Europe is going ahead with plans for a new light space launcher to complement the much heavier Ariane, in a new program led by FiatAvio. The Vega launcher is designed to inject payloads up to 1.5 tons - such as Earth observation and scientific satellites for civil applications - into circular polar orbit (about 700 km). Communications satellites would be a complementary market.
TRW INC. has started use of its new, state-of-the-art near-field antenna facility designed to test complex, multibeam satellite antennas - an enabling technology for space-based broadband communications systems. The facility's first application is for testing antennas that are part of the payloads TRW is building for Astrolink International LLC. TRW is building the communications payload under contract to Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, Astrolink's space segment provider.
SEEKER PREFERENCE: The House Appropriations Committee is "strongly" encouraging the Air Force to adopt seeker technology called Direct Attack Munitions Affordable Seeker (DAMASK) for use in the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) developmental program. According to the report accompanying the committee's version of the fiscal 2001 supplemental defense spending bill, the Air Force should, at a minimum, include DAMASK in the SDB request for proposal and use DAMASK as the standard of comparison for cost and performance for all potential SDB seeker candidates.
SEAD SUPPORT: Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel and a highly decorated Navy pilot, is urging the Defense Department to show support in its upcoming fiscal 2002 defense budget amendment for improvements in suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) systems. In an issue brief for the congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group, Cunningham writes that recent operational experiences in Iraq and Kosovo have highlighted significant deficiencies in the U.S.
INTELLIGENT OPTICAL SYSTEMS INC. (IOS), of Torrance, Calif., a privately held research and development company specializing in the design and development of optical communications, has received a $600,000 contract from the NASA Stennis Space Center to continue its development of a fiber-optic hydrogen leak detection system for space launch vehicles. The Boeing Co. and IOS successfully demonstrated the world's first fiber optic hydrogen leak detection system during a static fire test on a Delta IV orbital rocket at the Stennis Space Center (DAILY, May 29).
Derco Holding Limited of Milwaukee, Wisconsin signed a 10-year licensing agreement with Honeywell on June 17 to repair and distribute military aircraft cooling turbines and related parts worldwide, including to the U.S. government. Derco Aerospace and Derco Repair Services, both incorporated subdivisions of the Derco Holding company, will execute the provisions in the agreement.
SPAR, of Toronto, has been selected for the C-130 Avionics Upgrade Program for the Greek air force. Although terms for the agreement have not yet been finalized, the company expects the contract to be worth more than $100 million over a three-year period.
KEEPING MTW?: A senior defense official says a two major theater war (MTW) or two major regional conflict (MRC) strategy is "a central issue" that underlies a lot of the Pentagon's current force structure. Such a strategy was the central premise of the last Quadrennial Defense Review, and required the forces to be able to fight two major conflicts simultaneously. While the Pentagon has released few details on the direction the latest QDR might take, the official says the strategy is being looked at. So far, he says, there has been no decision about whether to keep it.
An editing error dropped a word in a June 14 DAILY story about Pentagon acquisition chief Edward "Pete" Aldridge. It should have read that he is looking at "increasing progress payments from 75 percent to 80 percent." The original story dropped the word "progress." The DAILY regrets the error.
JOINT NONSENSE: Military Analyst Michael Vickers, co-author of an upcoming Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report on military transformation, is highly critical of the U.S. military's Joint Vision doctrines, which he calls "pabulum." Joint Vision 2020 is a sweeping doctrine intended to guide the strategy of the U.S. Armed Forces. "The current joint warfighting vision we have is absolute garbage," says Vickers.
3RDTECH INC., of Chapel Hill, N.C., announced the installation of the first commercial NanoManipulator DP-100 Visualization and Control System at NASA Langley Research Center, Va. The NanoManipulator System, along with ThermoMicroscopes' Explorer Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM), will be used to develop tools for nondestructive testing. Using the NanoManipulator, a scientist can take control of the SPM's probe, move it to precisely the desired location in a sample, and then interactively manipulate atom-sized structures.
RAD HARD CAPABILITY: The U.S. satellite industry must not allow its ability to produce radiation hardened chips to atrophy, says W. David Thompson, president of Spectrum Astro. "Most of the commercial operators are going to radiation-tolerant parts, not radiation-hardened parts," says Thompson. "And there's a relatively serious problem in the U.S. - it's that if we're not careful and we don't invest in our rad-hard foundries, we will lose the capability to produce truly radiation-hardened chips."
