The Air Force is seeking to boost competitive sourcing and privatization as it prepares to take on new missions and roles, the service told The DAILY Dec. 17. Two "specific dynamics" are affecting its efforts to reshape its civilian workforce, the service said in a statement. First, it wants to boost "competitive sourcing and privatization, reduce management headquarters, and maintain FY '02 end strength levels." Its goal is to "free up end strength and dollars for higher mission priorities ... without increasing military manpower."
NEW DELHI - India has completed development of a supercomputer, PARAM-Padma, capable of performing one trillion calculations per second, said R.K. Arora, director of the Bangalore-based Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC). The supercomputer will be used to develop technologies for aerospace and military programs, including advanced materials and laser technology, Arora said Dec. 16. India currently has only one indigenous supercomputer, PARAM 10000. The new supercomputer is 10 times more powerful, Arora said.
Boeing is in the final stages of preparing to dual-launch NASA's ICESat and CHIPSat scientific satellites aboard a Delta II launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Dec. 19.
JASSM ON TRACK: The Air Force-Lockheed Martin effort to speed the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile back into testing remains on track for a February flight test, followed by operational test recertification in March, the Air Force said Dec. 17. The program was decertified after the JASSM posted two free-flight failures in October, and one failure was linked to a faulty part on one of the missile's three control surfaces.
President Bush's plan to begin deploying several missile defense systems in 2004 is drawing a mixed reaction on Capitol Hill, with some Republicans praising it, some Democrats criticizing it and some people in both parties raised questions or concerns.
U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) says it wants to replace the AN/ALQ-157 infrared countermeasures system on its MH-53 helicopters, whose service life is being extended to 2014, and is set to brief industry on its plans next month. The replacement system ultimately would be installed in the MH-53's successor, the tiltrotor CV-22, according to the command.
The four finalist teams in NASA's Mars Scout competition met with officials at NASA headquarters in Washington Dec. 17 to kick off the beginning of a rigorous competition that will see one winner launch to the Red Planet in 2007. NASA chose the finalists from among 25 proposals submitted to the agency in August. Each finalist is receiving about half a million dollars to conduct a six-month feasibility study to better define their mission and its scientific benefits. The finalists must submit detailed mission-concept studies to NASA by July 2003.
The credit quality of most defense companies should benefit from the rise in fiscal year 2003 defense budget appropriations, according to a ratings report from Standard & Poor's. The report, released Dec. 16, says the total budget appropriations for procurement and research, development, technology and evaluation (RDT&E) will rise from $110 billion in fiscal year 2002 to $131 billion.
The Bush Administration will ask Congress for a total of $1.5 billion more in 2004 and 2005 to upgrade the Pacific Missile Defense Testbed to provide a "modest" operational capability against all enemy missile threats, officials said Dec. 17. Pentagon officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, said the nearly 10 percent budget hike would complete the fielding of an early missile defense system by 2005. Meanwhile, work would continue on developing the Administration's full, layered defense strategy.
MOSCOW - Russia will provide International Space Station (ISS) crew rescue capability until 2010, Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviakosmos, pledged after a recent Tokyo summit of station partners. Russia's obligations will include the annual supply of three Progress tanker spacecraft through 2010, as well as the supply of Soyuz crew rescue vehicles, he said.
General Dynamics Corp. said Dec. 17 it has been awarded two contracts that together are worth more than $128 million for the conversion of four nuclear ballistic missile submarines to attack submarines. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded company subsidiary Electric Boat a $38.3 million contract modification on Dec. 13 to buy and manufacture long-lead time items needed to convert the Ohio-class Trident submarines to guided missile attack submarines.
PRAGUE - Czech aircraft producer Aero Vodochody expects to secure its first international customer by signing a contract with Kenya for eight L-159s in the first quarter of 2003, the company said Dec. 17. Aero president Antoni Jakubse told journalists that negotiations will be completed before the end of March, "unless something really unpredicted happens."
JOINT DEVELOPMENT: Honeywell International and Cypress Semiconductor Corp. have signed an agreement to jointly develop new technology for integrated circuits for satellites, strategic missiles and other space vehicles, Honeywell said Dec. 17. The chips, expected to be ready by 2005, will hold nearly four times as many transistors as today's chips, and will be able to withstand the harsh environment of space.
OPEVAL: The onboard portion of the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasure System (IDECM) Radio Frequency Countermeasures (RFCM) has entered operational evaluation, BAE Systems said Dec. 17. Upon successful completion of OPEVAL, the AN/ALQ-214(V), developed by BAE Systems partner ITT Industries, would enter full-rate production and be deployed on U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, the company said. BAE Systems is developing the IDECM RFCM system, which includes the AN/ALQ-214(V), for the U.S. Navy and Air Force.
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency has postponed awarding contracts for geospatial and imagery intelligence services until January because of auditing-related delays, according to an agency spokesman. Government auditors fell behind in reviewing proposed contractor payment rates for the Global Geospatial Intelligence (GGI) program because data was inadvertently sent to the wrong auditor location, the spokesman said in written responses to recent questions from The DAILY. NIMA cannot award the contracts until the rates have been audited.
The long-awaited request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Air Force's potential Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) program should be released "towards the end of January," an Air Force acquisition official said Dec. 17. MALD began life as an advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) in 1996, but was canceled in 2000 after an increase in requirements ballooned costs from $30,000 per unit to as much as $200,000 per unit.
PRAGUE - Construction work on a $20 million aircraft maintenance plant at the Ostrava-Mosnov airport in the Czech Republic has been suspended after just two weeks. The Czech based company behind the project, European Central Aviation (ECA), said the suspension partly was due to concerns that expected state incentives for the development may not materialize.
The Air Force is slated to announce cuts in manpower across its major commands on Dec. 17, a spokesman for the service said. "All the different commands ... are getting some sort of adjustment," said Capt. Peter Kerr of Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon. "As far as I know, it is reductions," he said. The numbers will be detailed in an announcement slated for Tuesday afternoon, he said.
Arianespace has appointed the inquiry board that will investigate the Dec. 11 failure of the new, heavier-lift version of its Ariane 5 launch vehicle, the company announced Dec. 16. The heavier-lift configuration features an additional cryogenic upper stage that provides a 10-ton payload capacity, up from 6.5 tons for the previous version. This new variant had to be destroyed on its first flight 7.5 minutes after lifting off from Kourou, French Guiana, after an engine anomaly caused a problem with the vehicle's flight control system (DAILY, Dec. 13).
The Air Force is devising a new concept of operations (CONOPS) for lethal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in which they would be released into a theater and loiter until they are tasked by a larger network, according to Maj. Gen. Robert Chedister.
The Missile Defense Agency is redesigning a pylon on top of the first Airborne Laser aircraft because of vibration discovered while the plane was in flight, a program spokesman said Dec. 16. The redesign is not expected to affect plans for the aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400F freighter, to undergo its first attempt to shoot down a missile in December 2004, added the spokesman, who asked not to be named.
The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will launch flight tests next fall on an airborne node that packs communications relay, jamming and signals intelligence capabilities into a single unit, an industry official said Dec. 16.
NEW DELHI - Forty-one flight tests of India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) have successfully been conducted using two technology demonstrator aircraft, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said Dec. 16. Fernandes said the lifting of U.S. sanctions on equipment used in the aircraft is helping move the program along, and he is hopeful the Indian air force will accept the LCA by 2006.
