The United States is cooperating with Turkey concerning intelligence on PKK insurgents based in northern Iraq, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "We've taken some actions along those lines, particularly in the realm of intelligence, and we are continuing to work the issue," he told reporters in Ukraine Oct. 21. "The key, as I indicated, is developing intelligence that would enable us to find these people. I think that has to precede any action by anybody."
MAFFS DEPLOYED: Six C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) units will be directed to assist in fighting the fires in Southern California, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The aircraft come from the U.S. Air Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., the Wyoming Air National Guard's 173rd Airlift Wing in Cheyenne, and the North Carolina Air National Guard's 145th Airlift Wing in Charlotte. MAFFS is a self-contained reusable 3,000-gallon aerial fluid dispersal system that attaches to C-130s.
The shuttle Discovery is beginning initial maneuvers to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) while preparing for thermal protection system inspections Oct. 24, following a flawless countdown and liftoff that were unaffected by weather problems that were originally forecast.
The U.S. needs to link its defensive and offensive capabilities to create a strong cyber infrastructure if it is to properly deal with outside threats, U.S. Air Force Col. Steven "Mac" McPherson says. "I don't think what we're doing is even defensive," McPherson said Oct 22 at a roundtable hosted by the Association of Old Crows. "We're worried about security issues...doing things like a cop on the beat." He added that a secure foundation is just the starting point from which "I can defend and attack as part of my operations."
Five Southern governors are asking President Bush to make sure the Air Force is impartial in its selection of the tanker replacement aircraft. In an Oct. 16 letter to the president, governors from Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and Virginia write, "As you know, the tanker replacement program has been the subject of significant scrutiny by the media and the United States Congress. There have been reports of internal biases and political preferences, some substantiated and some dismissed."
U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and their allies have a new way of accessing National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) unclassified domestic and international products, in the form of a Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (CJMTK) from Northrop Grumman.
Lockheed Martin reported net earnings of $766 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, a 22 percent increase from the same period of 2006. The results beat Wall Street's consensus earnings expectation by 10 percent. Third quarter sales were up 16 percent from a year earlier to $11.1 billion. All four of the company's segments posted strong year-over-year gains in operating profits: Aeronautics (up 31 percent), Electronic Systems (up 26 percent), Space Systems (up 26 percent) and Information Systems (up 20 percent).
The Pentagon has ordered an additional 2,400 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and hopes the manufacturing process will improve, a senior department official says. "As we go forward, we are seeking to constantly improve the survivability of the MRAP design," the official said Oct. 19. "Some of the explosively formed projectile, or EFP, armor enhancement concepts require significant excess payload capacity...though none of the current designs have as much payload capacity as the Defense Department would prefer."
PILOT SURVEY: NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is looking into the agency's refusal to release data from a pilot survey that reportedly shows that airline safety issues such as runway incursions, operational errors and equipment failures are more prevalent than FAA statistics suggest. "NASA research and data should be widely available and subject to review and scrutiny," Griffin says.
Leading Capitol Hill Democrats have promised a stark fight over President Bush's expanded fiscal 2008 off-budget supplemental spending request for Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, citing current strains on an already stretched military. "The Iraq war is leaving us less secure, unprepared to fight an effective war on terror or respond to the unexpected," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Oct. 22 after Bush formally sent Congress his amended request.
Weather at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., is a growing problem for the planned Oct. 23 launch of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-120 mission to the International Space Station. "We are concerned about the weather," says Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer for the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing that operates the Eastern Range. Liftoff is targeted for 11:38 a.m. EDT.
Starsem orbited four low-Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites Oct. 20 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, doubling the number it has launched to augment the constellation until a second generation of spacecraft is ready. The Soyuz rocket with a restartable Fregat upper stage lifted off at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2:12 a.m. Oct. 21 local time), and the Fregat ignited twice to place the satellites in their proper orbits.
Boeing's P-8A Poseidon aircraft program fired its 200th live-fire shot into simulated aircraft sections, putting it well on its way to full-scale live-fire testing scheduled for 2012.
Five "procedural errors" led to a B-52 ferrying nuclear weapons from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., this past August, says Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, U.S. Air Force assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements. "This was a failure to follow procedures, procedures which have proven to be sound," Newton said at the Pentagon Oct. 19. "A series of procedural breakdowns and human errors...facilitated this serious and unprecedented incident." First error
AIR FORCE NDTS Aviation Services Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a contract modification for $10,769,878. This action provides for aircraft backshop maintenance, munitions, and equipment support for the Air Armament Center and for Air Armament and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence Systems testing for a 12-month period. At this time, $9,642,145 has been obligated. 96 CONS/MSCB, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08651-02-C-0085, Modification P00044).
TOKYO - The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Selene lunar orbiter has lowered itself into its final science observation orbit of roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) altitude. The orbit lowering was completed Oct. 19 and confirmed by JAXA the following day. On its way down, the probe ejected the Relay and Vrad daughter satellites (DAILY, Oct. 10, 15), with Relay released Oct. 8 with a perigee of 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) and Vrad released Oct. 12 with a perigee of 800 kilometers (500 miles).
A Russian state commission will investigate why the Soyuz TMA-10 vehicle returning Expedition 15 and a Malaysian space tourist from the International Space Station (ISS) shifted into a steeper "ballistic" trajectory early Oct. 21 and landed some 340 kilometers (210 miles) short of its intended landing zone.
One of the three NASA Gulfstream Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) is grounded following an Oct. 19 incident in which the left wingtip of an STA flying a normal aircraft landing approach to the shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., struck the upper branches of a tree during its final approach. Had the aircraft - already flying too low - been just slightly lower, the tree impact could have caused a potentially fatal crash. Steep approaches
A survey of small to medium-sized U.S. aerospace companies found they could not identify a direct return on investment stemming from their participation in international air shows, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported Oct. 22. Sixteen of the 20 companies interviewed by GAO - all with fewer than 500 employees - said they have rented space at major air shows such as Paris, Farnborough and Singapore. Company officials told GAO that the decision to participate in an air show is based on several factors, including cost and potential sales.
