Dec 7, 2011by Sebastien Blanc (AFP) ASDNews

GENEVA - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought Wednesday to rally international efforts against the threat of a biological attack, saying the warning signs were "too serious to ignore".

Clinton spoke at a meeting on the Biological Weapons Convention, a decades-old ban on bio-weapons currently under review at a three-week conference in Geneva.

"I am here today because we view the risk of a bio-weapons attack as both a serious national security challenge and a foreign policy priority," Clinton said.

"In an age when people and diseases cross borders with growing ease, bio-weapons are a transnational threat.

"We can only protect against them with transnational action."

Scientific advances may have made it possible to prevent and cure more diseases but they have also made it easier for terrorists to develop biological weapons, Clinton warned.

"Even as it becomes easier to develop these weapons, it remains extremely difficult to detect them, because almost any biological research can serve dual purposes.

"The same equipment and technical knowledge used for legitimate research to save lives can also be used to manufacture deadly diseases."

The most high-profile delegate at the review meeting, Clinton said halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction was a "top goal" of the Obama administration.

The United States does not underestimate the risk of a mass biological attack or major outbreak, doubted by some in the international community, Clinton said.

"The United States has made no such conclusions. The warning signs are too serious to ignore," she said.

Clinton, currently on a European tour, urged more transparency from member states to boost confidence that signatories were living up to their obligations under the 1975 treaty.

This could be achieved through a review of the annual reporting system, she suggested.

Clinton also called for improved international coordination to detect and respond to bio-outbreaks.

"Finally, we need thoughtful international dialogue about ways to maximise the benefits of scientific research and minimise the risks that it will be turned against us," Clinton said.

Delegates from the 165 signatory states are taking part in the five-yearly review conference which runs until December 22.

Members will consider updating the convention and discuss the implications of scientific developments, secretary general of the conference Richard Lennane said.

Raptor tail number 4183 is seen being delivered to the

U.S. Air Force on Nov. 15. (Rita Nicholas-King / Lockheed)

6 Dec 2011 By DAVE MAJUMDAR DefenseNews

Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor production line is back on track after the U.S. Air Force's fleet-wide grounding of the jet had disrupted deliveries to the service, the company said.

"We are delivering jets," said Lockheed spokeswoman Alison Orne. "The last one delivered was 4185. 4195 will be delivered in late spring 2012."

Tail number AF 09-4185 has technically been delivered with the signing of a DD-250 form, but the stealthy fifth-generation fighter is currently undergoing government flight tests. After the completion of the tests this week, the Air Force's 1st Fighter Wing will fly the jet to Langley Air Force Base, Va., where it will be based.

"It is scheduled to depart for Langley on Dec. 8," Orne said.

The final Raptor to be built, AF 09-4195, will also be delivered to Langley, where it will fly with the 1st Fighter Wing's 27th Fighter Squadron, the service's oldest fighter unit. It is expected to be delivered in Spring 2012, according to Lockheed.

06 December 2011 - by the Shephard News Team

Testing of the Lockheed Martin and Marotta Controls Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) launcher pneumatic cooling system (PCS) has been completed, clearing the way for the next phase of the programme to begin. Lockheed Martin made the announcement in a 6 December 2011 company statement.

The PCS is a central component in US Navy rotary- and fixed-wing JAGM launchers. A miniature compressor and air filtration system, the PCS cools JAGM's imaging infrared (I2R) sensor, enabling the aircrew to passively acquire and track targets at safe standoff range while the missile is still on the launcher, allowing it to confirm target acquisition.  It has a predictive reliability of over 10,000 hours mean time between failure, which far exceeds the 2,500 hour durability requirement.

The PCS design is based on Marotta's M-PACT (Pure Air Compression Technology) system used to cool US Navy AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles.  M-PACT is in full rate production at Marotta's facility in New Jersey, and the company has delivered more than 1,000 systems.

According to Lockheed Martin, the cooled seeker can passively lock onto targets at significantly greater range than an uncooled seeker and offers superior target discrimination capability, especially in the high-humidity maritime environments frequented by US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.  The ability to passively launch JAGMs outside the enemy's reach allows the aircraft to move on to prosecute other targets or return to base safely.  The cooled seeker also offers cost savings over the life of the missile because its mid-wave infrared permits use of a durable hard dome that can withstand abrasion in harsh environments.

photo Jim Gordon

Dec 6, 2011ASDNews Source : ManTech

FAIRFAX, Va. - ManTech International Corporation was awarded a subcontract by PD Systems, Inc. to provide contractor logistics support services to the U.S. Armys Product Manager, Improvised Explosive Device Defeat/Protect Force (PM IEDD/PF). The award is valued at $28 million, with an initial period of performance of 12 months plus a base option and two additional option years.

