NASA’s CCiCap: Can Space Taxis Help the Pentagon?

Dream Chaser & Atlas V

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, American manned missions to the International Space Station have mostly involved Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, which costs about $63 million per seat. The lone exception has involved the commercial space innovator SpaceX, whose unmanned Dragon capsule docked at the ISS in May 2012. NASA continues to pursue its own Space Launch System heavy rocket and Orion capsule for manned spaceflight, but in the mean time, its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program aims to spur development of lower-cost American options that could supplant or supplement Soyuz.

These “space taxis” will rely on heavy-lift rockets to make it into space. Their purpose isn’t military, but their configurations are good news for the USA’s space industrial base. SpaceX has a slot, of course, and the other 2 winning entries will use Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V EELV. Overall, 7 firms entered, and the 3 winners are:

DARPA’s THz Electronics Program

THz flow

In 2009, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began awarding contracts for innovative research proposals under its Terahertz (THz) Electronics Program. Readers will probably be asking the same question that crossed our minds, namely, “when can I expect this, instead of my 2 GHz laptop?”

If Moore’s Law continues, the answer is somewhere between 2025 – 2030. The military thinks “why wait?”, and DARPA has a long history of helping to fund computing breakthroughs – from that minor nuisance we call the Internet to modern work on Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors, non-thermionic transistors, research into graphene circuits, and more. Now, their Terahertz (THz) Electronics program is looking for technologies to enable revolutionary advances in electronic devices and integrated circuits, allowing them to reach THz frequencies (at least a trillion cycles per second).

The International Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) Program

The US military needs a bigger data firehose. In an era of streaming data from proliferating UAVs and other persistent surveillance platforms, and the need for control of those systems anywhere in the world, bandwidth is almost as important as fuel. Commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) can fill some of the gaps, but it’s expensive, and may not be available when needed. The Wideband Gapfiller SATCOM (now Wideband Global SATCOM) program began as a way to ease these problems in the near term, but went on to become one of the twin pillars of US military communications, alongside the hardened AEHF constellation. Both satellite types expanded their roles after the super-high bandwidth T-SAT program was canceled. instead, the USA is adding WGS and AEHF satellites in space, even as it makes both programs multi-national efforts here on earth.

WGS is a set of 13-kilowatt spacecraft based on Boeing’s model 702 commercial satellite. These satellites will handle a significant portion of the USA’s warfighting bandwidth requirements, supporting tactical C4ISR(command, control, communications, and computers; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance); battle management; and combat support needs. Upon its 2007 launch into geosynchronous orbit, WGS Flight 1 became the U.S. Department of Defense’s highest capacity communication satellite. WGS F4, launched in January 2012, offers further improvements, as do satellites from WGS F8. The constellation is set to grow to 10, including international participation.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article covering the WGS program’s specifications, budgets, travails, international partnerships, and contracts, with links to additional research materials.

Italy & Israel: A Billion-Dollar Offer They Didn’t Refuse

The Israeli Air Force has known since December 2008 that its fleet of A-4 Skyhawk jet trainers and light attack aircraft would leave service. It took until July 2012 to sign a contract for the Skyhawk’s successor, despite justifiable complaints from South Korea that the process lacked full professional formality. The first M-346 Master trainers should begin arriving in Israel around mid-2014, where they will be operated by the IAI/Elbit “TOR” joint venture as a public-private partnership service to the IAF.

Italy’s M-346 eventually beat KAI’s supersonic T-50, thanks to a combination of air force evaluations, geo-political considerations, and countervailing industrial offers. For most countries, “industrial offsets” mean sub-contracting work in their country, sometimes even in sectors of their economy outside of the defense industry. Israel’s weapons industry is far more developed, however, and so their advanced trainer competition saw “industrial offsets” as the purchase of full-fledged Israeli weapons systems. South Korea was already a customer for Israeli radars, UAVs, and missiles, and was seen as the favorite thanks to their relationships and their jet. Italy was a much smaller customer, but relations between Silvio Berlusconi and the Jewish state had been good for a long time. By October 2011, reports surfaced that Italy had made Israel a very impressive offer – one that would make Italy a major export customer for strategic systems, even as it equalized purchases on both sides. In the end, it was an offer the Israelis couldn’t, and didn’t, refuse.

The deal’s components are as follows:

$92.2M to Support USAF’s Legacy Comsats

DSCS Satellite

Lockheed Martin Corp. in Sunnyvale, CA recently received a $92.2 million cost-plus-award-fee contract to continue service under the 5-year,sole source MILSATCOM Orbital Operations and Logistics Support contract. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, CA, and the contract will run to Nov 30/12. The SMC/PKL at Peterson Air Force Base, CO (FA8808-10-C-0002, PO 0029).

That contract support operations and sustainment for older Milstar and Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) satellites. New secure AEHF broadband satellites are just beginning to come on station to supplement the older Milstar birds, and the 1st block of broadband WGS satellites is operational as the successors to DSCS, but maintaining older systems is also important to the US military. See December 2009 coverage for more details.

