Boeing is eyeing a place in the persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAV arena with its Phantom Eye demonstrator. A twin-engine, hydrogen-fueled prototype designed to stay aloft at 60,000 feet for days, Phantom Eye will have a wingspan of 150 feet and a 53-foot length. The high-altitude/long-endurance (HALE) UAV will take off using a cart and land using nose gear and skids, a design choice made to conserve weight, says a Phantom Works executive.
Top aerospace and defense (A&D) executives are moving to reposition their businesses for an era of leaner Pentagon spending and preserve core capabilities as aging baby boomers retire. But they face formidable hurdles in getting their organizations to execute on the new business strategies, according to a report released March 8.
OBITUARY: Jon C. Jones, the president of Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems business, died suddenly March 6 of an apparent heart attack. He was 55. Jones had led the 13,000-employee unit since November 2005 and was one of a handful of company insiders viewed by analysts as a potential successor to Raytheon Chairman and CEO Bill Swanson. The El Segundo, Calif.-based Space and Airborne Systems unit had sales of $4.6 billion in 2009 and an operating profit of $647 million.
LONDON — A tumble in the euro triggered by Greece’s debt crisis is providing some much-needed good news to EADS as the European aerospace giant braces for another big earnings hit from the troubled A400M military airlifter program. The A400M charge came in at €1.8 billion ($2.5 billion), adding to €2.4 billion in charges already taken on the project, which is running three years behind schedule (Aerospace DAILY, March 8).
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Allen-Vanguard Inc., Ogdensburg, N.Y., is being awarded a maximum $24,506,533 firm-fixed-price, total set-aside contract for advanced bomb suit and components. There are no other locations of performance. Using services are Army and Air Force. The original proposal was Web solicited with one response. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is March 2011. The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, is the contracting activity (SPM1C1-10-C-0012).
The U.S. Army is stuck in a too-familiar battle between cost and benefit as it prepares to field a host of new Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) radios. The issue is not the benefit JTRS would bring to the Army, according to Rickey Smith, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center-Forward (ARCIC). “The Army is large — that’s the frustration,” he said. “But [JTRS] radios bring huge benefits.”
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $568,531,272 contract which will provide the incremental funding for the original F-22 weapons system undefinitized contract action modification awarded on Dec. 15, 2009, to authorize and fund the Structural Retrofit Program II and the Reliability and Maintainability Maturation Program during the calendar year 2010. At this time, $411,201,032 has been obligated. 478 AESG/SYK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-08-C-2897, P00040).
ELECTRONIC ATTACK: A close-hold, so far unreleased Resource Management Decision signed by Pentagon Acquisition chief Ashton Carter in late January is triggering internal activity to support improvements in airborne electronic attack, warfare and network exploitation. “It directs the services toward investments in electronic warfare,” says an electronics industry official who has been briefed on the document. “It directed the Navy’s acquisition of 24 additional EA-18G Growlers [that will be assigned to four squadrons operating with the U.S.
LIFE ELSEWHERE: NASA’s Science Chief says that although he may not live to see it himself, he would be “shocked” if humanity fails to discover extraterrestrial life before the close of this century, either in our solar system under the Martian soil or the frozen crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, or through telescopes observing the by-products of life in the atmospheres of distant extrasolar planets.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is purchasing the Gilbert, Ariz., satellite manufacturing unit owned by General Dynamics, considered by some to be one of the most modern and capable such facilities in the world. Formerly called Spectrum Astro and now called General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, the facility once specialized in small satellites but has, under the management of General Dynamics, stepped up to develop a medium-class satellite platform.
PHOBOS FLYBY: European Space Agency scientists are analyzing radio-science data from the closest flyby ever of the Martian moon Phobos, in the hope the data can be used to estimate the density variation across the tiny object, which is believed to be nothing more than a pile of relatively loosely gathered planetary rubble. The European spacecraft began a series of 12 Phobos flybys last month, and will begin collecting high-resolution images of the surface on the next pass before wrapping up the sequence by the end of the month.
LESS RESISTANCE: Defense and aerospace services company the VT Group’s resistance to a takeover bid by Babcock International weakened last week when the two sides announced they had agreed upon “a basis for a mutual exchange of information.” VT had previously rejected Babcock’s overtures. The latest move opens the door for a formal offer from Babcock. At the same time VT has backed off making an offer for the support services company Mouchel.
GOES GOING: Boeing engineers are checking out the third and final Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) built by their company in the GOES-N configuration, after its launch March 4 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Liftoff came at 6:57 p.m. EST, two days late because a quick-disconnect and a steering control valve on the rocket had to be replaced. The weather satellite will be designated GOES-P until checkout is complete, when it will be stored as GOES-15 as an on-orbit spare.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) March 15 - 18 — Satellite 2010, Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland. For more information go to www.satellite2008.com March 16 - 18 — Aviation Industry Expo, “Ground Support, FBO/Aviation Services and Aircraft Maintenance, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nev. For more information go to www.aviationindustryexpo.com/index.po
UNDER FIRE: The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), is protesting a $2.8 billion U.S. Army award to engineering and support contractor KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root) for logistics work to be done in Iraq. A letter from Towns to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates brings up KBR’s “deficient maintenance of electrical systems at U.S.
FUEL CELL: Boeing and Japanese engine manufacturer IHI will collaborate on research into regenerative fuel cell technology for auxiliary power on aircraft. Initial applications include power for galleys, pumps and lighting. Boeing says the companies will work towards a full-scale demonstration of a prototype fuel cell in an aircraft testbed. Regenerative fuel cells have the potential to increase aircraft efficiency and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, the company says.
COLLIER WIN: The International Space Station, almost complete in orbit after a decade of assembly, is the recipient of the 2009 Robert J. Collier Trophy. The National Aeronautic Association announced the award “for the design, development and assembly of the world’s largest spacecraft, an orbiting laboratory that promises new discoveries for mankind and sets new standards for international cooperation in space.” Recipients are NASA, the U.S.
Lockheed Martin has finally nailed down a $171.8 million contract to build four small-target detection radars for the U.S. Navy’s new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aerial surveillance aircraft.
China’s plans to launch its second lunar orbiter are still on track for October, according to Chinese press reports, but the unmanned docking target designed as the Asian nation’s next step toward its own space station has been delayed until next year. The Xinhua news agency cited Qi Faren, who led design of the Shenzhou human-rated capsules that have carried six Chinese astronauts to orbit, as saying the Tiangong-1 docking target won’t be launched until 2011.
LONDON — With the Pentagon restarting its search for a new presidential helicopter, Finmeccanica says it may have to seek a new industrial arrangement for the competition. Lockheed Martin, which served as the prime contractor on the winning US101 offer before the deal was canceled, may not take on that role again, Finmeccanica CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini suggests. That would mean Finmeccanica has to find a new arrangement to bid the AgustaWestland AW101, he says.
SAAB STAKE: BAE Systems has sold half of its remaining 20.5 percent stake in Saab to Sweden’s Investor Group, and it will divest of the remainder of its shares through a market placing. The former British Aerospace acquired a 35 percent stake in Saab in 1998, at a time when the company was looking toward consolidation in the European market. It had already formed a joint venture with Saab in 1995 focused on the export of the latter’s Gripen fighter. BAE strategy, however, shifted to the U.S. market, and in 2005 it reduced its shareholding to 20.5 percent.