Under the contract, ManTech will provide PM IEDD/PF with system integration and installation, equipment repair, troubleshooting, training, parts management and asset tracking for the entire range of PM IEDD/PF equipment. The work will be performed at sites in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and 40 other sites in the U.S. and abroad.

Fielding and sustaining equipment to neutralize the threat posed by IEDs is an important function that directly saves lives, said Kevin C. Cody, president of ManTech Technical Services Groups Systems Sustainment and Integrated Logistics business unit.

Our in-theater experience and expertise will be great assets to the program, said Louis M. Addeo, president and chief operating officer of ManTechs Technical Services Group. We are proud to have been selected again to help support this important mission.

Photo: Lockheed Martin

Dec 6, 2011 By Amy Butler - aerospace daily and defense report

The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have finally agreed to share the cost of modifications for roughly 30 aircraft to be procured in the next lot of F-35 production.

The question of who would pay for the so-called concurrency costs—the cost of retrofitting fixes to problems discovered during the program’s testing on already-built aircraft—has been the subject of a hearty debate between the parties this year. Lockheed executives have said before that the amount of cost-sharing on concurrency devised in the low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 5 deal is precedent-setting for industry.

According to the F-35 Joint Program Office, “the key terms include agreement on a fixed-price type contract vehicle and a concurrency clause where [the Defense Department] and Lockheed Martin will share responsibility on costs for concurrency changes.” Industry officials decline to say how the costs will be split.

As a result of this agreement, the Pentagon now will issue an undefinitized contract action (UCA) allowing Lockheed to be reimbursed for unpaid bills incurred for LRIP 5 since long-lead funding ran out in February. Last month, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Tanner said the company would face $150 million in cash exposure if the UCA was not submitted by year’s end.

CEO Robert Stevens said last month that the government was potentially exposing the company to “unbounded risk” when it initially asked for Lockheed to pay the full tab for concurrency costs found in LRIP 5. However, recent problems managing concurrency cost in such programs as Lockheed’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and F-35 likely will dissuade government officials from pursuing programs in which development and production substantially overlap.

After turning to concurrency more than a decade ago to try to help speed up defense programs, officials in recent years have backed away after several cost and schedule slippages, although industry has complained that too many program changes by government also have led to delays.

In previous JSF lots, the Pentagon paid for 100% of the concurrency costs. However, in LRIP 4, the Pentagon will take any concurrency costs of more than $52 million out of Lockheed’s available award fee, diminishing the potential profit for that lot, according to the contract terms. Concurrency costs in LRIPs 1-3 totaled $136 million, or roughly $4.86 million per aircraft.

This agreement clears the way for the Pentagon and Lockheed to negotiate the remaining terms for LRIP 5, including the per-unit cost.

The cost of the LRIP 4 jets exceeded targets by about 7%; this is roughly the same amount offered by Lockheed in its original LRIP 4 proposal, according to one program official.

MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 6 (UPI)

SAIC has received a contract from the U.S. military to manage the supply chain of land and aircraft tires for U.S. forces and Foreign Military Sales customers.

The single-award from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. It has a base period of five years and one two-year option.

Science Applications International Corp. said the value of the award, if the option is exercised, is estimated at more than $1 billion.

"We look forward to continuing to provide DLA with high-performance supply chain management solutions that result in outstanding fill rates and logistics response times, highly satisfied customers, and a low cost of ownership," said Glenn San Giacomo, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager.

The contract is a result of a DLA's initiative that allows the government to benefit from the latest commercial supply chain management technologies and business practices.

6 December 2011 army-technology.com

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a contract to Adapx to build and integrate advanced speech and sketch interfaces for command and control (C2) systems.

The contract is part of the third phase of the DARPA Deep Green Programme and focuses on 'Sketch-through-plan' capabilities, intended to provide commanders with decision support systems to create potential digital courses of action (COAs) for simulated outcomes.

Under the contract the company will provide its Capturx speech and sketch software, through which commanders can draw up plans by turning natural speech, sketch and handwriting into actionable military jargon and symbols on digital map displays.

