The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
RIP Murtha. Late congressman John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat and HAC-D chairman who passed away last week from complications following surgery, will be buried today at the Grandview Cemetery in Johnstown, Pa., according to his family. A private funeral service also will be held at the Westmont Presbyterian Church. A public viewing, as of last Friday, was planned for Sunday and yesterday at the Duca Funeral Home in Johnstown. A memorial for the longtime lawmaker will likely be held in the Washington, D.C., area as well. In lieu of flowers, the Murtha family suggested contributions be made to the UPMC John P. Murtha Cancer Pavilion (337 Somerset St., Johnstown, Pa. 15901) or the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center (600 Somerset Ave., Windber, Pa. 15963).
Shelby Holding. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has released most of the 47 holds he placed blocking confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominees, but maintains three holds on Pentagon picks: Frank Kendall, principal deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics nominee; Terry Yonkers, assistant Air Force secretary pick; and Erin Conaton, Air Force under secretary nominee. “The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security–the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI’s Terrorist Device Analytical Center (TEDAC),” Shelby spokesman Jonathan Graffeo says. “With that accomplished, Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition until the new Request for Proposal is issued.” He adds: “Sen. Shelby is not seeking to determine the outcome of the competition; he is seeking to ensure an open, fair and transparent competition that delivers the best equipment to our men and women in uniform.”
… Obama Vs. Holds. Obama took aim at senators’ use of such holds on his nominees’ confirmations. In a Feb. 12 statement, Obama says “many holds were motivated by a desire to leverage projects for a Senator’s state or simply to frustrate progress.” The president says he warned Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) if Republican senators do not release remaining holds he will fill the positions temporarily through the use of recess appointments; since they spoke, many of the holds were released. Obama says if the Senate does not act on still-stalled nominees when it returns from recess next week, he will “reserve the right” to use his recess-appointment authority.
Nelson To Mars. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a former astronaut and key NASA authorizer, in a Feb. 9 floor speech critiques how Obama has tried to cancel Constellation. The space shuttle-replacement effort, intended to return astronauts to the moon, includes the Orion capsule and Ares I rocket Lockheed Martin and ATK have developed. Nelson notes the aerospace community has the “perception” that Obama is moving to kill the entire U.S. manned-space program. “That perception is not entirely true, but we live in a world here in the government where we have to set policy and flesh out that policy with authorization and then appropriations for that policy,” Nelson says. “We live in a world where perception often governs instead of the actual substance.” He wants the administration to “continue with the testing of the rocket that has already flown successfully,” referring to Ares I. And, to counter the “perception” Nelson says exists, he wants Obama to set a goal of sending astronauts to Mars.
Webb Takes On Mayport. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.)–upset the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) calls for moving a nuclear aircraft carrier from its homeport in Norfolk, Va., to one in Mayport, Fla.– says Feb. 11 he is “deeply disappointed in the clear contradictions” in the QDR report. “On the one hand, the review calls for ($1 billion) to be spent in building a ‘redundant’ facility that would transfer a nuclear powered aircraft carrier to Mayport, Florida,” says Webb, a SASC member and former Navy secretary. “On the other, (the Defense Department) and the Navy claim they must continue to grow the size of the Navy from its current level of 287 ships to a minimum of 313 combatants.” After meeting with Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy about the QDR, Webb says he “must emphasize that the QDR is a planning document, without the force of law.” He wants two more ships to be built in lieu of upgrading the Mayport facility for a nuclear carrier.
Wisconsin Littorals. Wisconsin Democratic Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold are pushing for their homestate shipbuilder Marinette Marine Corp. to win a contract to build the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). After meeting with the firm, its parent company Fincantieri, and Gov. Jim Doyle (D-Wis.) on Feb. 9, the senators declare the shipbuilder offers “the best value, the best product and the best investment.” General Dynamics and Austal also are competing to build the LCS. The ship contract could bring thousands of new jobs to northeastern Wisconsin.
Staring at the Sun. Two state-of-the art solar instruments built at the Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., were launched last week aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, a suite of four telescopes, will provide an unprecedented view of the solar corona, taking images that span at least 1.3 solar diameters in multiple wavelengths nearly simultaneously, at a resolution of about one arc-second and at a cadence of 10 seconds or better. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager will study the origin of solar variability and attempt to characterize and understand the Sun’s interior and magnetic activity.
Under New Management. Northrop Grumman has appointed Linnie Haynesworth vice president and deputy program director for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Haynesworth will remain responsible for execution of the current program of record, for which Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor. The White House announced Feb. 1 that NPOESS, a dual weather-climate satellite program being developed for the Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), would be terminated. Haynesworth had been NPOESS deputy director since June 2008 and has more than 30 years of experience with the company. The NPOESS program is being dismantled, though details are still being determined. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has agreed to allow the two departments to initiate separate weather satellite programs. The Air Force budget includes $351.8 million for NPOESS in FY ’11. If a termination agreement is reached sooner, funding could be reallocated to other priorities or a new weather satellite program.
