National Defense articles from April 2004

National Defense archives from April 2004

Editor's corner.(Editorial)
April 1, 2004... As the United States rotates 250,000 troops in and out of Iraq, military planners continue to devise new "force-protection" plans to defend truck convoys against rocket-propelled grenade attacks and roadside bombs. Miles-long convoys of...

War realities call for new approach to logistics.(president's perspective)(Editorial)
April 1, 2004... The "joint" nature of current military operations means that, more than ever, the services must not only bring jointness into their war-fighting concepts and acquisition programs, but also into their logistics operations. The United...

All Navy programs 'On the Table'.(Washington Pulse)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Although the Navy does not have the equivalent of a "Comanche" on the horizon, all programs are under review in preparation for the fiscal year 2006 budget submission, said the chief of naval operations. The Navy is embarking on a new...

Cost of Littoral Combat Ship questioned.(Washington Pulse)
April 1, 2004... With a month to go before the Navy selects a Littoral Combat Ship hull design, questions remain about the potential cost of the program. Of specific concern to lawmakers and budget experts is the cost of the mission equipment. The Navy is...

Pentagon to collect unpaid taxes.(Washington Pulse)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Department of Defense is moving forward on several proposals to collect unpaid federal taxes owed by, more than 27,000 defense contractors, said Larry J. Lanzillotta, principal deputy under secretary of defense (comptroller) and deputy...

U.S. stepping up efforts to secure ports.(Security beat: homeland defense briefs)
April 1, 2004... The biggest challenge facing the maritime transportation industry is ensuring that legitimate cargo is not needlessly delayed as new security measures are implemented, said retired Coast Guard Adm. James M. Loy, deputy secretary of homeland...

Funding cuts ahead for state and local programs.(Security beat: homeland defense briefs)
April 1, 2004... If Congress approves the Bush administration's 2005 budget, many local governments will see a decrease of almost $800 million in funding for homeland security efforts. Some experts predict that the 18 percent cut will be restored once...

DHS personnel reform gets a partial thumbs up.(Security beat: homeland defense briefs)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Department of Homeland Security's plan to reform its personnel system got a qualified endorsement in February from the head of the U.S. General Accounting Office. The plan is designed to align the DHS personnel system with the...

More training needed to handle car bombs.(Security beat: homeland defense briefs)
April 1, 2004... Car bombs and thermobaric explosives are expected to become terrorists' weapons of choice, experts said. First responder organizations, however, are not adequately prepared or trained to deal with these threats. "Look around the world,...

Tactical truck turned into robot.(tech talk)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Oshkosh Truck Corp. and Ohio State University have partnered to create TerraMax, a completely autonomous Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement. The MTVR is the Marine Corps' 7-ton tactical truck. TerraMax has a complex sensing system and a...

Navigating streets of Baghdad gets easier.(tech talk)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... An extended U.S. presence in Iraq has sparked a demand for detailed maps of Baghdad. A Massachusetts-based maker of digital navigation products offers a $200 CD with a street-by-street guide to Baghdad and highway maps for Iraq's 17 largest...

Surveillance blimp to be shipped to Iraq.(tech talk)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The first of two 56,000-cubic-foot tethered aerostats will be sent to Iraq for surveillance missions, the U.S. Army said. Under a $1.6 million contact, Lockheed Martin will integrate existing aerostats with sensors, ground stations and...

Portable inspection device designed for vehicle searches.(tech talk)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... A portable car-inspection device was designed to help law enforcement or security personnel conduct thorough motor vehicle searches. The WalkAbout Vehicle Search Kit, by Zistos Corporation, in Hauppauge, N.Y., includes a portable video...

Airdrop delivery systems now disposable.(tech talk)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Military units are the target market for a new disposable airdrop system, designed to deploy small payloads of up to 100 pounds from a wide variety of aircraft. Called CopterBox, it is made of corrugated paper box and has three rotor blades...

Wall panels pass shatterproof tests.(tech talk)
April 1, 2004... Shatterproof wall panels are being purchased by government agencies to minimize flying debris in the event of an explosion. Kalwall Corporation, of Manchester. N.H., makes translucent wall panels in several configurations, including an...

