This week, California-based SpaceDev is test-firing a hybrid rocket motor designed to provide an extra orbital boost for supplemental payloads on Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) or space shuttle missions.
Some U.S. Defense Department practices, such as capping contractor profits, may have to be revisited for the defense industrial base to remain healthy and respond to the demands of transformation, a senior Lockheed Martin official said Nov. 3. Chief Operating Officer Robert Stevens said Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors are among thousands of companies in the U.S. competing for investors' capital.
AVISYS, a small company specializing in electronic warfare products, is teamed with United Airlines in the Department of Homeland Security's program to develop and demonstrate systems to counter shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles aimed at commercial airliners, according to Ronald A. Gates, president and CEO of the Austin, Texas, company. "We are teaming with, and we're doing most of the system integration for, United Airlines," Gates said in an Oct. 31 telephone interview. United is the team's prime contractor.
The U.S. Air Force has authorized International Launch Services (ILS) to begin integrating the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite #3 (WGS-3) on the Lockheed Martin-built Atlas V for a 2006 launch - the first of the seven Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) assignments that were transferred from Boeing as a punitive measure.
ORBITAL OFFICE: Boeing has established an integrated Orbital Space Program office in Huntsville, Ala., the company said Nov. 3. The office includes the company's Orbital Space Plane and Alternate Access to Station programs, and its creation should help lead to the "best solution" for NASA's Orbital Space Plane program, Boeing said.
Lockheed Martin delivered the first HC-130J Super Hercules airlifter to the U.S. Coast Guard Oct. 31. The HC-130J is intended eventually to replace the Coast Guard's oldest HC-130H maritime patrol aircraft, some of which were built in the early 1970s, Lockheed Martin said.
Leaders of the congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group (EWWG) have asked two top defense officials to meet with them to discuss ways to improve the military's electronic warfare (EW) capabilities.
To avoid an unacceptable launch delay, Arianespace has transferred the launch of the DirecTV 7S satellite to Boeing's Sea Launch for a flight in the first quarter of 2004, Arianespace announced Oct. 31. DIRECTV 7S is slated to serve 60 local television markets across the U.S., making it a high-priority launch for the company. However, a manufacturing delay caused the launch to slip until it conflicted with the Rosetta scientific spacecraft, which is slated to lift off on the Ariane 5 in February.
Nov. 3 - 5 -- Shephard's Heli Power 2003, "Preparing for the Unpredictable," Maritim Airport Hotel, Hannover, Germany. For more information go to www.heli-power.com. Nov. 3 - 6 -- Aircraft Survivability 2003, "Reclaiming the Low Altitude Battlespace," Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. For more information call Ann Saliski at (703) 247-2577, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org.
UNSATISFIED: House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Ranking Member Ralph Hall (D-Texas) aren't satisfied with NASA's response to their letter urging the agency to defer the development of the Orbital Space Plane (DAILY, Oct. 30), according to a joint statement. "Unfortunately, NASA's response does not directly address either of the concerns we raised in our letter," the statement says.
The House approved two measures late Oct. 30 that will provide billions of dollars for extra spending on defense equipment and help pave the way for new aviation development efforts at the FAA. The $87.5 billion fiscal 2004 supplemental appropriations conference report mostly is for military operations and reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq but contains $5.9 billion for military procurement and research and development, including hundreds of millions for the purchase of aviation, communications and radio-jamming equipment (DAILY, Oct. 31).
The Defense Department has indicated it plans to review the Air Force's Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) following warnings by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that the program could experience more cost and schedule overruns. SBIRS-High, designed to replace the aging Defense Support Program (DSP) missile-detecting satellites, was restructured in 2002 after DOD discovered cost growth of about $2 billion. The launch of the first satellite was delayed from 2004 to 2006.
The U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has completed its series of flights in Germany intended to demonstrate a new European-built electronics intelligence (ELINT) sensor and pave the way for the Euro Hawk procurement by the German ministry of defense (MOD).
GMD CONTRACT: The Defense Department announced late Oct. 31 that the Missile Defense Agency has awarded the Boeing Co. an $823 million contract modification for work on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, including the acquisition of 15 more interceptor missiles. Boeing, the GMD prime contractor, already had been awarded a contract for five GMD interceptors. DOD plans to deploy all 20 interceptors by 2005.
The Line-of-Sight Anti-tank (LOSAT) weapon system successfully completed another test last week at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., officials with Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control said Oct. 31. During the test, a LOSAT fire unit launched a kinetic-energy missile (KEM) during daylight hours at a stationary armored personnel carrier parked 720 meters (787 yards) away. The armored personnel carrier was destroyed.
LOWER TIER: The Army Lower Tier Project Office in Huntsville, Ala., which oversees the Patriot system and the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), is getting a new leader. Col. John Vaughn, just promoted from lieutenant colonel, is replacing retiring Col. Tommie Newberry as the office's project manager.
NUKE FUNDING: A House-Senate conference committee is expected to meet the week of Nov. 3-7 to finish the fiscal 2004 energy and water appropriations conference report, including provisions addressing nuclear weapons research. The meeting had been expected to occur the previous week, but it was delayed at least partly by protracted negotiations over another appropriations measure.
URBAN GLOBAL HAWK: Northrop Grumman plans to partner with the Department of Defense to begin training Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators to collect data over urban areas, according to David Stafford, vice president for business and strategy development for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems. "We're going to do some training on that subject, hopefully with the National Training Command, in the near future, as they go to their next exercise, which is going to be about urban [operations]," Stafford says.
FRIEND OR FOE: Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division will provide 10 AN/UPX-24(V) shipboard interrogators, part of an identification, friend or foe system, the company said Oct. 31. The contract is worth $14 million and calls for the company to deliver the systems through October 2005. The UPX-24 has been operational on CG 47 Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruisers, DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers and LHD 1 Wasp-class amphibious assault ships since the mid-1970s, the company said.
The international market for radars over the next 10 years should be worth a total of $18.36 billion based on based on existing programs, according to a report from Forecast International/DMS. The top radar manufacturers today are expected to dominate the market, the report says. Those companies, which include Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Thales, BAE Systems and Ericsson, should capture 61.3 percent of the market, or roughly $11.2 billion in contracts, according to the report, entitled "The Market for Radar Systems."
MOSCOW - A Russian Rockot launch vehicle delivered Japan's Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System (SERVIS) satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Oct. 30, following a one-day delay due to bad weather. The satellite will test commercial electronic components in the harsh environment of space. Sergey Ivanov, the Russian defense minister, visited Plesetsk to observe the launch but the weather-related delay caused him to leave before it occurred.
