IBM Global Business Services has lost a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest over the U.S. Air Force's decision to appoint Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) as system integrator for the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), the congressional agency said. The Air Force had awarded CSC last fall - twice, in fact, after an initial protest - saying the company's bid represented the best value. IBM planned initially to deploy ECSS to Air Logistic Centers, while CSC planned to start ECSS at Air Force bases, according to GAO.
Sikorsky Aircraft on May 9 announced the four subcontractors that will design and fabricate the major fuselage sections for the U.S. Marine Corps' new CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter. The fuselage team will consist of Aurora Flight Sciences, EDO Corp., GKN Aerospace and Spirit AeroSystems.
HOT JUPITERS: Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to shed light on the atmospheric conditions of two "hot Jupiters" - distant gas giant planets that orbit closely around their parent stars. One team of scientists has used the infrared telescope to map temperature variations over the surface on one planet and found that it is likely whipped by winds up to 9,600 kilometers per hour (6,000 mph). Another team has found that another gas giant, HD 149026b, is the hottest yet discovered, with temperatures of 2,038 degrees Celsius (3,700 Fahrenheit).
NASA is considering an alternate stage separation scheme for its Ares I rocket that would use struts driven by compressed gas rather than the modified shuttle hardware in the current design, and is asking industry to weigh in. The current design uses Space Shuttle Booster Separation Motors (renamed Booster Deceleration Motors, or BDMs) to separate the Ares I after the first stage has spent its fuel and prior to upper-stage ignition.
The U.S. Air Force's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) proved ineffective during four recent flight tests, which were conducted as the Pentagon weighs whether to terminate the new stealthy cruise missile program due to cost increases.
Newly installed Democratic leaders on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) are prevailing so far on controversial cuts and changes to the Bush administration's fiscal 2008 defense request, including maintaining a 24 percent reduction to the Army's Future Combat Systems request and approving language favoring more Boeing C-17s over improving Lockheed Martin C-5s.
Lockheed Martin has said the U.S. Army's award to provide a Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar (TRACER) capability, or low-frequency synthetic aperture radar systems, into Predator-class unmanned aerial vehicles is worth $40 million.
The Pentagon is looking into possible duplicative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs in the U.S. Army and Air Force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Senate appropriators May 9. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said he has ordered the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) to look into the Army's Warrior UAV and its similarities to the Air Force's Predator program.
KC-30B: EADS has completed ground vibration testing of the Royal Australian Air Force's first KC-30B Multi-role Tanker Transport (MRTT), the company announced May 9. Designed to validate airframe structural response, the tests were conducted with the centerline fly-by-wire Aerial Refueling Boom System and two underwing hose-and-drogue pods installed. Completion of the ground-based evaluations clears the way for the start of flight tests with the no. 1 KC-30B MRTT, including in-flight refueling contacts with a variety of receiver aircraft.
Looking to cash in on the Navy's desire to use - but still protect - the service's P-3s, small defense contractors are developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be launched by the fleet for a variety of up-close-and-personal missions from the stalwart stand-off aircraft.
The U.S. Army has awarded Intelligent Automation Corp. (IAC) a production contract for ten additional IAC 1474 SuperHUMS for the U.S. Army's RQ-7B Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS). The U.S. Army's Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., made the award, which expands on an original contract awarded in March. HUMS (Health Usage Monitoring Systems) reduce maintenance, support and turnaround time by directly linking aircraft health status information to ground maintenance personnel
Lockheed Martin remains bullish on unmanned vehicles - aerial, ground, or maritime - despite some recent funding setbacks for major proposals. From a large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to assist the U.S. Navy in long-range reconnaissance to squad-sized ground vehicles in the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), Lockheed Martin says vehicles without drivers or pilots will increase in importance as the military faces more long-endurance or monotonous surveillance missions.
AGREEMENT: NASA and FAA will work together to encourage students to develop skills in science, technology, engineering and math under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the agencies May 9. The partnership includes a broad range of cooperative outreach activities and will initially focus on NASA's "Smart Skies" - an online air traffic control simulator for students in fifth through ninth grades. NASA developed Smart Skies in conjunction with air traffic controllers at FAA's facility in Oakland, Calif.
A federal government clampdown on flying unmanned aerial vehicles in the national airspace has clipped the wings of UAV system developers. Last year, FAA made it more difficult to fly UAVs in U.S. skies and according to Kevin Blenkhorn, director of unmanned systems for 21st Century Systems of Arlington, Va., even defense contractors are finding it difficult to develop the kind of unmanned systems the Pentagon wants.
SES Americom will buy at least two and as many as five new Star-2 hybrid communications satellites from Orbital Sciences Corp. under a contact announced May 8. The new satellites - initially a replacement bird designated AMC-5R and a ground spare - will include cross-strapping capabilities between some of their C- and Ku-band transponders for increased flexibility. Customers will be able to transmit signal to the satellite and receive in another, according to Princeton, N.J.-based SES Americom.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the industry team behind the Airborne Laser (ABL) program are mobilizing to try to persuade Capitol Hill to reverse the $400 million cut to ABL's $549 million fiscal 2008 budget levied by House defense authorizers. "We're working with the Hill to mitigate their concerns," MDA spokesman Chris Taylor told The DAILY.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) dual-spacecraft Orbital Express mission had its first free-flying undocking and re-docking demonstration May 5. The two satellites - Boeing's Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft and Ball Aerospace's NextSat - undocked, separated to a distance of roughly 10 meters and flew separately for a full orbit around the Earth before re-docking, according to Robert Villanueva, spokesman for mission prime Boeing.
TSAT PRESENTATIONS: Both major industry teams jockeying for the high-profile Transformational Satellite (TSAT) military communications system have wrapped up multi-day risk-cutting presentations to U.S. Air Force officials. Teammates Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman said May 7 that they recently completed a three-day key design review of the space segment of their TSAT proposal. Executives said they were "extremely pleased" with the outcome.
NASA plans to build a new 300-foot tall rocket engine test stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi that should be ready in time to begin testing the Ares I's J-2X engine in late 2010. The new structure will be the first large test stand built at Stennis since the 1960s, according to NASA. It will feature an open-frame design allowing engineers to simulate conditions at different altitudes. The J-2X upper-stage engine for the Ares I also will serve as the primary engine for the Earth Departure Stage on the larger Ares V rocket.
The U.S. Navy is testing an IP-based radio communications sensor network for the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) the service is planning to fly from its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), according to officials from Atlantic Coast Technologies, the company developing the network. The program is entering Phase II of the Navy's Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR), company president Ray Kolar said May 7 during a briefing at the 2007 Navy Opportunity Forum.
BYE BYE BIRDIE: U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is planning to retire the last of its MH-53 helicopters by October 2008. Officials at command headquarters at Hurlburt Field, Fla., say they've already begun the drawdown, and crew training already has ceased at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. The vertical-lift support mission for special operators now will fall solely on the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which operates MH-47s.
