STEVENS OUT: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), perhaps the most powerful lawmaker in aerospace and defense issues in Washington, has lost his re-election bid, marking the end of a historic Senate career that came to rule over everything from the Pentagon’s purse to NASA and FAA legislation. Stevens conceded Nov. 19 to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, whose win also boosts Democratic control of the 100-person Senate to at least 58 members. Stevens was found guilty by a jury Oct. 27 on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents.
The current growth plan for the U.S. Army is not sufficient, according to service secretary Pete Geren, and the service will either have to increase numbers or shrink demand if it is to be successful. Geren enumerated challenges facing the Army for an audience at the Center for National Policy Nov. 18. Properly sizing the Army was at the top of his list, which also included full spectrum readiness, better preparing Guard and Reserve components for operations, improving and streamlining contracting and acquisitions and family support. Growing
The U.S. Air Force and the Bush administration have themselves to blame for failing to gain the necessary funding and support to secure the number of F-22 Raptors the service says is necessary, according to a recent draft report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The Air Force and administration have consistently failed to justify the strategic need for the Raptors the service wants, and the F-22 is but one example of a continuing trend for military procurement, says the report, released last month.
ROME – Finmeccanica has improved both revenue and profit through the first nine months of the year, although the company’s debt continues to increase, before even accounting for the costs of the DRS Technologies acquisition. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the global economic slowdown, the company led by Pier Francesco Guarguaglini confirms its outlook for the whole of 2008.
The chairman of the House Armed Services’ air and land forces subcommittee says he’ll focus on restoring military readiness and resetting war-battered personnel and equipment in the coming congressional session. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) tells Aerospace DAILY his panel’s priorities will mirror those of House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) “in the sense that readiness will be the keystone and the foundation for whatever we do.”
Northrop Grumman has begun flight-testing its Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) for retrofit to the F-16. The development comes as industry awaits a U.S. government policy decision on the exportability of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar technology.
LONDON – Short-term funding and policy issues threaten the future well-being of the U.K. defense industrial base, and by extension the country’s military capabilities, senior industry lobbyists here are claiming. Mike Turner, chairman of Britain’s Defense Industries Council and a former BAE Systems CEO, told the British Parliament’s defense committee Nov. 18 that funding pressures and a failure to adequately support the long-term equipment program risk severe consequences for the industrial base there.
SPACE NET: Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have transmitted dozens of space images to and from the Epoxi spacecraft, marking what the agency calls the first step in creating “an interplanetary Internet.” The team used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN), which sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet’s TCP/IP. Engineers began a series of DTN demonstrations in October.
AVIATIONWEEK DT&R March 11 - 12, 2009 National Press Club Washington, DC -- New Administration -- New Priorities -- New Focus CHANGE — the defining word of the 2008 presidential campaign will come to defense planning, budgeting and programming.
SIMULTANEOUS SATS: Raytheon, builder of the U.S. Navy’s Multiband Terminal, announced Nov. 18 it has demonstrated simultaneous communications using low, medium and extended data rate wave forms. The company is under a $1.1 billion contract with the Navy that will lead to worldwide deployment of the Multiband Terminal on more than 300 ships, submarines and shore stations. The recent demonstration of simultaneous communications is the first of its kind, according to Raytheon, and was achieved using advanced extremely high frequency satellite simulators.
PARIS – Dassault Aviation has struck a deal to enter exclusive talks to buy the 20.8 percent stake in Thales now owned by Alcatel-Lucent. Details are to be worked out by mid-December. The agreement leaves EADS, which also had ambitions to take over Thales, on the sidelines. Dassault has offered a €38-per-share price for the Thales stake. Dassault already holds 5 percent in Thales and was considering selling its stake before making the bid. The maker of the Rafale fighter and business jets signaled its wider interest in Thales last month.
Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost a bag of tools overboard Nov. 18 as she and fellow spacewalker Steve Bowen started the next step in a complex station-repair process that won’t be finished until 2010. Bowen had a duplicate set of tools with him, and extravehicular activity (EVA) overseers at Mission Control Center-Houston were hopeful the pair would be able to finish the first EVA of the STS-126 International Space Station (ISS) logistics and repair mission as planned.
AIR CAV: Boeing’s F-model CH-47 Chinook has been fielded by soldiers in the 1st Cavalry Division in Ft. Hood, Texas. This is the third unit to field the aircraft since it was certified combat-ready in July 2007. The company fielding the aircraft has conducted extensive exercises to simulate air assault, resupply and transport operations in combat. The new helicopter features a modernized airframe, Rockwell Collins’ Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) cockpit and BAE’s Digital Advanced Flight Control System (DAFCS).
SAN DIEGO – The global economic crisis is choking off financing for some suppliers of aerospace and defense (A&D) components, forcing some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to step in to keep their supply chains running.
The Romanian government is selling the majority share of its main military aerospace company, Avioane Craiova. More than 1.8 million shares, or 80.98 percent of the company, will be sold. Final and binding bids are due Nov. 24, according to the Romania’s privatization authority AVAS. The rest is held by smaller, private shareholders.
PARIS — Persistent delays on the Airbus Military A400M airlifter have forced EADS to take another earnings charge, this time of 341 million euros, and temporarily change accounting procedures because of the project’s uncertain situation. EADS, which is the largest industrial stakeholder in Airbus Military, blames “the unavailability of a committed and reliable schedule for the propulsion system.” However, EADS Chief Financial Officer Hans-Peter Ring also notes that the situation is compounded by other delays in equipment supplies and systems integration.
Raytheon has received its first government funding for work on a Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) concept designed to combat warheads and countermeasures from ballistic missiles. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) strategy for the MKV program is to develop competing designs in parallel. Lockheed Martin also is developing a concept, and Raytheon had been working on its concept using corporate research money. MDA this month announced Raytheon was awarded a contract worth up to $442 million for work through December 2011.
NEW DELHI — Bell Helicopter has dropped out of the running for the Indian army’s program to purchase 197 light helicopters. Speaking to Aerospace DAILY, a Bell spokesman cited India’s 50 percent defense offsets requirement as a reason for the move. Bell was short-listed for the program last year, but lost out to Eurocopter’s AS-550. But that procurement was subsequently scrapped and the request for proposals reissued (Aerospace DAILY, July 29).
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — U.S. Army aviation must invest in science and technology (S&T) to keep pace with increasing requirements or risk overloading pilots with streams of data, according to the Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD).
Crew members on the space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station (ISS) berthed an Italian-built cargo carrier to the station’s Harmony pressurized node Nov. 17, delivering some 14,417 pounds of supplies that include hardware necessary to increase the station crew from three to six.
