DARFUR NO-FLY: The British government may be pushing the United Nations to pursue a no-fly zone over Sudan's Darfur to try to quell violence in the troubled region. A report in the British Guardian newspaper claims that Prime Minister Tony Blair is personally advocating the implementation of a no-fly zone over the area where alleged genocide is occurring. The aim would be to ensure Sudan does not violate U.N. resolutions regarding the provision of weapons using transport aircraft.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper Jr., the former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency director who clashed with since-ousted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said if he becomes undersecretary of defense for intelligence he will restructure the Pentagon's intel shop like new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike McConnell recently announced. The plan underscores further distancing from Rumsfeld's tenure as McConnell and new Defense Secretary Robert Gates restructure their agencies (DAILY, March 27).
NSOM BIDDER: Raytheon Co. will lead an industry team in pursuit of the seven-year Network and Space Operations & Maintenance (NSOM) program, which will provide operations and maintenance services to the U.S. Air Force's Satellite Control Network.
When it comes to the replacement aircraft for the U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker fleet, one factor is becoming clearer, according to competitors Northrop Grumman and Boeing: size matters. What the Air Force has to decide is whether it wants a jumbo tanker. "Bigger, we believe, is better," said Paul Meyer, vice president of Air Mobility Systems for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems.
Boeing on March 28 announced the team members that will help it pursue the next major plum in NASA's exploration program - the right to build the upper stage for the Ares I rocket. Boeing's teammates include: United Technologies Corp. subsidiary Hamilton Sundstrand, Moog Inc., Northrop Grumman, Orion Propulsion Inc., SUMMA Technology Inc., Chickasaw Nation Industries, United Space Alliance (USA) and United Launch Alliance (ULA).
SUBCONTRACTORS: The European Defense Agency on March 29 will formally launch an initiative to ease the path for small and medium-size companies to become defense subcontractors. The move is part of a broader EDA goal of breaking down national barriers on an inter-European level and fostering a cross-border flow of defense work. EDA is setting up a portal on which European contractors would post subcontracting opportunities. The portal will be up and running next week and could draw interest from 30,000 suppliers, EDA says.
Russia has agreed to provide a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer for the European Space Agency's BepiColombo Mercury probe. The probe will be built by EADS Astrium and launched in 2013 in cooperation with Japan. Russian scientists were also invited to respond to the next call for proposals for ESA's new Cosmic Vision science program, to be submitted by the end of June.
AUSTRALIAN AEGIS: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors a $260.4 million fixed-price incentive contract modification for four Aegis Weapon Systems (AWS). The deal defines AWS long-lead material requirements and also includes Foreign Military Sales to Australia and Spain, the Defense Department said March 26. The AWS is the primary anti-air warfare defensive weapons system onboard surface ship combatants.
COMMUNIST BAN: The Defense Department has adopted as final, without change, an interim rule amending Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations to implement a fiscal 2006 defense authorization act mandate that prohibits the DOD from acquiring U.S. Munitions List items from Chinese military companies.
Rolls-Royce announced March 26 that it will supply the U.S. Navy's first two DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers with four powerful Marine Trent 30 (MT30) gas-turbine generator sets. The British defense contractor, which also builds electric propulsion systems, had been considered a leading contender for the initial gas-turbine engines after an MT30 was tapped to power the DDG-1000 Land-Based Test Site in Philadelphia, AVIATION WEEK's Defense Technology International reported last November. 'Enabling platform'
GALILEO ULTIMATUM: The eight-member Galileo Operating Consortium should be able to negotiate an agreement to deploy and run the planned European navigation-satellite constellation now that it has created a single legal entity to negotiate with the European Commission. The absence of such a body - and a CEO to run it - was a chief reason cited by EC Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot for the current deadlock in negotiations for an EC concession with the consortium for the 30-satellite system.
ITT Corp., a major manufacturer of night-vision equipment for the U.S. military, has admitted sending classified materials to China and elsewhere and has agreed to pay a $50 million penalty and invest another $50 million to improve its technology, prosecutors and officials announced March 27.
Replacing flood-damaged electronics components at seven under-construction missile silos in Alaska will cost an estimated $38 million, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says. The damage at the seven Silo Interface Vaults (SIVs), adjoining missile silos of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system at Fort Greely, Alaska, occurred because of "the confluence of several unanticipated and highly unlikely events," MDA said in a background paper it issued late March 26.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), chair of the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, questioned the affordability of the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program in light of the inescapable costs of continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during a hearing March 27. The Army will need $13 billion to $15 billion annually to reset worn-out equipment, even several years after combat ends, Abercrombie told a panel of Defense Department witnesses.
After an initial firm fixed-price contract in April 2003 of about $22 million, the U.S. Air Force has added about four dozen contract modifications to the Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) air defense program through 2006, nearly tripling the price tag, according to an Aerospace Daily computer analysis of defense contract data provided by the National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting.
HYPERSONIC RADOME: The U.S. Navy's Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., is awarding Raytheon Co. an $11.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development for high-temperature development, material test and evaluation, radome conceptual design, and manufacturing and test planning of wideband radome technology for next-generation hypersonic vehicles. The contract was competitively procured via a Broad Agency Announcement, with five offers received, and it follows a similar $10.6 million award to ATK COI Ceramics Inc.
Political and diplomatic fallout continues from China's Jan. 11 anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test, with top U.S. defense officials speaking out on the subject in Washington and Beijing. "Platforms costing billions of dollars to replace and the lives of astronauts from many nations are now at risk from debris left by China's recent ill-advised anti-satellite test," U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee in mid March. Intent unclear
U.S. Air Force officials say the extra cost being incurred by the country's new national air defense shield will be worth it because of its inherently greater assurance, reliability and computer processing speed. The Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) air defense shield is meant to prevent terrorists from using hijacked commercial airliners as weapons. In developing BCS-F, the service chose to take a more revolutionary acquisition path rather than slowly building incremental capability based on existing deployed systems.
SENATE SUPPLEMENTAL: The Senate on March 26 began consideration of its version of the contentious fiscal 2007 supplemental spending bill, with senators alternatively supporting and condemning Democratic-written provisions that look to force a withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq. The $122 billion bill could tie up the chamber for much of this week, at least, before Congress recesses for an Easter break. The House already passed its version, a $124 billion measure with even stricter withdrawal provisions.
Bell Helicopter's difficulties in producing the armed reconnaissance helicopter (ARH) are manufacturing process-related rather than technical, said Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, service aviation director. "Technically, it can be done," Mundt said March 23 at a Pentagon roundtable briefing. The issue is one of process - how Bell does its job on the manufacturing floor, Mundt said. The initial work was to cost about $3.6 billion for 368 aircraft, Mundt said. That ballooned to about $4.7 billion for 512 aircraft.
NAVY Rolls Royce Naval Marine Inc., 110 Norfolk Street, Walpole, Mass., is being awarded a $76,640,200 firm fixed price contract for DDG-1000 main turbine generator sets. Work will be performed in Walpole, Mass., and is expected to be completed by September 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured and advertised on the Internet, with two offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C., is the contracting activity. (N00024-07-C-4014). ARMY
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio - Sensorcraft technology and capabilities are nearer at hand than some think, says Donald Paul, chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Air Vehicles Directorate here. Described as a flying radar antenna, the aircraft would try to integrate the sensing systems currently incorporated in several wide-body aircraft into an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of 30 hours of endurance and operating out to a range of 2,000 nautical miles.
