TANKER HEARING: The Senate Commerce Committee likely will hold a hearing Sept. 3 to examine the Air Force's proposal to lease 100 Boeing KC-767A tankers. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the panel's chairman, is the leading congressional critic of the proposed deal. The Senate Armed Services Committee, whose membership includes McCain, already has announced it will hold a Sept. 4 hearing on the Air Force plan (DAILY, Aug. 11).
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, has been a staunch defender of the Pentagon's controversial plans to conduct research on new and modified nuclear weapons. But the congressman may be breaking that alliance.
NORFOLK, Va. - In addition to blue force tracking technology, training is key to reducing fratricide in future conflicts, according to participants in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) attending the National Training Systems Association's conference here last week. Twenty-nine "blue on blue" fratricide events took place during OIF, according to Navy Capt. Roy Rogers, who served in the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) and currently is director of the Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Program Office.
ADDITIONAL COSTS: Incorporating S-band radar technology into the Navy's DD(X) next-generation destroyer will increase the price of the ship by about $15 million, Hamilton says. Navy officials say S-band rather than L-Band radar technology will be incorporated into the DD(X). An additional $42 million non-recurring charge will be added to cover developmental costs. With the add-on costs, the average price per ship will be $1.2-1.4 billion. "As that design matures ... those prices will fluctuate.
MR. PRESIDENT: Former NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin will become president of Boston University on Nov. 1, BU says. The longtime NASA chief will succeed longtime BU President John Silber. "My ultimate goal is to develop a shared vision for the university that will take all of us to new levels of knowledge and accomplishment through the power of education," Goldin says.
NEW FUZE: A warhead and fuze for the U.S. Army's Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) designed to strike four classes of ground targets is the focus of a $3 million new research effort. The Army is seeking contractors interested in the early design work for a new warhead and fuze that can defeat infantry fighting vehicles, man-portable air defense systems, trucks and field fortifications and support military operations in urban areas, says an acquisition notice posted Aug. 14. Responses are due Sept.
RADAR BASING: The Missile Defense Agency announced Aug. 15 that Adak, Alaska, will host the primary support base for the Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar. Adak was one of six sites under consideration (DAILY, Aug. 15). The radar, which will support the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, is being installed on a self-propelled, modified oil-drilling platform.
A previously-awarded $689 million contract for Boeing-built Lot 7 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) is being adjusted to call for 4,900 500-pound bombs instead of one-ton bombs, a U.S. Air Force official said Aug. 15. The move reflects the Air Force's growing confidence in an ongoing developmental effort to configure the B-2 fleet with 80 GBU-82 500-pound smart bombs, said Brian Rutledge, JDAM program director at the Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
JTRS FALLS SHORT: The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), which is costing the Pentagon at least $14 billion to develop and produce, falls short of satisfying the military's long-term radio communications needs, according a new report by the Defense Science Board. JTRS, a family of 250,000 interoperable radios for troops and mobile systems, is "but a first step" toward a growing need for an agile network of wideband systems, says the report, released Aug. 14.
Raytheon last week unveiled the first development model of its SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system. SeaRAM, which combines the technology used in the Phalanx Block 1B Close-in Weapons System (CIWS-1B) with the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), is designed to replace the 20mm M61A1 Gatling Gun. The system can be operated in both anti-surface and anti-air modes. Its footprint is virtually the same as the Phalanx 1B with slightly more weight, said John Eagles, spokesman for Raytheon Missiles Systems.
GPS JAMMING: Although attempts by Iraqi forces to jam the Global Positioning System (GPS) during Operation Iraqi Freedom were unsuccessful, the U.S. should not assume it has the threat of jamming completely under control, according to Navy Capt. Roy Rogers, director of the Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Program Office. "We did well against seven GPS jammers that they employed in a pretty stupid fashion," Rogers says. "There's a lot of folks running around saying we've got the GPS [jamming] thing whipped.
One proposal to protect airliners from shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles relies on the synchronization of relatively inexpensive infrared sources on an aircraft to fool a missile's guidance system, according to the president of a company advancing the idea. "What we have is a system that typically would have an infrared source on the wingtips and the tailtip," said Al Hastbacka, president of Sanders Design International Inc. of Wilton, N.H.
CP-140 WORK: Telephonics Corp. will develop, build and deliver its APS-143B(V)3-MPS OceanEye Surveillance Radar for the Canadian Air Force's CP-140 Aurora modernization program, the company said Aug. 14. The work is expected to be worth more than $60 million over the life of the program, and will be done under a contract from MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond, British Columbia.
The majority of international satellite operators find that Lockheed Martin's A2100 satellite is the easiest to operate, according to a report by the Futron Corp. Boeing's 601 and 702 satellites were rated the most difficult to operate because of their performance complexity and declining levels of customer support, according to the report, entitled "Geo Commercial Satellite Bus Operations: A Comparative Analysis." The report, released Aug. 13, is based on a survey of eight major satellite operators in North America, Europe and Asia.
Navy officials on Aug. 14 announced that Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics have been awarded an $8.7 billion block-buy contract for the construction of six Virginia-class submarines between 2003 and 2007.
A joint industry-government team working to launch a regional service hub operation in Australia for the future F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) fleet will be led by BAE Systems Australia. The Regional Support Capability Task Force is developing a "globally competitive and sound" business case for prime contractor Lockheed Martin to select Australia as a service hub for JSF aircraft operating in or near the South Pacific, Defense Minister Robert Hill said in an Aug. 14 statement.
NORFOLK, Va. - Use of the Litening II advanced targeting pod on the Marine Corps' AV-8 Harrier jets was highly successful during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Marine Corps officials attending the National Training Systems Association's Fighter Training symposium here Aug. 14. The Northrop Grumman-built pod contains a high-resolution, forward-looking infrared sensor (FLIR) that displays an infrared image of the target to the pilot, as well as a laser designator. It originally was designed for Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard F-16s.
A software glitch has caused a one-day delay in the launch of a proposed new interceptor booster for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, according to the Missile Defense Agency. The test, known as Booster Verification-6 (BV-6), is now scheduled for Aug. 16 instead of the previously announced date of Aug. 15 (DAILY, Aug. 8, Aug. 11). The booster, developed by Orbital Sciences Corp., is expected to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., sometime between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. East Coast time.
The U.S. Army could take several steps to reduce risk as it moves ahead with the Future Combat Systems program, the General Accounting Office (GAO) says in correspondence sent to lawmakers and military officials. The correspondence, based on a briefing provided earlier this year to House staff and Army and Defense Department officials, lays out three options the Army could take, along with potential consequences (see chart).
The U.S. Army is expected this fall to give senior defense officials a detailed proposal for combining the Patriot and Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) programs, according to the Defense Department.
