The U.S. Army will, after all, try to speed up its end strength growth, adding 74,000 new soldiers by 2010 across its active and reserve components, the service's chief of staff said. Army Gen. George Casey told an audience at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting in Washington Oct. 9 that "by accelerating our growth we can ... improve manning and improve opportunities for leaders to attend to their professional military education."
HOMELAND PLAN: Acknowledging that its "concept of securing the homeland has evolved, adapting to new realities and threats," the White House published an update Oct. 9 to its homeland security strategy. "While we must continue to focus on the persistent and evolving terrorist threat, we also must recognize that certain non-terrorist events that reach catastrophic levels can have significant implications for homeland security," the Bush administration statement said. The latest strategy calls for better utilizing science and technology.
Collecting solar power in space and beaming it back to Earth is a relatively near-term possibility that could solve strategic and tactical security problems for the U.S. and its deployed forces, the Pentagon's National Security Space Office (NSSO) says in a report issued Oct. 10.
ITALIAN SUPPORT: Lockheed Martin, Alenia Aeronautica and Avio SPA have signed an agreement to provide long-term support for the Italian air force's C-130J fleet, Lockheed Martin says. Led by Alenia Aeronautica, the companies will support 22 aircraft for three years. The deal is worth roughly $47 million to Lockheed.
AUSTRALIAN MACS: Australia is seeking a $40 million deal for 2,400 Modular Artillery Charge Systems and 250 M982 Block 1a-2 Excalibur Projectiles with base bleed units and fire control systems from Raytheon and general Dynamics, according to a Defense Department foreign military sales announcement. The munitions would "enhance" Australia's defensive capabilities and boost interoperability with U.S. forces, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency's announcement to Congress earlier this month.
Atlas Air, a major Pentagon supplier of commercial air services, has put together a plan for altering widebody aircraft to carry Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, a company executive said. "We have submitted proposals to the Air Force," said retired Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Kane, company vice president of defense and government. Kane recently started working for Atlas, coming from Air Mobility Command (AMC) at Scott Air Force Base, where he served as director of strategic plans, requirements and programs since 2005.
November's Limited User Test (LUT) and manufacturer Bell Helicopter's commitment to an early demonstration of its production ability will be critical milestones for the U.S. Army's troubled Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program, according to service aviation officials. The Army restructured ARH earlier this year as the program's estimated per-aircraft cost nearly doubled from its original estimate of $5.5 million. The latest estimate is $9 million, according to Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of the Army Aviation Task Force.
TSAT TEST: The Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman Transformational Satellite (TSAT) space segment team has completed the last in a series of verification tests of its Next Generation Processor Router (NGPR), the companies announced Oct. 10. The tests demonstrated additional NGPR functions and performance beyond those conducted in previous demonstrations, the companies said, and cap off a four-year risk reduction plan developed with the U.S. Air Force.
The first woman to command the International Space Station (ISS), an experienced Russian cosmonaut and a Malaysian doctor lifted off for the station Oct. 10, setting up rendezvous and docking on Oct. 12. Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:22 a.m. EDT. Their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft reached orbit nine minutes later, and is scheduled to dock with the station at about 10:52 a.m. EDT on Oct. 12.
The global space economy reached $220 billion in 2006, up 18 percent from 2005, according to a new report from the Space Foundation. Last year's report pegged the global industry at $180 billion for 2005, including $110 billion in commercial activity and $70 billion in civil government and military space (DAILY, Nov. 15, 2006). That total number has now been revised to $186.31 billion.
HCL Technologies, one of India's leading global IT services companies, says it will be announcing agreements with U.S companies in 2008 as it gears up to help them meet offset requirements for India's defense orders, including the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program. HCL Technologies and its subsidiaries had revenue of more than $1 billion for the 12-month period ending in September 2006. The company has 36,452 employees.
REAL CANNON COMING: The U.S. Army wants to exhibit a Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) prototype during its birthday celebration next June, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes. Contractor BAE Systems has been working toward development of complete NLOS-C prototypes to be delivered by the end of 2008 for testing by an evaluation brigade combat team that will try out Future Combat System elements (DAILY, Nov. 1, 2006). NLOS-C was broken off from the FCS program to protect and accelerate its development.
Japan's Selene moon probe, which entered lunar orbit on Oct. 4, jettisoned the first of its two 50-kilogram (110-pound) piggyback "daughter" satellites Oct. 8 as it settled down to business. The largest spacecraft to reach the moon since Apollo 17, the three-ton orbiter is set to separate the other daughter satellite on Oct. 12, Japan time.
AMERICAN DEFENSE: Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $25 million contract to continue mission-critical operations, maintenance and support for Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2). ISC2 will modernize the command and control systems of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) into an integrated, interoperable capability to support the National Command Authority and the Canadian Chief of Defense Staff for the defense of North America.
The Pentagon's Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle program increasingly looks set to blossom briefly before falling off almost as quickly as it grew this year as Army officials turn to a light tactical vehicle replacement. "We have really taken this thing as aggressively as we can," Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes told reporters Oct. 9 about MRAPs. "This is a very important program and we're approaching the limits of what I think you can bring in the way of change to an Army in contact with the enemy, and I think we're there."
The chairman and senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 9, expressing "strong concern" about a reported $100 million military equipment purchase from China by the Iraqi government.
ARMY SPACE CRADA: Raytheon announced Oct. 9 that it signed a five-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command-U.S.
The U.S. Army picked the C-27J for the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program, despite its higher cost, because of concerns about the C-295's ability to meet certain performance requirements, according to the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) decision rejecting Raytheon's bid protest.
NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is turning its attention to the issue of how the agency decides whether a particular mission should be manned or unmanned, and whether safety concerns are being weighed appropriately in that process.
If the U.S. Air Force and the rest of the Pentagon want to truly develop a military-strength cyber force, they'll have to change the way they buy equipment and services, according to retired Gen. John Jumper, former Air Force chief of staff. "We are focused on platforms," Jumper said Oct. 9 during an Air Force Association briefing and panel on cyberspace in Washington. "We reward people who build platforms, who can do a Block 30 upgrade to a Block 40 capability," Jumper continued. "We tend not to reward people who offer a complete new business."
Italian space agency chief Giovanni Bignami says that the fourth satellite in Italy's CosmoSkyMed radar imaging system may be orbited by a Soyuz booster from a new launch pad under construction in Kourou, French Guiana, even though the first three were contracted to fly aboard Boeing's Delta II. The primary question mark, according to Bignami, will be the ability of the Guiana launch pad, currently slated to enter service in March 2009, to meet the CosmoSkyMed 4's early 2009 target launch date.