The military symbols will in turn be interpreted by Deep Green to fill out operations orders, thereby overcoming data-capture obstacles posed by sophisticated C2 and C4ISR interfaces.

Capturx Speech & Sketch enables war-fighters to quickly create, share and analyse COAs on touchscreen and handheld devices, and wall displays in vehicles.

The system also helps commanders to better identify secret enemy attack positions as well as coordinate timing and positions of friendly units.

Adapx CEO Ken Schneider said: "Adapx is focused on providing natural user interface solutions for command and control to reduce data entry obstacles for war-fighters so they can improve planning and decision-making."

The company has supported the earlier phases of the Deep programme with its advanced multimodal (speech and sketch) technology in collaboration with DARPA contractors BAE Systems and SAIC.

The US Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command recently awarded a similar contract to Adapx to enable commanders to speak and sketch their plans into battlefield simulators.

Dec 5, 2011 (UPI) SpaceWar.com

Mclean, Va. - The U.S. Navy has ordered a $4.6 million investigation to analyze the effect of such an underwater blast on ships and submersibles within range.

Research over the years has concentrated on the dramatic and destructive impact of the water on vessels in the range of an underwater blast, which can often be deadlier than effects of an explosion on the surface or land but largely unpredictable.

The new research by Alion Science and Technology, an employee-owned technology solutions company, will analyze survivability and response of ships and submersibles to a explosion. The research will likely have global implications and also open new opportunities for Alion, other defense-related businesses and the U.S. military.

Alion's brief under the U.S. Navy contract will focus on the effects of underwater explosions, also called UNDEX, on the navy's platforms. The company says its experts will examine submarines, surface ships and associated platforms for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division's Survivability and Weapons Effect Department.

"UNDEX incidents pose a different threat to Navy vessels than above-water explosions because of the pressure shock wave generated by a blast below the surface," explained J. J. Waickwicz, Alion's senior vice president and manager of the company's design, engineering and technology group.

"By providing the Navy with UNDEX engineering support, Alion is enabling leaders to conduct physical security assessments of the naval fleet for survivability and long-term performance, helping to extend the fleet's life cycle," Waickwicz said.

Alion will provide engineering and technical support for UNDEX testing, shock qualification and ship survivability programs.

Alion will also develop and validate algorithms for predicting the response of test vehicles, scale models and submarines and surface ships due to UNDEX events and it will develop and validate what it calls "novel" approaches for increasing the survivability of hull structure, systems and equipment in the UNDEX response environment. The contract is to last to September 2014.

The Naval Sea Systems Command's SeaPort Enhanced Multiple Award Contract provides support for U.S. Navy systems that range from weapons to fleet readiness and homeland security to logistics.

The contract supports the Navy Systems Commands, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Alion has headquarters in McLean, Va., but says it has skilled employee-owners at offices, laboratories and customer sites worldwide.

Questions about the impact of undersea explosions have bedeviled defense scientists for some time. The effects of an underwater explosion can depend on a number of things, including distance from the explosion, the energy of the explosion, the depth of the explosion and water depth.

Although U.S. and other nations' nuclear tests monitored the impact of undersea explosions at varying depths, the impact on ships within the range on an explosion is an ongoing study. An undersea blast can create huge walls of water and bubbles filled with high-temperature air and other dramatic changes in the ocean.

The resulting shock waves can deliver devastating damage to vessels in the vicinity and decimate marine life.

5 Dec 2011 By MICHAEL HOFFMAN and KATE BRANNEN Defensenews

The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Dec. 5 denied a protest of the Ground Combat Vehicle competition filed earlier this year by SAIC, with GAO saying the U.S. Army's decision to award two defense teams technology development contracts was fair and "reasonable."

SAIC officials previously said they felt the Army made "errors in the evaluation process" when the Army chose BAE Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems, and not SAIC, to develop the service's next infantry fighting vehicle.

The Army surprised many when it chose to select only two defense teams when the service was authorized to award up to three contracts. Defense analysts said the Army chose two teams because of the pressure to shrink defense spending.

"We are disappointed to learn that the GAO did not sustain SAIC's protest, and as a result of that decision will not grant the requested relief to award a third GCV contract to SAIC's Team Full Spectrum," SAIC spokeswoman Melissa Koskovich said.

