The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command on Sept. 11 awarded Raytheon Co. a $285.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for production of the Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS), which uses forward-looking infrared radar to provide fire control for the TOW missile.
NASA's Constellation Program has awarded Boeing $14 million to design a heat shield for the Orion crew launch vehicle using phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) material, and to build a full-scale manufacturing demonstration unit.
SUB ON TRACK: The Virginia-class submarine North Carolina (SSN 777) is 76 percent complete and is on track for delivery in February 2008, Northrop Grumman Corp. says. The company is building North Carolina, the fourth ship of the class, and says it is using lessons learned from the previous three Virginia subs. Northrop Grumman has been criticized for problems earlier in the program, which the company and Navy officials attributed to a 10-year gap since Northrop Grumman delivered its last large sub (DAILY, April 18).
WHITHER INTELSAT: There is considerable debate about how Intelsat will deal with the huge indebtedness from its recent PanAmSat acquisition, estimated at seven times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and interest. Philippe Olivier Rousseau, managing director at BNP Paribas, holds the prevailing view that Intelsat will opt for an initial public offering. Intelsat CEO David McGlade says the company will try to pare down debt initially from free cash flow and leave an IPO until later, but hints it may also look at acquiring more capacity.
Despite three years of government-funded research and development, there is no public policy consensus on equipping commercial aircraft with technology to protect them from shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles, a former top Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official says.
BORDER UAVS: The House wants "systematic" surveillance of U.S. land and maritime borders using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ground-based sensors, satellites, radar coverage and cameras. Among other elements of the so-called Secure Fence bill passed Sept. 14, the House asks for a description of how the U.S. Border Patrol is working, or will work, with the Homeland Security Department's Directorate of Science and Technology to analyze high-altitude monitoring technologies like UAVs and tethered aerostat radar systems for use with land-based systems.
NONTRADITIONAL: The Commerce Department's Office of Space Commercialization (OSC) is in discussions with NASA about how best to lure companies that aren't part of the traditional aerospace industry into becoming involved in the agency's exploration plans. In its role as coordinator of space-related issues within the Commerce Department, OSC plans an outreach effort likely to take the form of symposia or other activities in which nontraditional players are invited to network with government and industry space representatives (DAILY, June 13).
Sept. 19 -- AHS Federal City Chapter Dinner Meeting, "Current Status of U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corp. Vertical Flight Programs, Army/Navy Country Club, Arlington, Va. For more information call (703) 684-6777. Sept. 19 - 20 -- Military Logistics Summit 2006, "Total Asset Visibility, Supply-Chain Management on the Battlefield, Performance-Based Logistics," Sheraton Premiere at Tyson's Corner, Vienna, Va. For more information go to www.militarylogisticssummit.com.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas -- Spacewalkers Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper wrapped up the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the space shuttle Atlantis Sept. 15 in good shape for landing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., early Sept. 20.
The United States could fall behind other countries in the bid to put space-based radar in orbit because of slips and delays in the U.S.-planned system, speakers at the Sept. 13-15 Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite Symposium in Washington said. Industry experts say Germany and Canada are working on their own systems and could beat the United States into space with a constellation that will be able to track targets on the ground, even moving ones, with accuracy and depth never before available.
The Senate is telling the Bush administration that its fiscal 2008 budget request should include an acquisition fund for procurement and installation of countermeasure technology, "proven through the successful completion of operational test and evaluation," to protect commercial aircraft from the threat of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).
UNDER REVIEW: The use of nonlethal weapons, in particular focused microwave beams from new radars like those on the F-22 and F-35, are still being reviewed by the Pentagon's medical group, says Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne. He vouches for the operational effectiveness of high power microwaves when used against people, but says the U.S. dare not apply them in combat without first having proven their nonlethality in law enforcement use involving U.S. citizens. "If the first people you use it on are the enemy, then...
ENGINE OUT: Tom Burbage, who heads Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter effort, says the battle over a second engine program for the aircraft isn't over even if it is reinstated in next year's Pentagon budget. "I think the Defense Department is pretty firm about not doing the second engine," he says. If the joint program office must absorb the cost of "re-inventing the [Pratt & Whitney] F135," managers will cut aircraft production to find the money.
U.K. UCAV: The United Kingdom is about to launch a full-scale unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator, with the government and industry near resolution over funding of the strategic effort, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. The program, to be announced in the next few weeks, is viewed as critical to the long-term future of the British defense aerospace sector, and is a key effort for BAE Systems.
SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: U.S. Air Force Space Command's new chief, Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, intends to focus additional resources on finding, tracking and characterizing items launched into space. Improved space situational awareness (SSA) has been a command priority for several years, but Chilton plans to "work on adjusting fire on [SSA] investments," he said, noting that better use of current resources is the first order of business.
FAILED MISSILE: Formal conclusions are weeks away after a target missile for a planned intercept by the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system malfunctioned shortly after launch Sept. 13. The Hera target was assembled by Coleman Research and comprised of surplus second- and third-stage rocket motors from Air Force Minuteman IIs, all of which have been retired. The Missile Defense Agency's targets program has been "a model of success," with only one failure in 2001 out of 86 total targets launched since January 2000, officials said Sept. 15.
U-2S VS. SATS: Pentagon imagery experts are comparing output from the high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance aircraft with the product of satellites in low-Earth orbit. The review will help officials determine whether the Pentagon can retire the U-2 in the coming years - as now proposed - or if the aircraft must remain in the field to provide high-fidelity imagery. Experts are uncertain whether orbiting satellites can provide the needed look angles and surprise to collect the images commanders need.
F-22 UPGRADE: Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne admits that he is pushing an upgrade to the F-22 - a move that breaks his own rule of "fighting off people that want... who want to add that extra radio signal or the odd antenna." Nonetheless, "we would like [the F-22] to be multimission from the standpoint that it has the best radar on the battlefield," Wynne says.
After more than a decade of problems and several fatal accidents, the U.S. Air Force is finally scrapping its fleet of T-3A Firefly training aircraft. The service said TOTALL Metal Recycling Inc. of Granite City, Ill., was selected to handle the disposition of the Firefly fleet, the final chapter in one of the service's most ill-fated procurement programs. TOTALL set up operations at the airport in Hondo, Texas, this month and began scrapping the airplanes, a process that is supposed to be completed by the end of the month.
The single most important task to securing work in space is to get the proper licenses, Francesca Schroeder, a principal of Fish & Richardson, said Sept. 13 at the Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite Symposium in Washington. "Export controls are the most frustrating challenge," she said. "They affect everyone on a daily basis."
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is leading an interagency committee charged with making recommendations on securing the future of satellite imagery of the Earth, such as that which has been provided by the Landsat series of spacecraft. The committee plans to propose the establishment of a National Land Imaging program, most likely to be led by the Department of the Interior, which would provide focused federal leadership for land imaging. NASA still would design and procure the satellites on a reimbursable basis.
RELIABLE LAUNCHES: The space-based business industry is now starting to count on successful spacecraft launches after a string of failures haunted the businesses through the last decade and half. "We've almost forgotten all of the launch failures," Ed Jurkevics, principal of Chesapeake Analytics, said Sept. 13 at the Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite Symposium in Washington. "There's going to be a meteor shower of satellites. We're in an almost pinch-me mode." He estimates that, internationally, there are going to be between 100 and 150 new satellites in short order.
