Archive for October, 2009
Oct 22, 2009, post by awatrobski
A subsidiary of Melville-based Comtech Telecommunications Corp. has been awarded a contract valued at up to $200 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory for the development of standardized satellite technologies for space missions.
The five-year award received by Comtech AeroAstro Inc., based in Ashburn, Va., includes an initial order valued at $500,000. Additional orders are not expected until fiscal 2011.
Fred Kornberg, Comtech’s president and chief executive, said, “Plug and play technologies are changing the paradigm for space mission development.” The contract supports the company’s ongoing work to make it possible for satellites and other systems to be assembled and launched more quickly, he informed.
In a separate announcement Wednesday morning, Comtech informed another subsidiary, Comtech Xicom Technology Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., received orders valued at $1.8 million for power amplifiers.
The amplifiers will be used in transportable flyaway satellite terminals used by U.S. soldiers stationed overseas in remote areas.
Oct 19, 2009, post by awatrobski
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-18 Block 5D-3 spacecraft, built under contract for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), is undergoing final preparation for a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 18, 2009.
The Block 5D-3 series accommodates larger sensor payloads than earlier generations. They also feature a larger capability power subsystem; a more powerful on-board computer with increased memory — allowing greater spacecraft autonomy — and increased battery capacity that extends the mean mission duration. Starting with F-17, the attitude control subsystem has also been enhanced with the integration of a second inertial measurement unit using ring laser, versus mechanical, gyros to provide greater precision pointing flexibility.
DMSP is used for strategic and tactical weather prediction to aid the U.S. military in planning operations at sea, on land and in the air. Equipped with an extraordinary sensor suite that can image visible and infrared cloud cover and measure precipitation, surface temperature, and soil moisture, the satellite collects specialized global meteorological, oceanographic, and solar-geophysical information in all weather conditions. The DMSP constellation comprises two spacecraft in near-polar orbits, C3 (command, control and communications), user terminals and weather centers. The most recent launch of a DMSP spacecraft took place on November 4, 2006 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. DMSP F-18 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
Additionally DMSP F-18 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, two satellites remain to be launched and are maintained at Space Systems’ operations in Sunnyvale, California, for storage, functional testing, and upgrading. The spacecraft are shipped to Vandenberg for launch when requested by the Air Force. Since 1965, 36 Lockheed Martin DMSP satellites have been launched successfully by the U.S. Air Force. Now in its fourth decade of service, the DMSP has proven itself to be a valuable tool in scheduling and protecting military operations on land, at sea and in the air. The Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, manages the DMSP program.
Oct 18, 2009, post by Artur Ślesik
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While the Obama administration weighs whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, the U.S. military is spending billions of dollars on construction projects to ensure the country’s infrastructure can support American and coalition personnel in 2010 and years beyond.
The military has already spent roughly $2.7 billion on construction over the past three fiscal years. Now, if its request is approved as part of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, it would spend another $1.3 billion on more than 100 projects at 40 sites across the country, according to a Senate report on the legislation.
At the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, Bagram, the military is planning to build a $30 million passenger terminal and adjacent cargo facility to handle the flow of troops, many of whom arrive at the base north of Kabul before moving onto other sites. Under the proposed schedule, those facilities will not be completed until late 2010 and go into operation early in 2011, according to military sources.
Officials say such projects are absolutely essential given the inadequate and dilapidated nature of the existing infrastructure.
Bagram is far from the only U.S. base being upgraded. The military is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars constructing facilities for the Afghan army and police. The U.S.-led coalition recently announced the opening of a $68 million, U.S.-financed forward operating base near Farah, in the western part of the country bordering on Iran. The base will house 2,000 Afghan soldiers and an American mentoring team.
Such bases can take a long time to build. The original solicitation for contractors on the Farah garrison project was dated Dec. 29, 2007. A proposal for an additional phase was offered in March 2008, and 18 months later, almost two years after it was first solicited, the garrison at Farah was opened.
Col. Thomas E. O’Donovan, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District, told reporters last March that his multibillion-dollar construction program is providing “underpinnings” for efforts at establishing security and stability across Afghanistan.
