GLOBAL HAWK LESSONS: Lessons learned from tests of the U.S. Navy's unmanned RQ-4A Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration aircraft during the massive Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise in July are being applied to the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) system plan, the service says. RIMPAC operations included "analyzing the effects of available time-on-station following delays en-route to a distant area of responsibility," and "associated consequences" in a changing maritime environment, the Navy says.
BARGAIN BASEMENT: As programmatic and financial weakness begins to show in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, aerospace company officials are beginning to look at how to fill the void. One emerging plan is to update new or used F-16s with scaled-down versions of the F-22 and advanced F-15 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars and an advanced radar warning receiver. The mix would provide the buyer with a cheap ticket to network centric operations, detection of small, stealthy targets and standoff attack capabilities at a bargain price.
DISAPPOINTED: With the Army running low on operational funding because of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Association of the U.S. Army President Gen. Gordon Sullivan (ret.) says he is disappointed that the Senate recessed before completing its fiscal 2007 defense spending bill. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Minority Leader Harry Reid, Sullivan writes, "the tactical and strategic success of our Army is dependent on timely defense appropriations and authorization." Upon returning Sept.
VANDENBERG EAST: U.S. Air Force space planners have picked NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Atlantic coast to launch the upcoming TacSat 2 satellite mission for the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) onboard a Minotaur I rocket. The 61-year-old sounding-rocket facility also will launch the Near-Field Infrared Experiment (Nfire) aboard a Minotaur I for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Set for launch Nov. 13, TacSat 2 is an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration that will wring out AFRL's ability to design, build and test a spacecraft within 15 months.
Aug. 20 - 23 -- The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States 35th General Conference & Exhibition, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information go to www.ngaus.org. Aug. 21 - 25 -- 39th Annual Rotary Wing Technology, "A Comprehensive Short Course in Rotary Wing Technology," Penn State University Park, University Park, Penn. For more information go to www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/RotaryWing/.
VAN ALLEN: James A. Van Allen, the Iowa physicist who discovered the radiation belts around Earth that bear his name during the first U.S. orbital space mission following the surprise of Sputnik, died Aug. 9 of heart failure. He was 91. In addition to plotting the Van Allen belts, he also plotted radiation belts at Jupiter and Saturn with instruments he provided for the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft. Van Allen also was a member of the science team for the Galileo mission to Jupiter.
Tactical satellites and responsive space platforms lead the future needs list for Army space troops, said U.S. Army Col. Tim Coffin, commander of the service's 1st Space Brigade at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Army space troops have the same space needs identified by the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for the Pentagon and other services, Coffin said in an Aug. 10 interview. "High altitude, long loiter - what we need is almost in the reach of technology," he said. "The question is, how we get to where we need to go, when we need to get there."
UK COUGARS: The United Kingdom is buying 86 Cougar Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) vehicles from Force Protection Industries Inc. of Ladson, S.C., according to an Aug. 10 Defense Department announcement. Marine Corps Systems Command contracted the $63 million foreign military sale award, which runs through next May. The V-shaped-bottom armored vehicles have soared in demand since Iraqi insurgents revealed vulnerabilities in Humvees with their improvised explosives devices.
Raytheon Co. still is hopeful the Defense Department will pursue some kind of national coastal surveillance system for homeland missile defense using its Relocatable Over-the-Horizon Radar (ROTHR), but the company isn't expecting imminent news.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced Aug. 10 that it has officially accepted the new Rescue 21 command, control and communications system along the Alabama, Mississippi and Florida coastlines. The General Dynamics C4 Systems program, which has received congressional criticism for delays and personal attention by no less than the new Coast Guard commandant, actually took effect in the Gulf Coast in late June.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A foiled terrorist plot to blow up nine U.S.-bound flights from four airlines as they flew over the Atlantic Ocean from London prompted no change in alert status at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) here, according to a spokesman for the two commands.
FLIGHT TRAINING: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is hosting a Naval Undergraduate Flight Training Systems Industry Day on Sept. 14 at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center in California, Md. The event, open to interested members of the aerospace industry as well as the public, will discuss the future of naval aviation flight training and opportunities for future industry involvement. The morning session will specifically address the T-45 Contractor Logistics Support Services contract that will be competed within the next two years.
GOOD HEALTH: Prospective space tourist Charles Simonyi has passed Russian medical reviews in preparation for an eventual flight to the International Space Station (ISS), Space Adventures announced Aug. 10. The Russian Government Medical Commission (GMK) convened on Aug. 8 to review Simonyi's general medical condition and fitness for spaceflight. Space Adventures arranged the ISS trips of Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen and Daisuke Enomoto, who is training for his flight in September.
The U.S. Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and AirLaunch LLC said Aug. 10 that they successfully dropped a full-scale simulated 72,000-pound rocket from an unmodified C-17A aircraft at an operational launch altitude of 32,000 feet and an air speed of 200 knots. The July test, conducted as part of the Falcon Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) program, was preceded by a similar June test in which a 65,000-pound simulated rocket was released, the team said.
SWEDISH C-130s: Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have signed a $19.8 million contract for the modernization of the first Swedish Air Force C-130 aircraft, the company announced Aug. 10. The award, which falls under the Air Force's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program, is a prelude to a foreign military sales contract between the service and Boeing for Swedish C-130s expected to be finalized in October.
While Northrop Grumman awaits the U.S. Air Force decision on whether to keep its advanced E-10 radar and put it on the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) fleet, top industry analysts say the radar will be cut because of budget priorities. Those cuts are a harbinger of a trend - cut technology to fund legacy equipment for current combat needs, analysts say.
SMALL BIZ: At least 30 percent of the U.S. Navy Aging Aircraft team's business of seeking increasingly obsolete replacement parts goes to small businesses, a level well above the federal government's goal of 23 percent, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The team realized that most of the "truly innovative solutions" come from small businesses, which are able to specialize in specific technological areas of interest, NAVAIR says.
Absent some type of commitment within about a week from the U.S. Air Force or another foreign air service for the purchase of 10 C-17 aircraft worth about $2 billion, Boeing plans to make good on its threat to start shutting down the line, company Vice President Dave Bowman said Aug. 10.
Competing industry teams have submitted their proposals for NATO's missile defense Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) program, in anticipation of a contract award in mid- to late September. Boeing submitted its proposal in July a month ahead of the deadline, according to the company, and a Northrop Grumman/EADS Defence & Security Systems team handed theirs in this week. A team led by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) also is proposing.
Congress is being told to prepare to provide $110 billion in off-budget supplemental funding for fiscal 2007 military operations abroad and other Defense Department requests. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in its required mid-session review submitted last month, told Capitol Hill to expect a roughly $60 billion request later in FY '07, which lawmakers expect next spring.
