The Missile Defense Agency's latest plan for developing a low-orbit satellite system to detect and track ballistic missiles is risky and ignores lessons gained from earlier failures, a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report warns. The $3.1 billion Satellite Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) is the latest name for a proposed constellation of 21 to 28 satellites that can detect missile launches, track ballistic missile trajectories and cue targeting systems from a low-earth orbit.
European space ministers agreed May 27 to help Arianespace continue production of its regular Ariane 5 and development of its heavier-lift version to "guarantee continuity in launcher operations." The ministers also agreed that Arianespace should operate Russian Soyuz launchers from Kourou, French Guiana, beginning in 2006, and to release some European funding for the International Space Station (ISS). That funding had been blocked over concerns that the station design might be curtailed because of budget problems (DAILY, Nov. 19, 2001).
The U.S. Army's Urban Reconnaissance advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) is combining airborne and ground-based 3-D laser scanning to add a new dimension to situational awareness in urban terrain, according to a scientist working on the program.
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).
A400M APPROVAL: The German Bundestag's budget committee has agreed to buy 60 Airbus A400M military transport aircraft, a key decision for the multinational program. The aircraft will help Germany meet its obligations to NATO and the European Union, the Bundestag said. The aircraft are scheduled to be delivered to Germany between 2010 and 2016.
RIDGE & UAVs: The Department of Homeland Security is looking "very seriously" at using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to patrol America's borders and plans to have a pilot program in place by the end of the year, according to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "Where you've got wide open spaces, it's a lot easier for us to take a look at some of the [UAV] technologies presently employed by the Department of Defense," Ridge says.
DEFENSE BILLS: Although the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill heads to a House-Senate conference committee when Congress returns from its week-long Memorial Day recess, the FY '04 defense appropriations bill has yet to leave the starting gate. The House and Senate Appropriations defense subcommittees have not even announced dates to consider their appropriations bills.
NEW DIRECTOR: David A. King has been named the new director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., replacing Arthur G. Stephenson, who will step down June 15. King has been deputy director of the center since November 2002 and has played a key role in NASA's shuttle recovery operations in Texas following the Feb. 1 loss of the shuttle Columbia, NASA said May 23. King, who has worked at NASA since 1983, was director of shuttle processing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., before becoming deputy director of the Marshall center.
DON'T THINK SO: Pentagon procurement czar E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., who retired May 23, may have sent a message to Airbus as it seeks to break into the U.S. aerospace market: don't bother. On his last day in office, Aldridge invoked Airbus as he announced the Pentagon's long-awaited approval of a $16 billion proposal to lease 100 Boeing KC-767s tankers. The plan allows Boeing to sustain the 767 production line in a depressed commercial aircraft market, he said. Besides, "what else are we going to do?" Aldridge added. "Go to Airbus?
A $16 billion U.S. Air Force plan to lease 100 Boeing KC-767 tankers for six years gained support May 23 from the Defense Department and the White House, and now heads to Congress for a brief review process. After nearly 14 months of negotiations that cut $2 billion from the Boeing Co.'s original asking price, the Pentagon's Lease Review Panel approved the lease at a rate of $138 million per aircraft, which includes a $7 million financing charge.
Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Multi-Mission Helicopter Program Office (PMA-299) recently sent the last of six SH-60B Seahawk helicopters to Spain, NAVAIR announced May 22. The helicopter left Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., on April 25, according to a spokeswoman for NAVAIR. Spain purchased its first batch of six SH-60Bs from the Navy in 1990, then ordered six more armed with Hellfire missiles in 1998 while asking the Navy to upgrade the original six to the same configuration.
LONDON - An SEK450 million ($57.6 million) contract announced May 23 by Saab Systems Pty Ltd Australia (SSA) for new army short-range air defense systems (SHORADS) extends an earlier acquisition of man-portable Saab Bofors Dynamics RBS 70 surface-to-air missiles, with additional equipment.
In its latest report on the Army's RAH-66 Comanche reconnaissance/attack helicopter program, the Defense Department's Inspector General (IG) gives the program a clean audit, while emphasizing that program managers must remain mindful of possible technical issues as production ramps up.
NO DPG: A move to a two-year defense budget cycle means that U.S. Defense Department budget planners won't produce a Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) document in fiscal 2005. The classified guidance paper normally is the final planning document produced in the budgeting process, creating the framework for the budget programming phase. The Pentagon prepared to move to a two-year budgeting plan in the fiscal 2004 budget, and the new structure was approved and became official policy on May 22.
STRYKER BENEFITS: The range of options for deploying forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom would have increased substantially had the Army's Stryker family of combat vehicles been available, according to an Army program official. "It enables us to have more options on entering Iraq," says Col. William Grisoli, deputy director of Army Transformation.
June 2 - 4 -- 3rd Annual National Symposium and Exhibition on Terrorism Preparedness & Response, "Enhancing the Capabilities of First Responders." Contact Simone L. Baldwin at (703) 247-2596, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org. June 9 - 12 -- 3rd Annual Intelligent Vehicle Systems Symposium, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Traverse City (Acme) Michigan. Call Dawn Harper at (703) 247-2584, fax (703) 522-1885, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org.
NEW DELHI - India has decided to use an indigenously developed cryogenic engine for the next Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) flight, according to an official with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The first two flights of the GSLV used Russian-built cryogenic engines. The next GLSV demonstration vehicle, GSLV D3, is slated to launch in October.
On the day of his retirement, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., said it could be possible to increase the V-22 Osprey's production rate in fiscal 2005, but he still would not describe himself as a "convert" to the program. Still, Aldridge's comments could further lift a mood of doubt in the industry about the program's future, as they came three days after the V-22's progress in flight tests was endorsed by the Defense Acquisition Board.
The Department of Homeland Security says it will not be able to fund a revival of the FIRESAT program until 2005 or 2006, according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who considers that timeframe "unacceptable" and is vowing to try to accelerate it.
PRAGUE - Sweden would be interested in taking part in any new tender for supersonic aircraft for the Czech Republic, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson told journalists here May 22 after meeting with his Czech counterpart, Vladimir Spidla.
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.