BAE Systems' team received $450 million and the General Dynamics Land Systems' team received $440 million to complete the technology development phase.

SAIC had said it felt the Army's decision was "unreasonable," but GAO disagreed.

"Our review of the record led us to conclude that the Army's evaluation decisions resulting in the award of only two contracts were reasonable, consistent with the stated evaluation criteria and did not improperly favor the successful offerors over SAIC," Ralph White, GAO's managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said in a statement.

SAIC led a team that included Chicago-based Boeing and Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall, which sought to use experience they gained working on the Army's now-canceled Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicle program and Germany's Puma Infantry Fighting Vehicle. An SAIC spokeswoman said in August officials felt the Army chose not to appropriately integrate "existing, proven technology into a comprehensive solution."

Despite SAIC's protest, Army Secretary John McHugh said last month that the service will consider buying the Puma in place of the GCV.

"We can't do business as we've done in the past, just pull out the checkbook and write it because it's easy to do," McHugh said Nov. 2. "We have to make smart decisions - and if that smart decision is using an upgraded existing platform or … commercial off-the-shelf, or going to another country or ally and buying a program that they have developed and works well, then we'll do that."

The Army plans to spend $7.6 billion between 2012 and 2017 to field 1,800 vehicles to replace its Bradley fighting vehicle. Pentagon officials said the GCV program could grow up to $40 billion. Service leaders estimate each GCV will cost $13 million, a figure that includes spare parts.

December 5, 2011 By Carlo Munoz - defense.aol.com

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon thinks it may have found a way to build weapon systems five times faster than it does now and wants to test it with the Marine Corps.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking industry partners to run the Fast Adaptable, Next-Generation vehicle program. The FANG program will basically use this new acquisition plan to meet the Marines' requirements for a new Amphibious Combat Vehicle.

In a nutshell, whoever wins the FANG award will end up building little to none of the actual vehicle. The award winner will manage and coordinate a series of prize-based, mini-competitions or "challenges" for each element of the FANG vehicle. The FANG awardee will also "ensure the smooth integration of each step in the end-to-end "make" process," according to the notice.

The FANG program won't replace what the Marines are doing now for ACV. Both programs will run side by side, according to the notice. The service will stay on its traditional contract award and development track. The FANG program will be run on this new DARPA-developed acquisition track. Once complete, the Marines will pick which vehicle it wants to move into full production. The agency claims FANG will end up shrinking system development timelines "five-fold," according to the industry notice released today. Schedule delays and cost growth forced the Marine Corps to cancel the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle earlier this year. ACV is the Marines' second attempt to build a combat amphib.

This "challenge" approach has been a staple in various DARPA-led competitions focused at colleges and technical institutions. Three challenges are planned for the FANG program. The first will focus on the vehicle's mobility and drive-train system. The second will look at chassis durability in a combat environment. The final challenge will integrate the results of the first two and produce a prototype version of the FANG "with the exception of the command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance suite, the battle management system and weapons."

Competitors will use a modeling and simulation program built by DARPA to develop their proposals in each of the challenges. DARPA has also built an open-source database where potential designs can be shared between competitors and the department. These systems "significantly change the design experience and open the aperture for design innovation," DARPA claims.

Improving the "design experience" and opening the creative aperture is all well and good. But how will this save the Pentagon and the Marines time and money? Initial research and development costs should drop significantly, since all a prime contractor has to do is pony up the award money for each challenge. Having multiple teams working on a single challenge means multiple design ideas and theories can be tested simultaneously. The trial-and-error cycle that so often bogs down R&D work would be truncated significantly. The prime contractor can skim the best design ideas from the various challenges and put them into the vehicle. In theory, R&D and design integration costs and schedules drop to virtually nothing. Add in DARPA's virtual design simulation and open-source database, and costs drop even more.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos has famously claimed he wants to drive an ACV prototype into the Potomac River before his stint as commandant ends. If FANG works, the four-star general could be in deep water -- in a good way -- sooner than he thinks.

Photo Raytheon

05 Dec 2011 By Stephen Trimble – Flight Global

Twenty years after entering service, the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM is still one of the most feared weapons in air warfare, yet it may also be among the most endangered.

China and Russia are developing new air-to-air missiles with possibly longer ranges, adding to the overall threat posed since 2010 by the appearance of the Sukhoi T-50 and Chengdu J-20 prototype stealth fighters.