Computer screens to bend and fold.(tech talk)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The U.S. Army has awarded Arizona State University a $43.7 million five-year contract to create an "Army Flexible Display Center." The center will be responsible to develop flexible, low-power computer displays that can be continually refreshed...

Small town in Pennsylvania recovers-slowly-from BRAC.
April 1, 2004... As the nation braces for another round of military base realignments and closures in 2005, a small, former U.S. Navy facility just outside of Philadelphia, which closed its gates eight years ago, just now is recovering from the BRAC experience....

GSA chooses developer for former Navy Yard parcel.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The U.S. General Services Administration in January selected a developer for the Southeast Federal Center-a desolate, 42-acre site in the District of Columbia that was separated from the Washington Navy Yard in 1963. The center, which...

Special operators must change to win war.
April 1, 2004... Despite their successes in recent conflicts, U.S. special operations forces need to alter their approach to win the war on terrorism, according to top military officials. Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, director of operations at the...

Joint training must reflect combat realities; gaps remain in the integration of special operators, conventional forces.(Military Essay)
April 1, 2004... In recent conflicts, special operations and conventional forces relied heavily on increased cooperation and mutual support. Consequently, it may be time for the Joint Forces Command, the U.S. Special Operations Command and the services to...

Truck crews get crash course in survival.
April 1, 2004... Despite efforts to accelerate production of armor plates and up-armored Humvees, the Army cannot supply enough protective kits to equip every one of its nearly 50,000 trucks now operating throughout Iraq. To make up for the shortage of armor,...

Army struggles to maintain ground vehicle fleet.
April 1, 2004... Facing a $12 billion tab to repair and replace vehicles and equipment damaged in combat operations, the Army expects to both reassess funding priorities and take a hard look at its logistics and maintenance practices. On the aviation side,...

Changes on the way for Army logistics ops.
April 1, 2004... The Army's goal to become a more "expeditionary" force will not be attained unless the service makes sweeping changes in logistics and support operations, officials said. Although the Pentagon deemed the buildup to the Iraq conflict a logistics...

Army-led team probes joint logistics gaps.
April 1, 2004... The U.S. Army Developmental Test Command is sponsoring a test and evaluation program aimed at improving joint logistics processes. The multiyear project, approved by the Defense Department, is known as Joint Logistics Planning Enhancements,...

Army seeks to upgrade night-vision goggles.
April 1, 2004... Experts at the Army's night-vision laboratory predict that a new generation of goggles now in development will fix some of the shortcomings in existing devices, such as image quality and the ability to see through smoke and dust. The...

Joint-service needs shape Marine training programs.
April 1, 2004... The Marine Corps is taking steps to align its training programs with joint requirements, officials said. Under the Defense Department's umbrella project called the Joint National Training Capability, the Marines are, for the tint time,...

Army bridging training gaps in vehicle convoy operations.
April 1, 2004... The U.S. Army's training and simulation branch is trying to address deficiencies in convoy operations--"a very bad weakness," according to a service official. "Every day, we are losing soldiers during convoy operations, because of our...

Air Force takes lead in net-centric operations.(viewpoint)
April 1, 2004... The U.S. military services have made significant progress in networking their weapons systems and sharing battlefield data during the last 10-15 years. But more work is needed to ensure seamless information flow and to improve joint...

Air Force's C-17 crews train for night operations.(Cover Story)
April 1, 2004... To speed troops and supplies into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force has begun training C-17 Globemaster transport crews to fly airlift operations in the dark of night, without artificial lighting. Traditionally, this...

Globemasters take on heavy lifting.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Since the C-17 Globemaster became operational in 1995, 116 of them have been delivered to the Air Force and the Air National Guard. The manufacturer, the Boeing Company, of St. Louis, Mo., is scheduled to build a total of 180 of the mammoth...

Jumper eyeing new unit of air commandos.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Air Force is so pleased by the performance of 20 airmen who parachuted with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade into Northern Iraq in 2005 that it is planning a specialized unit, based on the United Kingdom's RAF Regiment, to conduct such...

Experimental unit to test Future Combat Systems.
April 1, 2004... The U.S. Army plans to create an experimental battalion by 2006 to test new technologies and prototypes associated with the Future Combat Systems program. So far, the FCS exists only in digital simulations. But program supporters hope that...

