The House Oct. 5 approved the creation of an independent Commission on National Security Readiness to identify "structural impediments" to the collection, analysis and sharing of information on national security threats, especially terrorism.
In the heightened security environment at the nation's airports, greater attention is now being given to biometrics - the measurement and analysis of biological features - as a means of enhancing security and verifying passenger identity. Biometric identify verification techniques include measuring and analyzing a person's fingerprints, facial features, voice, or the pattern of their iris.
Britain's military forces in the Middle East, which include two Trafalgar-class submarines that launched Tomahawk land-attack missiles in the initial assault on Afghan targets, were reinforced over the weekend by additional support aircraft and air-lifted personnel and equipment.
Creating a national strategy for defending the United States and ensuring its security is high on the list of Tom Ridge, who took office Oct. 8 as director of the new White House Office of Homeland Security. The mission of Ridge's office is "to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks," the White House said in a summary of an executive order signed by President Bush.
A common ground control system or architecture will be the heart of the Army's new tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (TUAV) system, said Lt. Col. Kevin Stoleson, the Army's Training and Doctrine Command's Deputy Systems Manager for UAVs. The goal is to have a system that can handle a variety of air vehicles that have different range and payload capabilities to support units from brigade to corps, Stoleson said.
Retired Air Force Gen. Lawrence Farrell Jr., president of the National Defense Industrial Association, said the new Quadrennial Defense Review provides "a real blueprint" for the technologies the Department of Defense hopes to develop in the future.
A Lockheed Martin-built Titan IVB rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 2:21 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time Oct. 5, carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload. Believed to be an imaging satellite, the payload was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of roughly 97.9 degrees to the equator. The launch was the first Titan IV launch from Vandenberg this year.
The new Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry has launched its review by creating five broadly defined subgroups to study different aspects of the aerospace industry. Two commission members will lead each subgroup, and all commissioners will be able to participate in any of the specialized panels. Former U.S. Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.) and former Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters will serve as chairman and vice chairman of the full 12-member, congressionally mandated commission, which will remain the decision-making body.
The lifting of military sanctions against India by the United States will give a boost to India's much-delayed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the Advance Jet Trainer (AJT) projects, according to defense sources here.
The Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded $5 million for nine research grants to enhance the security of critical infrastructures such as air traffic control systems and electrical grids. The awards, made under the Critical Infrastructure Protection Grants Program, will accelerate efforts to beef up the security of computer and telecommunications systems that support essential services.
The Navy/Marine Corps Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) has met or exceeded all its "key performance parameters," according to Ed Riley, Northrop Grumman's business development manager for UAVs. The company is working to improve performance even further, as it nears the halfway point of the 42-month-to-initial operational capability contract, Riley said at the 39th Annual NDIA Air Targets, UAVs and Range Operations Symposium here. Fire Scout is more than a helicopter, he emphasized Oct. 3.
As the U.S. expands its battle against terrorism, the Defense Department's funding requests won't be budget driven, but there will also not be an "endless bucket" for supplemental funding, according to Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) Dov Zakheim. There is a completely different budget environment after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Zakheim told a group of defense reporters Oct. 5. Asked if supplemental funding for DOD could exceed $40 billion, as some press reports have indicated, Zakheim said it would be difficult to say.
The head of Russia's Aviation and Space Agency said would-be space tourist Mark Shuttleworth won't get a ride on a Soyuz to the International Space Station next April. Yuri Koptev said European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori is instead the most likely candidate for the spare seat on next April's flight to swap out Soyuz crew return spacecraft at the station.
STREAMLINED DOD: One of the recommendations in the Quadrennial Defense Review is to "streamline and flatten" the Defense Department's organizational structure to improve the flow of information. "As in business, entire functions need to be eliminated," the review says.
DON'T FEAR CROPDUSTERS: Fears that harmful biological agents could be delivered by terrorists using crop dusters are unfounded, according to Amy Smithson, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at The Stimson Center.
JSF SPLIT: An aide to Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.) says the lawmaker is not discouraged in his efforts to win support for splitting production of the Joint Strike Fighter between The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. (DAILY, Sept. 27), even though Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics E.C. "Pete" Aldridge reaffirmed in a Sept. 25 letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that he, Air Force Secretary James Roche and Navy Secretary Gordon England remain committed to a winner-take-all approach. "Sen.
The Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter team will consolidate its senior leadership into a joint program office and relocate it from Huntsville, Ala., to Stratford, Conn., the team announced Oct. 4. In 2000, the team signed a $3.1 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract with the Army for the design, development and manufacture of 13 aircraft.
THE WINNER IS: Because aerospace companies diversified their product line following the Cold War, they will benefit the most from the new defense posture as expressed in the Quadrennial Defense Review, according to John Douglass, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. "The aerospace companies win," Douglass says. "The reason for that is that we bought up all the rest." Douglass notes that aerospace companies in the post-Cold War period have acquired companies producing missiles, munitions, naval vessels and land vehicles.
The U.S. military should spend more money now and in future years on electronic warfare (EW) to keep its aircraft safe from enemy attack, according to speakers at an Oct. 5 Capitol Hill forum sponsored by the Lexington Institute.
JSF CONTRACT: Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, in Arlington, Va., doesn't agree with Bond's proposal to split JSF production. Bond voices concern that the company that loses the JSF competition will ultimately have to leave the fighter business, hurting the defense industrial base. He would prefer that Boeing - which would probably build the JSF in his state if it wins - and Lockheed Martin both have production lines for the fighter. But Thompson sees it differently.
CHAIRMAN: President Bush has nominated former Pennsylvania Rep. Robert Walker as chairman of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. He is currently chairman and CEO of The Wexler Group.
Local governments - always the first on the scene in an emergency - must be better prepared to respond to domestic terrorist attacks, a panel of government officials, scientists and medical personnel agreed at an Oct. 5 congressional hearing.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has asked the Ministry of Finance for money to install more X-ray inspection systems, metal detector and plastic bomb detector systems in airports to enhance security. The ministry has been subsidizing air carriers and airport operators to help them beef up security - it pays half the cost when carriers and operators buy security systems and hire operators.
BMD CUTS: The House Appropriations defense subcommittee is expected to cut the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 missile defense request when it considers its annual spending bill at a meeting tentatively scheduled for late Oct. 9, a committee aide tells The DAILY. The Administration has requested $8.3 billion for missile defense, an increase over FY '01 of $3 billion, which some lawmakers consider excessive. "There will be some reductions in missile defense," the aide predicts.
The value of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s stock has gone up so much in recent weeks that its offer to acquire Newport News Shipbuilding could now be "superior" to a rival offer from General Dynamics Corp., the Newport News board of directors said Oct. 5. The board of directors originally voted to accept the $67.50 per-share cash offer from General Dynamics Corp. on April 25. But on May 8, Northrop Grumman made an unsolicited bid to Newport News shareholders for the same share price - but its offer is a mix of cash and stock.