Moreover, a new generation of surface-to-air missile systems are extending their reach, making a strike by fighters armed with anti-radiation missiles - the 27-year-old Raytheon AGM-88 HARM - an ever more perilous mission for the air crews.

Twenty years ago the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM entered service. It's still one of the most feared weapons in air warfare, and perhaps the most endangered

The US Air Force has already decided that the AIM-120 and the AGM-88 must be replaced with a new weapon - now called the next-generation missile (NGM). "Doing nothing is not a viable option," according to Air Combat Command, which submitted written responses to questions by Flight International. "The operational risks would be unacceptable."

But the cost of the new acquisition programme will not come cheap. The AIM-120 alone has cost US taxpayers more than $20.4 billion. In 2008, the Charles Rivers Associates consultancy estimated that the cost to develop and produce a next-generation air-to-air missile would be at least $15 billion.

Air-to-air combat also may seem to be an unlikely area to attract investment funding. In the first nine months of this year, the USAF released 3,836 weapons on targets in Afghanistan. None of them were AIM-120s or AGM-88s. Raytheon has delivered more than 16,000 AIM-120s to the USAF and US Navy since 1991, but fewer than a dozen have been fired in anger in more than two decades.

BUDGET CUTS

The Department of Defense, meanwhile, is facing budget cuts of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. It may not be enough to justify investing in new capabilities on their merits alone. To launch a new programme, it may be necessary to take money away from other accounts.

Also not helping the USAF's case for the NGM is the absence of any public support from the USN. In the late-1970s the two services partnered to develop the "launch and leave" missile that became the AIM-120, but have chosen to take separate paths on a replacement.

While the USAF pursues a single new weapon to replace the AIM-120 and AGM-88, the USN has devoted its resources to developing the Alliant Techsystems (ATK) AGM-88E AARGM for the air-to-ground mission and buying more AIM-120s for the air-to-air mission.

The USAF also is constrained from making its best case for the NGM in public. Most capabilities of air-to-air missiles, including their precise speed and range, are considered secret. USAF officials declined requests for interviews for this article, but the ACC, which is developing the requirements for the NGM, agreed to answer questions in writing.

MEET THE ADVANCES

The ACC did not deny the near-absence of air combat over the past two decades, but the officials argued this is irrelevant.

"Lack of recent [air-to-air] engagements does not equate to a lack of an advanced [air-to-air] threat," the ACC said. "Continued advances in threat aircraft, sensors, jamming, and Air Defense technologies require advances in US weapons. For the foreseeable future, the US must continue to meet those advances in order to assure air superiority."

Two of the "advances" the USAF may meet some day are the Chinese PL-21 and the Russian RVV-BD air-to-air missiles, said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Both countries do not trail far behind the radar-guided capability of the AIM-120 missile. Russia has fielded the RVV-AE, or R-77 missile, and China has kept pace with the PL-12. With the emergence of the possibly ramjet powered PL-21 and rocket-powered RVV-BD missiles, China and Russia appear poised to meet or even surpass the range and performance of the AIM-120D.

"The US was way, way ahead in fighter design," said Rebecca Grant, director of the Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies, the independent research organisation founded by the US's Air Force Association.

"But the gap in missile design was never as big, There are good, non-US missile makers out there."

To be fair, the USAF has not been idle either. Even as it developed the AIM-120D, the USAF has been funding technology development projects for a next-generation missile.

It is clear the USAF wants a weapon with an even longer range than the AIM-120. At the same time, the NGM must fit inside the internal weapons bay of the F-22 and Lockheed F-35. Since both weapons bays were sized to support the AIM-120, the NGM has a difficult design challenge: more range without more payload volume.

This requirement may be the key driver for a series of demonstration contracts awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory since 2008. Their goal is to combine or scale down other components inside an air-to-air missile, which possibly allows the NGM designers to add space for more fuel to achieve the extra range.

The seeker integrated target endgame (SITES) contract combines the missile's radar and the fuze into a single device. Additionally, if the SITES radar is transformed into a conformal array, Barrie suggests, more internal fuel volume could be added.

The multi-role responsive ordnance kill mechanism (MR ROKM) is seeking to invent a directional warhead.

Instead of scattering shrapnel in all directions, this warhead would channel the damage in a single direction.

