The National Science Foundation would get an 8.9 percent funding increase under the House version of the fiscal 2003 budget resolution, 3.9 percent above the Bush Administration's request. The budget outline, approved by the House Budget Committee March 13, would provide the NSF with a total of $5.2 billion in FY '03, $425 million over FY '02. Funding for research and related activities would rise 11.1 percent, 6 percent above the Administration's request.
March 15, 2002 Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan., is being awarded a $15,795,000 firm-fixed-price contract modification to provide for continued fiscal year 2002 contractor logistics support for option VII of the joint primary aircraft training system for T-6A aircraft. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-96-C-0180, P00031).
The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is calling for an interagency working group to perform a study of America's critical space assets and devise plans for protecting them. "Name any form of communication we have, and satellites are somehow in the loop," Don Brownlee, AIA member and Aerojet Director of Space Systems Propulsion, said during an AIA press briefing in Washington March 14. "It doesn't really take a highly sophisticated, in-space attack to take out these assets, or disrupt or degrade our service."
CRITICAL ISSUE: One of the most important issues facing the U.S. aerospace and defense industry over the next decade will be how to adapt military technologies for the civilian market, says Tom Culligan, executive vice president of business development for Raytheon Co. "We've not been particularly good at adapting from the military side to the commercial side, and vice versa," Culligan says. With the budget for homeland defense growing larger, defense companies are wondering whether they can adapt military technologies for the civil defense market.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s win of an Air Force contract for up to 20 Gulfstream V and V-SP business jets and 10 years of logistics support, potentially worth $1.6 billion, bolsters the company's belief that the planes are seen by the U.S. government as being suitable for a variety of duties.
INDUSTRIAL CAPABILITIES: The Department of Defense has released its 2002 Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress. Totaling only 10 pages, the 2002 report is roughly one-tenth the length of last year's report and primarily provides brief summaries of studies on industrial capabilities. The report, which is required by Section 2504 of title 10, U.S. Code, is submitted each year to the House and Senate armed services committees. Last year's report included detailed descriptions of current industrial base issues and comments on policy direction and strategy.
A report released late last week by the State Department's inspector general concludes the processes and methods used by the department's Office of Defense Trade Controls are "inefficient and unnecessarily burdensome" on the defense industry. The process used by the ODTC, which receives and initially reviews all export license applications for dual-use and munitions items, "involves extensive use of manual and paper-based means to transfer information that must be re-keyed into computer systems by recipient organizations," the report says.
One of the main goals of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab is increasing precision targeting capabilities, according to the lab's head. "The biggest after-action report we received from all our Marines in theater was that their number-one need was precision targeting," Col. Barry Ford, chief of staff of the Warfighting Lab, told reporters March 14 at a Capitol Hill briefing. One need, he said, is to improve the ability of forward air controllers (FACs) to locate targets and pass the information to aircraft providing close air support.
Team members from NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program are "ecstatic" over early results from a series of automatic collision avoidance system flight tests flown in Las Cruces, N.M. last week. "I think everybody is really pretty ecstatic about the results," ERAST Program Manager Jeff Bauer told The DAILY. "Everything's working well."
ENVISAT A GO: After its successful launch on an Ariane 5 vehicle late last month (DAILY, Feb. 27), the European Space Agency's (ESA) enormous Envisat Earth observation satellite is gearing up for the release to the public of its first image on March 28. The 8,500-kilogram (18,740-pound), $2.2 billion satellite has successfully deployed its solar arrays and radar antenna, and all 10 instruments on the spacecraft have been activated, according to ESA.
Norway has pledged an addition $1 million to help Russia destroy its chemical weapon stocks, according to a memorandum of understanding signed March 14 with the United Kingdom. Under the MOU, signed in Moscow, the U.K. will use the money on Norway's behalf as it helps Russia with the demilitarization program. The U.K. announced in July 2000 that it would provide up to 12 million pounds (now $17 million) over a three-year period for chemical weapon destruction and other nonproliferation projects in Russia.
