Aerospace companies invested fewer inflation-adjusted dollars on research and development in 2000 than in 1994 - even as U.S.-based companies overall nearly doubled their spending growth on research programs, a new U.S. government survey shows. The aerospace sector's research spending on aircraft, weapons systems and space vehicles dropped 0.5 percent during the seven-year period, particularly after 1997, according to the survey released Tuesday by the U.S. Commerce Department's Office of Technology Policy.
Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and ranking Republican Ted Stevens (Alaska) said Oct. 16 that their panel's fiscal 2002 defense spending bill will contain the Bush Administration's $8.3 billion request for missile defense, but would give President Bush the option to use up to $1.3 billion of that money for anti-terrorism.
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) said Oct. 16 that he would favor boosting NASA's spending on aerospace research and development. Although he didn't endorse any specific increase, Boehlert told reporters he agrees with the Aerospace Industries Association's general view that NASA needs to spend more money on aerospace R&D (DAILY, May 1). AIA has proposed increasing the federal R&D aerospace budget by $50 billion over the next five years, with $20 billion of that going to NASA.
A new sensor management system from Lockheed Martin is poised to take the next step in the evolution of network-centric warfare, forming sensor networks that not only fuse data, but selectively allow intelligent, automated control of individual sensor nodes. On the battlefield of the future, "you're going to have this disparate mix of unattended, unmanned, [and] manned sensors, and you have to be able to put them all together to make a coherent whole," Charles Pickar, program manager for Lockheed Martin's LinkSensors system, told The DAILY.
ATK has been awarded a $4 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to continue production of the DSU-33B/B proximity sensor for the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and other air-delivered ordnance. The sensor's design allows U.S. and allied tactical fighter aircraft to deliver ordnance from both low and high altitudes.
Aerospace and defense companies are re-evaluating their products and services to see how they might be adapted for the growing homeland security market. Companies that provide emergency response equipment could also benefit from the market's expected growth.
Naval Air Systems Command plans to launch a block upgrade of the V-22 Osprey aircraft, a program intended to put the tiltrotor aircraft on the way to operational service. The command said in an Oct. 15 Commerce Business Daily notice that the "effort will include the processes necessary to move the aircraft to a return to operational status, development of corrective action plans for discrepancies, integration of all necessary changes that will be occurring during this block upgrade and systems engineering products and planning data as required."
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center should not be used as an excuse to cut spending on intelligence-gathering satellites, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
The Expedition Three crew on the International Space Station completed a second spacewalk Oct. 15, installing experiments outside the Zvezda module to analyze the effect the harsh environment of space has on engineering materials. Spacewalkers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin installed a Russian experiment to study contamination from jet exhaust, and three Japanese pallets studying the affect of micrometeroid impacts and other aspects of the space environment.
October 10, 2001 Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $6,366,897 cost-plus-award-fee contract modification to provide for the reactivation and related support activities of Defense Satellite Communication System III Satellite A3. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete November 2002. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-96-C-0023, P00098).
After a brief pause in planned air strikes on Oct. 12 - a Muslim holy day - air strikes against military targets in Afghanistan resumed over the weekend, while at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., a select number of U.S. allies gathered to discuss the next stage of operations.
India has activated the Agathi airfield at Lakshadweep island, in the southwestern part of the country, to step up surveillance in the Arabian Sea area in the wake of U.S. strikes against Afghanistan. Sources with the Indian air force said a Dornier aircraft has been moved to Agathi for aerial reconnaissance. The aircraft will report on the presence of foreign vessels near India's coast in the Arabian Sea, which has seen intense international activity since the strikes began.
October 9, 2001 Raytheon Systems Co., McKinney, Texas, is being issued a not-to-exceed $11,057,248 firm-fixed-price order for manufacture of 32 power supplies for the AN/AAS-38 Forward Looking Infrared Radar on F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00383-98-G-006J - Order 5100).
SMALLPOX REDUX?: Although smallpox outbreaks were eradicated in America in the 1970s, it would be foolish for America to think that bioterrorists might not still be able to obtain it, according to Amy Smithson, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at The Stimson Center. "A few years ago I spent several weeks in the former Soviet Union interviewing the weaponeers ... who figured out how to turn diseases into weapons of war, and the Soviet Union did that with over 50 diseases," says Smithson.
Matra BAe Dynamics (MBDA) will supply the SEA SKUA anti-ship missile system to the government of Malaysia under a new contract, the company announced Oct. 11. The missile systems will be introduced into service on the Malaysian navy's six AgustaWestland Super Lynx helicopters to be deployed from Lekiu-class frigates. SEA SKUA is an advanced all-weather day/night sea-skimming anti-ship missile system that is currently in service with the navies of the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Kuwait, South Korea and Turkey.
INTEL INCREASE: The House-passed version of the fiscal 2002 intelligence authorization bill would increase spending on intelligence programs by 9 percent over FY '01 and 2 percent over the Bush Administration's request, according to the office of House Democratic Whip David Bonior (Mich.). Dollar amounts are classified, but the nation's intelligence budget is widely believed to be roughly $30 billion.
Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has not been given the authority necessary to effectively manage more than 40 government agencies that currently play a role in homeland defense and counterterrorism, lawmakers and witnesses at a Senate hearing agreed Oct. 12. Members of the Governmental Affairs Committee, and lawmakers and witnesses who testified before them, debated the merits of legislation that would either establish a new government department for homeland security or give Ridge's office more power.
Cubic Defense Systems has won a $40 million U.S. Air Force contract to refurbish pods that are used to help train pilots of F-15, F-16 and A-10 aircraft. The refurbishment - installation of a GPS receiver, an inertial measurement unit and a digital data recording device - will allow the pods to be used in a "rangeless" mode, free of an instrumented training range.
Appointing a four-star commander-in-chief (CINC) for U.S. territory is one of the options being discussed as DOD attempts to define its role in homeland security. Asked if the Defense Department is considering the creation of a new CINC for homeland security, Secretary of the Army Thomas White - recently appointed DOD's executive agent for homeland security - said DOD is looking at that option, but "it will be the secretary's choice, Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, and he hasn't made that choice yet.