This technology also may create more room for fuel by allowing the missile designer to install a smaller - but more lethal - warhead. Finally, the AFRL also has awarded the dual-role air-dominance missile technology (DRADM-T) contract, which is developing a new propulsion system.

Propulsion is one of the critical questions that the USAF must decide upon. The NGM may be the first air-to-air missile in the USAF inventory to be partly ramjet powered - like the MBDA Meteor.

Contracts awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offers the key evidence. The triple-target terminator (T3) programme is developing a ramjet-powered missile, and the technology is designed to transfer directly into the NGM programme, according to the ACC.

PEAK ENERGY STATE

Compared with a solid rocket booster, a ramjet offers some key advantages, Barrie said. The rocket motor has a higher overall speed, but its energy drops off rapidly near the end of its range. The ramjet, however, may be slightly slower, but it maintains its peak energy state for a longer period, Barrie said.

With Raytheon already established in the air-to-air missile business, the USAF invested heavily to strengthen Boeing as a challenger. Boeing received all three AFRL contracts - SITES, MR ROKM and DRADM-T. DARPA has also handed Boeing and Raytheon separate demonstration contracts to launch the T3 programme.

Meanwhile, a Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman team also plans to compete for the contract, having invested internal research and development funding to keep pace with Boeing and Raytheon. The ACC also confirmed that MBDA would be allowed to compete as a prime contractor.

But first the USAF has to clarify the acquisition plan for the NGM programme. Two years ago, USAF budget-justification documents submitted to Congress laid out a concise schedule for the programme, which was then named the joint dual-role air dominance missile. A required analysis of alternatives would begin next September.

The first technology-development contracts would be awarded in 2014, which would allow the first NGM missiles to enter operational service around 2020.

But something has happened to muddle the USAF's planning for NGM. Recently, when the ACC was asked to provide an up-to-date acquisition schedule for the new missile, the command tersely responded: "Undetermined at this time."

File photo of an RQ-170

Dec 5, 2011By David A. Fulghum,  Bill Sweetman - AviationWeek.com

Even if Iran has, as it claims, shot down a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 unmanned aerial system (UAS), the single-channel, full-motion video capability that made the stealthy flying wing so invaluable when it debuted in Afghanistan about two years ago is considered outdated, potentially limiting the intelligence fallout.

For now, U.S. intelligence- and surveillance-related sources only will say the downed aircraft was “possibly” the RQ-170 Sentinel. One source tells AViation Week there is a “50-50” chance it is the Sentinel.

Nonetheless, both assessments put the aircraft that was in operation over Iran as well as Afghanistan. From the beginning of RQ-170 operations, indications from the intelligence community were that Iran’s missile program was one set of targets of interest, as was its nuclear weapons program.

But even if it is the RQ-170, systems now moving into an operational role are scores of times more effective than the Sentinel’s full-motion video (FMV), assuming that technology has not been significantly upgraded or replaced covertly.

Perhaps the most important data point to have emerged from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan was its reliance on activity-based intelligence. Bin Laden was never seen, but the coming and going of other important personages revealed that he was there. The information was gathered by the FMV sensor system on the U.S. Air Force’s RQ-170, and the data were analyzed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

The need for more activity-based intelligence capability is underscored by NGA. “We’re moving into more of an anticipatory [style of operations],” a senior agency official says. “We look at key intelligence questions and bring as many pieces of information together as we can, using multi-intelligence fusion and nontraditional sources.” The bin Laden residence was identified by “pattern of life activity and [NGA] worked with the assault team to look at the best way to get there,” the official says

Now, that single-sensor capability is being multiplied by 65 times, resulting in an exponential increase in data, packaged for carriage by UAS and automated so it can be monitored by significantly fewer intelligence analysts than the current model of FMV exploitation. The BAE Systems-developed, wide-area, persistent surveillance sensor called the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (Argus-IS) will provide that level of functionality in a single sensor operating on a single platform.

Argus-IS is considered part of a whole new class of sensor. In this package it combines wide-area coverage (40 sq. km) with impressive detail (15-cm resolution ground sample distance per pixel). Moreover, the imagery resolution allows tracking of moving vehicles and dismounted individuals.

“The way the sensor actually operates is to continuously image an area on the ground about the size of a small city, and it stores the data on board for the entire mission,” says Jeremy Tondreault, program director of BAE’s electronic systems business. “Each of the [65] video windows is analogous to what [we get] today with narrow-band FMV.”