Rapid Fire 2011-12-02: NAVAIR Procurement Management System

• JSF PEO Vice Admiral David J. Venlet said in an interview with AOL Defense that ramping up production quickly while completing tests was a “miscalculation” but he has to live with concurrency, though he questions the delivery pace.

• Northrop Grumman’s 3-year, $8.9M Microscale Power Conversion contract could lead to higher-power radars with wider frequency ranges, without increasing their size. It’s an outgrowth of DARPA’s R&D into Gallium Nitride (GaN) circuits, and is one of several GaN-related contracts Northrop has received.

• MASTERing the CHIRP. What goes with the USAF’s ground-breaking Commercial Hosted Infrared Payload? Why, a MASTER ground control architecture that can expand to hosted payloads on other commercial satellites.

NPOESS Weather Satellites: From Crisis to Program Splits

NPOESS

The National Polar-orbiting Observing Satellite System (NPOESS) was a joint program of the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce and NASA to replace less sophisticated weather satellites that are expected to fail over the next several years. It would help develop 3-7 day weather forecasts for civilian and military purposes, including weather like hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. Unfortunately, the program ended up billions over budget, and 6 or more years late. Some gaps in coverage are possible during that time, if enough older satellites fail.

In November 2005 testimony given at a House of Congress Science Committee hearing, the Administrator of NOAA and the Undersecretary of the Air Force promised new cost and schedule estimates and policy options, as well as fuller and more rapid information. NPOESS was openly described as “a program in crisis.” Just under 5 years later, that crisis came to an end with a program split into civilian (JPSS) and military (DWSS) systems, and a 5-year NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite that will test key instruments and serve as a capability bridge:

• The NPOESS Program: Basic Briefing
  
• Hereafter: NPP, JPSS and DWSS [updated]
  
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  
• Appendix A: Stormy Weather – NPOESS’ Rocky Ride
  
• Appendix B: Nov 2005 DID Op/Ed: How About “Good Enough, and Working”?
  
• Appendix C: Additional Readings
  

It’s Better to Share: Breaking Down UAV GCS Barriers

US “Chair” Force?

UAVs have played a crucial role in gathering intelligence in the US military’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are thousands of UAVs gathering and distributing valuable data on the enemy, but each system uses its own proprietary subsystem to control the air vehicle as well as receive and process the data. Yet commanders need access to information gathered by all types of UAVs that are flying missions in their area of operation.

Recognizing this shortcoming, the Pentagon began an effort in 2008 to break down the proprietary barriers between UAV systems and create a single GCS that will fly all types of drones.

This free-to-view DID Spotlight article examines the problem of proprietary UAV systems and efforts to break down barriers to sharing vital UAV-generated information.

Rapid Fire 2011-09-13: France Buys More Panhard Armored Patrol Vehicles

• James Hasik looks at future options for the American super-carrier fleet, and delivers a preliminary cost analysis for various scenarios – including a scenario that involves halting the new CVN-21s after the 2nd-of-class CVN 79, mothballing 2 existing Nimitz Class boats, and dropping to 8 operational carriers.

• France orders 200 more of Panhard’s compact PVP armored patrol vehicles, to keep production going in 2012. Their 933 vehicle order from 2004 will end production in December 2011.

• Lockheed Martin submits its final CANES shipboard networking proposal to the US Navy. They’re competing with a Northrop Grumman team.

• A US military facility in Germany found cost savings by replacing its existing oil-fired water heaters with biomass/wood-chip equipment.

• The 1st Galileo GPS satellite lands in French Guiana, in preparation for its Oct 30/11 launch on board a Russian Soyuz rocket.

• NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for more open US and European defense markets.

• Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduce legislation to make the Obama administration sell F-16C/Ds to Taiwan.

• Today’s video (embedded below): the Panel on Defense Financial Management and Auditability Reform’s hearing last week with the House Armed Services Committee. Among the issues is whether the branches (let alone DoD at large) are able to reconcile their books with the Department of Treasury. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller Jamie M. Morin [PDF bio] says the USAF is now achieving 99.99% accuracy on its 1 million+ records/month ledger.

DARPA’s MOIRE: Video Scud Hunts from Space

MOIRE concept

In physics, a moire pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes. It’s an appropriate name for DARPA’s Membrane Optic Imager Real-Time Exploitation (MOIRE) project, which aims to use diffractive optic membranes to conduct tactical video surveillance from space. That’s very useful when looking at territory where an intruding UAV is likely to be shot down, or when conducting operations to find, say, mobile SCUD missiles within a large potential area.

Making that happen involves a 20-meter diameter optic membrane surveying an area of more than 10 x 10 km at least once a second, with ground resolution better than 2.5 meters, and the ability to detect moving vehicles. Field of regard would be larger, of course, at 10 million square kilometers that could be covered from geosynchronous orbit. Finally, satellite cost also has to come in at under $500 million per copy. How hard could all that be? Hard enough for DARPA, apparently…

• DARPA’s MOIRE Program
  
• Contracts & Key Events
  
• Additional Readings