CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A potential strike – or protracted negotiations that could have crippled United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V, Delta IV and Delta II production and launch operations – has been averted by Machinists Union approval of a 3.5-year pay and benefits contract offer by the company. Approval came from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) union, representing workers at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and a ULA plant at Decatur, Ala.
Paradise Hotel San Diego, CA November 13-14, 2008 Highly complex programs of the 21st century A&D industry – are they too hot to handle? Gain real and timely intelligence and perspective about the politics, the money, the technology and the challenges the supply chain must overcome.
Two video clips that showed an off-the-record briefing by a senior F-15 pilot to retired generals on the recent Red Flag exercise seem to have disappeared from their original posting on YouTube. The discussions included some interesting, possibly classified, and certainly embarrassing details about fighting against the F-22, as well as the performance of the Indian air force’s Su-30MKI and the French air force’s Rafale in September’s Red Flag exercise (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 6).
NASA declared its Phoenix Mars Lander mission over Nov. 10, a week after the spacecraft sent its last signal from the Martian arctic. “Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team.”
India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was orbiting closer to the moon Nov. 10, after reaching lunar orbit Nov. 8 and later carrying out the first of a series of maneuvers designed to lower it to its final operational orbit 100 kilometers (61 miles) above the lunar surface. The latest orbit has a perilune of 200 kilometers, down from the 504-kilometer distance achieved when Chandrayaan-1 first entered lunar orbit. The probe’s apolune remains at 7,502 kilometers.
MORE OVERSIGHT: The No. 2 federal acquisition policymaker during almost all of the Bush administration, Robert Burton, says federal procurement and acquisition policy “is set to come under the microscope” with new Washington leadership next year. Burton, now at Washington law firm Venable, says clues can be derived from President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign promises and Democratic-led defense authorization passed recently.
ARMY Oshkosh Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., was awarded on Oct. 31, 2008, a $1,266,601,398 requirements contract/firm-fixed price contract for the purchase of 2,285 new heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTTA4) and 768 HEMTT RECAP, an upgrade to a lower model truck. The work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wis., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2012. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-D-0024). AIR FORCE
BYRD FLIES: The top appropriator in the U.S. Senate, Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), will step down from his chair starting in January and could be succeeded by another powerful lawmaker, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). However, the chain reaction is likely to further affect defense appropriations, regardless of whether Inouye gives up that chairmanship or retains it (as Byrd did with simultaneous leadership of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee). Byrd said Nov. 7 that he will remain in the latter position.
The NOAA-N Prime weather satellite that tumbled off of a “turn over cart” during a routine repositioning in the factory five years ago has been shipped after undergoing repairs to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for a Feb. 4 launch. The fall of the 18-ft. tall satellite required Lockheed Martin Space Systems to rebuild it, but its main instrument packages was not damaged. The mishap occurred in September 2003 (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 10, 2003).
The German army next year is due to receive its first EADS Tactical Radar Ground Surveillance (TRGS) system to assess the technology in the run up to a competition expected around 2011-2012.
PARIS — After years of false starts, the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), a Bangalore-based Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) laboratory, is homing in on its choice for a partner to jointly develop and produce the indigenous engine for India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). With NPO Saturn and Snecma short-listed and technical evaluations on, a decision may be made soon.
Recent tests for advanced monitors by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fail to ensure the new technology would properly identify smuggled nuclear material as it’s supposed to, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). “Preventing a nuclear weapon or radiological dispersal device (a “dirty bomb”) from being smuggled into the United States is a key national security priority,” GAO says in its report.
The routine launch of the Flight 18 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft will not take place this month as planned, because it isn’t needed. The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base says the current DMSP F16 spacecraft is continuing to provide good weather data for warfighters despite being a year past its four-year design life. So the Air Force will hold off on the F18 launch as long as F16 continues to perform.
ARMY HAWKS: As the Pentagon turns its attention to Afghanistan, the U.S. Army is speeding ahead to buy roughly 20 more Constant Hawk intelligence collection aircraft to support operations there. Constant Hawk consists of several electro-optical cameras on a single platform that provide a 360-degree view of the space around it. High-resolution streaming video is collected and stored, and the system is used for forensics after an event, such as an improvised-explosive-device detonation. Col.
SUSTAINMENT: The acquisition of Tapestry Solutions, a San Diego-based company that specializes in services and software for tracking and distributing equipment, will bolster Boeing’s desire to more deeply penetrate the logistics and sustainment market. Logistics support is seen as an area ripe for a boom, especially for the military, as legacy systems increasingly experience challenges with aging equipment, according to Tim Noonan, director of advanced global services and support for Boeing.
SABER RATTLING: President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will place Iskander short-range missile systems in Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave that borders NATO members Lithuania and Poland. The U.S. has announced it would place in Poland a Patriot missile battery capable of shooting down short-range missiles. Medvedev said in a Nov. 5 speech that Russia plans to jam U.S. missile-defense systems, parts of which are to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, and that Moscow was scrapping plans to stand down three Cold War-era missile regiments.
NASA has picked Lockheed Martin to support agency systems at Johnson Space Center and elsewhere that are used for training astronauts and conducting human spaceflight missions, awarding the company a contract with a potential total value close to $1 billion. The new Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC) replaces the Mission Support Operations Contract and incorporates portions of the work performed under the Space Program Operations Contract currently held by United Space Alliance.
SDB II: More flight testing is to come later this year and early next year as a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team refines its design for the U.S. Air Force’s Small Diameter Bomb II competition, according to Dan Jaspering, director of direct attack weapons at Boeing. To date, the team has executed two subsystem flight tests, including checks on the airframe. The team also has tested the seeker, which is being provided by Lockheed Martin. The Air Force is expected to downselect between this design and Raytheon’s proposal next October.
RESEARCH INVESTMENTS: The Defense Department will invest an additional $400 million over the next five years to support basic research at academic institutions. Defense Secretary Robert Gates secured the additional funding in the fiscal 2009 President’s budget request to Congress to expand research into new and emerging scientific areas and foster fundamental discoveries.
The availability of Canada’s CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopters is less than 50 percent, and minimum operational requirements can only be met by buying more aircraft or reducing maintenance inspections, says an official report. Canada purchased 15 of the AgustaWestland EH101 helicopters in 1998 on the assumption of 75 percent availability, but a study by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) found actual figures vary from 37 to 50 percent.
JLTV PROTEST: Northrop Grumman is protesting the U.S. Army and Marine Corps’ choice of winner for three technology development contracts for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program. Northrop said late Nov. 7 that it wants the congressional Government Accountability Office to examine the evaluation process, which Northrop “believes is marred by unstated requirement changes and arbitrary maturity ratings.” Defense officials announced the winners and losers — including Northrop — on Oct.
