TRANSFORMATION: After nearly a year on the job, Vice Adm. (ret.) Arthur Cebrowski, head of the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation (OFT), no longer considers his job to be "nearly impossible." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appointed Cebrowski head of OFT last November, tasking him with increasing the pace of military transformation. "About a year ago, I thought that this job was nearly impossible," Cebrowski says.
Chemical laser systems, such as the Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL) used by the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, remain too bulky and problematic for use on fighter aircraft, according to Lockheed Martin.
HPM ON UAVs: High-power microwave (HPM) weapons are ideal for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), not just because of the difficulties of protecting manned aircraft from HPM side effects, but also because of the predetermined nature of most envisioned HPM missions, according to Lockheed Martin. HPM is a short-range form of directed energy capable of disrupting electronic systems. "If HPM works on unmanned vehicles, then ...
JDEC STATUS: Although the U.S. and Russia agreed in 2000 to create the Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) to share missile launch data (DAILY, June 8, 2000), the center is on hold due to several unresolved issues, including cost-sharing and liability, according to Navy Adm. James Ellis, commander of U.S. Strategic Command.
Combat systems identified last week by the Pentagon's top tester as not having performed well in operational testing have successfully completed dozens of tests, according to officials with Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co.
SAFETY STUDY: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has directed subordinates to study whether the Defense Department should do more to reduce the accident rate for military aircraft. His order, in a memorandum to David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, came in response to a Sept. 20 story in The DAILY that said the Congressional Research Service concluded DOD has made virtually no progress in recent years in reducing the accident rate (DAILY, Sept. 20). Rumsfeld is expected to get a report from his staff the week of Oct. 14.
RESEARCH: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will conduct research and development and specialized engineering for the U.S. Navy under a five-year contract with a $1.75 billion ceiling, APL said Sept. 27. The contract, awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command of Washington, has an option for a five-year extension, APL said.
DROP IN GROWTH: The growth of the Defense Department's modernization budget is likely to drop from the 15-16 percent range in fiscal 2003 to about 5 percent by FY '04-'06, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. "We are not enthusiastic supporters of the long-cycle defense spending thesis," senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan says. One reason is that the threat has changed, he says. "In our view, no adversary today is remotely close to the Soviet Union in terms of the magnitude of a security threat it poses," he says.
The House Appropriations Committee has voted to fully fund the Coast Guard's fiscal 2003 request of $500 million for the Deepwater program, but the panel is expressing strong concerns about some aspects of the aircraft, ship and communications modernization effort.
The Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) is seeking to enlist venture capital firms to act as "tech finders" for bringing potentially transformative technologies to the attention of the Department of Defense (DOD), according to OFT chief Vice Adm. (ret.) Arthur Cebrowski. In a speech to the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association at Tysons Corner, Va., Sept. 27, Cebrowski said the main value of using existing venture capital "tech finding" firms would be to tap into technologies to which DOD isn't normally exposed.
Sept. 29 - Oct. 1 -- Strategic Research Institute presents the fourth annual Defense and Aerospace Investor, Customer and Supplier Conference, Coronado Island Marriott Resort, San Diego, Calif. To register call 1-888-666-8514 or go to www.srinstitute.com/cx359. Sept. 30 - Oct. 3 -- Arinc's Eight Annual Flight Simulator Engineering & Maintenance Conference. Hyatt Regency, Tampa, Fla. For more information call (410) 266-2915.
The Defense Department is studying whether U.S. Strategic Command should be assigned missile defense duties beyond those it is slated to receive when it absorbs U.S. Space Command, according to Navy Adm. James Ellis, the head of Strategic Command.
Germany, Spain and NATO are seeking to buy aircraft logistics support and satellite communications services totaling more than $930 million, the Defense Department told Congress on Sept. 25.
SPECIAL OPS CAUCUS: Four House members have formed a Special Operations Forces (SOF) Caucus to promote the interests of SOF, a key player in the war on terrorism. Reps. Ed Schrock (R-Va.), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) and Jim Davis (D-Fla.) held a Sept. 26 kickoff meeting that included a speech by Army Lt. Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown, deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. A total of 24 House members have already joined the caucus.
Full-rate production of the RQ-7A Shadow tactical unmanned aerial vehicle has been approved, an Army spokesman said. The Shadow, built by AAI Corp., of Hunt Valley, Md., is designed to help commanders acquire mobile targets, manage a fight and assess battle damage. "Full-rate production was approved by the ASARC," (Army Systems Acquisition Review Council) on Sept. 25, Bob Hunt, a spokesman for Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., said Sept. 26. "The procurement objective is for 28 systems," he said.
The Air National Guard must have a role in operating newer weapon systems like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter if it is to become fully transformational, Lt. Gen. Daniel James III, director of the Guard, said Sept. 26. "We still need to be involved in ... operating newer weapons systems," said Daniel, who replaced former Director Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver Jr. three months ago. "I have a saying, 'We don't have to be the first to get them, but we should not be last,' and we should be included," Daniel told a group of defense writers in Washington.
One of the most valuable aspects of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be its ability to jointly plan for worst-case scenarios, such as the use of weapons of mass destruction within the country, according to Peter Verga, special assistant to the secretary of defense for homeland security.
A $3 million flight demonstration to test a potentially quieter supersonic aircraft design by Northrop Grumman may be delayed a few months, a company spokesman said Sept. 26. That same day, Northrop Grumman unveiled the design of an aircraft that would yield a sonic boom seven times quieter than the Concorde's, yet fly distances up to 600 nautical miles and at speeds up to Mach 2.4. The design is part of the Quiet Supersonic Platform program, a $35 million, two-year effort by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
NASA plans to tap an account for space shuttle privatization to offset a funding shortfall in shuttle operations, a congressional source said Sept. 26. The agency's fiscal 2003 budget request, delivered to Congress in February, included $80 million in case the Bush Administration decided to privatize the shuttle to save the government money in the long term, a House Appropriations Committee source told The DAILY. But it now appears the spacecraft will remain in federal hands.
The Senate approved its version of the fiscal 2003 intelligence authorization bill late Sept. 25, clearing the way for a conference committee with the House, which passed its version of the legislation in July. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the Senate bill, much of which is classified, "provides a significant increase in funding to the U.S. intelligence community." House members have made similar comments about their chamber's bill (DAILY, Aug. 1).
