WASHINGTON Among the 10,000-ft. mountain tops and snow-covered ridges of southeast Afghanistan, large groups of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters for the first time have battled U.S. units, rather than Afghan troops accompanied by special forces advisers who primarily provided supplies and communications and designated targets for air strikes.

KOUROU, FRENCH GUIANA With the resumption of Ariane 5 operations after a seven-month shutdown, Arianespace is preparing a tight launch schedule involving four more Ariane 5 missions and five Ariane 4 flights. Chairman/CEO Jean-Marie Luton said the Ariane 5 would lift off again in May or June with an as-yet-undetermined payload, and then again in midsummer with the maiden flight of the new ESC-A version, equipped with a cryogenic upper stage engine.

WASHINGTON The Afghanistan air campaign is not over, but analysts and senior military officials are hailing it as the first conflict in which intelligence was the primary U.S. weapon. Key factors in their assessment were persistence (the ability to maintain round-the-clock surveillance), integration at the tactical and operational levels of intelligence from many sources, and the ability to control data collection.

WASHINGTON Costs on two of the Defense Dept.’s helicopter programs have sky-rocketed to the point where senior Pentagon officials must reassess whether they still want the aircraft. Both Bell Helicopter Textron’s AH-1Z and UH-1Y and Boeing’s CH-47F Chinook upgrade have seen costs balloon, triggering so-called Nunn-McCurdy breaches.

LONDON The number of Joint Strike Fighter aircraft Britain will eventually purchase has been thrown into doubt by the government’s decision to abandon its Sea Harrier fleet nearly a decade earlier than planned. The decision leaves the Royal Navy without an organic fixed-wing air defense asset until 2012 at the earliest.

WASHINGTON The Defense Dept.’s list of new Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations reflects the organization’s current fixation with unmanned aerial vehicles and the war on terrorism. Of the 15 projects funded to date, 11 are war-related and four involve unmanned aircraft ranging from micro-UAVs to a new sensor for the high-altitude endurance Global Hawk.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER France has reaffirmed its intent to pursue strong new Mars mission cooperation with NASA, while Russia is also seeking new Mars collaboration with the U.S. The French affirmation means that a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the collaboration—which has been awaiting completion at the U.S. State Dept.—will now proceed, said Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator for space science.