The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is set to award Raytheon a contract worth as much as $20 million to provide better tracking capabilities for the Defense Department's missile defense system, according to an announcement published Aug. 16 in Federal Business Opportunities. Raytheon will provide "algorithm development and analysis for ballistic missile defense critical functions including tracking, discrimination, kill assessment and sensor fusion in support of the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System," the notice says.
A key date for the military's new Global Positioning System satellite constellation, the release of a request for proposals, has been pushed back to 2003, according to a Defense Department official involved in the program. The Air Force has been discussing plans to release the RFP for GPS III "sometime this winter," the official told The DAILY. "I believe it's going to be after the first of the calendar year."
Although China has had some success in exporting conventional weapons to developing nations, it is unlikely to become a major international supplier like the U.S., Russia or Western Europe, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.
The Lockheed Martin-led Joint Strike Fighter development team is considering bids from 18 Australian companies for a share of the potentially $200 billion program, Australian government officials said Monday. Australia is hoping its $150 million investment in the JSF program's development phase provides a boost to its fledgling aerospace industry, which accounts for a mere 1 percent of the world's aerospace production, according to Australian government sources.
Boeing would be unable and unwilling to build or deliver any non-FAA-certified commercial aircraft if a strike is called at five Boeing aircraft facilities, a Boeing spokesman told the DAILY Aug. 16. "We will only deliver airplanes that the Federal Aviation Administration has certified for delivery and we will not attempt to build any additional airplanes," Boeing spokesman Chuck Cadena said.
Aug. 19 - 22 -- National Defense Industrial Association presents the 5th Annual Testing and Training Symposium & Exhibition: Partnering in National Defense at Home and Abroad. Rosen Centre Hotel, Orlando, Fla. For more information call Phyllis Edmonson at (703) 247-2588. Aug. 22 - 23 -- Association for Enterprise Integration presents Transforming Government: Challenges, Strategies, Programs. Hilton Tysons Corner, McLean, Va. For more information contact Michelle Bourke at (703) 247-9473 or register online at www.afei.org.
LONDON - Austria will reduce its planned buy of Eurofighters to free money for civic funding in the wake of recent heavy flooding in Central Europe, the Austrian government said Aug. 15. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said the country can't buy the full requirement of 24 Eurofighters. The government still hopes to acquire 18 Eurofighters, but this is the most that could be funded, he said.
NORAD AT SEA: Adm. Vernon Clark, the chief of naval operations, wants the United States to form a unified command for maritime security. Clark says the Navy should extend its role in homeland defense by working on maritime interdiction with the Coast Guard and intelligence agencies. But the broader mission of maritime security requires a centralized command, he says. "I'm convinced we need a NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] for maritime forces."
PRAGUE - The air forces of 16 nations will be represented at the ninth Czech International Air Fest (CIAF) at Hradec Kralove at the end of August, organizers told The DAILY Friday Aug. 16.
Using the 34-meter antennas in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), mission controllers continued in vain to contact the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft Aug. 16. CONTOUR went silent the day before after it was scheduled to execute a 50-second burn of its ATK Thiokol-built solid rocket motor. The burn was intended to put the spacecraft into an orbit around the sun that eventually would have allowed it to fly by two comets starting in 2003 (DAILY, Aug. 16).
WORLD-CLASS SYSTEM: A substitute for the Crusader self-propelled howitzer that is compatible with the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) is possible, but not by 2008, when the Army plans to begin fielding FCS elements, says senior weapons analyst Gregory Fetter of Forecast International/DMS. To avoid the weight problem that doomed the Crusader, the Army should reconsider designs for a liquid-propellant gun, he says. The original Crusader design included a regenerative liquid-propellant gun. "They were well on their way toward the finishing line," Fetter says.
DATE SET: The Missile Defense Agency named Aug. 24 as the date for the next test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program. The integrated test will include all the elements of the system, including the space-based missile-warning sensor; ground-based early warning radar; prototype X-Band radar at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific; and the GMD battle management, command, control and communications system at Kwajalein Atoll and the Joint National Integration Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will award a contract by May 2003 to a single prime contractor responsible for managing targets and countermeasures for the Defense Department's layered missile defense program, according to information published Aug. 16 in Federal Business Opportunities.
