Academic space scientists and their graduate students are not the only ones feeling the pinch from NASA's decision to focus its spending on President Bush's human exploration program at the expense of space science programs.
While the Pentagon is abuzz with proposed changes to the makeup and organization of various agencies and departments, analysts say the moves are unlikely to take place - or to matter if they do.
The U.S. Air Force has declared the 250-pound, precision-guided Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), manufactured by Boeing, operational for use on the F-15E Strike Eagle. The declaration came Aug. 28. The first SDBs have been delivered to U.S. units at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, U.K., for use. Three squadrons of F-15Es are based there. Lakenheath's 494th Squadron, which flies the Strike Eagle, will deploy to southwest Asia later this year.
GUIDANCE KIT: The U.S. Navy is considering whether to put a sophisticated guidance kit on its stockpile of MK 71 rockets, according to Capt. Larry Egbert, Navy deputy program manager for direct and time sensitive strike. The 5-inch rockets are used on a variety of aircraft, including attack helicopters. Since 1988, the Navy has banned rockets from use on its aircraft carriers. Recently, however, that has changed. Special operations forces using helicopters armed with rockets have begun operating from aircraft carriers around the globe.
As portions and strategies of the military services' long-term spending plans - the program objective memorandums, or POMs - start to dribble out, it looks as though the services are focusing on programs and weapons they can get into low-rate production in the next few years to keep them from being cut in the early part of the next decade, analysts say.
ABRAMS SURVIVABILITY: The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics Corp.'s Land Systems business unit $45 million to produce and install 505 Tank Urban Survivability Kits (TUSKs) for Abrams main battle tanks in Iraq, as well as another potentially $59 million competitive contract to the Armament and Technical Products unit for Abrams reactive armor tile sets. "Continued deployment and world operations have emphasized the priority to update existing tanks with increased capability," the company said Aug. 29.
In one of the major reversals - literally - in the history of the U.S. space program, Kennedy Space Center launch managers, based on an improved Ernesto storm forecast, reversed an early Aug. 29 decision to roll the space shuttle Atlantis back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and headed the vehicle back to Pad 39B after it was already halfway to the VAB.
Two engineering development models for the U.S. Navy's AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System (RMS) will be formally accepted "in the very near future," the service said, after the system successfully completed the test phase of a formal operational assessment on Aug. 21 at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Riveria Beach, Fla., test facility.
The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Lockheed Martin Systems Integration a $27.1 million contract modification for integration equipment for the VH-71 System Integration Laboratory. System integration work for the presidential helicopter replacement program will be performed in Owego, N.Y., where the lab is based and is supposed to be finished in August 2008, according to an Aug. 28 announcement from the Defense Department.
Hoping for a last-minute course or intensity change by tropical storm/hurricane Ernesto, Kennedy Space Center shuttle managers plan to begin the rollback of the space shuttle Atlantis from Launch Complex 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building early Aug. 29. National Hurricane Center track forecasts on Aug. 28 were beginning to take Ernesto eastward offshore of the Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 30, but uncertainly in the track is likely to still force a rollback.
NLOS-LS LCS: The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command has awarded NetFires, a limited liability company established by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co., $54.8 million of an expected $1.15 billion contract to procure the Non-Line of Sight Launch System Naval Littoral Combat Ship Integration, system development and demonstration. The work will be done in Tucson, Ariz., and Baltimore, and should be finished by Aug. 31, 2010.
ENGINE SUPPORT: Rolls-Royce has been awarded a $6.1 million order under an existing contract to provide HP Stage 2 turbine blades for the F-402 engine, the Defense Department said Aug. 28. The work will be done in Bristol, England, and is expected to be finished by August 2009. The contract was awarded by the Naval Inventory Control Point.
CORRECTION: The article "Top Air Force space officer ready to deliver on promises" (Aug. 22) incorrectly referred to "the modernized GPS-3 satellite." It should have said "GPS IIR(M)." In addition, the story said "launch" of the first GPS-IIF satellite will be in 2007. It should have said "delivery."
ARMY UAVS: The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command awarded General Atomics Aeronautical System an $11.5 million contract for four extended range multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), associated support equipment and initial spare parts, the Defense Department said. The Aug. 22 award runs through Aug. 31, 2007, the DOD said Aug. 24. A similar $21 million contract for "improved" UAVs was announced two months ago (DAILY, June 29).
ARMY Northrop Grumman of Linthicum Heights, Md., was awarded Aug. 22 a firm-fixed price letter contract amounting to $73,999,589 for vehicular intercom systems, components and spare parts. The work will be conducted in Linthicum Heights, Md., and is to be completed by Oct. 31, 2008. The U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command Acquisition Center is the contracting activity. Army Public Affairs can be reached at (703) 692-2000 (W15P7T-06-C-L010).
U.S. Navy Vice Adm. J. "Boomer" Stufflebeem, commander of Joint Task Force Lebanon, has announced that Air Force Col. Brad Webb will command Task Force "Alpha," comprising air and land components, while Navy Capt. John Nowell will lead Task Force "Bravo," overseeing maritime assets in the eastern Mediterranean joint operating area. JTF-Lebanon was recently reassigned to the European Command from the Central Command.
The USS San Antonio (LPD 17), the first of its class of amphibious transport dock ships, should finally finish testing next year, making it "one of the most intensively tested and evaluated amphibious ships ever built," the U.S. Navy said. But first, the San Antonio's post-delivery test and trials will pause as the ship's crew begins "intensive unit-level training," the Navy said Aug. 24. The training will qualify the crew to be "amphibious surge ready" before additional testing resumes later this year.
CBP AIR: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine division's new 67,500-square-foot National Air Training Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., is scheduled to open in October 2007, officials said Aug. 25. The construction contract has been awarded to the Korte Construction Co. of St. Louis. CBP Air and Marine Operations merged with elements from the Border Patrol to form the CBP Office of Air and Marine, the world's largest law enforcement air force with more than 500 pilots and 250 aircraft, including unmanned aircraft.
Iraq needs more logistical help to service its army and secure its borders, said Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Assistance Group. "The Iraqi army, for the most part, is fairly well-equipped. There are some areas that need assistance, and that's in their logistical system," Pittard said in an Aug. 28 briefing at the Pentagon. "The areas that at least we are focusing on are just basic sustainment: sustainment of fuel, sustainment of ammunition, their medical supplies and their maintenance," Pittard said.