OVER-PROGRAMMED: The proliferation of weapons programs over the last decade has resulted in an "over-programmed" defense budget, according to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown analyst Christopher Mecray.
SIMULATOR CERTIFIED: FlightSafety Boeing Training International received Joint Aviation Authorities level C certification for the A330 part of its Airbus A330-340 full flight simulator at the company's Manchester Training Centre in the United Kingdom, near Manchester Airport. Certification for the A340 simulation is expected later this year. The Manchester center is one of four FSB training centers in England. The company is co-owned by the Boeing Co. and FlightSafety International.
Ten members of the congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group have asked leaders of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) to hold a hearing to review the Defense Department's recent study on potential replacements for the Navy's aging EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft.
BMD EMERGENCY: The Missile Defense Agency plans to turn over its ballistic missile defense systems to the military services once they are ready for procurement and operation, but what happens if an emergency arises, forcing one of those systems to be deployed while it is still in MDA's research and development hands? "As I recall, when we deployed Joint STARS [surveillance aircraft] during the Gulf War, we still had contractors operating parts of that system because they weren't ready for trained airmen to actually operate them," says Air Force Lt. Gen.
ATLAS ROLLOUT: Lockheed Martin's Atlas V booster passed its first major launch pad test last week, according to the company. The Atlas team rolled the heavy-lift booster to the launch pad, fueled it and conducted a simulated countdown, verifying the integration of vehicle and launch pad, the company said.
BOLDEN NOMINATION: Having Marine Corps. Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden become NASA's deputy administrator would have been "inconsistent" with the U.S. government's traditional separation between the military and civilian chains of command, according to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee. Bolden's nomination was withdrawn by the White House March 12 after Levin and Senate Armed Services committee ranking Republican John Warner of Virginia raised this concern (DAILY, March 15). "Gen.
RLV ROADMAP: The Air Force and NASA, which have been studying the possibilities for joint development of reusable launch vehicles (DAILY, Jan. 25), plan to release an "RLV roadmap" within the "next few months," according to Air Force Gen. Ralph "Ed" Eberhart, commander in chief of U.S. Space Command. Eberhart says the U.S. made the right decision in 1994 directing NASA to develop RLVs, but the way ahead for RLVs is "not clear." Eberhart believes the U.S.
Although defense electronics companies will do well in the next few years, the projected growth of the sector may be overstated, according to two defense analysts. "I don't think it can be said that a disproportionate amount of money is going to be spent on electronics per se," said Steven Grundman, the former deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial affairs and installations.
The relationship between the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and a proposed new command for homeland security is "yet to be determined," according to Air Force Gen. Ralph "Ed" Eberhart, NORAD's commander in chief. The structure of that relationship will depend significantly on the conclusions of the Canadian government, because NORAD is a U.S.-Canadian organization, Eberhart testified before the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) March 14.
AGENT DEFEAT: An agent defeat warhead - one of the unfunded programs proposed as a 2002 advanced concept technology demonstration - is aimed at developing a weapon that can carry a variety of payloads, according to a Pentagon official. The military has never been able to develop a single payload capable of defeating all of the different chemical, biological and nuclear threats, Air Force Lt. Col. John Wilcox says. The military now is "looking at a variety of fills" to be used against different chemicals and biological agents, Wilcox says.
Teams led by Lockheed Martin Space Systems and TRW Space and Electronics Group have submitted their proposals to design, build and orbit the National Polar-Orbiting Satellite System (NPOESS). The deadline was March 15. The NPOESS integrated program office (IPO), set up by the Commerce Department, NASA and the Department of Defense, plans to downselect by the end of August, according to Bruce Needham, the IPO's associate director for operations.
After a successful round of troubleshooting, flight controllers for NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission have re-established contact with the spacecraft's radiation measurement instrument and begun gathering data with it. Contact with MARIE (Mars Radiation Environment Experiment) was lost last August while the spacecraft was en route to the red planet, and early attempts to troubleshoot the problem were unsuccessful.
