HEARING: The Senate Science, Technology, and Space subcommittee will hold a hearing in Washington July 30 to discuss the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) space-related activities, as well as other issues related to space exploration.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to award a $1 million prize to the winner of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) race next March, in the hope that the resulting technical innovations can be applied to its military UGV programs. The DARPA "Grand Challenge" is scheduled for March 13, 2004. Thirty-four teams already have signed up for the race, in which unmanned vehicles will have to make their way autonomously from Los Angeles, Calif., to Las Vegas, Nevada.
As the deadline for bids to win the U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb SDB contract comes due later this week, Lockheed Martin announced July 28 that it had staged the latest test flight of its design. (See story, P. 6) The Air Force is planning to receive competing bids by Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the SDB contract, which covers a three-year System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase for 250-pound class weapon.
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) late July 25 became the third congressional panel to approve an Air Force proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 refueling aircraft, leaving the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) as the potential deal's last remaining hurdle on Capitol Hill.
DRAGON EYE: The contractor downselect for the Marine Corps' Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program is expected at the end of August, according to a spokesman for the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. A fixed-wing UAV with a 45-inch wingspan, the Dragon Eye can be stored in a backpack and launched by hand or with a bungee cord. Downselect between AeroVironment, Inc. and BAI Aerosystems has been pushed back repeatedly from an original schedule of late last year.
Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter's candidate for the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program is a compound helicopter design featuring wings and a supplemental propulsion system in place of a tail rotor, according to Lockheed Martin officials.
PRAGUE -- Aero Vodochody may be closing in on its first international sale of the L-159 light combat aircraft. The Czech aircraft manufacturer has "opportunities" with Israel and Egypt as well as more than one African nation, according to defense minister Miroslav Kostelka. Kostelka declined to go into details at a press briefing here July 24.
X-37: Following the completion of structural testing in Huntington Beach, Calif., the first of two vehicles in NASA's X-37 program is on track for its first atmospheric flight test next year, according to the agency. The X-37 program is building two demonstrators - an Approach and Landing Test Vehicle and an orbital vehicle - to demonstrate technologies needed for NASA's Orbital Space Plane (OSP) program. The recently completed series of ground tests simulated stresses that may be experienced by the Approach and Landing Test Vehicle during flight.
SUMMIT: Senior Bush administration officials will meet with representatives from more than 30 nations in Washington July 31 to establish plans for an integrated international Earth observation system of satellite-based, ground-based, and ocean-based sensors. The system is intended to provide climate data that will help address global economic, social, and scientific challenges, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
HOA: A Heads of Agency (HOA) meeting of the International Space Station partners will take place July 29 in Monterey, Calif. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will meet with NASDA President Shuichiro Yamanouchi, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, and Russian Space Agency General Director Yuri Koptev, among others.
KUWAIT PAC-2s: Kuwait, which fired Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) missiles during the recent Iraq war, is considering replenishing its inventory. The Raytheon Co., which makes the PAC-2 missile, has given Kuwait cost and schedule information to help it decide whether to buy more PAC-2 missiles or an upgraded version of the PAC-2 missile, a company spokesman says.
MINE DETECTION: The Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) has released a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the Ground Standoff Mine Detection System (GSTAMIDS) for the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. The system would be used to detect, mark and neutralize land mines. It would be installed on an unmanned MULE (Multi-Purpose Utility, Logistics And Equipment) ground vehicle. As part of the program, an option for an Airborne Cueing Sensor (ACS) would be exercised in FY '06.
The Navy has evaluated for possible submarine use a small radar originally developed to help low-flying helicopters avoid obstacles like high-tension lines, according to industry officials. They say the radar could help submarines cruising just below the surface to see more clearly through the haze that often hampers periscope scans. The evaluation, conducted last month, was prompted in part by the Feb. 9, 2001, collision of the attack sub USS Greenville and the Japanese research vessel Ehime Maru near Hawaii.
