The Nuclear Weapons Council (NWC), a working group of senior Pentagon and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials, decided Dec. 1 to proceed with the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program after reviewing competing designs from Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. The two labs now will compete to gain acceptance of their respective designs for the replacement warhead, which aims to create an improved and safer nuclear weapons stockpile without traditional means such as nuclear tests.
BATTLELAB CONTRACT: Goodrich Corp. said Nov. 30 that it was awarded a U.S. Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab contract to develop and fabricate a shortwave infrared sensor for the Spectre-Finder initiative. The goal is to demonstrate the potential of a small, air-launched and recoverable unmanned aircraft to provide off-board sensing for future Air Force Special Operations Command concepts of operation. Goodrich's team will develop a SWIR camera payload assembly.
The U.K. government has tapped a team of Lockheed Martin and the VT Group to be the preferred bidder for the country's 6 million pound ($11.8 million) Military Flying Training System program. The so-called Ascent Team beat out the rival Thales-led Sterling bid and the Vector team, led by KBR and Bombardier.
WEAPONS MOUNTS: Tonsberg, Norway-based Vinghog AS has been awarded an $8.4 million contract to provide the U.S. military with Improved Crew Served Weapons Mounts for MK47 Advanced Lightweight Grenade Launchers, the U.S. Defense Department said Nov. 29. The mounts, which help improve accuracy when firing on the move, will also be used with M2 and M240 machine guns. The work will be done in Norway and is expected to be completed by November 2011. The contract was awarded by The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Ind.
NASA says it will continue to support its Centennial Challenges prize program, despite the fact that Congress may be on the brink of denying funding to the effort for the second year in a row. Senate appropriators have voted to deny the program's $10 million fiscal 2007 budget request, although the Senate and House have yet to agree on a final FY '07 NASA budget (DAILY, Nov. 29).
Raytheon Co. said Nov. 30 it was awarded a $2 million contract for its Paveway II laser-guided bomb (LGB) kits in a winner-take-all U.S. Air Force competition. Raytheon will provide Paveway GBU-10 air foil groups, used with 2,000-pound Mk-84 warheads, under a contract with Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
After further analysis of its last two space shuttle flights, NASA has downgraded the risk of foam debris to the orbiter and is proceeding with plans to launch Discovery on the next space station assembly mission Dec. 7. During at two-day flight readiness review (FRR) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida that wrapped up Nov. 29, managers reviewed new analysis of the danger posed to the orbiter by foam debris shed from the external tank during ascent - the phenomenon that doomed Columbia nearly four years ago.
The U.K. defense ministry opened a new explosive waste incinerator on Nov. 30 in Bosnia designed to destroy tons of arms and bombs in the Balkans. The U.K. in July pledged to destroy 250,000 light weapons and small arms in Bosnia within a year. The defense ministry has already helped dispose of 200,000 small arms in Bosnia this year and has helped destroy more than 1 million weapons worldwide through its Global Conflict Prevention Fund.
'DIVESTING': Air Force acquisition czar Sue Payton says she is considering "divesting," or terminating programs because of declining funding for the service's modernization accounts. Funding has decreased about $10 billion in the last three years, she says. Her criteria will be those programs that may have lost relevance since the war on terrorism began and those that are over budget or underperforming. "I personally believe this is my swan song," she says of her service to the Pentagon and her determination to get Air Force programs back in line.
U.S. Navy officials have chosen F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Radar Altimeters, MH-60R/S Air Data Computers and newer ARN-153 advanced digital tactical airborne navigation systems for EA-6B Prowlers from a top-10 list of problematic avionic systems to be worked on this fiscal year. These projects were chosen depending on how close they were to a proposed fix (usually a redesign or qualification of a similar modern component), urgency of need, return on investment and the ability to fix the problem.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Nov. 29 that he and the chiefs of the Army and Marines are constantly "scrubbing," i.e., rechecking, their forecasts for future ground force sizes - a hot topic in light of Iraq and Afghanistan operations. If Pace deems an increase is needed, he will recommend as much to the defense secretary and president, he politely told Pentagon reporters.
India is beginning the definition of a small Mars orbiter for launch as early as 2013 on India's geosynchronous space launch vehicle. The spacecraft, costing only about $70 million excluding the booster, would carry instruments to research the Martian atmosphere and sub surface, possibly including a radar. The mission is probably more significant at this point in that India is planning to do it, rather than what scientifically it is planning to do.
Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne in mid-November decided to kill a proposal that would have kept competing teams led by Boeing and Northrop Grumman under contract for a new proposed tanker fleet until 2009, opting instead to make a winner-take-all award for the first 179 planes next July, The Lexington Institute reports in an issue brief released Nov. 28.
MISSION EXTENDED: The Chinese-European Space Agency Double Star mission will be extended an additional nine months following approval of additional funding by the ESA science committee. The twin satellites, launched in December 2003 and July 2004, had already benefited from a 17-month extension approved last year. The extensions are intended to allow Double Star to work in tandem with ESA's Cluster mission, which was recently stretched to December 2009, the upcoming NASA Themis mission and NASA's new Stereo system, launched late last month.
