The Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio, was able to find newly designed ball joints for the U.S. Army's most-used military vehicle, solving a problem of the parts wearing out too quickly. The two upper ball joints were causing logistical problems and were identified as a high-priority part for service's 78,000 Humvees being used around the world. Design problems, coupled with a limited number of suppliers, made it difficult to meet the requirement of replacing them after 12,000 miles of use.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Industry officials say they expect the U.S. Air Force this week to release the formal RFP for the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) system of the E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A).
The use of space systems for military operations has grown considerably over the past decade and shows no signs of slowing in the coming decade, according to a new report from a research group. Over the next 10 years, 113 dedicated military satellites with an estimated value of $42 billion will be produced, according to the Forecast International report, "Western Military Satellites: 2004-2013."
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has received more than 20 ideas for involving allied countries in MDA's new Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program, according to Defense Department officials.
The U.S. Army is nearly finished upgrading its fleet of CH-47 Chinook helicopters to make them more resistant to missile attacks from the ground, according to Lt. Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's deputy chief of staff for operations.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency believes a brief drop in power in part of an interceptor missile caused a recent test failure for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, according to information MDA has submitted to Congress.
BETTER DOCKING: Michigan Aerospace Corp. will refine its docking system for spacecraft under a one-year, $220,000 contract from Microcosm Inc., the company said. The contract is part of a larger grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Prototypes of the docking system have been ground-tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., and on the Johnson Space Center's KC-135 microgravity-producing aircraft. Refinements to the mechanism will be made as a result of these tests, the company said.
The U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF) has been moving some of the military's newest, most advanced technologies into the war theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing U.S. troops with the ability to stay a step ahead of emerging threats, according to an REF official.
NASA's Genesis spacecraft has ended its collection of solar wind particles, the aerospace agency said. The spacecraft has exposed its collector arrays of sapphire, silicon, gold and diamond to the solar wind since October 2001, but ended that collection earlier this month when the Genesis team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., ordered the collectors deactivated and stowed.
The U.S. Air Force's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab (UAVB) has tested software that can pick desired features out of UAV video long before they become visible to the naked eye, according to Lt. Col. Timothy Cook, chief of the UAVB's Combat Applications Division. Based at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the UAVB's mandate is to take existing hardware and weapons and integrate them with UAVs. The recognition software originally was developed for the Nevada gaming industry, to automatically spot problem gamblers when they enter casinos, Cook said.
The U.S. Army intends to convene a high-level meeting in Colorado this week to kick off development of a blueprint for the service's directed energy (DE) programs. About 85 leaders of Army organizations are expected to gather for the April 13-14 summit, which is to begin crafting a "strategic plan" that will set research priorities for lasers and other DE weapons, according to the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), the event's organizer.
U.S. Air Force officials said fundamental differences exist between the Department of Defense's Inspector General and Air Force acquisition and legal experts regarding the proposed tanker lease agreement. "Although this was an admittedly complex and novel proposal to lease commercial aircraft modified to serve as tanker aircraft, the audit team found no compelling reason to not proceed with the leasing arrangement," the Air Force said in a statement in response to questions from The DAILY.
SUPERBIRD READY: The Boeing Co. said the Superbird-6 satellite it built for Japan's Space Communication Corp. (SCC) is ready for its April 15 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The satellite, the third spacecraft Boeing Satellite Systems has built for SCC, will be used to meet the "strong demand" for business telecommunications services in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, Boeing said. Superbird-6 carries 23 Ku-band and four Ka-band transponders.
EMS Technologies, Inc. has delivered the first set of beam-forming networks (BFNs) for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications program two months ahead of schedule, the company said April 12.
AUSTRALIAN SALE: ADI Ltd. of Australia has delivered the final six of 40 interim high mobility engineering excavator vehicles (IHMEEs) it has designed and built for the U.S. Army, the company said. The IHMEEs is a "breakthrough vehicle" because it is the first Australian-built military vehicle to be bought in volume by the U.S., and the deal has "created further export opportunities with the U.S.," Lucio Di Bartolomeo, ADI's managing director, said in a statement.
General Electric and Volvo Aero have signed an agreement to increase Volvo Aero's stake in the LM2500 industrial gas turbine, an engine primarily used for marine and industrial applications. Volvo Aero has been producing the 3-9 spool for the high-pressure compressor in the LM2500 for several years. The additional contract applies to compressor discs for the same gas turbine, according to a joint statement from the two companies.
Two more companies have announced their teammates in the competition for the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF) cluster of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). The Boeing Co. said it is partnering with BBN Technologies, Harris Corp., L-3 Communications, MILCOM Systems Corp., Northrop Grumman Mission Systems and Rockwell Collins, while Northrop Grumman Corp. said its team includes Arinc, Honeywell, ITT Industries, Titan Corp. and ViaSat.
April 12 - 16 -- SPIE Defense & Security Symposium, Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, Orlando (Kissimmee), Fla. Email Bonnie Peterson at [email protected] or go to www.spie.org/info/or/. April 20 - 22 -- Aviation Week presents MRO Conference & Exhibition 2004, including MRO Latin America and the new MRO Military, Cobb Galleria Centre, Two Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, Ga. To register go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences.
VALIDATION: An airborne instrument that will be needed to validate data from a European Space Agency satellite has had successful flight tests and appears ready for the "challenging validation work ahead," ESA says. ESA's CryoSat, due to launch by the end of this year, will monitor minute changes in the thickness of polar ice sheets and floating sea ice, to determine whether they are thinning due to global warming.