The U.K. Royal Air Force in Afghanistan is using the Goodrich Raptor reconnaissance pod, which houses the DB-110 dual-band (infrared and visual), long-range oblique photography (Lorop) camera. In addition, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is advocating to provide more money for a new DB-110 demonstration on the MQ-9A Reaper UAS, while an earlier demonstration on a pre-production Predator B supported Britain’s interests.

The Lorop camera system was developed by what was then Litton’s Itek division, which has been associated with CIA reconnaissance programs. For nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Lorop has the advantage of being able to image a large area — such as a road, its surroundings, a valley — quickly and in detail from standoff range.

Israel-based Rafael’s Recce-Lite uses the Litening pod shape and other components, eliminating the laser in favor of bigger optics. The U.S. Air Force has tested a Goodrich MS-177 camera with a multi-spectral, 177-in. focal length on an E-8C Joint Stars as a means of identifying targets detected by radar.

Photo: Architect of the Capitol

Dec 5, 2011 By David A. Fulghum - aerospace daily and defense report

What will the post-2013 U.S. defense budget look like? Big programs like the Lockheed Martin F-35 and USAF Long Range Strike (LRS) family of programs will survive, albeit with some cutbacks.

But small programs will die in flocks and sustainment purchases will be savaged, according to top budget analysts from across the political spectrum who got together Dec. 2 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies to make predictions of life after sequestration – or not. In addition to programmatic cuts, the civilian defense workforce will suffer major reductions.

But the Washington experts did offer one glimmer of hope for the defense sector: they predict that the Budget Control Act’s “sequestration,” which consists of automatic cuts of roughly $600 billion, will go away in the so-called lame-duck session of Congress after the November 2012 presidential and congressional elections and before the Jan. 2, 2013, across-the-board budget cut deadline.

“I don’t think sequestration will happen,” says Gordon Adams, a professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at American University and a veteran of the Office of Management and Budget. “The super committee was designed to fail” so that the parties could “duke it out” over the budget issue in an election year. “It will be political theater for the next 13 months.”

“Sequestration was never meant to be anything but a threat,” says Jim Dyer, a Republican strategist and former congressional staff director. “It’s an invitation to Congress to try again. But if they can’t reach agreement in a non-election year, how will they be able to do it in an election year?”

Still, the act’s initial cuts to the Pentagon’s spending projections, roughly $450 billion over 10 years compared with the 2012 budget request, will still take a bite. And when all the politics are removed from the formulation, the cuts will duplicate the drawdowns seen after Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War. With the U.S. out of Afghanistan and Iraq, spending will automatically go down.

With little existential threat outside of the Russian nuclear force, the biggest danger on the horizon is cyberattack. Within all of those parameters, the Defense Department can survive with a budget of around $500 billion a year in constant dollars for the next five years. After that, future demands and international turmoil are too uncertain to predict.

And even if sequestration is triggered, the White House has the authority to redistribute money within the sequester topline, Adams says.

“We have lived through build-downs before,” he says. The average post-war defense drawdown is about a 30% reduction from the first to the 10th year. The post-Cold War budget went downs 36% in constant dollars over 13 years, and that level of funding still produced the force that “used Saddam Hussein as a speed bump [in 1991]. So we have managed build-downs.”

Yet, the threat of sequestration will trigger several predictable events, says David Berteau, director of CSIS’s International Security Program. In July-August, the Obama administration will have to announce cuts to civilian defense personnel scheduled for the 2013 budget. Military pay will be declared exempt from across-the-board cuts, so the civilian drawdown could amount to as many as 90,000 lost jobs, he thinks. Finally, the sequestration law gives the Defense Department “enough flexibility so that everybody lives, but on a thinner budget,” Berteau says. However, that means there is “no strategic basis for these reductions.”

Recruiting will likely be cut by 80% and a procurement slowdown will have a dramatic impact on the 2030 capabilities that the U.S. is buying now, he says.

Adams says to expect reductions in the total numbers of F-35s and LRS acquired and for the programs to stretch out, but not suffer termination. This time around, “the place to look [for major reductions] is at smaller programs that make up 60% of the procurement budgets,” he predicts. “You tend to get a lot of attention to lesser procurement accounts like trucks, front loaders and ammunition supplies that don’t have a high level of visibility.” Also in jeopardy are funding and support for nation building and perhaps a reassessment of spending on the nuclear force.