franco-German-Spanish Eurocopter Group, a division of EADS, is selling 11 helicopters to the Spanish defense and interior ministries, the company said Jan. 8. The military is buying two Cougars for its army airmobile force under a 40 million euro deal, while the military emergency unit has signed for three others in a contract valued at 76 million euros. The latter deal also includes mission and logistics support. Additionally, the interior ministry is buying two EC135s and four AS355NPs for the Directorate General for Traffic.
The Pentagon's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy is encouraging Defense Department entities and officials to open up further and communicate more with industry regarding pending or planned purchases.
INSENSITIVE ALLIANCE: The Allied Defense Group's European and U.S. ammunition units have entered a teaming agreement with Alliant Techsystems to pursue the conventional direct fire ammunition market. The pair will focus specifically on introducing "incremental" improvements to the U.S. Army's current ammunition suite, especially for better insensitive munitions, Allied said Jan. 7.
India and Malaysia have agreed to cooperate in pilot training and maintenance of the Russian-made fighters acquired by Malaysia. Under the arrangement, India will send a training advisory team of Indian air force personnel, including pilots, to a Malaysian air force base in mid-February. The team will provide training for Malaysian pilots and technicians of Sukhoi Su-30MKM fighters for two years.
DRAG RACE: Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh Truck will team to compete for the Pentagon's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) technology demonstration. Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector will be the prime contractor and systems integrator, the companies said Jan. 8. Oshkosh Truck's Defense Group will be responsible for designing, engineering and manufacturing the vehicle. The Defense Department plans to acquire JLTVs for the Army and Marine Corps, at least.
PATRIOTS WANTED: Lockheed Martin officials believe a deal to sell the company's Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system to the United Arab Emirates could be sealed by year's end. It could also pave the way for more PAC-3 sales to nations in Europe and the Middle East that already own earlier versions of the Patriot air and missile defense system. Japan and the Netherlands are buying the more advanced PAC-3 version.
PARIS - Thales Alenia Space engineers are struggling to fix a helium leak that is jeopardizing the first indigenous Pan-African fixed satellite service telecommunications mission. The leak was revealed on Dec. 29, barely a week after the 3.2-metric-ton, 6.4-kilowatt Rascom-QAF1 spacecraft was launched to 2.85 degrees East longitude on an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