FRIENDLY FIRE: The Air Force is giving 8th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson the authority to discipline pilots involved in the April 17 friendly fire incident in Afghanistan that killed four Canadian paratroopers. The Air Force says 9th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley does not have time to devote to the case because he is commanding air operations for Operation Southern Watch over Iraq.
The Coast Guard still plans to field six new Lockheed Martin C-130J maritime patrol aircraft by the summer of 2006, despite the Bush Administration's decision not to release a supplemental appropriations package that included money to finish building the aircraft, a Coast Guard official said Aug. 16. The Coast Guard believes it can secure the funding through another appropriations bill, given the strong congressional support the program has enjoyed, said Capt. Larry Hall, the Coast Guard's C-130J project manager.
COMET FINDER: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft spotted its 500th comet last week, the European Space Agency said. SOHO, a joint venture between NASA and ESA, is designed to examine weather on the sun, but also has become "the most productive comet finder in the history of astronomy," ESA said. SOHO can spot the comets as they pass close to the sun.
COMPOSITE COSTS: The use of advanced composites in U.S. shipbuilding could reduce the production costs for hulls down to one-fifth of traditional steel hulls, according to Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Jay Cohen. "One of my biggest fights, and I've invested a lot of money in this and a lot of personal capital, was to try to get our shipbuilding industry to accept advanced composite materials and procedures," Cohen says. "The initial cost of these [composite] ships is much higher, maybe 10 times higher than a steel ship, but that's for the first of a kind.
STRIKE STUDY: Pentagon acquisition chief E.C. "Pete" Aldridge has asked the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a federally funded research and development center, to conduct a study on alternatives for long-range strike warfare. The study is meant to complement an ongoing Air Force reassessment of the service's plans to begin fielding a next-generation long-range strike platform in 2037 (Feb. 21, 22). It is unclear if the IDA study is on the same time schedule as the Air Force study, which is due to end in January 2004.
The earliest date the Boeing Co. could consider producing a commercial version of its C-17 aircraft probably would be in 2004, according to a company official. There still are some "active discussions" on producing a commercial version of the C-17 Globemaster III, Boeing official Bruce Bunin told The DAILY in an Aug. 15 interview. "Our notional target for go-ahead on that, and that we've agreed on with the Air Force, is fiscal year 2004."
Efforts to design the Littoral Combat Ship and Focused Mission Ship remain distinct for now, Naval Sea Systems Command officials in Washington said Aug. 16. "At this time, the two efforts are separate," NAVSEA's program executive office for Surface Strike said in response to written questions from the DAILY. "The Navy is tasking industry to study the concepts for a focused-mission, high-speed ship, with this contract initiative being part of an overall effort to define future ship requirements," the office said.
HELICOPTER AFICIONADOS: Although it canceled a 34 million euro ($33.2 million) order for nine EC-635 helicopters from Eurocopter (DAILY, Aug. 15), Portugal has been on a helicopter-buying spree in recent years, says senior aircraft analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. In December 2001, Portugal bought 12 AgustaWestland EH-101 heavy lift helicopters, selecting them over Sikorsky's S-92 and Eurocopter's Cougar Mk 2+. "Not only did they reject the S-92, they really weighed in and said exactly why they rejected it, which is extremely unusual," Aboulafia says.
NO JETS REQUIRED: Integrated Coast Guard Systems' (ICGS) Deepwater re-capitalization plan does not call for the replacement of the Coast Guard's fleet of manned jets, because the total system solution eliminates the need for them, according to ICGS President Paul Ecker. The purpose of Deepwater wasn't "to provide one-for-one replacements for any of the current Coast Guard legacy assets," Ecker says.
NASA/AIR FORCE: NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) plan to tour the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y., Aug. 19 to find out about current and potential joint projects between NASA and AFRL. Afterward, O'Keefe and Boehlert are expected to discuss their findings with reporters.
NASA is transferring its abandoned x-34 experimental vehicle to the Air Force, which will store it at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The Orbital Sciences-built X-34 and Lockheed Martin-built X-33 vehicles, once intended to pave the way for a successor to the space shuttle, were canceled last year due to rising costs (DAILY, March 2). The Air Force will conduct some testing on X-34 components, and NASA will receive the results of the tests, according to a NASA spokeswoman.
