SOLDIER NANO: The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) in Cambridge, Mass., is formally open for business following a dedication ceremony for its new 28,000 square-foot facility May 23. A research collaboration between the U.S. Army and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the ISN was founded in 2002 to pursue innovations in nanotechnology for soldiers. Research is underway in three key areas: ballistic protection, performance improvement and injury intervention and cure (DAILY, April 4).
TETHERS: A momentum-exchange space tether system, which would spin payloads like a yo-yo at the end of a string before releasing them, could provide 90 percent of the speed necessary to send a spacecraft to another planet, according to Paul Wercinski, program executive for the In-Space Propulsion (ISP) program at NASA's Office of Space Science. NASA envisions momentum-exchange tethers and electrodynamic tethers one day working together to send payloads out of Earth orbit, he says.
FORT POLK, La. - The U.S. Army plans to modify its family of Stryker combat vehicles over the next several months before the start of operational testing, according to a program official. Modifications to several configurations of the Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) variant already have been proposed based on the performance of the vehicles during recent exercises, Steven Campbell, Stryker system coordinator, said May 21.
NASA's In-Space Propulsion (ISP) program, which announced a new round of contracts last week, is helping new propulsion technologies break out of the laboratory and into actual missions, according to Paul Wercinski, ISP program executive in NASA's Office of Space Science. Scientists often are reluctant to put high-risk in-space propulsion technologies into their mission proposals. However, those technologies will languish without a clearly defined mission need, a situation described by one NASA propulsion official as a "Catch 22" (DAILY, Nov. 19, 2001).
FALCON UPGRADES: Northrop Grumman's California Microwave Systems unit delivered the last of 15 upgraded HU-25 Falcon airborne surveillance aircraft to the U.S. Coast Guard, the company said May 22. The delivery completes a $44 million contract awarded in 2000. The aircrafts' upgraded radar systems give the Coast Guard an "exponential" improvement in mission performance, the company said.
U.S. intelligence agencies need "more assets" to find and track weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and prevent them from spreading to other countries, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said May 22. Although it has proven difficult to detect WMD inside a country, particularly when the weapons are underground, shipments across a nation's border are relatively easy to locate and stop because export facilities are "pretty obvious," Kyl said at a Capitol Hill breakfast seminar.
The U.S. Air Force is adjusting the design criteria for the future E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control aircraft's battle management subsystem, reconfiguring a long list of desired capabilities to reflect budget realities. One week before the planned release of a final request for proposals (RFP) for the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) system, it now appears clear to program officials and industry observers that some desired capabilities aren't affordable.
The U.S. Defense Department's internal budgeting process is changing from an annual to a biennial system that uses off-years to focus more attention on how the money is being spent. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on May 22 signed the management proposal that alters the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) process. The new procedure does not change the Pentagon's budget reporting requirements to Congress, Comptroller Dov Zakheim said in a statement.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has delivered the second production RQ-8A Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle to the U.S. Navy, the company said. Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector delivered the vehicle April 14 to the Navy's Webster Field UAV test facility, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
A review by the joint staff has postponed a request for proposals to design the Joint Common Missile (JCM) by 30 days, a U.S. Army spokesman said May 22. The Army's program office for JCM had planned to release the solicitation to potential bidders May 22, but delayed the release until the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), chaired by Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, completes its review of the program's interoperability requirements.
NEW DELHI - Israel has approved the sale of Phalcon radar systems to India, for use on airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. A defense ministry official said the U.S., which previously had expressed concerns about the sale, has attached no conditions to it. The official said the approval came during talks earlier this month between Brajesh Mishra, the Indian national security adviser, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (DAILY, May 16).
The Coast Guard acknowledged May 22 in congressional testimony that funding for the Deepwater modernization program is falling behind program objectives. In a hearing before the House Transportation Committee's Coast Guard subcommittee, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins echoed an earlier report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), which said funding for the Deepwater program would fall short by about $200 million if the president's FY '04 budget is approved (DAILY, April 2).
Former astronaut Richard Covey, who piloted the first space shuttle mission following the Challenger disaster, will lead the independent assessment team that will review NASA's return-to-flight plans for the shuttle, according to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
The Defense Department might have to modify or even terminate the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and other international cooperative programs if Congress approves a House proposal intended to shore up the U.S. defense industrial base, the White House said May 22.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The strategic targets that normally are the focus of U.S. intelligence satellites took a back seat to tactical targets in Iraq when the shooting started, and officials are taking a closer look at how to divide the load in any future war, according to an official of the National Reconnaissance Office.
Raytheon Missile Systems scored a competitive coup on May 20 in picking up a contract worth at least $88 million to develop the Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD), an expendable air launched vehicle first designed by Northrop Grumman. The Air Armament Center at Eglin Air (AAC) Force Base, Fla., selected the Tucson, Ariz.-based Raytheon unit for a five-year system design and demonstration phase.
NEW DELHI - India has decided to turn to international companies to upgrade its 800 40mm L-70 anti-aircraft guns. The Indian army, which operates the L-70s, rejected proposals from state-owned companies to do the work. "Half a dozen overseas companies have been asked to offer their bids for [upgrading] the L-70 guns," a defense ministry official said. Companies that have been asked to send bids include Poland's Cenrex, Russia's Rosoboronexport and Israel's Israel Military Industries Ltd.
The military needs to invest in new technologies now and think bigger in its approach to future urban warfare, according to Lt. Gen. Patrick M. Hughes (ret.), former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
'CRISIS': The European Parliament has adopted a resolution on the European Space Agency that says the European Union's space industry is in an "unprecedented crisis" and calls for member states to cooperate on space, particularly on the Galileo navigation system.
BOEING FRANCE, Paris Yves Galland has been named to the new position of president. DRS TECHNOLOGIES, Parsippany, N.J. Steven T. Schorer has joined the company as president of its Electronic Systems Group, based in Gaithersburg, Md. KEYSTONE HELICOPTER, West Chester, Pa. Stephen J. Gambone has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Keystone Ranger Holdings Inc., and all subsidiaries. NORTHROP GRUMMAN, Los Angeles
The Bush Administration said late May 20 that it plans to review U.S. export controls and other rules to ensure they do not impede missile defense cooperation with other countries. "As part of our efforts to deepen missile defense cooperation with friends and allies, the United States will seek to eliminate impediments to such cooperation," the White House said in a "fact sheet" that largely restates the Administration's plans for developing and fielding ballistic missile defenses.
MOSCOW - The environmental inspector for Russia's Arkhangelsk region, Anatoly Minyaev, has agreed to allow preparations for a planned June 30 Rockot launch continue at Plesetsk Cosmodrome. On April 18, Minyaev halted Rockot operations due to an absence of a water treatment plant at the Rocket pad. Environmental activists have tried to halt Rockot launches for years, saying they are environmentally damaging.
