The Air Force asked industry for feedback on its wide-field-of-view hosted payload project that seeks to place a staring overhead persistent infrared sensor on a commercial communications satellite. The Space and Missile Systems Center’s hosted payload office at Los Angeles AFB, Calif., would like to issue a request for proposal for the WFOV HP in March 2014 and issue the contract for it in March 2015, according to the Aug. 5 solicitation posted at the Federal Business Opportunities website. It envisions a payload with a three-to-five-year mission life that is delivered within three years of contract award, all for a cost of less than $42 million, states the notice. The feedback will help service officials gauge whether those cost and schedule goals are feasible.
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.