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Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

A critical space-based capability was added to America's ballistic missile defenses Sept. 25 when two U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Demonstrator satellites built by Northrop Grumman were launched aboard a Delta II rocket. "This demonstration will show the inherent advantages space sensors bring to persistent missile tracking and engagement," said Gabe Watson, vice president and STSS program manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Space-based sensors will augment existing radar to enable missile tracking through all phases of flight from boost through intercept." The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, with the tandem-stacked STSS...

Indian Navy Mulls Northrop Advanced Hawkeye Sep 2, 2009 By Neelam Mathews NEW DELHI — Last month’s export authorization from the U.S. government now permits Northrop Grumman to have discussions with the Indian navy on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, a platform that provides a highly adaptive form of airborne early warning and control (AEW&C). A U.S Navy representative, E-2 New Business Manager John Beaulieu, last week made an eight-hour presentation to the Indian navy on the E-2D after a request for more technical clarifications following a request for information last year. “We’ve been building up to this ... The partnership...

Experts : Tanker dual buy sensible Sunday, August 09, 2009 By GEORGE TALBOT Political Editor Forget the money. Forget the politics. The U.S. Air Force could gain a major strategic advantage by splitting its contract for aerial refueling tankers, according to military experts. A proposed "dual buy" would replace the Air Force's existing fleet of KC-135 tankers with two different aircraft, giving greater flexibility to war planners and speeding the retirement of the Eisenhower-era KC-135s, analysts said. Advertisement The compromise would also end a political stalemate between rival bidders Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., spreading jobs across a broader...

PASCAGOULA -- First lady Michelle Obama will sponsor the Coast Guard's third Legend-class national security cutter, which is about 25 percent complete at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's Pascagoula yard, officials said Monday. In August 2007, the Coast Guard awarded Northrop Grumman a $285.5 million contract to construct the Stratton. The 418-foot cutter, WMSL 752, is named in honor of Dorothy C. Stratton, the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard. Stratton served as director of the SPARS, the Guard's women's reserve, during World War II.

As Northrop Grumman rolls out its first Global Hawk Block 40 aircraft, the high-flying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program is facing some hurdles. The Office of the Secretary of Defense and U.S. Air Force are ironing out particulars of a delay to the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) period for the Block 20/30 Global Hawk. Industry and government sources suggest it is likely to be nine months; the original plan was to start IOT&E in August and wrap up in November. Meanwhile, House appropriators are considering a substantial cut to the program in fiscal 2010, according to a program...

ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. Preview Hitler's Stealth Fighter >> July 25, 2009--At a Northrop Grumman facility in California, top stealth-plane experts admire their handiwork in late 2008—a full-size, though flightless, replica of a Horten 2-29, aka Hitler's stealth fighter, created for a documentary airing June 28 on the National Geographic Channel. (Read the full story.) The team tested the re-created Nazi jet against World War II-style radar. With its radar-resistant design and 600-mile-an-hour (970-kilometer-an-hour) speed, the team concluded, the Ho 2-29 would have allowed British antiaircraft...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a congressional panel Tuesday he’ll decide in the next week whether the Air Force or senior Pentagon officials will pick the winner of the controversial competition to build new midair refueling tankers. The decision is expected to spark renewed political wrangling between congressional supporters of Boeing and the team of Northrop Grumman and EADS North America, competitors who have fought for months over a contract worth more than $35 billion. Gates told Senate defense appropriators that he’ll make his decision in the next seven to 10 days. “Part of the process I’m going through right...

The Navy took delivery of its newest aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), from Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. George H.W. Bush is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama may have to use a veto threat to preserve Pentagon plans for a winner-take-all competition to start a new multibillion-dollar U.S. aerial-refueling fleet, the head of the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee said on Monday. "That is probably where we'll start and end," Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, said in reply to a question about moves in Congress that would guarantee Air Force purchases from both rival tanker suppliers -- Boeing Co and a team of Northrop Grumman Corp and Europe's EADS. Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who chairs the House...

