SpaceX Launch? Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is reportedly going to give its scrubbed launch of AsiaSat 6 another chance early in the morning of Sept. 7, but neither the company, nor Patrick AFB, Fla., public affairs, would confirm Sept. 5 whether it would take place. SpaceFlightNow.com
reported Sept. 4 the launch window would open at 12:50 a.m. EDT and run until around 4 a.m. SpaceX scrubbed its first two attempts Aug. 26-27 and denied they had anything to do with the company’s Falcon 9 reusable (F9R) test vehicle malfunction at SpaceX’s Texas commercial launch site Aug. 22.
Space Data Sharing. U.S. Stra
tegic Command (STRATCOM) enters into a new space situational awareness (SSA) data-sharing agreement with the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellite (EUMETSAT), according to a STRATCOM statement. The agreement, signed Aug. 9, provides EUMETSAT with higher quality and more timely space information tailored for its organization’s specific purposes in exchange for satellite-positional and radio-frequency information. EUMETSAT joins five nations and many other organizations already participating in SSA data-sharing agreements with STRATCOM. SSA information is used in launch support, satellite maneuver planning, support for on-orbit anomalies, electromagnetic interference reporting and investigation, satellite decommissioning activities and on-orbit conjunction assessments.
Call For Action. Fixing national defense requires making a vision happen and AUSA President Gordon Sullivan says sending the right message is simple: “Kill sequestration, stop all downsizing in the Defense Department and security-related agencies, and make some tangible progress in building the balanced joint force we’ve long talked about with trained and ready land, maritime, air, cyber and special operations forces who can respond anywhere in the world when we need them.” In a message to AUSA, Sullivan says those who know the United States best realize it has lost the edge, and there’s not a year to fix it–sequestration could kick back in again in 2016. “A lesson we should have learned by now is that the cost of being unprepared is paid in lives and spilled blood.”
NATO Pledges Budget Decline Reversal. The NATO Wales Summit Declaration Friday agreed to reverse the defense budget decline of the past several years, and produced a guideline for governments to spend a minimum of 2 percent of their GDP on defense budgets. Those who do will continue to do so, those who spend more than 20 percent of their defense budget on major equipment and R&D will continue and those below the 2 percent or 20 percent guidelines will endeavor to halt any defense spending decline, and increase defense spending on major equipment within a decade.
…Upholding Missile Defense. The declaration reaffirmed that the alliance will be a nuclear alliance as long as nuclear weapons exist. Missile defense can complement nuclear weapons for deterrence but can’t be a substitute, leaders write. “Missile defense will become an integral part of the alliance’s overall defense posture and contribute to the indivisible security of the alliance.” The Interim NATO BMD capability is operational. The deployment of Aegis Ashore in Romania is on track to be completed in 2015, and BMD-capable Aegis ships forward-deployed to Spain could be made available to NATO. Several allies are developing or acquiring further BMD capabilities that could become available to the alliance. The alliance is also prepared to engage with third states to increase BMD effectiveness.
…Increasing Capabilities. Leaders agreed to a Defense Planning Package, with priorities such as “enhancing and reinforcing training and exercises; command and control, including for demanding air operations; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance…missile defense and cyber and improving the robustness and readiness of our land forces.”
NATO Cyber Range. NATO’s summit declaration on Friday includes language that the Alliance will develop a cyber range capability.” The lengthy declaration, which has a heavy emphasis on Russia’s actions in the Ukraine and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, says the cyber range will initially be based on Estonia’s cyber range capability while considering the requirements and capabilities of NATO’s Communications and Information Systems School. The cyber language only discusses defense, not offense. The declaration also states that the Alliance “will improve the level of NATO’s cyber defence education, training, and exercise activities.”
…Formalizing Cyber Defense. James Lewis, a cyber security expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the “main thing” the summit declaration does with regard to cyber is adding it to the list of things against which they would defend. He says this has basically been NATO’s policy since 2007 when Estonia suffered widespread cyber attacks against government and private sector networks, attacks that Estonia believed emanated from Russia. “Cyber attacks can reach a threshold that threatens national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security, and stability,” the declaration states. “Their impact could be as harmful to modern societies as conventional attack. We affirm therefore that cyber defence is part of NATO’s core task of collective defence.”
Reverse Course. The French government has reversed its earlier position of proceeding with the transfer of a new amphibious ship to Russia, saying it has for now suspended this fall’s planned delivery of the first Mistral ship to Moscow. According to various media reports this past week, French officials say because of Russian involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, the conditions were not right to proceed with the transfer. France has been under pressure to put the brakes on the $1.6 billion deal signed with Russia in 2011 for two of the Mistral-class amphibious ships. Western countries blame Russia for inciting the civil war in eastern Ukraine, and NATO recently provided satellite imagery that it says shows Russian troops and equipment have joined the fighting, charges the Kremlin denies.
New Navy Patrol Boat. The Navy took delivery of the first MK VI patrol boat on Aug. 27, the first of 10 to be provided by Safe Boats International. The watercraft will be operated by the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC), supporting coastal riverine forces. The MK VI is 85-feet long and features covered fly bridge, re-configurable main deck cabin and below-deck accommodations. The vessel includes shock mitigating seating for up to 10 crewmen and eight passengers with a maximum sprint speed of more than 35 knots, Naval Sea Systems Command says. The first one completed sea trials this summer. It’s the first new patrol boat brought in to the fleet since the mid-1980s, NAVSEA says.
Drone Assist. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says she persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to permit a series of small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) flights in airspace above a limited stretch of the Chukchi Sea to collect data on marine wildlife as part of resource development work being done for potential oil leases. The senator’s office says the flights, which began the last weekend in August, were jeopardized by the FAA due to the agency’s insistence that a manned aircraft or ship monitor the UAS Nanook’s activities. Murkowski says the presence of a noisy ship or manned aircraft could have disrupted the marine habitat being surveyed. The UAS operations are part of continuing research flights by the Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks, which was approved this year to conduct UAS flight tests as part of efforts to integrate UAS operations into the National Airspace. Murkowski’s office says safety concerns are being addressed by North American Aerospace Defense Command radar.