Loss of A Leader. The 28th Army Chief of Staff, retired Gen. Frederick Weyand, died Feb. 10 at the age of 93 of natural causes in Hawaii. Weyand served as Army chief of staff from 1974-76. His military honors and decorations include the Distinguished Service Cross, five Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, two Legions of Merit, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Kitchen Transport. U.S. Northern Command coordinates with the Mexican army and air force loading a Mexican army field kitchen on board a U.S. Air Force C-5 aircraft at Santa Lucia Air Base, Mex., Feb. 6. The field kitchen headed for humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake. The Mexican field kitchen can provide hot meals to refugees and relief workers. The field kitchen, a tractor-trailer turned into a kitchen, served 170,000 meals in 20 days to victims and relief workers in San Antonio, Texas following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Next-Gen Trucks. Oshkosh Defense receives a more than $5 million delivery order to produce more than 15 next-generation Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT). The order was issued under the Army’s Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles III contract. The variants included in the order are M985A4 guided missile transporters, as well as M977A4 electrical power plant and large repair parts transporter cargo trucks. Production is slated to begin in July 2010 and be completed in September 2010. The GMT variant is designed to deliver and load four guided missiles to the launcher using an integrated crane. The EPP cargo truck includes a chassis-mounted electrical power plant, and the LRPT cargo truck is used to store or transport heavy repair parts.
C2 Support. Australia’s Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science announces the signing of a contract with Thales Australia to provide computer support services to a range of Australian Defence Force command and control systems. “The five-year contract with Thales begins this month and is valued at $45.4 million. “The command and control systems support military planning and the conduct of ADF operations and exercises. “The systems are used at the strategic and operational level of command both in Australia and on deployment. They are vital to the planning and conduct of ADF operations and exercises,” Combet says.
Jammin’. As the Navy moves forward on the Next Generation Jammer, there are some areas that need attention, Capt. John Green, AEA Systems and EA-6B Program Office, PMA-234, program manager, tells Defense Daily. “One is electronic beam steering, like you see with the AESA radar.” The reason this particular area is so important is because without it the Navy is stuck in the mechanical beam forming and mechanical steering world, and that has some limitations, he says. “It limits the number of assignments you can make off of the same jammer and also limits the coverage. By definition, you have an antenna that is pointing a certain direction and so you are going to cover things in that direction. The other thing is you are also dispersing your power across a wider range,” Green adds. “If you go to electronic beam steering, what that allows us to do is to be able to steer very quickly, 360 degrees around the airplane, and to do that with very high focused power, a lot like the AESA radars are currently doing.”
…The Next Level. Among the advantages to moving to electronic beam steering is improvement in reliability, Green notes. “We have already seen several reliability improvements on ALQ-99. We’ve updated some of it over the years to be more solid state and to be less dependent upon older technologies,” he says. “So we have reaped some of the benefits of solid state and newer electronics with ALQ-99, but we really need to take that to the next level with Next Generation Jammer.”
On Display. The Army’s Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University operates as a kind of pilot production effort, David Morton, U.S. Army Research Laboratory Cooperative Agreement Manager for the Flexible Display Center, tells Defense Daily. The center has a small wafer scale production line and something Morton calls the Generation II Pilot Line, which is actually making displays on rectangular squares. “Those lines run continuously, doing process improvements and trying to make better devices,” he says. “We have 40 full-time engineers and scientists working at the center right now.” Morton notes the Flexible Design Center is not a typical university center. “The people working there are professional engineers and scientists. We have associated professors doing research as well, but the line itself is professionally run by engineers.” The Flexible Display Center is located in a research park off campus. The facility was designed by Motorola a number of years ago for flat panel display manufacturing, Morton adds. “We were fortunate it was available when the Army ran the competition and Arizona picked it up.”
Tough. IronClad, the secure USB drive with military-grade encryption built by Lockheed Martin and IronKey, is very rugged, Anna Christensen, business development principal at Lockheed Martin, tells Defense Daily. “It’s water proof, sand proof, and tamper proof.. This device is a single metal shaft, completely sealed with epoxy. From a tamper proof standpoint, one could use chemicals to get rid of the epoxy, but if you use any kind of electronics to probe the actual encrypto chip itself destructs.
…Wash And Dry. You Tube has a IronKey video, Christensen says, where the company runs an IronClad USB drive through an industrial washer and dryer. “It works like a charm. The Department of State did a sole source justification on it and for one of its tests threw it off a five-story building. They plugged it in and it worked.”