ROUGHING IT: NASA astronauts are willing to go without a number of amenities on the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) to keep the vehicle as simple and lightweight as possible, according to Mike Coats, a former shuttle astronaut and current vice president of advanced space transportation for Lockheed Martin. "What the crew has told me is we can rough it," Coats says. "They say, 'Look, we don't need a galley, we don't need a toilet. We don't need food.
NEW ASAP: With a new staff and a new charter, NASA's revamped Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) plans to hold its first meeting shortly, according to the agency. The previous membership of the ASAP resigned following the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's (CAIB) assessment that the panel was "not very influential" within NASA (DAILY, Sept. 24). "We spent a lot of time over the last few weeks recruiting the right kinds of people," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe says. "Not one of the new members ...
The U.S. Air Force has certified the 21,700-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) for use on the MC-130E Combat Talon I aircraft following the second live test of the bomb. The aircraft dropped the MOAB, the largest conventional bomb in the U.S. inventory, on a test range at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Nov. 21. The first live test of the MOAB took place March 11 from a Combat Talon II (DAILY, March 12). The bomb was developed for the Iraq war but was not used.
SPACE BASED RADAR: The Pentagon, which has been studying whether the Air Force's Space Based Radar (SBR) program will be affordable, hopes to complete its assessment in the spring, according to Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence. That is about the time the Air Force hopes to pick one or two prime contractors to begin work on the SBR spacecraft (DAILY, Oct. 9).
MIDEAST SPENDING: Military spending by countries in the Middle East is expected to rise from about $52 billion in 2003 to $55 billion by 2007, according to a report by Forecast International/DMS. Saudi Arabia, which is expected to spend $18 billion annually through 2007, will lead the region, the report says. Israel is expected to spend $9 billion annually, followed by Iran at $4.5 billion. "The Middle East, which is one of the world's largest single regional arms buyers, will continue to dominate the market," according to the report's author, Thalif Deen.
A closed Nov. 20 meeting in Washington on unmanned aerial vehicles in the national airspace system (NAS) successfully made the case for routine commercial operations of UAVs in the next five or six years, industry and government officials said. The idea "was well received" by a standing-room-only audience at FAA headquarters, said Chuck Johnson of NASA, who told the meeting how UAVs would be introduced to the NAS.
The Army announced Nov. 20 that it plans to deploy its Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) system in Iraq to improve the situational awareness of U.S. troops. RAID, which consists of towers and 15-meter (49-foot) aerostats, already has been used in Afghanistan to conduct surveillance for small arms, mortar and rocket attacks. The Iraq deployment will be funded by the recently enacted $87.5 billion supplemental appropriations act.
UPGRADED P-3C: Lockheed Martin has delivered the first of 10 upgraded P-3C aircraft to the Royal Netherlands navy as part of the Capabilities Upkeep Program, the company said. The aircraft will be used for maritime patrol, overland surveillance and coast guard operations.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Slovakia's defense ministry has yet to complete its long-term plan for acquiring supersonic aircraft, but it has virtually ruled out the "zero option" of not protecting its airspace, according to Juraj Liska, the new Slovak defense minister. Liska, who replaced Ivan Simco in September, told journalists at a press conference in Bratislava earlier this week that it is "99 percent certain" that leaving the country's airspace unprotected is not an option.
A House-Senate conference committee has approved provisions aimed at improving the nation's measurement and signatures intelligence (MASINT). The fiscal 2004 intelligence authorization conference report, unveiled Nov. 20, directs the secretary of defense and the director of central intelligence to create a joint program to ensure that the results of basic research on sensors are incorporated into MASINT systems. MASINT is an emerging field that collects intelligence by observing the scientific features of targets.
Despite the talk about designing systems for network-centric warfare, Defense Department officials do not clearly understand how a distributed common network would operate on the battlefield, according to an executive with a Newport, R.I.-based technology consulting firm. Jeffrey Cares, president of Alidade Consulting, said DOD officials have been assuming advancements in information technology inevitably would result in a new system of warfare.
Two U.S. Navy S-3B Viking squadrons will be disestablished in the spring, starting the process of retiring the aging carrier-based aircraft, according to a service official. The Navy plans to retire all 103 of its S-3Bs by 2009, said Capt. Steve Eastburg, manager of maritime patrol aircraft at Naval Air Systems Command, who spoke Nov. 18 at the Defense News Media Group's ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) Integration 2003 conference.
A House-Senate conference committee has agreed to cut $200 million from the Bush Administration's $1.7 billion fiscal 2004 budget request for the International Space Station (ISS), according to congressional sources.
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Technology to construct an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be transported in a five-inch diameter canister has been transferred from the University of Florida to the U.S. Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The JAS-39 Gripen will act as a test platform for the Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM), according to Saab Aerosystems. The Swedish company announced Nov. 20 that it has been commissioned by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) to integrate the Meteor into a Gripen in a contract worth $57.5 million. A Gripen is scheduled to fire the Meteor for the first time in 2005. The United Kingdom is leading the project with the industrial collaboration of Germany, Sweden, France, Italy and Spain.
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - The U.S. Air Force has successfully demonstrated that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used to extend the range of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), according to Maj. Timothy Schulteis, technical director of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Robotics Research Group. Schulteis said UAVs can deliver UGVs to an area of interest and then serve as a relay to the operator control unit (OCU), expanding UGV ranges from the current one to two kilometers (.6 to 1.2 miles).
Japanese companies will build 35 percent of the structure of Boeing's new 7E7 passenger aircraft, the company said Nov. 20 in announcing major workshare agreements. The announcement follows the selection of major partners to help build the aircraft earlier this year. The partners include Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), as well as Alenia Aeronautica of Italy and Vought Aircraft Industries of the United States.
Within the past several months, input from the astronaut corps has significantly reshaped the requirements for NASA's Orbital Space Plane (OSP), according to Mike Coats, vice president of advanced space transportation for Lockheed Martin. "The requirements have evolved rapidly here in the last two or three months as the crew's gotten involved," Coats said Nov. 20 at a briefing at Lockheed Martin's new OSP Demonstration Center in Arlington, Va.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engine (VAATE) initiative is striving to stay ahead of future aircraft turbine engine requirements while keeping costs low.
While tactics may be the best way for helicopters to defeat rocket propelled grenades, at least two small companies are mulling airborne applications of technologies they have developed to protect Humvees and other ground vehicles from attacks by such weapons.
House and Senate negotiators began meeting late Nov. 19 to try to wrap up the fiscal 2004 NASA appropriations conference report. Among the issues the conference committee will have to resolve is whether to accept the Senate-proposed cut of $200 million in the Bush Administration's $1.7 billion request for the International Space Station (DAILY, Sept. 5).