V-22 program officials plan to inform the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) on July 31 that they oppose a proposal to intensify production in fiscal 2005, and instead favor investing in a series of cost-saving manufacturing improvements, government and industry officials told The Daily. The board is scheduled to consider increasing the FY '05 production rate from 11 aircraft, the minimum sustaining level, to 15, to improve manufacturing efficiencies and send a vote of confidence on the once-endangered program to potential suppliers.
Launching unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and certain other systems from submarines will require encapsulation technologies, unless efforts are made to design or redesign UAVs for undersea launches, according to a senior Navy program official. Existing UAVs are not designed to be launched directly from undersea platforms. But encapsulating UAVs in a modular container within the submarine would allow for launch from the submarine's torpedo or missile tubes.
LAUNCH PAD BOOST: Lockheed Martin will finance a $200 million launch pad upgrade at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Air Force Undersecretary Peter Teets says. The upgrade is part of the deal that transfers seven Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle launches to Lockheed Martin from Boeing, which is being punished for its role in a document-stealing scheme during the early competitive phase of the program. The upgrades will allow the Air Force to launch Atlas 5 rockets from both East and West Coast launch sites, Teets said.
PRAGUE -- Defense officials from nine countries met here July 25 to gather information for possible bids on a contract to supply the Czech air force with 14 used supersonic fighter aircraft. The Czech ministry of defense said before the meeting that representatives from each nation would be provided financial and technical criteria needed to prepare a bid. The air force plans to use the fighters for at least five years, beginning in 2005 when its current aging fleet of MiG-21s is due to be decommissioned.
TANKER HEARINGS: Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says he plans to hold a hearing soon after the August congressional recess to examine the Air Force's proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 tankers. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a member of Warner's committee and the leading congressional critic of the potential deal, has been pushing for such a hearing. The Senate Commerce Committee, which McCain chairs, also is expected to hold a hearing on the lease proposal, though no date has been announced.
Proponents of a crew escape system for the space shuttle won a significant victory July 25 as the House approved language telling NASA to solicit concepts for improving crew survivability. The proposal, approved as an amendment to the fiscal 2004 NASA appropriations bill, "would send NASA down the path to developing a new crew escape system for the entire space shuttle crew," said Rep. Ralph Hall (D-Texas), who offered the amendment.
ATLAS CHOSEN: NASA's Pluto New Horizons mission has chosen Lockheed Martin's Atlas V to launch its spacecraft in January 2006, according to NASA. The launch contract will be a firm fixed-price launch service task order awarded under the terms of the current NASA Launch Services contract. The New Horizons mission will be the first to perform reconnaissance of the Pluto-Charon binary planet system, the agency says.
August 5 - 6 -- Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference 2003, "Technologies Enabling Naval Power 21," Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC. For more information go to www.naval-industrypartners.com. August 11 - 17 -- Technical Information Division Annual Symposium, "Creating Competitive Edge: Integrating & Measuring Maturity of Processes," The Royal Sonesta Hotel, New Orleans, La. Contact Simone L. Baldwin at (703) 247-2596, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org.
General Dynamics Corp. on July 25 announced plans to acquire Intercontinental Manufacturing Co. (IMCO), a maker of bomb bodies, to expand its munitions business. IMCO, a Garland, Texas-based unit of Datron, Inc., develops and manufacturers bomb bodies for almost all 500-, 1,000- and 2,000-lb. bombs used by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. General Dynamics officials said in a July 25 statement they expect the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, to close within 60 days. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
EELV IMPACT: The financial impact of the Air Force's decision to shift seven launches from Boeing to Lockheed Martin will likely be modest or even immaterial, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. Boeing's Delta IV launch manifest showed 4 launches in 2004, 5 in 2005, 4 in 2006 and 5 in 2007, so the seven launches would likely come from this period, he says. "Each launch is worth approximately $100 million, but carries little if any, operating margin," Callan says.
