The MV-22 Osprey program is the subject of a new probe by the U.S. Defense Department's Inspector General after the U.S. Marine Corps Commandant last month received a letter alleging "irregularities" by two previous crash investigations. Pentagon auditors earlier this month opened the second department-level investigation of the Osprey program this year, DOD spokeswoman Susan Hansen told Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com.
Although President Bush signed the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill into law on Jan. 10 (DAILY, Jan. 11), he predicts it will not meet all of the military's budget needs. Since the measure provides about $2 billion less than his $319.4 billion request, it "does not adequately fund all my critical priorities, specifically the readiness of our forces," Bush says in a statement.
COM DEV International Ltd.'s operating division will supply waveguide switches to Boeing Satellite Systems under a three-year agreement the company said could result in $4.5 million of annual business. The switches are used to route signals on communications satellites and to connect backup equipment in place of a system failure. Boeing placed an initial order worth $760,000 to support the engineering and initial production phase.
NEW JOBS FOR UAVS: In the coming years, "I think you're going to see more [use of unmanned aerial vehicles] in law enforcement," says Daryl Davidson, executive director of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). "We've typically seen that the most natural migration beyond the military goes into law enforcement, or the paramilitary side.
Industry criticism that NASA's support for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been "inconsistent" (DAILY, Jan. 7) may be attributable to the modest number of personnel involved, according to John Del Frate, project manager for the Helios solar-powered UAV at Dryden Flight Research Center. Helios is part of NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program, which is aimed at nurturing cutting-edge UAV concepts from industry. "Maybe we've been quiet," he says.
The MV-22 Osprey program is the subject of a new probe by the U.S. Defense Department's Inspector General after the U.S. Marine Corps Commandant last month received a letter alleging "irregularities" by two previous crash investigations. Pentagon auditors earlier this month opened the second department-level investigation of the Osprey program this year, DOD spokeswoman Susan Hansen told Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com.
GASL, an engineering services organization that is a division of Allied Aerospace Industries, has signed an agreement with the Space Alliance Outreach Program (SATOP) to provide small business owners with free technical engineering assistance for problems they face in the workplace. "Joining SATOP gives GASL the chance to help small businesses as well as assist with the spread of NASA technology," said Bob Bakos, the vice president for engineering at Allied Aerospace.
The U.S. Air Force is getting $3.4 million to explore the possibility of creating an additional site in Hawaii for conducting space surveillance activities. The site would give the Air Force an alternate viewing point when clouds, wind or other weather conditions impede the work of the Maui Space Surveillance Site, a telescope complex on Haleakala mountain on Maui island, according to a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate. The complex produces images of orbiting space objects.
SPECTRUM ASTRO said construction has begun on its new satellite manufacturing facility, which it calls the "factory of the future." Completion of the new factory in Gilbert is slated for December 2002. The initial construction is of the company's phase one plan, which will provide the manufacturing and test capacity for the company's product base. It includes three buildings with a combined square footage of 270,000 square feet of engineering, manufacturing, test, office and support space.
COM DEV International Ltd.'s operating division will supply waveguide switches to Boeing Satellite Systems under a three-year agreement the company said could result in $4.5 million of annual business. The switches are used to route signals on communications satellites and to connect backup equipment in place of a system failure. Boeing placed an initial order worth $760,000 to support the engineering and initial production phase.
GASL, an engineering services organization that is a division of Allied Aerospace Industries, has signed an agreement with the Space Alliance Outreach Program (SATOP) to provide small business owners with free technical engineering assistance for problems they face in the workplace. "Joining SATOP gives GASL the chance to help small businesses as well as assist with the spread of NASA technology," said Bob Bakos, the vice president for engineering at Allied Aerospace.
TRW Inc. is continuing with the design and development of an AstroMesh reflector for Mobile Broadcasting Corp. of Japan's MBSAT geostationary satellite. The work is being done under a contract from Space Systems/Loral. Reflectors, a key antenna component, reflect radio frequency energy and focus it into a pattern on the ground. MBSAT is intended to provide digital multimedia services, including audio, video and data to mobile users throughout Japan and Korea.
