The Air Force is about to start testing on Raytheon's upgraded V-3 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars. The radars offer greater detection and tracking ranges, said Arnie Victor, director of Raytheon F-15 radar programs. "It also offers greatly improved reliability," Victor said. One key technological advancement is that Raytheon now has tiles of radar modules to fit together like Lego blocks instead of the old brick system, Vector said. The tiles offer more redundancy.
Adm. William Fallon, commander of all U.S. military forces in the Pacific region, says that he's working to improve the military-to-military relationship with China, a nation he describes as the "biggest issue" facing his command.
There's a 75 percent chance that the United Launch Alliance agreement between Boeing and Lockheed Martin will get the needed government approvals by mid-October and a 90 percent chance the approvals will be obtained by the end of the month, says Roger Krone, Boeing's president of Network and Space Systems. The process is now just a matter of dotting i's and crossing t's, Krone said Sept. 25 during the Air Force Association's annual conference in Washington.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Upgrades to the U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System constellation continued with the Sept. 25 launch of the second "modernized" Lockheed Martin GPS block IIR-M spacecraft with dual civilian channel capability. The 254-ton Boeing Delta II carrying the new GPS IIR-15 (M) thundered aloft from Launch Complex 17A here on 782,000 pounds of thrust. It placed the 4,540-pound spacecraft and its apogee kick motor into an 11,000 X 104-nautical mile transfer orbit inclined 39.5 degrees.
RMS APPROVED AGAIN: Delivery of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors' first low-rate production AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System (RMS) is scheduled for the second quarter of fiscal 2007, the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command said Sept. 21. Navy acquisition chief Dolores Etter on the same day also approved ongoing low-rate production, which allows for procurement of four more systems with FY '06 funds, bringing the total number of systems in production to seven.
The FAA has recertified General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Altair, a high altitude unmanned air system (UAS), the San Diego-based company said Sept. 22. Altair, which has been tested for various missions by the Coast Guard, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, received the nation's first FAA airworthiness certificate for a UAS last August. Altair is a high altitude, long endurance version of the Predator B designed for scientific and commercial research missions.
The two capabilities topping the Pentagon's most wanted list are long-range strike platforms and persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Boeing Advanced Systems President George Muellner said Sept. 25. "They are our customers' most pressing needs," Muellner said during the Air Force Association's annual conference in Washington. He added that the ISR systems are more than just sensor packages. "It's important to provide situational awareness," he said. "It's decision-quality information."
The Air Force issued draft requests for proposals for its tanker replacement fleet on Sept. 25, while its top leaders flatly denied any delay in the program, which could cost up to about $200 billion. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Gen. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, service chief of staff, said they planned to narrow down the contractor choices for the work by spring of 2007. They spoke at a Sept. 25 briefing during the Air Force Association's annual conference in Washington.
Northrop Grumman says it now expects the long-delayed contract for Germany's first Euro Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle to come through in December, although the deal still must first receive formal German parliamentary approval. The contract is "anticipated before the Christmas break," Global Hawk Program Director George Guerra said during a briefing in Washington Sept. 25. "We're looking for parliamentary approval in the November time frame."
UNDERSEA S&R: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has chosen Phoenix International Inc. of Landover, Md., for a $125 million cost-plus-award fee contract to back up the Navy in worldwide, rapid-response undersea search, salvage, recovery and rescue operations. The contract, which runs through September 2011, primarily provides for operation and maintenance of Navy owned undersea search and recovery equipment. It was competitively procured and advertised on the Internet with one proposal received, the Defense Department said Sept. 21.
ARMY General Dynamics C4 Systems, Taunton, Mass., was awarded on Sept. 21, 2006, a $79,403,375 firm-fixed-price contract for joint network and battalion command post nodes, baseband trucks, associated spare parts, training, maintenance, system configuration and network management set-up, field service representative support, and contractor depot level repair support. The work will be performed in Taunton, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 30, 2007.
A National Academy of Sciences panel reviewing NASA's lunar exploration program recommends that the agency create an advanced technology program to develop the "lunar-specific" capabilities it will need as it prepares to return astronauts to the moon in 2018.
ELECTRO-OPTIC: The world will spend an estimated $8.1 billion developing and purchasing key electro-optic (EO) systems such as night vision goggles and thermal weapon sights over the next 10 years, according to Forecast International. Through 2015, an estimated 566,586 units will be produced, and some of the leading systems are being manufactured and bought in higher numbers than ever before.
Japan launched the international Solar-B spacecraft Sept. 23 on a three-year mission to study the sun's atmosphere and the violent coronal mass ejections that can disrupt communications and power grids on Earth. Liftoff of the solid-fueled M-5 launch vehicle came at 6:36 a.m. local time at the Uchinoura Space Center (5:36 p.m. Eastern time Sept. 22). The three-stage rocket placed Solar-B in its intended orbit of 280-by-686 kilometers, with an inclination of 98.3 degrees.
HYPERSONIC COMEBACK: Hypersonic flight is garnering more interest again, Boeing Advanced Systems President George Muellner said Sept. 25 at the Air Force Association's conference in Washington. The Navy is interested in dual combustion ramjet hypersonic missile concepts, Muellner said. The Air Force wants an endothermic hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine system. It will be part of the first stage of a multistage rocket-to-orbit system as part of the Air Force's reusable launch program, he said.
The Raytheon AIM-120C7 and D programs are delayed by 15 months, although program officials say the new Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles will deliver major improvements over existing models. The C7, costing about $700,000 apiece, will employ a new seeker and modernized electronics that open up free space on the missile.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-backed Obital Express program to service orbiting satellites is on track to be launched in early December, Boeing Advanced Systems President George Muellner said Sept. 25. "This will have surveillance and service capabilities," Muellner said at the Air Force Association's annual conference in Washington.
LINZHI, Tibet - Flying down a mountain valley in the trans-Himalayas this month on an Air China Southwest Boeing 757 was made possible by the Navstar Global Positioning System satellite constellation delivering 3-4 meter (10-13 feet) accuracy.
The NASA/Lockheed Martin Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is ready to start high-resolution science operations after completing aerobraking to fly into a lower 250 x 316-kilometer orbit around the red planet.
The Department of Homeland Security said Sept. 25 that it is working with the private sector to develop smaller explosives detection systems (EDS) for airport security checkpoints to thwart the threat posed by liquid explosives.
