The Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) continues to make progress on its systems, but costs have grown and less work is being completed than planned, congressional auditors report. In turn, Congress may want to reconsider MDA's unique budget flexibility since it plans to spends about $10 billion a year for the foreseeable future and will not meet its original Block 2006 cost, fielding or performance goals, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) auditors have suggested.
ATLANTA - The total maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market for the 38,970 Western-built aircraft in the world's military fleet is worth about $59.9 billion this year and will grow less than 1 percent a year over the next 10 years to $63.7 billion in 2017, according to a forecast prepared by AeroStrategy and presented April 17 at Aviation Week's MRO Military Conference here.
The U.S. Coast Guard has stripped a Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman joint venture of its lead systems integrator (LSI) role in the service's potentially 25-year, $24 billion Deepwater recapitalization program, although the contractors remain the leading first-tier providers.
TANKER MRO: Boeing has selected Delta's TechOps division to provide parts inventory management and repair services for the company's KC-767 offering, which could mean a lot of extra third-party maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) work for Delta if Boeing wins the U.S. Air Force tanker replacement competition against rival Northrop Grumman. The Air Force is expected to award a contract for 179 tankers in October. Delta TechOps already performs work for Boeing and the U.S. Air Force on the C-40 program under a contract awarded in 2001.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it will cost about $108 billion from now until 2013 to fund the Bush administration's proposal to increase the size of the active-duty U.S. Army by 65,000 personnel, increase the U.S. Marine Corps by 27,000, and beef up the reserves and National Guard. The increases would have a direct bearing on procurement costs, CBO reported April 16 in its "Estimated Cost of the Administration's Proposal to Increase the Army's and the Marine Corps's Personnel Levels."
FRENCH HAWKEYE: The U.S. Navy will sell to France one E-2C aircraft with the Hawkeye 2000 Airborne Early Warning (AEW) suite, as well as three T56-A-427 engines, spare parts, training and service support and related materials, according to an April 17 notice in the Federal Register. The $260 million deal, the fourth aircraft for France, will boost the country's NATO communications and interoperability.
Although defense analysts testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee April 17 agreed that the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program demands serious attention from lawmakers, they differed widely in their opinions of whether the mammoth modernization program is worth the cost or trouble to develop and deploy.
NASA's latest set of target space shuttle launch dates for the remainder of the year suggest Europe's long-awaited Columbus laboratory module could make it to the International Space Station (ISS) before the end of 2007, but a few key issues remain unresolved.
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), worried about a shortfall in the number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) available to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote the chairmen of the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees April 17 seeking to increase funding.
SUB SUPPORT: Alion Science and Technology announced April 17 that it received a five-year, $25 million contract from the U.S. Navy's submarine combat system program office to provide engineering services to help modernize the electronic combat system onboard submarines. The combat system is used to support critical submarine combat operations such as threat detection and tracking, communications, navigation and weapon launch capabilities.
Boeing may still have an eye on U.K. acquisitions, but it is trying to address baseline British government stipulations on national presence through organic growth. The company officially opened a systems engineering and integration office in Bristol, England, April 16. Boeing also will open a modeling and simulation laboratory in the third quarter, under a joint initiative with U.K. defense technology company Qinetiq.
MERCURY C2: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is awarding Rockwell Collins almost $45 million to an existing contract for the E-6B Block I modification program, including the design, development, installation and testing of a fully integrated airborne command and control communication system, the Pentagon said April 13. Most of the work will occur in Waco, Texas, and the rest in Richardson, Texas, and should be finished by December 2009. Boeing delivered the final upgraded E6-B Mercury aircraft, a Boeing 707 variant, to the Navy in Jacksonville, Fla., in December.
PATRIOT: U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command has awarded Raytheon two contract modifications totaling $13 million to provide technical and material support of the Patriot Missile Field Surveillance program in the U.S. and overseas, the company announced April 13. The modifications, which include options for up to $12 million, are for technical personnel and material to support the processing of Patriot missile rounds and the operation of Patriot missile facilities, missile assembly/disassembly facilities and the Patriot missile transmitter facility.
President Bush and Democratic congressional leaders will meet April 18 concerning the second fiscal 2007 supplemental measure, but it is unclear what they may resolve although Democrats ap-pear to be crafting multiple bills for presidential consideration. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said April 15 on Fox News that Democrats could highlight so-called benchmarks for the Iraqi government as part of a follow-on bill if Bush vetoes a congressional measure containing U.S. withdrawal provisions (DAILY, April 11).
Boeing's team submitted its final proposal for NASA's Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle upper stage production contract on April 13, the company announced. Boeing already submitted two earlier bid volumes: one on past performance on March 16 and another on mission suitability and plans on April 2. The company's partners in the bid include United Technologies subsidiary Hamilton Sundstrand, Moog Inc., Northrop Grumman, Orion Propulsion Inc., SUMMA Technology Inc., United Space Alliance and United Launch Alliance.
TRIDENT: The U.S. Navy is awarding Lockheed Martin a one-year, $14.2-million contract for continued work on the U.K.'s Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) program, the company announced April 16. The Royal Navy's Lockheed-built Trident II D5 missiles are deployed aboard British-built Vanguard-class Trident ballistic missile submarines. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will provide program management and planning support as well as technical support related to integration and operations for U.K. re-entry systems, missiles and support systems.
The commander of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force says his top transformational priority is replacing his security force's fleet of aging Bell UH-1N helicopters. "All I want," Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe told a National Defense University Foundation audience April 13, is "something that's faster, can carry more and could be armed."
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is kicking off an effort to develop a new system for detecting and engaging snipers before they have the chance to attack U.S. troops. Dubbed C-Sniper, the system must be capable of operating day or night from a moving vehicle, according to DARPA. When the system detects a sniper, it will point an onboard weapon system at the target and wait for operator approval to fire.
