The Defense Department used an "innovative" approach in its Mobility Capabilities Study (MCS) and its analyses are unclear, calling into question the Pentagon's assertion that already planned spending and capabilities will meet defense needs in air, land and sea transportation, the congressional Government Accountability Office reported Sept. 20.
As it continues its restructuring of the Space Based Surveillance System (SBSS) program, the U.S. Air Force is considering producing more than one first-generation Block 10 SBSS spacecraft to help inform its decision about whether and how to purchase follow-on Block 20 satellites, according to Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
One factor in NASA's decision to pick Lockheed Martin as prime contractor for the $8 billion Orion crew exploration vehicle was confusion over just how the losing Northrop Grumman/Boeing team works.
Separating war costs from Pentagon money meant for fielding the future military is no easy task, says a Congressional Research Service report released this month.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - The space shuttle program will decide by next week whether to push toward the launch of Discovery on the STS-116 mission as early as Dec. 7 for the next shuttle mission, following a safe predawn landing by Atlantis to end STS-115 at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 21.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded an initial $67 million contract to a Boeing-headed team Sept. 21 to begin work on securing a 28-mile stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico.
House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) questioned subcommittee hearing witnesses Sept. 21 about the decision to delay deployment of an Israeli active protection system (APS) for countering mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). In April 2005, U.S. Central Command approved a Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement request from troops in Iraq that included a requirement for a vehicle dubbed the Full Spectrum Effects Platform (FSEP), which would include a fully automated APS system.
NASA has cleared the space shuttle for a Sept. 21 landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after Atlantis' crew conducted a final survey of the thermal protection system (TPS) to ensure that several pieces of floating debris spotted near the orbiter were not the result of heat shield damage.
The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it notified Congress of a possible foreign military sale to Iraq of helicopters, vehicles and weapons, as well as logistics support, worth up to $500 million. Besides numerous small arms, Iraq has asked for logistics support services and equipment for Jet Ranger, Huey II and 20 Mi-17 troop-carrier helicopters, along with standard and nonstandard wheeled vehicles, tracked vehicles, and 600 infantry light-armored personnel carriers.
As Northrop Grumman battles to keep its Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) intact for the Pentagon's next generation surveillance aircraft, the E-10, the contractor is set to prove the MP-RTIP's capabilities during next week's initial flight-tests on a Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. The company will be moving the radar system from the Northrop test bed aircraft to a Global Hawk for tests at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., company MP-RTIP Director and Program Manager Patrick Collins said at a Sept. 20 briefing.
MOVING MONEY: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said aloud Sept. 20 that he was afraid that $1.83 billion that he and another conservative senator pushed to appropriate for building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border may get sidetracked into some other earmark. "We have to make sure that we don't play a shell game in the end because someone wants to spend the money on a pet project," he told colleagues on the Senate floor.
TECH SUPPORT: Computer Systems Center Incorporated of Springfield, Va., said Sept. 20 that it has been awarded a five-year, $10 million contract by the U.S. Army to provide systems and mission integration, joint force application analysis and technical program support for the Office of Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Warfare Analysis Division at the Pentagon. The company said it will expand its work force because of the award. CSCI also said it has been awarded a total of 15 task orders, contracts and subcontracts in 2006.
The Navy has failed to show that it is better to directly fund its shipyards than to use working capital funds, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a September report. The Navy told Congress in March that its Puget Sound shipyard conversion to direct funding was a success. But that Navy report had holes, the GAO reported.
The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High program has made "tremendous progress" since last year, when the troubled effort's third Nunn-McCurdy violation led the Pentagon to truncate Lockheed Martin's contract for satellite production, says Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
Boeing's proposal to use more than 1,000 sensor- and camera-equipped towers to secure U.S. borders has won the competition for the Department of Homeland Security's $2 billion SBInet contract, industry and congressional sources confirmed Sept. 20. The department is expected to make a formal announcement Sept. 21. The Boeing team beat out proposals from teams led by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and cellphone-maker Ericsson.
The new crew of the International Space Station (ISS) reached the orbiting facility Sept. 20, accompanied by a space tourist who paid a reported $20 million to ride in the "taxi seat" of the fresh Soyuz capsule that will double as an ISS lifeboat for the next six months.
Coalition forces are likely to send needed airlift aircraft to Afghanistan, says U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, Supreme Allied commander and U.S. European Command commander. But the combat theater there still needs more helicopters, Jones said during a Sept. 20 briefing at the Pentagon. "We still need some help with the rotary wing," he said. Jones has been asking for coalition partners to provide more helicopters and C-130s.