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2009 – A recent agreement among the Defense Department, the Navy and shipbuilders will enable more efficient construction of the next-generation destroyer at one shipyard instead of two, a senior Defense Department official announced here today. The “swap” agreement calls for three DDG-1000 destroyers to be built at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, John J. Young Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told reporters at the Pentagon. Work on the DDG-1000 destroyers previously was to be split between General Dynamics’ Bath Works and Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls Shipyard in Mississippi, Young said. As part...

The first mirror segment that will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope, built by Northrop Grumman Corporation, has completed its first series of cryogenic temperature tests in the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. ... Engineers will measure how the mirror changes shape going from room temperature to cryogenic (frigid) temperatures, as the metal expands and contracts. They can model these changes to some extent, but not perfectly. The mirrors will be polished to about 100 nanometers (a human hair is approximately 60,000 to 120,000 nanometers) accuracy at room temperature, based on...

Star Wars-style laser weapons have taken another step closer to reality with Northrop Grumman reporting that it has produced a 105 kilowatt (kW) light ray from an electric laser in the final demonstration milestone of Phase 3 of the U.S. military's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program. At this energy level such a "weapons grade" laser would be capable of taking out cruise missiles, rockets and artillery from land, sea and airborne platforms, but Han Solo won't be slipping this still hefty device into his side holster anytime soon. Northrop Grumman's scalable modular system uses "laser amplifier chains"...

Science fiction fans and generals alike have long fantasized about what it'd be like to have a laser weapon at their command. Now at last such dreams are nearing reality. After years of steady milestone progress, military contractor Northrop Grumman has reached a significant mark -- the first 100 kW steady-state laser. The laser is part of the Joint High-Powered Solid State Laser Phase 3 Program, which combines 8 lasers in chain fashion to create a "superlaser" of sorts. Each laser can deliver up to 15.3 kW individually and is about the size of a large briefcase. Together they form...

Northrop Grumman's NGB X-Posed Posted by Bill Sweetman at 3/20/2009 6:30 AM CDT Just released - the design patent on Northrop Grumman's Next Generation Bomber concept. Details: as expected, it looks smaller than a B-2. Four engines make life easier for the signatures group, because the smaller inlet duct can achieve the required radar-blocking curvature in a lesser length. Most likely, a single weapon bay on the centerline. And, as expected, a variation on the Northrop Grumman "cranked kite" planform family. And, overall, not too far from the concept that Jozef Gatial produced for us last year: Jozef Gatial for...

PALMDALE - Employment at Air Force Plant 42 picked up during the last six months of 2008, thanks primarily to hiring at Northrop Grumman Corp. That hiring trend is expected to continue as the company ramps up development of the Navy's unmanned demonstrator aircraft, the X-47B, and production of the F-35 joint strike fighter. "We did hit our staffing target last year; however, we're still looking to add another 500 people by the end of the year," Northrop spokesman Jim Hart said. The Air Force production flight test facility reported employment of 7,039 at the various contractor sites, up from...

Northrop Grumman has delivered its 400th fuselage section for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the U.S. Navy's combat-proven multi-role strike fighter. The fuselage "shipset," measuring nearly 30 feet long and 18 feet high, consists of the aircraft's center and aft fuselage sections, twin vertical tails and all associated subsystems. It was shipped earlier this month to The Boeing Company's F/A-18 production center in St. Louis, Mo., for final assembly and delivery to the Navy. As principal F/A-18E/F subcontractor to Boeing, Northrop Grumman is responsible for design and production of the entire center and aft fuselage as well as subsystems integration and...

Tugboats will pull the George H.W. Bush, the 10th and final aircraft carrier in the Nimitz class, to its January commissioning, the Navy and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding said Thursday. The big carrier should have sailed under its own power from the Newport News shipyard to Norfolk Naval Station for the Jan. 10 ceremony. It is not ready for delivery, said Margaret Mitchell-Jones, a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman. In the past, the Navy has delayed the ceremony, which marks the ship's official entry into the Navy fleet. But not this time. Navy Secretary Donald Winter set the date earlier this year, and...

