FINAL DAYS: The final go-ahead for decommissioning the Orbital Express spacecraft is expected in a matter of days, says Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spokeswoman Jan Walker. Launched in March, the dual-spacecraft mission has pioneered a number of on-orbit satellite servicing techniques, including component and propellant transfer. The formal end of the mission was delayed while U.S. Air Force officials pondered possible mission extensions.
N-UCAS SUPPORT: Retired Rear Adm. Eric McVadon says that while the U.S. Navy's proposed unmanned combat air system (N-UCAS) will not be a panacea for U.S. requirements, it will go a long way toward overcoming a mostly defensive posture that U.S. aircraft carriers otherwise would take against China's growing fleet of diesel-electric Kilo submarines that are armed with SS-N-27B anti-ship cruise missiles.
WMD TEAM: DOD notified Congress July 13 that the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team (WMD-CST) of the South Dakota National Guard is now certified. The 82nd WMD-CST of Rapid City, S.D., is one of 52 teams now certified to assist civil authorities in responding to a domestic WMD incident, DOD said. Congress has authorized a total of 55 WMD-CSTs, which is enough to field at least one in every state and territory, as well as Washington, D.C. The remaining three teams will be certified by September 2007.
ORION ABORT: Orbital Sciences Corp. will pay Alliant Techsystems $62.5 million to develop and produce the largest of three solid-fuel rocket motors that will make up the launch abort system (LAS) for NASA's planned Orion crew exploration vehicle. The company already has tested a subscale version of the LAS main abort motor four times at its Promontory, Utah, facility - once under the contract with Orbital and three times with its own funds, according to a spokesperson.
GEVEDEN LEAVING: NASA Chief Engineer Christopher Scolese will take over as associate administrator of the U.S. space agency at the end of July, replacing Rex Geveden. Geveden announced July 11 he was resigning to become president of Teledyne Brown Engineering. In that position he will return to Huntsville, Ala., where he served as deputy director of Marshall Space Flight Center and program manager on the Gravity Probe B mission.
The U.S. Army is going to need more procurement funding to buy mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles, says a key service acquisition official. Currently, Army budgets call for a little more than $1 billion each year in fiscal year 2007 and 2008 for MRAPs, said Lt. Gen. David Melcher, military deputy for budget, assistant secretary of the Army for financial management and comptroller. But, Melcher said July 12 during an address at the AFCEA Army IT day, the service may need about $8 billion for MRAPs in fiscal 2008.
ARMY IT: The U.S. Army plans to spend about $7.5 billion a year for information technology (IT)-related systems for the next few years, according to Lt. Gen. David Melcher, military deputy for budget, assistant secretary of the Army for financial management and comptroller. Those systems will be needed as the service continues to make significant upgrades in its communications and meets other technology needs, Melcher says.
GROWTH SPURT: The Defense Department is requesting $2.54 billion for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in fiscal 2008, up from $2.23 billion in FY '07. UAV funding back in FY '01 was only $363 million. Those amounts, compiled by congressional auditors, include procurement, operations, maintenance, research, development and evaluation from regular annual defense budgets but exclude supplemental spending. As of February, DOD had more than 3,900 unmanned aircraft in its inventory compared with fewer than 50 in 2000.
PARIS - Europe's highest court appears ready to back a European Commission (EC) ruling that Italy must partially open up government helicopter procurement to competitive bidding. The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Jan Mazak, on July 10 backed the Commission's claim that rotorcraft purchased by the government for civil or civil defense purposes fall under European Union (EU) free-market rules mandating competitive tenders, and not under Article 296 of the EU treaty, which exempts defense procurement from such rules.
On next month's scheduled STS-118/13.A.1 International Space Station assembly mission, shuttle Endeavour's crew will install a short "spacer" on the starboard end of the main station truss in a mirror image of the job carried out at the other end of the truss last December.
SES says its new Astra 1L Ku-/Ka-band spacecraft has deployed to its intended orbital slot and is ready to enter routine service. Launched May 5, the Lockheed Martin-built satellite will reinforce capacity at SES's prime DTH (Direct To Home) neighborhood at 19.2 degrees east longitude, while allowing the redeployment of two existing spacecraft in that neighborhood to new slots.
Leveraging systems developed for new fighter aircraft, Thales has offered electronic combat subsystems and upgrade products for 51 Mirage 2000s in India, for which the request for proposals (RFP) may now be released within the next month. The RFP originally was expected last year. The Mirage 2000, which first was expected to be upgraded to the Mirage 2000-5, now will incorporate features specified by India (M2000 H/TH).
IROBOT ORDERS: IRobot Corp. announced July 12 that it received two delivery orders totaling $17.5 million for its PackBot robots for the U.S. military. The company expects to complete delivery by the end of January. The Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), on behalf of the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), both placed orders for the robots. Under the terms of one existing contract, PEO STRI could order up to $64.3 million in robots, spare parts, training and repair services.
SUPPLEMENTAL SLIDING: White House budget officials say the government, especially the Defense Department, may not need record-setting fiscal 2008 supplemental appropriations until the end of 2007, or months after the next fiscal year begins Oct. 1. "We don't know when it will be necessary to have another supplemental," outgoing Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman told reporters July 11. The White House wants the Democratic-run Congress to finish its regular, baseline FY '08 appropriations work first and by the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
Congress is sending President Bush an unrequested bill to bolster the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which weighs in on foreign-borne business deals that affect U.S. interests. The legislation comes after the Bush administration approved a since-failed deal last year to turn over operational control at six major U.S. ports to a Dubai company, which riled lawmakers in both political parties (DAILY, Feb. 23, 2006).
The Canadian government is getting ready to spend C$25 million (US$24 million) on research and development to protect against chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear and explosives (CBRN&E) attacks.
Capitol Hill's watchdogs say that until the Defense Department resolves and adopts true advance coordination, it may continue to face challenges in successfully integrating unmanned air systems (UAS) and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets into combat operations, while other concerns such as limited bandwidth are exacerbated.
NASA BILL: The House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill July 12 that gives NASA a $1.3 billion increase from 2007 and $290 million above the Bush Administration's fiscal 2008 request. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) added an amendment to the bill that his office said will help protect NASA jobs as the agency plans the upcoming retirement of the space shuttle.
Turkish forces are facing improvised explosive device (IED) attacks along Turkey's northern border with Iraq that are similar to those wreaking havoc on U.S. troops, says Faruk Logoglu, Turkish ambassador to the United States. The IED and other attacks are the work of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Logoglu told reporters at a July 12 breakfast roundtable. Losing patience
The U.S. Air Force ignored a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion and violated federal procurement law and policy in the way the service handled the revised request for proposals (RFP) for the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter competition, Sikorsky charged in its second protest over the matter.
