Downrange
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently conducted a broad review of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Two key report findings noted:
- It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected.
- In addition to risks facing the acquisition of new GPS satellites, the Air Force has not been fully successful in synchronizing the acquisition and development of the next generation of GPS satellites with the ground control and user equipment, thereby delaying the ability of military users to fully utilize new GPS satellite capabilities. The Air Force/Boeing team provided statements to MSMF following the report’s release.
“Let me state emphatically: Since we declared full operational capability in 1995, the Air Force has maintained the constellation above the required 24 GPS satellites on orbit at 95 percent. In fact, we have achieved sub-three-meter accuracy,” said General C. Robert Kehler, commander, Air Force Space Command. “The Air Force has been a good GPS steward continually providing ‘better than expected’ service to our GPS users. At this point, we foresee no significant loss of service in the future, near or far.”
For its part, Boeing noted, “GPS IIF will deliver more capability and improved mission performance to military and civilian users. Working very closely with the Air Force and its team, Boeing has taken aggressive steps to resolve the technical issues on IIF with a strong emphasis on Mission Assurance. Design changes were required to ensure performance over the satellite design life and have caused schedule delays, but these changes are in the final phase of implementation and a fully integrated satellite (SV1) has already successfully completed the thermal-vacuum test program—the most stressing system level test. SV2 was shipped to the Cape May 6 to perform system-level compatibility tests and serve as a risk reduction pathfinder for SV1 processing later this year. “We are on track to deliver SV1 to the Air Force later this year for the first IIF launch. The Operational Control Segment was put into service in 2007 and has been successfully flying the current GPS constellation and will also support the IIF series of satellites.”
The GAO report may be accessed at http://www.gao.gov/ new.items/d09670t.pdf.
Marc Selinger: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Andy Roake:
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MR&D Projects Update
Wayne, Pa.-based Materials Research & Design (MR&D) reported progress on two DoD projects. An Air Force-funded program is designed to deliver a new generation of materials to replace carbon-based material in rocket thruster components that erode, and consequently open up and lose thrust during operations. “We would like to use a non-eroding material that is thermo-chemically stable. Those materials are typically ceramics and very high-temperature metals that are brittle at room temperature,” Kent Buesking, director, MR&D, told MSMF. Industry partners for this effort include MR&D (design and analysis), ATK of Promontory, Utah (fabrication and testing), Plasma Processes (vacuum plasma-sprayed material supplier) and Exothermics (hot isostatic-pressed material supplier). The team’s efforts have produced throats made of tungsten alloy and ceramic components that have withstood firing operations of 6,100 degrees F for 50 seconds at pressures up to 2,000 psi. “The non-eroding throats can provide a significant range improvement in ballistic missiles,” Buesking said. MR&D is also teaming with Applied Thin Films (maker of ceramic composites) to support the second year of a two-year, Phase II Navy PEO Integrated Warfare Systems-funded SBIR. The contract is designed to field an alternative to legacy missile radome materials that are constructed of monolithic ceramics. “They are limited in their speed capability because they fail by thermal shock, and they are also limited in their weather capability because when they get surface damage, they crack,” said Buesking. Ceramic composites allow the missile to operate at higher temperatures and are more impact-resistant. A subscale radome constructed of ceramic composites is expected to be available in mid-2010.
Kent Buesking:
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Phase II IBCS Competitors Form Up
Northrop Grumman Corp. submitted its Phase II bid for the prime contractor role for the U.S. Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) competition.
Northrop Grumman leads one of two teams awarded an 11-month Phase I contract in September 2008 to begin preliminary design and development. The Army is expected to down-select to one team in August. IBCS is considered the first step toward an integrated air and missile defense battle command capability for the Army and a joint capability for the nation. The program will set the stage for future integration of sensors and weapons using standard interfaces.
IBCS will establish a network-centric system-of-systems solution for integrating sensors, shooters, and battle management, command, control, communications and intelligence systems for Army air and missile defense responsibilities. Programs such as Patriot, SLAMRAAM, JLENS, Sentinel and THAAD will be connected via an integrated fire control network that allows the warfighter to use any sensor and any weapon to achieve mission objectives. The program is expected to be fielded by 2014.
Northrop Grumman is leading a team that includes Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corp., Harris Corp., Schafer Corp., Torch Technologies Inc., Numerica, Applied Data Trends, COLSA, Space and Missile Defense Technologies (SMDT), CohesionForce Inc., Millenium Engineering and Integration Co., RhinoCorp Ltd. Co., and Tobyhanna Army Depot. If selected, Northrop Grumman will headquarter its IBCS program in Huntsville, Ala.
Marynoele Benson:
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