Chris Cyr has been named executive vice president for Airlines Americas for the Civil Aerospace Airlines business. Dave Whetton is being replaced by Cyr.
John Balaguer has been named vice president and general manager of customized engineering and depot support in Indianapolis David Dacquino has been appointed vice president and general manager of Integrated Support Solutions headquartered in Burlington, Mass. Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek (USA Ret.) has been named president of Raytheon Middle East/North Africa/Pakistan for Raytheon International Inc.
Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.), chairman of the newly revived House Armed Services investigations subcommittee, says he plans to leave Congress this summer if he is appointed chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. "If my nomination is approved by the [university] trustees, I plan to accept the position and to leave Congress in July," Meehan said in a statement March 13.
The top U.S. Army general on March 14 defended the service's own development and acquisition authority over unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the face of a purported Air Force effort to exert a lead role in medium- and high-altitude UAVs. The potential interservice spat spilled over into a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing over Army budget requests, with senators expressing opposing viewpoints.
Space shuttle managers are hopeful the hail-damaged external tank attached to Atlantis can be repaired at Kennedy Space Center, following two weeks of work inspecting and starting to fix some 7,000 dents and divots in the tank's delicate insulating foam. The Atlantis stack was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building after the Feb. 26 storm, which scotched any chance of meeting the March 15 launch date for the STS-117 mission to continue International Space Station Assembly.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin believes the U.S. spent enough on space travel in the 50 years since Sputnik 1 to land humans on Mars, and can carry out three more Apollo-level exploration efforts in the 50 years ahead without a real funding increase.
Preliminary estimates from NASA put the cost of a space probe to explore Jupiter's moon Europa at $2 billion to $4 billion, Acting Administrator for Science Colleen Hartman told House appropriators March 14. The estimate comes from an ongoing survey of potential outer planetary exploration missions that NASA expects to complete by the end of the summer. Other destinations under review include Jupiter's moon Ganymede and the Saturnian moons Enceladus and Titan.
Capability had to take a back seat to schedule in the acquisition of the U.S. Air Force's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter fleet, said Ken Krieg, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. "What was clear was a need to hold to schedule," Krieg said during a March 14 Pentagon press briefing on acquisition reform.
JAMMER SYSTEMS: Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Maritime Systems and Sensors has been awarded a $6.4 million contract modification to produce 55 Symphony Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Jammer Systems and related equipment for the U.S. military, the Defense Department said March 13. The work will be performed in Manassas, Va., and is expected to be finished by September 2008. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., awarded the contract.
ABERDEEN ACTIVE: During the past two years, Aberdeen Test Center researchers have tested about 30 rapid fielding initiatives a week, with more than 1,400 tests conducted last year alone, the Defense Department says. Since 2001, the center has seen an 87 percent increase in range activity as the Army tries to instill "spiral development" in its development processes. The center, at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., tests equipment ranging from tanks to protective vests and helmets.
The U.S. Army will restore scheduled funding cuts to the Medium Extended-Range Air Defense System, according to Jim Cravens, president of MEADS International. Cravens and Axel Widera, executive vice president, told reporters March 13 that the Army has committed to filling in proposed cuts in its latest long-term budget plan for the German-Italian-U.S. missile system, and that the program should not suffer any schedule slippage.
