HISTORY LESSONS: Association of the U.S. Army President Gen. Gordon Sullivan (ret.) is calling on Congress and the White House to put their differences aside and pass defense spending legislation, pointing to the months preceding Pearl Harbor as a model for action. During that time, "the president made concessions," Sullivan says. "The service secretaries and service chiefs made adjustments. Congressional leaders found grounds for workable compromises.
Discussion at the Pentagon about the troubled Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program is now focusing on how much of a fix is needed to ensure software on the first satellite bound for geosynchronous orbit is robust enough to perform to military standards. Some of the code for the early missile warning satellite was improperly timed, raising concern that if an on-orbit emergency occurred the satellite would not go into a "safe mode," which allows ground control to recover command of the satellite and fix the anomaly (DAILY, Oct. 15).
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Dec. 5 -- Institute of Engineering Technologies' "Communicating with UAVs." Savoy Place, London. Call +44 (143) 876-5650 or go to www.theiet.org/events/2007/communicating_uavs.cfm
MRAP SUPPORT: The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded International Military and Government LLC of Warrenville, Ill., a $152 million firm-fixed-price contract modification for sustainment items for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. The sustainment items will support vehicles in theater or scheduled for deployment. Work will be performed in WestPoint, Miss., and should be completed by Feb. 2008.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is looking for ideas from industry on how to introduce competition into Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) development and operations. Boeing's multi-billion contract as prime integrator for GMD runs out next fall. Since winning the contract, problems with a host of similar contracting arrangements - including the Army's Future Combat Systems, which Boeing leads jointly with SAIC - have raised concerns by some in government over whether too much work and authority is given to a single company through this set up.
Canadian Space Agency (CSA) officials expect a three-month slip in delivery of the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and Tunable Filter Imager (TFI) for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), after design issues in the state-of-the-art instruments that required them to seek parliamentary authorization to spend more money on the project. Savi Sachdev, CSA's director general of space programs, said Dec. 7 the roughly $100 million project has hit a funding ceiling because detailed design has proved more difficult than anticipated.
Defense policy legislation on its way to enactment seeks to grow the acquisition workforce, rein in contracting, mandate chief management officers at the Pentagon and armed services, and require for the first time that battlefield contractors hired by any federal agency follow orders from military commanders, as well as Defense Department regulations.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - NASA hopes to be installing the European Space Agency's Columbus module on the International Space Station (ISS) this week, pending flight rule workarounds to circuitry problems in the Atlantis engine cutoff (ECO) sensor system. The liftoff of Atlantis and its U.S./European STS-122 astronaut crew was set for no earlier than Dec. 8, but could also have been delayed into early this week or later depending upon events over the weekend.
ICE2 RECOMPETE: The U.S. Air Force's $2.25 billion Intelligence Information, Command and Control, Equipment and Enhancements (ICE2) contract recompetition may be a wide-open free-for-all, according to Washington-area federal IT consultancy Input. General Dynamics IT won the original ICE2 contract in June 2003 (DAILY, Aug. 20).
AIR RISK: The Pentagon is proposing to amend defense acquisition regulations to combine and extend contract clauses regarding assumption of risk for loss in leasing aircraft to the government. The proposed rule establishes requirements that apply "consistently" to all contract types, regulators said in a Dec. 7 notice in the Federal Register. Comments should be submitted by Feb. 5, 2008. Among other aspects, the provision would establish a share of loss for the contractor that is the lesser of $100,000 or 20 percent of the estimated contract cost or price.
TAXING CREDIT: Aerospace and defense industry representatives and others are pushing lawmakers to pass an extension of a favorite tax credit for research and development (R&D) efforts. The House on Nov. 9 passed a bill including language to extend the R&D credit for a year until Dec. 31, 2008. The Senate had yet to act when trade groups climbed Capitol Hill to lobby for the extension Dec. 5.
CYBER OPPORTUNITIES: The ability to centrally assess and communicate the fact that data links or satellites are under attack by adversaries will require further innovation by industry but could reap greater profit rewards as well, according to Air Force officials tied to the service's upcoming cyber command. The requirement includes collecting tremendous amounts of data, bringing it all together for personnel to spot changes in real time, and communicating conclusions and asset retasking to combat commanders (DAILY, Dec. 6).
