NASA's New Mars Orbiter Bears Down on Red Planet

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

The newest American mission to Mars is hurtling toward the red planet, due Friday to examine it in the sharpest detail yet. It will be the largest spacecraft to circle the planet, with big capabilities to match. Since 1997, the U.S. space agency NASA has been dispatching orbiters and ...

Space Weapons Could Emerge from Pentagon Budget

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Pentagon's Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) budget request funds nearly a billion dollars in programs that could provide dual-use space weapons capabilities according to a new joint-analysis by the World Security Institute’s Center for Defense Information (CDI) and the Henry L. Sti...

France advises bringing UAVs into mainstream defence budgets

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

The French government has recommended the formal inclusion of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) funding in future defence budgets, adding that the country could terminate its state-funded European medium-altitude long-endurance (EuroMale) project in favour of the Dassault Aviation-led ...

EU keen on defence research fund

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

EU defence ministers have said they are keen to see more work done on a new fund for military research in Europe. The fund would draw money from member states and be run by a central body, the European Defence Agency (EDA). The UK Defence Secretary John Reid said the ...

Fate of F-111s to be decided soon

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

Labor warned of a looming gap in air cover between the planned retirement of F-111 fighter-bombers and delivery of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland said Australia could lose its regional air supe...

European JSF partners meet in Holland

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

Yesterday, European partners participating in the Joint Strike Fighter program met in The Netherlands, to discuss the cooperation between the countries involved. At the end of this year the partners have to decide if they want to join in the manufacturing, maintenance and upgrade phas...

Rand study puts tanker recap costs at $200B over 50 years

Posted at: Wed Mar 8th, 2006

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A long-awaited Rand Corp. study on U.S. military tanker options says the Defense Department faces about $200 billion in costs to recapitalize its aging tanker fleet over the next half century. The Defense Department released a 26-page executive summary of the ...