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is partnering with Areva, a multinational energy company based in France, to construct a $363.4 million manufacturing facility for nuclear reactors in Newport News, Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Thursday.Construction will begin early next year on the 300,000-square-foot plant that will eventually bring 540 engineering and production jobs to the region, including 340 initial hires when production begins in 2012, said Margaret Mitchell-Jones, a spokeswoman for Northrop Grumman.No radioactive nuclear material will be handled, she said. Rather, the facility will produce reactor parts such as steam generators and pressurizers, most weighing more than 500 tons.“This joint venture project...

The Pentagon's top weapons buyer said the proposed aerial refueling tankers from both Northrop Grumman and Boeing were "technically outstanding" but differed by almost $3 billion on price. John Young, the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview at the Pentagon yesterday that under the tanker proposal from Northrop Grumman and its partner European Aeronautic Defence & Space, developing the first 68 aircraft would have cost $12.5 billion, compared with $15.4 billion under Boeing's plan.

Word that Boeing is strongly considering a “no bid” position for the next round of the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition is spreading only two days after the Pentagon released the revised KC-X draft request for proposals (RFP). Multiple sources familiar with Boeing’s internal discussions say company officials are strongly considering the option of not submitting a proposal as the company’s Integrated Defense Systems sector tries to respond to the draft RFP within the government’s speedy timeline. Comments are due this week. The move would leave the Defense Dept. without a competition for the KC-135 tanker replacement. A demand...

August 08, 2008, 7:00 a.m. Testing GatesTanker re-bid. By Merrill Cook A recent report by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) devastatingly critiques one of the Pentagon’s critical procurement processes. The July 2008 report demonstrates that the government botched contracts for an urgently needed new generation of aerial refueling tankers not just once, but twice. With years of delay and billions in budget overruns in many of the Department of Defense’s top programs, many observers are asking just how deep the Pentagon’s procurement problems run. They want to know what the Pentagon’s new chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will...

Deadline to submit bid is just two months away WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Wednesday requested new bids on a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, but Boeing supporters on Capitol Hill complained that the revised criteria seem to favor the rival European airplane. [...] “It’s obviously stacked against Boeing,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that focuses on national security and defense issues. “It appears to favor a larger aircraft in a way the original did not. But the timeline doesn’t give Boeing an opportunity to prepare a bid for a...

The Air Force bungled its biggest procurement deal to spend $40 billion to buy new aerial refueling tankers to replace its aging fleet, federal investigators declared last week. But what wasn't publicly known until yesterday was just how badly they did so.

Mobile’s hopes for an aircraft assembly plant just took a serious hit. As shown in the latest edition of Lagniappe, Boeing claimed the Air Force made math errors in their CNBC is reporting the U.S. General Accounting Office has also found that to be the case and called them “significant errors.” Boeing (NYSE:BA) is trading sharply higher on the news, while Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has taken a slight hit. Although the Air Force doesn’t have to abide by the GAO’s ruling, the likely outcome is for another round of bidding for the tanker contract experts say.

A labor union of technical engineers issued an 11-page “white paper” today ripping the USAF tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman and the KC-30 over the Boeing KC-767. The two page press release summarizes the white paper findings. The press release focuses entirely on EADS, parent of Airbus and maker of the A330-200 on which Northrop’s offering of the KC-30 is based. Northrop’s identified as a “minority” partner. (During a conference several months ago, Northrop acknowledged that about 50% of the contract revenues flow to EADs/Airbus. Engines, in this case provided by GE (an American company), typically represent about 20%...

A Navy deal for an unmanned plane is the latest won by a unit of the defense contractor, the region's second-largest private employer.With a bulbous head and plank-like wings, the aircraft resembles a lumbering whale. And its seven-word, 49-letter name -- Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aerial System -- is a whopper. But the award last month of a Navy contract to build the hulking, robotic patrol plane, nicknamed BAMS, could not have come at a better time for Northrop Grumman Corp. and, in particular, its military aircraft business headquartered in El Segundo. Flying highThe contract, potentially worth nearly $4...

