After more than four decades of doggedly pursuing laser weapon technology, engineers working in at least three Southern California laboratories have been quietly developing high-powered, solid-state lasers that some defense analysts say could revolutionize warfare.
A powerful new rocket that produces more than 12 times the energy of Hoover Dam's generators is slated to blast off from Cape Canaveral next week, launching a new battle for the supremacy of space, this time between commercial aerospace giants Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. The new rocket designs are leading to the most significant overhaul of the U.S. launch system since the 1950s, when aerospace companies began designing ballistic missiles to deliver nuclear warheads.
The Los Angeles Times reports on military developments in creating an "integrated battle space" which would give U.S. military leaders unprecedented access to information from anyplace around the globe, tracking ships, planes, vehicles and individual soldiers from a command and control center that could be thousands of miles away.
Future U.S. air campaigns will increasingly rely on unmanned craft to gather intelligence and attack targets.
A team of Southern California aerospace companies is covertly recruiting engineers across the country for a new generation of spy satellites under what analysts believe is the largest intelligence-related contract ever, up to $25 billion over two decades. Equipped with powerful telescopes and radar, the nation's newest eye in space is expected to form the backbone of U.S. intelligence for several decades, analysts said. The satellites will be farther out in space and harder to detect than the massive spy probes that currently orbit the Earth. They will also be able to fly over and take pictures of military compounds anywhere in the world, in darkness or through cloud cover, with far more frequency.
A new report argues that stiffer expert controls have reduced U.S. satellite companies' share of the global market 30 percentage points in 2000 to an all-time low of 45%.
California's commercial satellite industry, which has dominated the world market for decades, lost $1.2 billion in revenue, more than 1,000 jobs and significant market share last year, mainly as a result of stiffer export controls imposed by Congress, says a study to be unveiled today. In one of the more sobering assessments of the industry since passage of the legislation two years ago, the report will also reveal that U.S. satellite companies' share of the global market declined 30 percentage points in 2000 to an all-time low of 45%.