BETTER WARTHOGS: During 2008, BAE Systems will modify more than 100 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve A-10A aircraft stationed around the United States, the company said Oct. 15. The upgrade will improve pilot awareness of the position of friendly ground forces. It also will reduce pilot workload by automatically transferring target coordinates within the aircraft's internal systems and to other aircraft on the network, the company said. Financial details of the work were not provided in BAE's announcement.
Charles D. Riechers, principal deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition and management, was found dead in his home Oct. 14, apparently of a suicide. Reicher was a retired Air Force officer and master navigator specializing in electronic warfare, with 20 years of operational, acquisition and staff experience. He flew more than 1,900 flight hours, with 90 hours of combat and combat support time in B-52G and EC-130H aircraft. He started his current position in January.
TERMINALS: The U.S. Air Force has ordered AN/PSC-14 broadband manpack terminals for secure and non-secure field operations. The terminals combine ViaSat inline encryption equipment with Inmarsat's new high-speed Broadband Global Area Network technology.
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps leaders may have to promote future CH-53K heavy lift helicopters versus MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft and boost Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV) and Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) programs if they want to sell the Army on seabasing ground forces for operations, according to a new Rand Corp. study. The assessment division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations asked Rand to examine how still-evolving Navy and Marine Corps concepts for seabasing could be applied to joint operations beyond their services.
BTA AWARD: The Pentagon's effort to consolidate, organize and streamline - as well as save money on - its business and information technology systems has led to a new five-year, $76 million award to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).
Although the Pentagon is getting better with its assessments and planning for training ranges, the Defense Department is still running behind schedule on its requirements, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported. "DOD has not yet satisfied all of the elements ... that were to be addressed in fiscal year 2004," GAO said in its Oct. 11 report.
NETCENTS PRODUCTS: Consultancy Input says proposed changes to the U.S. Air Force's Network Centric Solutions 2 contract will significantly strengthen product companies' competitive edge contending for this new contract vehicle. The Air Force intends to split up the new $9 billion plus contract structure into three separate pieces: services, products and services - small business, changing the competitive landscape of the program.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] Oct. 16 -- Air Force Association Symposium on Space, Beverly Hills Hilton, Beverly Hills, Calif. For more information call (703) 247-5800 or go to www.afa.org. Oct. 17 - 18 -- AVIATIONWEEK MRO Asia 2007 Conference & Exhibition, Shanghai, China. For more information call Lydia Janow at (212) 904-3225, fax: (212) 904-3334, email: [email protected], http://www. aviationweek.com/conferences.
RUSSIA RISING: A "resurgent Russia" worries the commander of U.S. Army in Europe, Gen. David McKiernan, and his concerns are heightened by the resumption of Russian long-range reconnaissance missions and the sale of arms to politically worrisome nations. If Russia becomes a military threat, however, the signs will come from other indicators, such as reorganization and expansion of heavy armored units and actions outside Russia's borders against neighbors like Georgia or Azerbaijan.
CANADA IN AFGHANISTAN: An independent panel formed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will advise on options for Canada's mission in Afghanistan after the mandate ends in February 2009. About 2,500 Canadian troops are in Afghanistan - mostly in Kandahar - as part of the U.N.-sanctioned and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
SPACE WEATHER: Changes in the sensor suite planned for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) are presenting problems for space weather prediction capabilities. Some of NPOESS' sensors were dropped after the program was restructured last year, and officials still are looking for a way to get them into orbit. This leaves U.S.
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has begun flight tests at Dryden Flight Research Center in California to confirm the performance and structural integrity of the highly modified Boeing 747SP. The first flight took place Oct. 11, according to NASA, marking the beginning of several flight and ground-test phases that will validate the airborne telescope's performance. The flight lasted over five hours and went smoothly, NASA says. It took place with the cavity door that accommodates the 2.5-meter infrared telescope closed.
Soyuz TMA-11 docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Oct. 12, delivering the Expedition 16 crew and a Malaysian "spaceflight participant" to the orbiting facility. Soyuz commander and Expedition 16 flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko flew an apparently flawless approach, docking without incident at the Zarya nadir port at 10:50 a.m. EDT. The crew later entered the station to begin preparations for a formal handover from Expedition 15 on Oct. 19.
UNMANNED TRAINING: Forces in Europe face a challenge in figuring out how to train with unmanned systems, according to Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Unmanned aircraft "introduce some spectrum management challenges with host nation aviation," he says. "So we have to develop some strategies on where and how we're going to train with these systems." The German army faces the same challenges in training with platforms such as Euro Hawk.
In two separate letters to U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, members of the Senate and the House expressed strong opposition to a split-buy on the KC-X Tanker recently suggested by an Alabama delegation.
CHINA RADAR: The coverage of China's air defense radars now almost matches those of western countries, the People's Liberation Army says in its official newspaper. The network is seamless and covers all mainland airspace, it says.
Raytheon has demonstrated a 20-kilowatt laser weapon prototype using only off-the-shelf products, according to Mike Booen, who heads Raytheon's directed energy effort at its Tucson, Ariz., facility. Booen's team bundled 40 500-watt, solid-state, fiber lasers together and, without expensive beam control devices (in fact with no beam control at all), were able to detonate suspended 60mm mortar rounds at 500 meters in an 80-knot wind with a 4-inch, baseball-sized beam.
ONE SHOT: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) expects to downselect between SRI International and Lockheed Martin by next fall for phase two of the One Shot program. The One Shot sniper system will profile and compensate for downrange crosswinds to help snipers hit targets over long distances (DAILY, Nov. 20, 2006). Lockheed Martin announced its $2 million phase one contract last week (DAILY, Oct. 9). In the 18-month second phase, the winning contractor will produce a prototype.
ABERDEEN SUPPORT: The U.S. Army has awarded SI International, Inc. a contract to provide personnel administration and human resource automated systems operations supporting the military personnel services mission of the U.S. Army Garrison, Aberdeen Proving Ground. The contract has a one-year base period with three one-year option periods. The value is approximately $10 million if all option years are exercised.
