PATENTED: Lockheed Martin Corp. has been granted a patent for a three-axis flap control system that could "revolutionize" the steering of rocket-launched, hypersonic and supersonic re-entry vehicles, the company said June 3. Such vehicles could be used to defeat hard and deeply buried targets, the company said. The patent was issued Jan. 7.
The Boeing Co. announced June 3 the selection of more than 20 international systems suppliers to help develop systems technologies for its new 7E7 jetliner.
Nuclear power and propulsion technologies such as those being developed under NASA's Project Prometheus will be essential to any future human mission to Mars, according to NASA's associate administrator for space science.
The National Reconnaissance Office is asking industry for innovative ways to substantially enhance the capabilities of its satellites in four areas. The Director's Innovation Initiative, or DII, issued annually by the NRO, this year asks for ideas that will increase spectral diversity, eliminate communications as a constraint to operations, provide agile response to changing target sets and transform reconnaissance to surveillance.
U.S. Joint Forces Command plans to look for ways the military services can increase cooperation when they acquire equipment for close air support, according to documents released June 2 by the General Accounting Office. Responding to a GAO study on close air support, Paul Mayberry, deputy undersecretary of defense for readiness, wrote that Joint Forces Command will analyze "equipment capability and interoperability issues along with an investment strategy to ensure service [close air support] equipment is interoperable and meets valid joint requirements."
AEHF PDRs: The Lockheed Martin-Northrop Grumman Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) team has successfully completed all 49 preliminary design reviews of the satellite communications system, Lockheed Martin said June 2. The team is "on track to complete all engineering model hardware by the end of this year," said Clayton Kau, Northrop Grumman's program manager for the AEHF payload.
Although final preparations have taken slightly longer than expected, the GoldenEye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is expected to have its first flight within the next two weeks, according to manufacturer Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation. First flight at company facilities in Manassas, Va., will be a low-altitude hover lasting three to five minutes, most likely followed by some slow-speed sideward and rearward flight, according to Carl Schaefer, Jr., Aurora's program manager for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAVs.
NEW DELHI - India has proposed making advance payments to Russia for a theater anti-missile system with a range of 200-300 kilometers (124-186 miles). Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee discussed the offer in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg last week, a senior defense ministry official said. If Russia accepts the offer, it would supply four to six S 300 V anti-missile systems until a new system can be developed, the official said.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has awarded a $6.75 million contract to Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Undersea Systems to design and test a Mission Re-configurable Unmanned Undersea Vehicle, or MRUUV. The Navy plans to use the MRUUV for clandestine intelligence, surveillance, limited ocean survey and anti-submarine warfare. The vehicle, which will be 21 inches in diameter, is to be launched from the torpedo tubes of Los Angeles-class (SSN-688) and Virginia-class (SSN-774) attack submarines.
L-3 Communications' KDI Precision Products will supply FMU-139B/B electronic bomb fuzes under a $37.7 million Naval Air Systems Command contract, the company said June 2. The fuzes will be used by the U.S. Navy and Air Force and the governments of Egypt, the Netherlands and Belgium, L-3 said. The fuzes are used to detonate general-purpose, air-delivered bombs and guided systems such as the Joint Direct Attack Munitions. They are updated versions of the FMU-139A/B fuzes developed by Motorola and the U.S. Navy in the 1980s, the company said.
CORRECTION: An article in May 30 issue of The DAILY should have said that the U.S. Air Force plans to retire 14 C-5 Galaxy aircraft. For the C-5 Avionics Modernization Program, the first lot of eight aircraft is under contract, which includes an option for 18 more in the second lot. The final three lots, if approved, could total 84 aircraft.
RIDLEY PARK, Pa. - Two weeks after U.S. Defense Department officials validated the V-22 Osprey's yearlong push to disprove doubts about tiltrotor technology, Boeing officially opened a modern assembly plant here that highlights the program's next key challenge - slashing production costs.
iRobot Corp., a robotics technology manufacturer that has been awarded two study contracts for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, May 30 it will expand its production capacity for military robots. iRobot, based in Burlington, Mass., received nearly $13 million in venture capital funding from five institutional investors, including Trident Capital, which invests in information services and software companies.
NEW DELHI - India is nearing military user trials of its new surface-to-air, medium-range Akash ("Sky") missile after a successful May 29 test launch from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur. A senior defense ministry official said user trials of the missile should begin this year, and 95 percent of the missile's parameters have been tested. The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is developing the missile, which includes a second-stage ramjet motor and is guided from a ground-based radar and onboard homing system.
Europe's first Mars mission, the Mars Express, successfully lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 2 to begin its voyage to Mars, where it is scheduled to arrive in December. The Mars Express vehicle, which consists of an orbiter and a lander dubbed the Beagle 2, was placed in interplanetary orbit an hour and a half after launch. The European Space Agency's satellite control center in Darmstadt, Germany, has established contact with the spacecraft, which will place itself in a Mars-bound trajectory in two days.
DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION: When Congress reconvenes the week of June 2-6 following its week-long Memorial Day recess, House and Senate negotiators will begin trying to craft a final version of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill. It is difficult to predict when the legislation will be completed, as lawmakers need to work out differences over several highly controversial issues, including base closings and personnel policies.
NEW DESTINATION: The European Space Agency's Rosetta comet-chasing spacecraft has a new target, ESA says: Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta was to have launched in January to rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen, but that was delayed after the failed launch of Arianespace's new heavier-lift Ariane 5 forced scientists to select a new target. Rosetta now is scheduled to be launched in February 2004, and rendezvous with Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's defense minister has resigned for the second time in less than 36 hours over planned military budget cuts, after withdrawing his earlier resignation following a meeting with the prime minister. Jaroslav Tvrdik's departure, and proposed long-term military budget cuts amounting to some $1.4 billion, have cast doubt on plans for the protection of Czech airspace.
HELIOS: NASA's high-altitude, solar-powered Helios unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is gearing up for a long-endurance flight of nearly two days and nights later this summer to test its newly developed fuel cell-based electrical energy system, according to NASA. The 256-foot-wide flying wing will be powered by solar arrays by day, which also will charge the electrical system for use at night. The two-day flight could occur as early as mid-July from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, NASA says.
Arianespace is trying to sign a customer for the March 2004 requalification flight of its Ariane 5-ECA vehicle, according to a spokeswoman for the company. The Ariane 5-ECA is an enhanced version of the company's basic Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher, featuring a new cryogenic upper stage and Vulcain 2 main engine that give it the ability to launch 10 tons of payload. The first flight of the ECA failed last December, destroying Eutelsat's $250 million Hot Bird 7 satellite and prompting a redesign of the engine (DAILY, Dec. 13, 2002).
MARS EXPRESS: The European Space Agency's Mars Express, which includes and orbiter and the Beagle 2 lander, is scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, June 2. The orbiter is scheduled to arrive at Mars in late December to begin two years of study, while the Beagle 2 explores the surface for about six months.
Calling friendly fire the "biggest disappointment" of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), a U.S. Marine Corps commander said the creation of a foolproof combat identification system is a post-war priority. "The man who invents that will be very rich indeed," Lt. Gen. James Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) in Al Hillah, Iraq, said May 30 in a videoconference with reporters.