European countries are not convinced that the United States faces a ballistic missile threat from so-called "rogue states," and instead are more concerned about the potential fallout from the U.S. abandoning the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, several European defense scholars said June 15.
SHIP WORK: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) says the Navy is awarding a $124.3 million contract to continue development of the radar and other major systems on the DD-21 next-generation destroyer. General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works in Maine and Northrop Grumman Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi will each receive $52.2 million, while Minneapolis-based United Defense Limited Partnership will get $19.9 million. Snowe says the funding will allow the program to remain on track, and that she expects the Navy to pick a design for the DD-21 later this year.
MOOG INC., of East Aurora, N.Y., announced the company has closed on the acquisition of PerkinElmer Fluid Sciences' principal assets associated with the company's Space Valve Product Line, formerly known as Wright Components. The business has annual sales of $3 million in the design and manufacture of solenoid and pressure-operated valves for satellites, launch vehicles and manned space flight applications. Moog will relocate the product line from PerkinElmer's facility in Phelps, N.Y. to its Systems Group in East Aurora.
MD ROBOTICS, a subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. of Brampton, Ontario, has started a Robotics Development Program for planetary exploration, in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency. The first phase of the program is a $2.5 million co-funded initiative. The goal of the program is to provide Canadian robotics on every applicable exploration to the moon, Mars, and asteroids, according to the company.
INEFFICIENCY CONCERNS: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is concerned about "the risk of inefficiency," the senior defense official says. "The risk we run of mismanaging resources, the risk we run by taking 20 years to develop new programs to meet threats that evolve every two or three years." When it comes to such risks, one area of particular concern is information warfare. "We are not inside the turning radius of a lot of the threats we face out there," the official says.
An independent policy research institute's upcoming report on military transformation recommends a $100 billion increase in military research and development funding over the next 13 years, to be offset in part by the cancellation of such high-profile programs as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV).
BROADCAST OVER BROADBAND: Though the number of satellite broadband subscribers is expected to grow over the next six years, it will not overtake the number of subscribers to direct broadcast satellite services, says Karekin Jelalian, a consultant for The Strategis Group. The reason, Jelalian says, has to do with the type of content provided by each service.
Orbital Sciences Corp. announced June 15 that its Taurus rocket has been selected to launch Taiwan's next remote sensing satellite, called ROCSAT-2. ROCSAT-2, intended to monitor the terrestrial and marine environment and natural resources throughout Taiwan and nearby waters, will be launched in 2003, according to the Dulles, Va.-based company. The satellite will also carry a "Sprites Imager" scientific instrument to study the electrodynamic coupling between thunderclouds and the upper atmosphere by taking images of lightning discharges.
The Bush Administration's $153 million supplemental request for the Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) would help resolve problems the program has encountered with optics coating and the turbo pump, according to the ABL system program director. The ABL funding also would help pay for unspecified risk reduction activities, Air Force Col. Ellen Pawlikowski said June 15 at a Capitol Hill breakfast seminar sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association and the National Defense University Foundation.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has dropped its protest of the Air Force's award to Raytheon Co. of a $64 million contract to produce GBU-16 Paveway laser-guided bomb kits.
The U.S. Army released new versions of two important field manuals (FMs) outlining its doctrinal foundation and showing an increased incorporation of new information technology as the service transforms itself for warfighting of the 21st century. The manuals, released June 14 to coincide with the Army's 226th birthday, form the framework for how the Army will conduct operations for the next five to seven years.
BROADBAND BEWARE: With broadband satellite capacity become a scarce and precious resource, satellite providers should be careful not to allocate too many resources to interactive, two-way data services, according to Jim Stratigos, vice president of EchoStar Data Networks. "There isn't enough capacity, planned or in orbit, to go after and serve every broadband end user in the country," he says. "You've got to really be careful where you put your money, [and] you've got to really be careful ... balancing the amount of capacity allocated to broadcast vs.
BOEING SATELLITE SYSTEMS announced that a specially modified Boeing 601 model, built for ICO Global Communications of Uxbridge, England, is slated to be launched on June 19 by International Launch Services (ILS). It is one of 15 under contract for construction by BSS. "This satellite design incorporates a number of unique design features," said Randy Brinkley, BSS president. "The satellites carry more computing power than 600 Pentium III-based computers.
