Australia is playing a significant role in the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial system (UAS) program and helping to pick the winning bid, Northrop Grumman executives said June 6. In a briefing to reporters about the company's unmanned maritime efforts, executives said six Australian representatives are based at the Navy's Patuxent River, Md., facilities now.
China will postpone its first unmanned mission to the moon by at least 5-6 months, a delay that under current scheduling means Japan will beat China into lunar orbit with a far more ambitious triple-spacecraft launch in midsummer. The Asian space race to the moon is politically important in Asia-Pacific technology circles where China talks a good game, but Japan has produced far more concrete results, especially in space exploration.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will allow General Dynamics to keep the troubled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program, but the Corps will dramatically scale back its future orders and restructure the contract to address award fees among other concerns, officials told reporters June 7 at the Pentagon. The program now will seek only 573 EFVs, almost halved from 1,013 units previously, and officials have built in a delay of four to five years in the schedule.
The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has asked NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to come up with alternatives to reinstating the climate sensors cut from the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) during last year's Nunn-McCurdy recertification.
The United States and Russia are neither friends nor foes, and their current disagreements are less dangerous than those during the Cold War, says U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Burg, director of Strategic Security. "We're certainly no longer the adversaries we were during the Cold War," Burg said during a June 6 breakfast speech in Washington. "But neither are we allies. We are in that middle ground. There's lots of room for growth in that relationship."
SUPERCOMPUTER CHOSEN: NASA Ames Research Center, headquarters for the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility, has chosen the IBM System p575+ supercomputer for the space agency's future supercomputing needs, including environmental studies, spacecraft design and atmospheric research. The system, which is being installed at NAS, has a peak performance of approximately 5.6 teraflops and will augment the Columbia system, currently ranked eighth fastest in the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threw a missile defense curveball June 7, proposing to U.S. President Bush to build a joint missile defense shield with the United States based in Azerbaijan versus the current U.S. pitch for a radar site in the Czech Republic and 10 ground-based midcourse ballistic interceptors in Poland.
HUBBLE FLIGHT: NASA plans to launch the final scheduled mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope on Sept. 10, 2008, which should free Launch Pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center for the start of modifications to accommodate the next-generation Ares I rocket. The servicing mission will replace batteries and other components to keep the telescope operating at least until 2013, install two new instruments, repair at least one other, and install a docking ring for a deorbit motor or perhaps a future servicing vehicle.
The U.S. Navy plans to release the request for proposals (RFP) for its Tier II Small Tactical Unmanned Air System (STUAS) this October or November, according to Capt. Paul Morgan, the service's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program manager.
OFFICIALY OUTBOUND: Kenneth Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, formally announced his resignation June 6. Krieg's resignation - long expected - becomes effective July 20 or on the confirmation of his successor, whichever comes first, the Defense Department said.
The Information Technology Association of America, the Semiconductor Industry Association and Electronic Industries Alliance are asking congressional defense authorizers to reverse or forego conservative-led provisions under fiscal 2008 legislation that reverse last year's loosening of requirements for U.S.-made specialty metals in military hardware.
DDG 1000: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command on June 5 awarded Northrop Grumman Ship Systems a $191.1 million contract modification for long-lead time material and production readiness for construction of the first Zumwalt-class DDG 1000 destroyer. Work under the cost-reimbursement type modification mostly will occur in Pascagoula, Miss., but also in various northwest and Midwest locations.
LRI COMING: Construction of the U.S. Coast Guard's Long-Range Interceptor (LRI) is 95 percent complete and preliminary testing is under way at Willard Marine's facility in California, joint venture Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) said June 6. The LRI design is based on an existing 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) for the Navy that has been customized to meet the unique mission requirements of the Coast Guard, whose Deepwater modernization program run by ICGS has come under heavy criticism in Washington for contracting concerns (DAILY, May 31).
iRobot is now in talks with a major aerospace prime about possibly partnering on efforts to place weapons on the company's military robots, according to Vice Adm. Joe Dyer (USN Ret.), president of iRobot Government and Industrial Robots. "We are in direct discussion with one of the major aerospace primes, and we have two other seriously interested potential partners, all interested in talking about arming," Dyer told The DAILY on June 6. The company hopes to have its partner in place before the end of this year. Candidates
Lockheed Martin has until the end of June to negotiate a get-well plan with the U.S. Air Force for its $5.8 billion stealthy cruise missile program or face full termination.
The Defense Department is making strides in its studies of a nonballistic, conventional intercontinental weapon and remains on track with its ICBM modernization, says U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Burg, director of Strategic Security. The so-called "boost-glide" vehicle would launch like an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), but would have a much different flight profile to prevent it from being mistaken for an ICBM with a nuclear warhead, Burg said during a June 6 breakfast speech in Washington.
The British government on June 6 approved the private finance initiative (PFI) procurement strategy for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft, clearing the way for industry to raise $4 billion to finance the initial phase of the program. The AirTanker industry consortium will provide the Defense Ministry with services covering the use of 14 Airbus A330-200 aircraft modified for the tanker transport role. The first of the aircraft will enter service with the air force in 2011, with deliveries continuing through 2014.
RAFAEL PODS: Israel's Rafael is equipping 20 limited series production Indian air force light combat aircraft with Litening targeting pods. The value was not disclosed. The Litening pods are also installed on the MiG-21, Su-27, Mirage-2000 and Jaguar, JAS-39 Gripen, Tornado, Eurofighter Typhoon and F/A-18.
U.S. Homeland Security Department officials say they lost track of an Atlanta, Ga., man infected with a deadly form of tuberculosis when he changed his return flight plans from Europe and took a foreign carrier to Canada.
Bidders will have until July 30 to submit proposals for the upper stage instrument unit for NASA's planned Ares I crew launch vehicle under a request for proposals (RFP) announced June 6. The unit will carry guidance, navigation and control avionics for the shuttle-derived vehicle. Selection of a contractor to work with NASA designers, build development and flight hardware and provide engineering support through 2016 is expected in November.
