MOSCOW - Gregory Olsen, CEO of New Jersey-based Sensors Unlimited Inc., plans to become the latest "space tourist" to fly to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz vehicle. Olsen is scheduled to fly to the station in April 2005, according to Space Adventures of Arlington, Va., which brokered the deal and also organized the space flights of the previous private station visitors, Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth.
The global undersea warfare market is projected to increase 13.1 percent from 2004 to 2013 compared with a prediction made just last year, according to research group Forecast International (FI). The projected increase is due to advances in weapons and sensor technologies for submarines, FI senior naval analyst Stuart Slade says in the March 29 report. The projection issued last year covered the period 2003 to 2012.
JCM TESTS: Lockheed Martin and EDO Corp. successfully conducted additional Joint Common Missile (JCM) launcher and missile integration tests on F/A-18 E/F and C/D aircraft earlier this month, Lockheed Martin said March 29. The company is competing with teams led by Boeing-Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to build the JCM, which is to replace the Maverick and Hellfire missiles.
NATO efforts to develop surveillance aircraft and cooperate with Russia on missile defense are advancing as planned, the head of the alliance said March 29.
NASA achieved the fastest flight of an air-breathing aircraft March 27 with the second flight attempt of its unmanned X-43A "Hyper-X" demonstrator, which reached speeds above Mach 7, according to the agency. "We can claim an air-breathing powered record today, no doubt about it," NASA Langley Hyper-X propulsion lead Larry Huebner said in a press conference March 27. "Bottom line is, it's time to roll up our sleeves and start looking at some data."
COMPETING RESOLUTIONS: House members expect to go to conference with the Senate as early as Tuesday on their competing versions of the fiscal 2005 budget resolution. They could complete the conference and vote on the non-binding resolution, which is aimed at guiding spending policy, by the end of the week. The Department of Defense has requested $401.7 billion for FY '05. The Senate Budget Committee trimmed $7 billion from its version of the resolution but the House committee did not agree, saying the defense request should not be cut.
Mojave Airport in California has become the first inland site to file for a commercial spaceport license with the FAA and hopes to receive the license soon, according to airport manager Stu Witt. The license will authorize the operation of runway-launched winged space vehicles rather than vertically launched rockets, according to Witt. "The two concepts which we anticipate our license identifying will be that of Scaled Composites and that of XCOR Aerospace," Witt told The DAILY.
STAUNCH SUPPORTER: A bipartisan group of lawmakers are hosting a U.S.-Italy "military and aerospace industry conference" on March 30, aimed at boosting collaboration on defense technology programs. "Italy has been a staunch supporter of the United States in the global war on terror and was a vital ally in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the past, the United States and Italy have cooperated on numerous defense and aerospace programs," says Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), one of the lawmakers hosting the event.
A European Union (EU) decision to end its 15-year ban on military sales to China would significantly hinder the U.S. defense industry, two industry analysts told The DAILY. EU heads of state decided at a summit in Brussels last week to delay a decision about the ban until EU foreign ministers discuss it in a meeting scheduled for this week, said Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst John Hulsman.
AIR DEFENSE: Russia's minister of defense, Sergey Ivanov, says the country's future air and space defense system will "consolidate all the state's resources, including civilian aviation." This could mean that civil air traffic management will be consolidated under military control, Russian observers say. Some military officials have complained about Western countries competing to provide air traffic management systems in Russia's far east and central region. Ivanov spoke to the media last week after observing an air attack simulation in the Tver region.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Army researchers say they plan to expand the kinds of weapons fired in tests from unmanned aerial vehicles. The use of armed Predator UAVs by non-Army U.S. forces in recent military operations has helped fuel the Army's interest in such platforms. "Certainly, the weaponization of UAVs is a very hot and interesting topic right now, and we're doing some things along those lines, too," said Col. William Gavora, commander of the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), based at Fort Eustis, Va.
The NATO Response Force (NRF) will serve as a "forcing mechanism" for military transformation within NATO member countries by requiring interoperability between the systems that are contributed to it, according to Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Boeing conducted the latest in a series of successful tests and demonstrations last week of the company's prototype future battle management system for joint military commanders. The tests focus on reducing the risk of fielding the complex, network-centric systems, Boeing said in a statement. The risk reduction events began in 2003.
SPACE COMMAND: Air Force Space Command has awarded SI International, Inc. a contract to support Space Command, U.S. Strategic Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Northern Command and other government agencies. The contract has a 3.5-year base period, with options that could boost its value to $800 million.
S&T: The U.S. Department of Defense increased the amount for hypersonics research in the fiscal 2005 budget request primarily to support the Single Engine Demonstration (SED), says Ronald Sega, director of defense research and engineering. The SED will integrate the Air Force's Hypersonic Technology (HyTech) engine with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency air vehicle technology (DAILY, March 22).
Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers equipped with the Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) system now are flying, making the tankers the first Air Mobility Command (AMC) aircraft to be fitted with the system, which enhances navigation and surveillance capabilities and makes the aircraft compliant with civilian air traffic management systems.
Boeing will provide Harpoon Block II missile retrofit kits to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) under a $20 million contract, the company said March 25. "The Harpoon Block II will definitely expand their ability to meet a wide range of missions, including a great improvement in coastal sea operations," John Lockard, senior vice president of Boeing naval systems, said in a statement.
STILL WAITING: The defense industry still is waiting for the Bush Administration to complete and release the results of an export control study that was due out last July, says Joel Johnson, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Meanwhile, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, who is skeptical of the idea of easing export controls, sent a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell requesting a private briefing on the study, Johnson says.
RESPONSIVE LAUNCH: The U.S. Air Force has narrowed the field to nine competing contractors in its effort to develop an operationally responsive small launch vehicle, according to Air Force Undersecretary for Space Peter Teets. The new launch vehicle is being designed to launch 1,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit for less than $10 million, "and do it in a matter of days and hours, not months, weeks, or years," Teets says.
ARMY AVIATION: The U.S. Army is considering appointing a two- or three-star general to oversee all of the service's aviation efforts, says Lt. Gen. Richard Cody, Army deputy chief of staff. With aviation accounting for a big chunk of the Army's budget, and in light of the recently announced restructuring of aviation programs, such a position may be warranted to ensure aviation receives adequate high-level attention, Cody says.
