ONE SHOT: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is holding an industry day for the Advanced Sighting System (One-Shot) program in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 20. The One-Shot program will develop new technologies to allow snipers to adjust the trajectory of their first shot to take downrange winds into account, allowing them to accurately hit whatever is in their crosshairs. In some cases a 10 mph wind can result in a miss at ranges as close as 400 meters, DARPA says.
VTOL UAV CONTRACT: Sagem/Bell Helicopter, Thales/Boeing and EADS/Vertivision have been awarded one-year contracts to study the feasibility of using a common VTOL UAV design for future French naval and army UAV requirements. The basis for the studies, worth 4 million euros ($5 million) in all, will be Boeing's LittleBird helicopter, the Bell EagleEye tiltrotor and Orka, a VTOL platform developed by Vertivision partners Eurocopter and Helicopters Guimbal.
The dramatic shift to Democratic control of Congress come January should mean major staff turnover in Washington, with an army of Republican staffers, officials and even departing lawmakers looking for private sector jobs while as many or more Democrats seek all levels of Capitol Hill positions over the next few months.
EELV AWARD: The U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded Boeing Co. a $674.1 million contract for Delta IV Launch Capability for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rocket program, the Pentagon said late Nov. 17. The work will be complete by September 2007, with more than $405 million already obligated.
The U.S. Marine Corps deploys every weapons system - even aviation ones - with its ground forces as the primary focus, and service officers see the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as the ultimate infighter, especially for certain electronic warfare roles. "For the Marines, there are no stand-off jammers," said Col. Robert Walsh, the Marines assistant deputy commander of aviation. "For us, it's all about persistence over battlefield."
The Netherlands said Nov. 15 that it has approved extending its participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program into the production and support phase. The country is the first of the program's partner nations to do so. Cees van der Knaap, the Netherlands' deputy defense secretary, and U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed the Production, Sustainment and Follow-On Development Memorandum of Understanding (PSFD MOU). The accord extends program cooperation beyond the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase.
SHIP SECURITY: Northrop Grumman Corp. said it received a contract from the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center and its sponsor, the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research, to develop an electro optic-based system to warn surface vessels and aircraft in violation of ship-protection zones of Navy and Coast Guard vessels at anchor or in port. The Detection and Unambiguous Warning System (DUWS) will be based on the Northrop Grumman Venom system, a gimbaled version of the company's lightweight laser designator rangefinder.
EXTENSION: ICO Global Com-munications has requested that the FCC grant it a six-month extension for the construction and launch of ICO's planned hybrid mobile satellite system because of production/delivery issues of the spacecraft's manufacturer, Space Systems/Loral. The extension would move satellite launch from July 1, 2007 to Nov. 30, 2007, and the in-service date from July 17, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2007. The hybrid system would use an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) in combination with space-based hardware.
Anatoly Perminov, head of Russian space agency Roskosmos, says an initial version of Parom, a planned reusable cargo follow-on to the Soyuz spaceship, could be launched as early as 2009. Designed for triple the upload capacity of Russia's Progress M, Parom would serve to resupply the International Space Station, much as Europe's ATV and Japan's CTV will do.
Lee Cooper has been appointed vice president of business development for Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC. Doug Greenlaw has been named director of Raytheon Virtual Technology Corp. Kristin Hilf has been appointed vice president of community relations.
Mike Cave has been appointed vice president of business strategy and marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Nicole Piasecki has been named president of Boeing Japan. Lianne Stein has been appointed vice president of Boeing International and president of Boeing Germany.
The Defense Department has made progress in transforming its business operations, but continues to lack a comprehensive, enterprise-wide approach to its overall business transformation effort, the U.S. comptroller general told senators Nov. 16.
Two of the three crewmen on the International Space Station are scheduled to venture outside on Nov. 22 for a little golf. Shortly after emerging for a six-hour spacewalk at about 5 p.m. Central time, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin plans to hook his feet into an extravehicular activity (EVA) ladder on the Russian-side Pirs docking compartment and take a one-handed swing to send up to three golf balls hurtling away over the aft end of the Zvezda service module.
NASA this week completed the system requirements review (SRR) for the overall Constellation Program, which includes the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and Ares I and V rockets, marking the first SRR the agency has performed on a new human-carrying spacecraft since a comparable review for the space shuttle in October 1972.
The U.S. Air Force continues to resist a proposed unified medical command for the armed services, the Air Force surgeon general reiterated Nov. 15. Lt. Gen. James Roudebush, M.D., asserted during a Capitol Hill breakfast gathering that maintaining three service commands, including the Army and Navy, could provide advantages against so-called asymmetric threats that predominate Pentagon thinking nowadays.
James Halsell, a former NASA astronaut and space shuttle program launch integration manager, has been named vice president and program manager of the ARES I upper stage team.
