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.
NASA facilities, especially Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., are "extremely vulnerable" to terrorism, according to a memorandum released by the House Appropriations Committee's Democratic staff. The Oct. 11 memo does not elaborate on the nature of the threat, but it calls for spending $392 million on NASA security upgrades as part of an economic stimulus package that Congress is considering. The upgrades would provide such things as more secure communications and information system improvements, the document says.
BLACK FUNDING: The Bush Administration is seeking to spend $17.1 billion, or 16 percent, of the Defense Department's total weapons acquisition budget on classified or "black" programs in fiscal 2002, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The percentage of the acquisition budget spent on classified programs has ranged from 13 percent to 18 percent since 1987. According to CSBA, almost three-quarters of the FY '02 black program funding would go to the Air Force: $7.3 billion for procurement and $5.3 billion for research and development.
MALAYSIA SHOW: With the sixth biennial Langkawi International Maritime&Aerospace (LIMA) Exhibition underway in Malaysia, Russia is launching an ambitious campaign to market its products to Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific countries. Along with a number of air defense systems, Russia's state-owned arms firm, Rosoboronexport, is displaying the Sukhoi Su-30MK multi-role fighter, which Russia hopes to sell to the Malaysian air force. While no tender has been announced yet, the Malaysian air force has said it intends to buy between 12 and 18 advanced fighters.
QDR CRITIC: The Defense Department's new Quadrennial Defense Review report (DAILY, Oct. 2) does a good job describing existing and emerging threats, but it falls short in explaining what the military should look like to meet those threats, according to Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Creating certain new field-exercise tools, such as a joint opposing force and a joint national training center, could help provide such answers, but they are relegated by the QDR to further study, he adds.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the written responses by Marvin R. Sambur, nominated to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sambur testified Oct. 11. Q: What is your view of the role that realistic testing should play in the acquisition process prior to any decision to enter into high-rate production?
Regulators with the Federal Aviation Administration have been meeting with airline officials to develop ways of reinforcing airplane cockpit doors and securing flight decks. Those efforts received new urgency following an Oct. 8 incident in which a mentally ill passenger aboard a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight forced his way into the cockpit.
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.
NEW CONCEPT: The recently released Quadrennial Defense Review suggested the U.S. military would need a different operational strategy for fighting future wars, and that is what is happening now in Afghanistan, says Michelle Flournoy, senior adviser in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The military operation underway in Afghanistan reflects a fundamentally different concept of operations," she says.
COMMITTED: Now that military action in Afghanistan is underway, the U.S. must ensure the destruction of both al Qaeda and the Taliban regime, says Anthony Cordesman, holder of the Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Half measures will only convey vulnerability to potential adversaries, he says. "We have begun a military campaign that now must end in the overthrow of the present Taliban regime and the virtual destruction of al Qaeda," Cordesman says.
JPL PICKED: NASA has chosen the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to provide the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the Next Generation Space Telescope, which is slated to replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. The instrument will study old stars and examine active galaxies with very bright cores.
Aircraft manufacturers, engine producers and companies providing aviation support services will continue to feel the aftershock of the Sept. 11 attacks on the commercial aerospace industry, according to aerospace analysts with Standard&Poor's. "In addition to lower demands for their products and services, aircraft and engine builders are likely to face high financing requests from their airline customers," said commercial aerospace analyst Roman Szuper.
Ten Royal Air Force aircraft have been supporting U.S. combat sorties in Afghanistan, according to United Kingdom defense officials. In a joint press briefing Oct. 11, Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, the U.K. chief of defense staff, and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the aircraft include high-altitude reconnaissance BAE Systems Canberra PR.9s, Boeing E-3D AWACS and BAE Systems VC1- and Lockheed Martin TriStar tanker/transports.
ESA SCIENCE: Europe's Astrium consortium plans to ship its microgravity science glovebox from Germany to the Kennedy Space Center next week. The glovebox will be one of the first European Space Agency elements for conducting science on the station.
An Atlas IIA rocket successfully launched Oct. 10, carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload believed to be a data relay satellite that could route information about military action in Afghanistan. The International Launch Services booster launched at 10:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The payload separated into transfer orbit 29 minutes later.
Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced Oct. 11 that they are introducing a bill to create a new homeland security department that includes an office of science and technology to advise the department secretary on research and development and other science priorities.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed reports that the U.S. has dropped GBU-28 "bunker busting" bombs over Afghanistan, and said the Taliban's air defense capabilities are still a threat to U.S. aircraft. Speaking at the Pentagon Oct. 11, Rumsfeld said bombers and strike aircraft have dropped a full range of weaponry, "certainly including [the GBU-28s]."
NASA has selected three advanced technologies to fly in 2004 as part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Space Technology 6 project. Total funding for the three projects is $24.8 million. The technologies are aimed at building "smarter" spacecraft, according to the aerospace agency. The selected programs are:
The importance of the role of human intelligence, information sharing, and new sensor capability to help in homeland security was recently highlighted by several current and former naval leaders during a recent conference here. "We need a long-term plan to upgrade our human intelligence," said retired General A.M. Gray, former Marine Corps Commandant.
Witnesses before a House Science Committee hearing on X-vehicles and military spaceplanes reiterated the need for reusable platforms, while citing poor management and inadequate political support as the reason more progress hasn't been made to date. The Air Force withdrew its support for the X-33 and X-37 demonstrator programs earlier this year (DAILY, Sept. 7). The X-33 was intended to demonstrate single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launch capability, and the X-37 was to pave the way for a reusable spaceplane.
Two NASA spacecraft, the Mars Global Surveyor and the Hubble Space Telescope, are giving scientists a view of the biggest dust storm seen on Mars in several decades. The dust storm, much larger than any such storm seen on Earth, has engulfed the entire planet for the past three months, the aerospace agency said Oct. 11. The sun is warming the airborne dust, raising the upper atmosphere's temperature by about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, while the planet's surface has plummeted because of the dust cloud.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee late Oct. 10 approved a fiscal 2002 defense spending bill that was expected to include a modest cut in the Bush Administration's $8.3 billion request for missile defense. But subcommittee members said they will not release information about the bill's contents until the full committee considers the legislation, which might happen next week. The embargo was apparently prompted by the need to work out some details in the legislation.
Despite being "large and stable" financially, the U.S. aerospace and defense industry faces uncertainty over which procurement programs might be discontinued as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to several Standard and Poor's aerospace and defense analysts. Speaking Oct. 11 to a group of investors via a phone call, military aerospace analyst Martin Knoblowitz said while future defense budgets will contain increases for weapons procurement, the military services will compete intensely for those procurement dollars.
The U.S. Air Force has received two patents that promise to help detect wiring problems in aircraft before they can cause catastrophic failures. "Aircraft wiring systems are known to be a large contributor to aircraft problems," said Frank H. Born of the Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Rome, N.Y. "Cable chafing and connector corrosion are both age-related, and, as such, will continue to cause more problems as the air fleet ages."