Highlighting reasons the U.S. Air Force selected the KC-45 Tanker as best for our men and women in uniform. WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria. Despite this fact, the losing bidder wants the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman. Starting today and regularly in the coming weeks, “Why We Won� will provide detailed examples of why Northrop Grumman was selected, drawing...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co's (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) program manager for tanker aircraft voiced great confidence on Tuesday about winning back a $35 billion aerial-refueling deal from a team that includes European archrival Airbus. Mark McGraw, a company vice president, said he was "as confident as I can be" that congressional auditors would find fault with the U.S. Air Force's February 29 choice of the rival team of Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) to build 179 planes.

Northrop Grumman Corp. hired the lobbying firm of former U.S. Senator Trent Lott to help protect its newly won $35 billion Air Force tanker contract from challenges by losing bidder Boeing Co. and some lawmakers. Los Angeles-based Northrop and partner European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., the owner of Airbus SAS, won the contract on Feb. 29. Boeing, which has built aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force since 1956, appealed the decision last week and the leader of the U.S. House panel that controls military spending has threatened to cut funds for the program. Boeing's March 11 protest...

The legacy of the draconian cuts in military force levels and procurement during the 1990s continues to cast a pall over U.S. national security planning. That American soldiers and Marines have been overstretched by repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan is well-known, and steps are being taken to expand their strength. It is not just the combat forces, however, but the defense industry upon which they depend for arms and equipment, that also needs to be reconstituted.

WASHINGTON - Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years. Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to...

Subversives cook the books so the French can build our aerial tankers Being dependent on other nations for military hardware and allowing the French to build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers is sheer lunacy but that’s what’s going to happen unless our politicians speak out. Subversive bureaucrats have already succeeded in giving away our jobs and hollowed out our industrial base. Cooking the books so the procurement specs favor the French is the last straw. Anyone with an IQ higher than a clam knows that our economy is slowing down. We can’t afford to lose the jobs...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would formally challenge a decision by the U.S. Air Force to award a $35 billion aerial tanker program to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Europe's EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). "This is an extraordinary step rarely taken by our company, and one we take very seriously," said Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Boeing said it would ask the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to review the February 29 decision that...

A Good Deal of Credit to McCain for Stopping a Bad Deal Boeing and blame. By David Freddoso In 2001, the United States Air Force wanted to begin replacing 500 of its aging refueling planes. The plan began with a sweetheart deal, buried in the fine print of the 2002 defense-authorization bill. The Air Force was to lease 100 Boeing fuel tankers at a cost of $26 billion — $6 billion more than the cost of buying them outright, according to an estimate by the White House Office of Management and Budget. If that sounds like a bad deal, it’s...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The European refueling tanker that won a $35 billion Pentagon contract last week "was clearly a better performer" than its U.S. rival, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told lawmakers Wednesday. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Wynne said the plane offered by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., was determined to be less expensive and less risky than the plane offered by Chicago-based Boeing Co. The planes were judged on nine key criteria, he said, and "across the spectrum, all evaluated, the Northrop Grumman airplane was clearly a...

Last week Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS confounded expectations by beating incumbent Boeing for the contract to build the Air Force's next-generation aerial refueling tanker. The initial contract will be for 179 modified wide-body jets, but eventually the entire fleet of 600 cold-war tankers will need to be replaced, making this one of the biggest marketing coups in defense-industry history. However, that is just the beginning of what Northrop Grumman has achieved, because Boeing didn't manage to beat Northrop in a single measure of merit. Here's how they were evaluated... 1. Mission capability. Arguably the most important factor, this...

McCain Still Considering Tanker Deal By MATTHEW DALY – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain said Monday that he hasn't made up his mind on a $35 billion Air Force contract awarded to the parent company of French plane maker Airbus. McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, helped scuttle a previous deal that gave the contract for the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers to Chicago-based Boeing Co. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a new competition with Boeing Friday to build the refueling planes...

“Youths” in the suburbs of Paris are escalating their intifada against French society, ambushing and firing on police. PARIS: Dozens of hooded attackers fired buckshot and nails at police this weekend, wounding four officers, France’s interior minister said. Michele Alliot-Marie called the Sunday afternoon attack an “ambush,” saying that about 30 people, some of them armed, were waiting for the officers in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny. The officers were responding to a call about vandalism at a local bakery. Three officers were hit in face with buckshot; another was hit in the leg with buckshot and nails and...