JAGM RFP: A request for proposals for the reborn Joint Common Missile program, now called the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), is expected out next month. The earlier effort to replace the Maverick, Longbow and Hellfire missiles was awarded to Lockheed Martin but terminated as a result of budget cuts at the Pentagon. The military, however, hasn't let go of the requirement for a new small air-to-ground weapon, and JAGM will be designed to satisfy that need for the Army and Navy.
NASA's reassignment of Caris A. (Skip) Hatfield, the original program manager on the Orion crew exploration vehicle, was unrelated to a major weight scrub Hatfield oversaw that pulled the vehicle back within bounds. "Personal problems" between NASA managers didn't play into it, nor did unhappiness with Hatfield's technical solutions, insiders say. Administrator Michael Griffin refuses to discuss personnel matters with the press, but discounts charges the Orion program has been adding risk to reduce weight.
PARIS - Thales Alenia Space is teaming with Russia's NPO-PM to co-develop a multimission medium-high power spacecraft bus in a move that will reinforce the trend toward globalization in the satellite industry. The new satellite line, to be named the Express 4000, will borrow avionics and other features from Thales Alenia's Spacebus 4000 line, and carry a Thales Alenia payload. NPO-PM will be responsible for building, marketing and integrating the spacecraft at its Krasnoyarsk, Russia facilities.
NASA scrubbed its planned launch of space shuttle Atlantis Dec. 6 after two of four engine cutoff (ECO) sensors in the liquid hydrogen tank failed a routine test as the tank was being filled, violating a launch constraint that has held past missions on the ground for weeks.
MICA SALE: The Sultanate of Oman has confirmed the award of a contract for a vertical launch version of the Mica medium-range air-to-air missile and Exocet MM40 Block 3 antiship missiles, which have an extended 180-kilometer (112-mile) range and a littoral attack capability. The MBDA weapons are intended for Oman's three new Khareef offshore patrol vessels. This marks the first sale for the VL Mica, which protects against saturating air and antiship attacks.
High-altitude winds and an insulation-debonding issue have pushed launch of Italy's second COSMO-Skymed radar satellite back until the evening of Dec. 7 at the earliest. Managers scrubbed a planned launch attempt a little more than two minutes before liftoff Dec. 5 when weather-balloon data indicated out-of-bounds wind speeds at altitude above the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., launch pad. A retry Dec. 6 was postponed to give technicians time to repair some debonded cork insulation on the Delta 2 launch vehicle.
ATK ORDER: Alliant Techsystems will continue to provide Orbital Sciences Corp. with its Orion solid-fuel rocket motors under a new $35 million contract. Orbital uses the motors, which range in length from four to 33 feet, in its Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur I space launch vehicles. ATK has delivered 100 flight sets of the Orion motors, which are also used in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Orbital Boost Vehicle.
NEW DELHI - Despite a flurry of denials by Eurocopter and the Indian army, the country's ministry of defense has decided to terminate a $600 million deal to purchase 197 AS550 Fennec helicopters. "The government has decided to cancel the RFP [request for proposals] for 197 helicopters for the army," defense ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said. "A fresh RFP will be issued soon." Final price negotiations were ongoing with Eurocopter and the contract was expected to be signed in December (DAILY, Dec. 6).
U.S. aerospace has attained peak after peak in significant business-performance measures during the past few years, and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) sees more of the same in 2008. "This trend will continue in dramatic fashion," new AIA chief Marion Blakey said in her first address to the annual AIA year-end luncheon outside Washington. "The news through 2010 should be equally good." (See charts p. 5-8).
Odyssey Moon, the first entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, is offering no details of how it will place a robotic explorer on the lunar surface, but its prime contractor, MDA of Canada, has decades of experience in space robotics and exploration. Odyssey Moon Chairman Ramin Khadem, an investor and former chief financial officer for Inmarsat, says it is too early in the competition to talk specifics, which are not expected to begin emerging until next year.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully completed the second firing of the P80 first stage solid rocket motor intended to power Europe's Vega light rocket. The firing, carried out on a test stand in Kourou, French Guiana, delivered 190 metric tons of thrust - equivalent to a third of the total thrust generated by the Ariane 5's solid rocket boosters - for a nominal duration of 111 seconds. The first firing took place late last year.