Computer simulations bolster joint-service combat training.
April 1, 2004... A federation of computer simulations is at the core of the Defense Department's billion-dollar program to boost joint-service training. The ability to connect simulations from each service recently was put to the test by Joint Forces Command,...

Simulation facility targets Future Combat Systems.
April 1, 2004... A new 12,000 square foot modeling and simulation complex in Albuquerque, N.M., will be used to test and evaluate virtual prototypes of the Army's Future Combat Systems. The facility, dubbed the Simulation, Modeling for Acquisition,...

Government, not industry, should be in charge of interoperability.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Government agencies, not contractors, should be responsible for making weapons systems interoperable, senior military officials said. The Defense Department now mandates that interoperability among land, air, sea and space systems be...

Security teams toughen training program.
April 1, 2004... The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the power plant industry are laying the groundwork for creating an adversary team to test security at the 104 licensed facilities in the United States. Their goal is to standardize force-on-force training...

Guard reshuffles force to offset deployment stress.
April 1, 2004... To continue to meet growing deployment requirements around the world, the U.S. National Guard is changing its force mix, said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau. "We do not want to use the same units over and over,"...

Workload grows for Army emergency response unit.
April 1, 2004... For more than 55 years, the Technical Escort Unit has been the Army's mainstay in remediation and chemical materials removal. It has a wide array of responsibilities in support of other Army organizations, such as the Army Corps of Engineers,...

Army sets up "one-stop shop" for chem-bio response.
April 1, 2004... The six-month-old Guardian Brigade is the Army's first step in creating an organization that will provide soldier and civilian response to chemical and biological accidents and incidents in the United States or overseas. Guardian Brigade...

Small Business Division reviews first year.(government policy notes)
April 1, 2004... A year ago, the National Defense Industrial Association refocused its efforts to represent the interests of its small business members by creating the Small Business Division. Its mission is to focus specifically on issues affecting small...

Combat survivability division presents annual awards.(NDIA news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The NDIA Combat Survivability Awards for Leadership and Technical Achievement were presented to James B. Foulk and Lewis A. Thurman, respectively, at the 2003 Aircraft Survivability Symposium, held at the Naval Postgraduate School, at Monterey,...

Rick Larned tapped for 2004 Fubini Award.(NDIA news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... NDIA's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division in February presented the 2004 Fubini Award to retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Rick Larned for "significant and continuing contributions to...

Air Force stepping up space efforts.(NDIA news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Peter Teets, undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and a luncheon gathering of NDIA's Washington Chapter that the nation's space assets need to be transformed. The use of space systems is higher...

Albert Einstein Award given to James Sides.(NDIA news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... James R. Sides, former chairman, president and CEO of Atlantic Research Corporation, of Gainesville, Va., traveled to Jerusalem in January to receive the Albert Einstein Lifetime Achievement Award for Aerospace. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul...

NDIA annual membership meeting.(NDIA news)
April 1, 2004... NDIA will conduct its 2004 annual membership meeting on April 15, 2004 at 8:00 a.m. to approximately 9:00 a.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (Plaza Room) (Tysons Corner), McLean, Virginia, All members are welcome for the NDIA President's report...

Affiliate events.(NDIA events calendar)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... APRIL 7-8 Net-Centric Operations Meeting Hilton McLean Tysons Corner McLean, Va. MAY 19-21 ICSTM '04 Conference University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa. SEPTEMBER 21-23 Enterprise Integration EXPO 2004 Anaheim Convention Center...

Events and descriptions.(NDIA events calendar)(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... APRIL 21-23 5th Annual Science & Engineering Technology Conference Event #4720 Charleston, S.C. POC: Simone Baldwin @ (703) 247-2596 The event is held in cooperation with the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering....

Chapter events.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... APRIL 26 Rocky Mountain Chapter Luncheon Colorado Springs, Colo. 26 Washington Chapter/USO Golf And Tennis Benefit Outing Andrews, AFB, Md. JUNE 17 29th Annual Firepower Benefit Picatinny Chapter Parsippany, N.J. 28 Rocky...