MISSILE LAUNCHERS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon an $18.8 million modification to a previously awarded contract for the production of four Mk 49 MOD 3 Guided Missile Launcher Systems (GMLS) and associated equipment for the LPD 25 and CVN 78 platforms, as well as 10 Mod 1 to Mod 3 GMLS Ordalt Kits. Work will be performed in Ottobrunn, Germany (50 percent), Louisville, Ky. (45 percent) and Tucson, Ariz. (5 percent) and is expected to be completed by Feb. 2012.
MIXED BLESSING: The European Parliament last week approved a new defense procurement directive to ease competition within the European Union. But the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association says the wording represents a “mixed blessing.” One concern is that the language will weaken government interest in defense and security research and development spending. The European Defense Agency applauded the legislation.
THALES CLEARED: A Paris court has cleared Thales of claims in Le Monde that the company is riddled with corruption in French and international markets. The charge, brought by a former employee, Michel Josserand, and published in Parisian daily Le Monde and its website on Sept. 27, 2005, were rejected and the paper, along with Josserand and two Le Monde journalists, found guilty of libel. The decision may be appealed.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Jan. 26 - 28, 2009 — 6th Annual Tactical Power Sources Summit, Hilton Alexandria Old Town, Alexandria, Va. For more information go to www.idga.org/us/tacticalpower
THALES SHAKEUP?: French daily Les Echos says Dassault Aviation may seek to dump Thales boss Denis Ranque one its acquisition of a 21 percent stake now held by Alcatel-Lucent is finalized. The 1.6 billion euro ($2.2 billion) transaction was approved by Dassault and Alcatel on Dec. 19 following French government clearance, and now awaits only a European Commission okay. The move is rumored to be linked to the unexpected dismissal of Thales Aerospace Division head Francois Quentin last week.
CYBER SCENARIO: The House Armed Services Committee plans to monitor cyberwarfare developments during the 11th Congress, and not a moment too soon, says Paul Kaminski, former Clinton-era defense acquisition chief and adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. He says long development times, often stretching out into decades, are causing the Pentagon to “lose the recipe” for success and domination of key technology areas such as the cyberworld. Cyberwarfare demands a development cycle of “less than weeks” instead the months and years now required to deflect network attacks.
EUTELSAT TEAMS: Eutelsat and Speedcast will team with Furuno of Japan, a global leader in maritime navigation and communications systems, to offer worldwide mobile broadband satellite services for the maritime industry. Eutelsat had agreed in March to develop the service with Hong Kong-based Speedcast, a leading Asian satcom service provider owned by AsiaSat, using the two operators’ satellite fleets.
NEW DELHI — Gripen is denying a news report in a local daily claiming the company will be left out of field trials for India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition because it didn’t make the grade with the Indian Air Force’s Technical Evaluation Committee. The technical report is said to have been submitted to the Indian ministry of defense in mid-November of last year. It now has to be approved by the ministry before the field trials can begin.
NASA has scheduled a dress rehearsal for the launch of shuttle Discovery on STS-119 for Jan. 19-21 at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Formally known as the terminal countdown demonstration test, the rehearsal will include both the astronauts and ground crews participating in a practice countdown, including emergency egress training. Discovery was rolled to Launch Pad 39A at 10:08 a.m. Jan. 14 via its enormous crawler-transporter, which carried the stacked shuttle the 3.4 miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the pad, traveling at less than 1 mph.
ENGINEERING AGENT: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) a $23 million contract to serve as the platform systems engineering agent (PSEA) for the Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS). This is a first step toward a PSEA base year contract with options years through fiscal 2012. Raytheon IDS will manage the integration of capability upgrades into various aircraft carrier and amphibious ship combat systems while providing support for already fielded systems.
Challenges that faced the U.S. Navy in 2008 are relevant to issues the service will deal with in 2009, according to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead. “The topics I covered last year are still pertinent today,” Roughead said at the Surface Navy Association symposium Jan. 14. Reflecting on 2008 is not déjà vu, he added, instead calling it “consistency of purpose.”
TACTICAL TARGETING: Rockwell Collins has completed a Critical Design Review (CDR) with representatives of U.S. military services for its Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT), a high-speed Internet Protocol-based network that will connect military platforms. The TTNT CDR provided the military with a thorough review of the detailed design of the TTNT waveform.
Congressional auditors say NASA isn’t getting its money’s worth from the investigations carried out by the space agency’s inspector general. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, says in a report released Jan. 9 that of the 71 reports issued by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, only one had any recommendations on how to save taxpayers’ money.
ROC ON: Within the next couple of weeks, Lt. Gen. James Thurman, operations director for the U.S. Army, will usher a new requirements document for the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter through a process that will land it before the Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC). “Then I’ll bring that rascal forward” to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) in February or March, Thurman said. He and his team will review the Key Performance Parameters with a fine-toothed comb. “I’ve got to make sure we’ve got this right,” Thurman said.
The global demand for U.S. naval forces continues to rise, but the Navy is already drawing on reserves with little room left to maneuver, the service’s chief of integration and resources has warned. The problem: the already marginal extra fleet capacity is being used now.
Newly minted Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) is calling Afghanistan a “toxic political environment” that requires more American, NATO and Afghan troops, with the caveat that simply adding troops alone “without fundamentally changing the political dynamics on the ground could very well be fuel on the fire.” Perriello, now on the House Armed Services Committee, shared a panel at the recent United States Institute for Peace with U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, with the increasingly vexing issue of Afghanistan dominating conversation.
GLOBEMASTER SUSTAINMENT: DOD has awarded Boeing a $1.1 billion contract for C-17 Globemaster III total systems support. The award is part of the fiscal 2009 C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership (GSP), a performance-based logistics (PBL) program. It includes a previous award of $514 million for the first six months of FY ’09 and extends the period to September 2009. Boeing has been providing support for the U.S. Air Force’s C-17 airlifter for 10 years under PBL contracts.
LOS ANGELES Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) has successfully completed tests of a modified RL10 upper-stage rocket engine that show combustion stability and throttle-ability over a wider than expected range of 8-104 percent.
ARCTIC POLICY: Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, expressed his support for President Bush’s new Arctic policy Jan. 12. In a Coast Guard statement, Allen said the directive “reaffirms our nation’s obligation to protect the Arctic domain, its environment, and those who work and live in it.” Allen has been vocal in the past about the need for a coherent U.S. policy in the Arctic, particularly in the face of melting ice and Russian encroachment on the territory (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 17, 2008).
In observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish on Jan. 19. The next issue will be dated Jan. 20.
NEW DELHI The Indian Air Force is denying reports that it has already received the first of its three ordered Phalcon Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEWC) systems fitted on an Il-76 aircraft. Instead, the first one is expected by March, a senior official said. It will be based at Agra Air Force station, a three-hour drive from Delhi. The other two will be delivered in intervals of four months each, and India is looking at purchasing three additional systems.
