EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The Air Force is working to fix a serious navigation system flaw in the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser that was revealed during an otherwise successful combat debut in Afghanistan. Acting in a close air support role, B-52s dropped about 700 WCMDs from high altitude during Operation Enduring Freedom. The weapon's ability to accurately disperse 40 cluster bombs within a defined area won raves from the warfighting community, WCMD manager Col. James S. Knox said in an interview Feb. 11.
AWARD: Aerospace engineer and inventor Paul MacCready has won this year's $250,000 Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment, the Heinz Family Foundation said. MacCready, the founder of UAV maker AeroVironment, also built the Gossamer Condor, the first vehicle to make a sustained, controlled flight powered only by the pilot's muscles. He also has worked on solar-powered ground vehicles and small robotic devices.
NEW DELHI - India's supersonic BrahMos cruise missile cleared a major hurdle when it was successfully test-fired from a ship on Feb 12. The BrahMos, which is being developed jointly by Russia and India, was test-fired from an Indian navy vessel in the Bay of Bengal, according to an Indian defense ministry official.
CHANTILLY, Va. - The Defense Department needs a new, small expendable launch system that will be more "operationally responsive" than the current Delta IV and Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs), according to Air Force Undersecretary for Space Peter Teets. During a press briefing at National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) headquarters here Feb. 12, Teets praised the two EELVs, both of which had successful maiden launches last year, but said they still spend too much time on the pad in processing.
PRAGUE - About $12 million will be spent this year in modernizing the Czech air force base at Namest nad Oslavou in south Moravia, according to the base commander. The modernization program is part of a 10-year plan to bring the base up to NATO standards, at an overall cost of some $270 million.
SDB FLIGHT: Lockheed Martin reported the first flight tests in the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) competition on Feb. 12. The company's SDB also has penetrated a hardened target and Lockheed Martin has conducted fit checks on all seven aircraft now expected to carry the munition. The Air Force plans to downselect to either Lockheed Martin or rival Boeing for the system development and demonstration phase of the program later this fall.
NASA will re-examine whether it should develop a crew escape system for the space shuttle in light of the loss of the Columbia orbiter, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Feb. 12. Earlier reviews concluded that a crew escape system actually could worsen safety by increasing the weight of the orbiters, O'Keefe testified at the first congressional hearing on the shuttle disaster.
The Federal Aviation Administration is taking another step to address industry concerns about a proposed safety rule for commercial launches of expendable space vehicles, FAA officials said Feb. 11.
NEW DELHI - In a major boost to India's indigenously developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. has signed a strategic partnership with Turbomeca and Israel Aircraft Industries to jointly market the ALH internationally. HAL Chairman N.R. Mohanty told The DAILY that under the agreement, Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) will incorporate its integrated avionics into the ALH.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - One challenge facing the board investigating the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia is deciding how to handle potentially sensitive information from a variety of government sensors that monitored the orbiter in its final minutes. Any data gathered by ground-based missile defense radars, for instance, "could be and probably is classified if it would reveal ... operational capabilities," said Lt. Col. Andy Roake, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) at Peterson Air Force Base here.
The Boeing Co. said it has completed the acquisition of Conquest Inc., which it said will expand its service to the intelligence community. The Annapolis Junction, Md.-based company provides systems engineering and software to the intelligence community. It has been renamed Boeing Advanced Information Systems-Maryland Operations, a department of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, the company's center for intelligence programs.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee announced Feb. 11 that he will begin a review to see if money can be freed up for equipment modernization by scaling back U.S. forces in Europe or moving them to other European countries. Although the U.S. has reduced its military presence in Europe by about two-thirds since the end of the Cold War, more cuts may be warranted, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said at a press conference. In addition, the U.S. has several new European allies that may be able to host American troops at less cost.
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Boeing is a launching a two-year, roughly $37 million program to develop an anti-spoofing and anti-jamming capability for the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), Air Force acquisition officials told The Daily Feb. 11.
The Army plans to deploy a prototype Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS) robot to demonstrate autonomous security operations at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada next year. MDARS is a joint Army-Navy effort intended to provide an automated intrusion detection and inventory assessment capability for use in military warehouses and storage sites. In addition to sensing anomalies during routine patrols, the robots will determine the status of inventoried items through the use of specialized radio frequency transponder tags.
PRAGUE - Discussions between Czech and Slovak defense officials over proposals to create a "Common Sky" program for air defense have intensified, The DAILY has learned. Senior ministry of defense officials said both sides are meeting on a weekly basis to iron out sovereignty and operational issues before Slovakia joins NATO next year.
Raytheon Co. announced Feb. 11 it is teaming with Lockheed Martin Corp. to compete for a contract to upgrade the Air Force's ground stations that process intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data into a common network. Called the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), the contract could be worth $161 million.
UAV TEAM: Boeing Australia and Israel Aircraft Industries signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly offer unmanned aerial vehicles to the Australian military, Boeing said Feb. 11. Boeing will offer command and control systems and support for IAI's UAV platforms, the companies said at the 2003 Australian International Air Show.
The radio communication bands allocated by the Army for the control of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) aren't suitable for the entire range of UGV operations, according to the chief of the robotics division at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. The approved frequency ranges for UGVs are 4,400-5,850 MHz or 14,250-15,350 MHz, David Knichel said Feb. 11 at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems Program Review 2003 in Washington. The 138-144 MHz band is approved for command and control of the vehicles, he said.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) plans to hold an unclassified industry day on Feb. 20 on the preliminary design competition for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, according to a presolicitation notice released Feb. 10.
Senior Army and industry officials said Feb. 11 they will work to ensure that competition occurs at all system and subsystem levels of the Future Combat Systems (FCS). "We intend, through competition, to get the best of industry, and we're trying very hard to do that," Maj. Gen. Joseph Yakovac, the program executive officer for Ground Combat Systems, told industry officials at an FCS industry day briefing in Arlington, Va.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has announced the following subcommittee assignments for the new 108th Congress: Airland: Chairman Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking Democrat Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Jim Talent (R-Mo.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).