The U.S. Air Force on Friday named Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America to build its next-generation fleet of aerial refueling tankers, spurning a bid from rival Boeing Co. in a surprise decision that could launch a new era of jet production in Mobile. The Air Force made its choice after a fierce competition between the two teams for one of the single largest defense contracts in U.S. history. Estimated at up to $40 billion, the deal includes 179 planes to be delivered over the next 15 years. Boeing was regarded as a heavy favorite by defense analysts...

Clinton and Republicans alike perceive the issue as the Democratic front-runner's biggest vulnerability. He appears eager to take up the fight. WASHINGTON -- As children sleep safely in their beds, a menace is set loose in the world -- and a phone rings in the White House. "Your vote will decide who answers the call," says a narrator, "whether it's someone . . . tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world." In her newest television ad, released Friday, Hillary Rodham Clinton shows who should answer the 3 a.m. call: She is pictured picking up the phone, confident and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force decision awarding a $35 billion aircraft contract to a team including the European parent of Airbus landed like a bomb in Congress on Friday, drawing howls of protest from lawmakers aligned with the loser, America's Boeing Co. The Congressional delegation from the Seattle area said they were "outraged." Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt vowed to seek a review of the decision "at the highest levels of the Pentagon and Congress" in hopes of reversing it. Boeing has big facilities in both Seattle and Wichita, which stood to gain from the long-term project...

The U.S. Air Force today named Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America to build its next-generation fleet of aerial refueling tankers, spurning a bid from rival Boeing Co. with a decision that could bring an aircraft assembly plant to Mobile. The Air Force made its choice after a fierce competition between the two teams for one of the single largest defense contracts in U.S. history. Estimated at up to $40 billion, the deal includes 179 planes to be delivered over the next 10-15 years. Boeing was considered a heavy favorite due mainly to its political clout and its legacy...

Northrop Grumman To Tap Further Potential In India Jan 8, 2008 Neelam Mathews/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report NEW DELHI - Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems division is planning to pursue opportunities in India and arrangements should be announced this year, Aerospace Daily has learned. The Ship Systems division will follow the lead of Northrop's Integrated Defense Systems and Electronics divisions in tapping opportunities in India. The Indian navy plans to induct 120 warships and 12 submarines over the next decade to protect its maritime interests and expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region. The trend has been set as the...

PALMDALE - The Air Force is expected to announce... a program that could result in thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in economic activity for California. The Air Force is expected to announce on Jan. 31 whether a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. or a team led by The Boeing Co. will win the KC-X tanker competition. The contract, potentially worth about $40 billion, would be to provide 179 aircraft for the Air Force to replace its aging fleet of KC-135R tankers. The Northrop Grumman team, which plans to build the aircraft in Alabama, said California...

The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman has begun integrating on the aircraft. The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal. The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by The Boeing Company, is a...

US willing to offer India advanced Hawkeye-2D spy plane 17 Dec 2007, 1319 hrs IST, IANS NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: The US is willing to offer its most advanced maritime spy plane, the advanced Hawkeye-2D, to India. According to a report in the forthcoming issue of India Strategic defence magazine, the Indian Navy had issued an RFI (Request for Information) for the aircraft to the US government some time back. Although Washington is yet to release this aircraft for export "it could be sold to countries like India, Egypt, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)", the report added. The aircraft is...

Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Northrop Grumman, along with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), have begun re-assembly of the world's most powerful laser built for an airborne environment onto MDA's Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft to prepare for high-power system testing. The integration is taking place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., following a refurbishment by the company that involved the disassembly and inspection of the high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) after the successful conclusion of ground tests in 2005. During those tests, the laser demonstrated repeatability of sufficient power and duration to shoot down a ballistic...

Nearly three years after the highly complex Delta 4-Heavy rocket flew a test launch to demonstrate its capabilities for hauling hefty cargos to space, the giant booster entered service tonight with a fiery blastoff carrying a national security satellite.