SPACEWALK PREP: Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev are preparing for the second spacewalk of their mission aboard the International Space Station. NASA last week chose to push the spacewalk back a day from Feb. 2 to Feb. 3 to ease the preparation schedule. During the spacewalk, the crew will move a cargo boom adapter from one module to another, install a safety bolt into a cable cutter on the Mobile Transporter truss rail car, and deploy SuitSat.
M&S SUMMIT: Making good on a promise, albeit a little behind schedule, Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) will co-host the first so-called Modeling and Simulation Leadership Summit on Feb. 6 in Suffolk, Va. The congressman, who leads the M&S caucus on Capitol Hill, wanted industry to gather to discuss M&S technologies last year (DAILY, March 8, 2005). The one-day event, which organizers hope to make an annual affair, is sponsored by the National Training Systems Association.
The White House said Jan. 19 that President Bush has chosen Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who entered the spotlight to take over federal hurricane-response efforts after FEMA was relieved, to be the next commandant of the Homeland Security Department's armed service. The Coast Guard is part of the Homeland Security Department. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, endorsed Bush's pick.
NUKE GAMES: A war game exercise run by The Heritage Foundation indicates that Cold War strategies, when there were two nuclear superpowers, may not work in an age of wider nuclear proliferation. There are indications that the more widespread nuclear defenses are could diminish the effectiveness of attack strategies and make players less likely to use them, according to the study done by Baker Spring, a national security policy expert at the conservative Washington think tank.
Boeing Co. laid off 84 workers at its Wichita, Kansas, facility on Jan. 20, citing Defense Department budget issues and program delays. The layoffs took place in the company's Integrated Defense Systems business unit. Wichita site programs include the KC-135 tanker, 767 tankers, the B-52 Stratofortress, and the Airborne Laser. Affected workers include hourly and salaried employees. All were given 60-day notices.
GLOBAL HAWK: The first production Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle arrived in theater in southwest Asia on Jan. 18, according to the Air Force. To date, deployed Global Hawks have flown more than 5,000 combat hours supporting the war on terrorism, according to manufacturer Northrop Grumman.
A star-laden panel of U.S. military leaders responsible for network-centric systems told industry contenders Jan. 19 to focus their product pitches on protecting networks, helping with limited spectrum allocation and assisting information sharing across disparate networks for the U.S. military, nongovernmental organizations and allied nations.
NASA's New Horizons mission became the first spacecraft ever launched to Pluto on Jan. 19, blasting off at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard an Atlas V rocket. Traveling 36,000 miles per hour at the time of spacecraft separation, the New Horizons mission marked the fastest-ever departure from Earth's gravity, passing the moon less than nine hours after launch.
Seven House members have written the chief of naval operations, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, urging him to propose building two attack submarines every year starting in fiscal 2009 instead of FY '12. The bipartisan group also asked Mullen to include advance procurement funding for a second Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine in the Defense Department's fiscal 2007 budget request.
Aerospace Industries Association members have "serious concerns" about the proposed funding for NASA aeronautics, which AIA President and CEO John Douglass says will not be enough to sustain America's global leadership in aerospace. Under newly appointed Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Lisa Porter, NASA is refocusing on fundamental aeronautics research and backing away from flight demonstrations (DAILY, Jan. 17). The agency is expected to request $694.4 million for aeronautics in fiscal 2007, down 14 percent from its FY '06 request.
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Senior Scout camouflages itself as a standard C-130 airlifter, but inside it offers new weapons for information warfare and network attack. It is a barometer of changing warfighting priorities. The military's principal battlefield targets are changing. Instead of tanks and aircraft, the objects of choice are radars, microwave towers, cell phones, satellite dishes and other communication links.
MH-60R Seahawk program officials and their industry providers, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., expect to receive permission within four to six weeks to begin full-rate production of the helicopter, they said Jan. 19.
The Homeland Security Department and the Bush administration are unlikely to speed up the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, according to remarks made by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, speaking to reporters on Jan. 18 at a Washington briefing hosted by King Publishing Group, said the department would like to fund Deepwater at its preplanned budget, but that the 25-year, $24 billion program will already face competition for funding.
International Space Station Astronaut Bill McArthur and Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, Expedition 12 commander and flight engineer, respectively, have completed an upgrade to the U.S. Quest airlock that should stretch the amount of oxygen available on board.
HELO RADIOS: The U.S. Army's Communications and Electronics Command has awarded Raytheon Co. a five-year, $312 million contract to provide ARC-231 radio systems for much of the service's helicopter fleet, the company said Jan. 19. More than 1,100 aircraft are expected to eventually receive the ARC-231. The radio system is currently being used on Army helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on Navy and Air Force aircraft.
About $14 billion will be spent on the European air battle space management (ABSM) market by 2014, according to a new study. But if NATO decides to develop a common missile defense capability, this part of the market will see "phenomenal growth," with expenditures in this segment alone hitting nearly $84 billion, the study said. The ABSM market consists of four segments, says the study by market analysis firm Frost & Sullivan: missile defense, static ground-based systems, deployable ground-based systems, and air platforms.
U.S. Joint Forces Command will play an "increased role" as the military moves further toward network-centric operations, according to retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The U.S. Navy has awarded DynCorp International LLC a contract to provide maintenance and support services for the Kuwaiti Air Force's F/A-18 program under the Foreign Military Sales Program, the company announced Jan. 19. The five-year contract's potential value is nearly $64 million. This is a repeat award for DynCorp, which has performed the work since 1997.
The European consortium that is developing the A400M military transport has filed the paperwork for European type certification, the latest in a series of contractual milestones for the aircraft, says Gustav Humbert, Airbus CEO. Humbert says all major contractual milestones on the program have been met. However, the first engine run occurred about two months later than originally planned and supplier selections have been running behind schedule. Nevertheless, Airbus officials indicate the original schedule is largely holding.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin $144.3 million more for continued development of the Advanced Deployable System, the company announced Jan. 18. Lockheed Martin will provide system engineering, detailed design and program management required for a detailed design review, as well as build a system that will be deployed from the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship deck for technical and operational evaluation, according to the company.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command has bought three maritime prepositioning ships for $210 million total from Braintree II Maritime Corp., Quincy, Mass., according to a Pentagon announcement Jan. 17. The container-and-roll-on/roll-off motor vessels are the PFC Dewayne T. Williams, 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez and the 1st Lt. Jack Lummus. They were transferred to federal ownership on Jan. 17 and will continue to operate worldwide, the Defense Department said.