In the coming years, "I think you're going to see more [use of unmanned aerial vehicles] in law enforcement," says Daryl Davidson, executive director of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). "We've typically seen that the most natural migration beyond the military goes into law enforcement, or the paramilitary side.
JAVELIN BUYS: The U.S. Army has executed Letters of Agreement for the sale of Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Lithuania and Jordan, the Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin Joint Venture announced Jan. 11. The letters, signed in December, mark the first European and Middle East sales for Javelin, according to the companies.
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center will be proposing a follow-on program to the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program, the unmanned aerial vehicle development work that has resulted in the Helios and Pathfinder UAVs, among others.
The joint operational test bed system (JOTBS) for unmanned aerial vehicles, which the U.S. Joint Forces Command is developing and Congress endorsed last month in the fiscal 2002 defense authorization act (DAILY, Jan. 9), will involve more than how to improve communication among different types of UAV systems. It will also address how several ground control systems in different locations could all receive data from a single UAV and even send instructions to the aircraft, says Navy Lt. Cmdr.
DOWN, MAYBE NOT OUT: Start-up satellite ventures like Astrolink International may have suffered from the fallout of dotcom and telecommunications companies in the late 1990s, but Astrolink's fate is not sealed, say some satellite industry observers. Astrolink was created in 1999 by Lockheed Martin Corp., TRW Inc., Telespazio SPA, and Liberty Media Group to provide global broadband satellite service, but has suffered a number of recent setbacks.
Officials with Denver-based Lockheed Martin Astronautics, a division of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Space Systems, announced Jan. 10 the division will lay off about 700 employees by the end of 2002. The layoffs are occurring because work on three programs is coming to an end, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Joan Underwood told The DAILY Jan. 11.
SPECTRUM ASTRO said construction has begun on its new satellite manufacturing facility, which it calls the "factory of the future." Completion of the new factory in Gilbert is slated for December 2002. The initial construction is of the company's phase one plan, which will provide the manufacturing and test capacity for the company's product base. It includes three buildings with a combined square footage of 270,000 square feet of engineering, manufacturing, test, office and support space.
COMSAT MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS, a business unit of Lockheed Martin Corp., has launched its Mobile Packet Data Service (MPDS), which provides remote users with access to Internet applications such as web access, file transfer and electronic mail. MPDS is the most recent offering via Inmarsat's Global Area Network. It uses laptop-sized Inmarsat M4 terminals. "GAN technology provides industry and professional leaders with the global communications bandwidth and speed they require to extend their enterprise networks into their field operations," said Kathryn Y.
SPECTRUM ASTRO has validated the flight structure of its developmental test vehicle (DTV) for the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer and is ready to build the Swift's flight structure at its Integration and Test facility in Gilbert, Ariz., the company announced Jan. 9. The DTV went through flight testing from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15 2001. The DTV consisted of a flight structure and mass models that simulated the Swift spacecraft and its payload components.
As the Expedition Four crew onboard the International Space Station (ISS) enters its second month, crewmembers are in final preparations for their first extravehicular activity (EVA), scheduled for Monday, Jan. 14. Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Carl Walz will conduct the EVA. The crew may perform up to four spacewalks in support of station assembly during their time in orbit.
The U.S. plans to start delivering 25 Bell Huey II helicopters to Colombia later this month to help that country's war against drug trafficking, according to the U.S. State Department. The Huey IIs will join 16 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and 33 Bell UH-1Ns that the U.S. has already sent to the South American country. All of the utility helicopters are funded by an aid package approved by Congress in 2000.
Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), co-chair of the congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group, is drafting a letter urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to request $40 million in fiscal 2002 supplemental funding to speed up wing improvements for the U.S. Navy's EA-6B Prowlers.
The Department of Defense will maintain its "nuclear triad" even as it reduces its strategic arsenal, a Pentagon official said Jan. 9. The United States will reduce its strategic arsenal from the current level of about 6,000 warheads to between 1,700 and 2,000 weapons by 2012, said J. D. Crouch, the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy.
