Space Planes, Spy Planes and Supersonic Planes
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.
Northrop-NASA
The Motley Fool reports on the supersonic NASA plane designs from Lockheed, Boeing and Northrup; NASA wants to see this next-gen aircraft in the sky in 2025. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is also seeking a “space plane” in 2018 with the capability for unmanned guidance and the launching of satellites; the military would like to see it work as a space plane, reports the blog War is Boring.
Boeing-NASA
The Senate voted Monday to take up the Defense Authorization Bill. The Hill reports, the bill out of committee did not receive a veto threat from the White House, but not all provisions are supported by the administration, including Congress’ continued rejection of the Pentagon’s desire to implement another round of BRAC streamlining of military bases.
A two-year sequester delay is a long shot, says Sen. Barbara Mikulsky (MD-D), but National Defense Magazine reports that she and others in congress and the defense industry are looking for a bipartisan agreement to delay the automatic cuts long enough for DoD to adequately prepare.
Don’t ditch the ground game, warn the top Army and Marine generals; the slant of sequestration cuts appears to favor high tech air and sea power, reports Breaking Defense, noting that recent precision-guided invasions became ground wars and quoting Army Gen. Martin Dempsey saying, “it really becomes [about] human terrain.”
The Air Force considers delaying purchase of 24 F-35s to accommodate sequester budget cuts, reports Defense Daily. (Paywall.) Acquisition officials in the DoD continue to push for open architecture for its module systems to reduce costs and complications immediately and in the future, reports Federal News Radio; the current abundance of proprietary systems hampers upgrades and adjustments.
The online worldwide housing locator used by all branches of the US military and Homeland Security will lose its DoD funding Dec. 31, reports the Navy Times. The company that runs the the Automated Housing Referral Network hopes to find advertising or sponsorship funding to continue the website.
The Supreme Court allows NSA’s domestic telephone surveillance to continue, rejecting Monday to hear an appeal from a privacy rights group, reports CNN Security Clearance.
The hacker collective known as Anonymous is at it again, or perhaps never stopped, Reuters reports, the recently discovered infiltration by the activist hackers includes breaking into personal data on 104,000 federal employees, contractors and other affiliates of the Department of Energy. The FBI suspects the attacks are continuing.
Boeing is set to convert its Challenger business jet into a platform for its P-8 Poseidon-based Maritime Surveillance capability, reports Aviation Week, the first demonstrator is slated to fly next year.
Russia turns over a long delayed and over-budget $2.3 billion retrofitted aircraft carrier to India, reports Defence Talk, extending India’s maritime reach in the Indian Ocean.
