05 Sep 14. The Defense Department has signed a memorandum of understanding to share space situational awareness data with South Korea’s Defense Ministry, Pentagon officials said The accord provides South Korea’s air force with higher-quality and more timely space information tailored for its specific purposes in exchange for satellite-positional and radio-frequency information it will provide to U.S. Strategic Command, the DoD agency responsible for space situational awareness, officials said. Douglas L. Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, and Maj. Gen. Chang Kyeong Seok, the South Korean Defense Ministry’s director general of policy planning, signed the memorandum Sept. 2 on the sidelines of the Space Cooperation Working Group. “Cooperating with international partners to develop coalition approaches to space is a priority for the Department of Defense,” Loverro said. South Korea joins five nations and many other organizations already participating in space situational awareness data sharing agreements with DoD. By signing the memorandum, Chang said, the South Korean Defense Ministry and the DoD have come to participate in the efforts of international community for the peaceful use of space. “This opportunity will strengthen the [U.S.-South Korean alliance] through increasing the level of space cooperation between both nations’ armed forces.” Such agreements enhance multinational space cooperation and streamline the process for DoD partners to request specific information gathered by Stratcom’s Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, DoD officials said. The information is crucial for launch support, satellite maneuver planning, support for on-orbit anomalies, electromagnetic interference investigation, satellite decommissioning activities and on-orbit conjunction assessments, officials added. “These space situational awareness data sharing agreements allow us to expand partnerships and enable information sharing in the increasingly congested, contested and competitive space environment,” said Navy Adm. Cecil D. Haney, Stratcom’s commander. “These agreements ultimately protect our capabilities by enhancing spaceflight safety and preventing potentially catastrophic orbital collisions.” (Source: US DoD)
04 Sep 14. CANES work on hold after Protests filed. The US Navy’s effort to develop and install a new shipboard tactical electronic network is on hold after two losing bidders protested the Aug. 20 award of contracts worth up to $2.53bn. According to information on the website of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), DRS Laurel Technologies and CGI Federal each filed protests Sept. 2 of the awards for the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES). Five companies won a share of the award from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR): BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services; General Dynamics C4 Systems; Global Technical Systems; Northrop Grumman Systems; and Serco. (Source: glstrade.com/Defense News)
05 Sep 14. With potential adversaries spending significant amounts to nose ahead of U.S. technology investments, Defense Department industry partnership remains critical, the Pentagon’s director of unmanned warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance said at the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance’s Defense Innovation Days conference here yesterday. As the DoD fiscal year 2016 budget shapes up to be “less than planned for,” Dyke D. Weatherington said, the United States faces the challenge of spending money on current assets while keeping future investments robust. “The U.S. enjoyed a significant … asymmetric capability over the last 10 years,” he told the audience of defense industry leaders. “There are folks trying to find an asymmetric capability against us, and they’re spending big bucks to get there, so our challenge is to stay ahead of them, and that is going to be tough in a fiscally