Fast on the heels of security breakdowns at the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories, the National Research Council finds the Pentagon's computer security ``far inferior'' to that of the commercial sector. Warning that the global cyber threat places the military ``in an increasingly compromised position,'' an NRC report recommends urgent creation of a high-level agency to provide direct defensive operational support to all commanders.
With an eye on international competition, Arianespace is positioning itself to play a bigger role in the European space industry. Next week, the Arianespace board plans to review proposals designed to bolster the company's long-term ambitions and set the stage for an extended booster family.
ROCKWELL SCIENCE CENTER IS TESTING volume holographic memory storage with fast random access of both analog and digital information and a high data transfer rate; 20,000 holograms were stored in 20 adjacent 1-mm. layers in a 20-mm.-high section of lithium niobate crystal. The demonstrater has a 1-gigabyte capacity, but researchers expect to expand it to 10 gigabytes. Access is about as fast as with flash memory, and an engineering prototype is possible in about 1-2 years.
U.K.-based Smiths Industries Plc. is expanding two of its core aerospace technologies with the acquisition of Strategic Technology Systems Inc. of Trenton, N.J. STSI supplies health and usage monitoring systems, principally for helicopters, and on-board stores management products for military aircraft.
The FAA is changing its strategy for modernizing the nation's air traffic control system from one of huge programs intended to make sweeping changes to one consisting of more manageable, incremental improvements. The new way of doing business is a response to both the shortage of funding and a history of blundered acquisitions. There won't be any more ``big bang'' programs--they just don't work, said Shelly Myers, the FAA's director of Communications, Navigation, Surveillance Systems.
Donald J. Campbell, director of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has been named 1998 Laboratory Director of the Year by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. The award recognizes contributions to the enhancement of technology transfer for economic development.
The U.K.'s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy aircraft repair organizations were merged earlier this month. The new Defense Repair Agency is headquartered at RAF St. Athan in Wales and combines fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft maintenance. The new organizational structure paves the way for more commercial repair and overhaul work.
The capability of destroying theater ballistic and cruise missiles prior to launch is attracting increasing attention among Pentagon planners, who are trying to determine what weapons will be needed to carry out the time-sensitive mission.
Without government aid to support its regional aircraft projects, Indonesia's state-owned IPTN factory has begun a restructuring process that includes replacing its top manager with a caretaker.
United Airlines launched its eight-week-long ``Time to Go!'' campaign this month in a concerted effort to improve on-time performance. The carrier--which in February ranked sixth among the majors in on-time performance or arriving within 14 min. of ETA--is determined to change its ranking in time for the busy June, July and August vacation travel months. The initiative follows a launch ``countdown'' format--United is striving to have customers on board and belted up no later than 10 min. before departure.
ITT Industries and Eastman Kodak Co.'s Commercial&Government Systems unit have formed a partnership to pursue worldwide business opportunities. Their initiative is aimed at the market for space-based electro-optical remote-sensing systems. Market segments covered under the agreement include commercial and U.S. government remote-sensing systems, as well as space exploration systems.
Bryan Kurz has become director of customer service and station operation and Jim Paget chief information officer of Detroit-based Pro Air. Kurz was Western U.S. manager of customer service for American Trans Air, and Paget was a manager of information technology for Pepsi Cola.
Long-running Pentagon complaints have again resurfaced that the supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, has clamped down so tightly on information about the conflict in Kosovo that military staffs and intelligence agencies are sometimes being cut out of planning and ordered not to talk with one another.
SPACE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CORP. (STDC) in Alexandria, Va., is working with the Office of Naval Research on a dual-use hyperspectral imaging satellite, scheduled for launch next year. The Navy will have priority to 25% of the mission time. STDC will sell the remaining imaging time commercially. Science Applications International Corp. is assembling the sensor for the Naval EarthMap Observer (Nemo) satellite, using a commercial LS-400 bus developed for Global Star satellites. Nemo's imagery will cover a swath 30 km.
Aerospatiale has been restructured into four subsidiaries in an initiative set to facilitate envisioned strategic alliances as well as integration of the company's Airbus-related activities into the planned Airbus single corporate entity. The subsidiaries will be called Aerospatiale Airbus, Aerospatiale ATR, Aerospatiale Lanceurs Strategiques et Spatiaux, and Aerospatiale Missiles.
WorldSpace says its Afristar satellite, the first element of a planned worldwide digital satellite radio system, has passed field tests, preparing the way for the marketing phase of the program. The tests, run in January, evaluated the reception quality of typical programming feeds (uplinked from ground stations in Johannesburg, London and Toulouse, France) on production-standard receivers in Cairo, Nairobi and Johannesburg, as well as in Toulouse and Erlangen, Germany--outside the basic coverage area.
British Aerospace Regional Aircraft has sold a third Avro RJ100 to Aegean Aviation of Athens.The Greek regional carrier bought two RJ100s in February that are to be delivered this month.
Saab is acquiring Nyge Aero, a Swedish civil and military aircraft maintenance and modification company. Nyge Aero had revenues of SKr 160 million ($19.5 million) in 1998.
Commercial operators, in their quest to capitalize quickly on space, do not perceive near-term threats to orbiting spacecraft worth billions of dollars, despite repeated warnings from military space officials.
A malfunctioning control thruster has been identified as the most likely cause for the sixth successive intercept failure of the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense program. But military officials said they were encouraged to learn that the missile's end-game seeker accurately tracked the Hera target in the Mar. 29 test.
AS A SIGN OF CHANGING TIMES AT THE FAA, the agency plans to buy services rather than hardware to upgrade Oakland Center's oceanic control services. The FAA expects to release a Service Information Request (SIR) for oceanic control service in May. The agency sent a team of controllers to Sydney last September to try out The Australia Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS) built by Thomson-CSF, now part of Airsys ATM. The test replicated Oakland Center, but with more traffic, and TAAATS got good reviews (AW&ST Nov. 2, 1998, p. 50).
U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, flying strikes against Yugoslav forces, are using upgraded electronic counter measure capabilities developed quickly and rushed into the field by a joint USAF/contractor team at Eglin AFB, Fla. Five B-1Bs with the 28th Bomb Wing's 77th Bomb Sqd. at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., are participating in the NATO strikes from RAF Fairford, England. The new ECM capabilities, designed to counter specific Yugoslav air defense and jamming systems, were added to the five B-1s to enable them to fly strikes in high threat areas.
