A day after U.S. Navy officials outlined future cutbacks in the program, Northrop Grumman Corp. said the service awarded it $16 million for two more MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft (VTUAV) and that it would help the Navy in "refining" the rotorcraft drone's concept of operations.
The worldwide commercial geostationary satellite market is projected to stay at 20-25 satellite orders annually for the next few years, according to Clay Mowry, president of Arianespace Inc. The market is continuing to recover after having a rough period from 2002 to 2005, Mowry said during FAA's Tenth Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Arlington, Va., Feb. 6. Over that time, annual orders slipped from the high 20s to less than 10, he said. Launches typically follow two years behind satellite orders.
Funding the Pentagon priority joint air capabilities programs for fiscal year 2008 would cost about $20 billion for 100 aircraft, excluding unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missiles or other weapons, according to Defense Department budget documents (See related chart, page 7). And all of the aircraft have developmental or other issues that need to be resolved, according to the recently released Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) annual report. Here's the Pentagon lineup of the aircraft, costs and issues on the table:
TEST EQUIPMENT: The U.S. Army has awarded Raytheon Co. a $19.3 million contract for Patriot "Pure-Fleet" Tactical Assets test equipment, the Defense Department said. The work will be done in Andover, Mass., and is expected to be finished by Jan. 31, 2008. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
FRAG KITS: O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. of Fairfield, Ohio, has been awarded an $82.2 million contract modification to provide the U.S. Army with Objective Frag #5 Kits for uparmored Humvees. The work will be done in Andover, Mass., and is expected to be finished by April 30, 2009. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
The Bush administration's massive fiscal 2008 defense budget request seeks $8.9 billion for ballistic missile defense - a $500 million reduction from the previous year's budget request, the Pentagon said Feb. 5. Missile Defense Agency officials said the cut came near the end of the budget cycle as a cost reduction in the ballooning $481.4 billion defense request for fiscal 2008. Pentagon planners expect it to be just a one-year cut.
The U.S. Army is requesting $130 billion in fiscal 2008 and $140.7 billion in FY '09, after successfully making the case to Pentagon leaders last year that it needed more money to fulfill its duties as spelled out in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).
JOINT TACTICAL RADIO: Boeing has teamed with Rockwell Collins, Harris, L-3 Communications, BBN Technologies, Northrop Grumman and Milcom Systems Corp. to propose a system design and development plan for the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System. Company officials say the product will be a software-defined radio with Internet-like capabilities that allow network-centric communications for air, land and sea forces.
NASA astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams finished activating the permanent cooling system for the U.S. Destiny laboratory module on Feb. 4, spending 7 hours, 11 minutes outside in a virtual repeat of another extravehicular activity (EVA) last week.
Bush administration officials declared an "increase of $788.1 million" for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program in President Bush's budget request for fiscal 2008. The funds would help complete acquisition of four National Security Cutters, fund engineering and design costs for the Replacement Patrol Boat and purchase four additional Maritime Patrol Aircraft, according to a Homeland Security Department statement Feb. 5.
The Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) fiscal 2008 budget includes shifts in several major programs, including a rescoping of kill-vehicle plans and cuts to the space-based Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), the Kinetic Energy Interceptor and the High Altitude Airship. The reductions are largely based on cuts handed down by the Pentagon because of pressures to fund ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
ALTERNATIVE AGAIN: The Defense Department again is proposing to drop the Joint Strike Fighter's alternative engine effort. While acknowledging that Congress rejected the same idea last year, defense officials reiterate that their business case does not support paying for two separate engines, unveiled Feb. 5. Once again, the Bush administration is omitting the alternative engine in its budget request.
SPACE INSTITUTE: German aerospace center DLR has founded a new Space Transportation System Institute, to be located in Bremen. The government of Bremen, where much of Europe's orbital infrastructure industry is based, will fund 10 percent of the institute, and the federal government will pay for the remainder.
In the wake of recent revelations concerning China's anti-satellite efforts, the U.S. Air Force is looking at ways to protect its spacecraft or warn against attacks on the satellites, a senior service official said Feb. 5. One of the possible satellite-attack warning systems would involve putting sensors on each of the Air Force's spacecraft, the official said.
The Air Force supplemental budget requests for fiscal years 2007-08 include about $567 million for accelerated purchases of three Joint Strike Fighters to replace recently lost F-16s. That comes to about $189 million a fighter - nearly three times the amount the average production costs are scheduled to be, and about 25 percent more than JSF program officials predicted in mid-2005 that the initial start-up costs for the F-35 would be. The three JSFs would be above the 1,763 aircraft being planned for the F-35 buy.
