EADS India is opening a Sourcing Office in India that will identify sourcing opportunities for EADS Business units in the country. The move comes as India's pending defense procurement projects pile up with vendors expecting major announcements in the near future that will require 30 percent offsets. Harvansh Batra will head the new office. EADS also will sponsor, along with the Supply Chain Management Institute of the European Business School, a Chair for Sourcing and Supply Chain Management at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.
A new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report finds that over the next two decades, space-based ballistic missile defenses are likely to prove expensive and -- especially in the case of laser weapons -- technologically risky and relatively easy for an opponent to defeat. The report comes as lawmakers and defense officials debate space-based weapons in light of the U.S. military's dependence on satellites, cost and program issues, and other nations' efforts to counter them (DAILY, Oct. 4).
AEGIS TEST: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is planning a test for early this week of the Aegis sea-based missile defense system. The test will feature two short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) targets launched nearly simultaneously. The USS Lake Erie will provide the primary sensor and dispatch two Raytheon SM-3 Block 1A interceptors for the hit-to-kill demonstration.
POLISH AIRLIFT: The Polish air force has acquired two more EADS Casa C-295 military transports, bringing the country's C-295 fleet to 12 aircraft. The new units will be delivered in 2008. Poland had previously ordered eight aircraft in 2001 and another two last year. The two units purchased in 2006 were received this summer. Casa has now sold 60 C-295s, 39 of which have been delivered. Six nations in addition to Poland operate the aircraft.
MORE COMPETITION: U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt says he's supportive of acting Pentagon acquisition chief John Young's initiative to fund multiple designs during major development efforts, though he acknowledges that will create funding questions. Specifically, Mundt says the Army selected a winning design for the Joint Tactical Radio System, a software programmable radio effort led by Boeing, too early, and that contributed to technical challenges that have rippled throughout the massive effort and added cost.
BRITISH WAIVER: The Pentagon's acquisition chief is waiving Buy American restrictions for certain defense items made in the United Kingdom, according to the Federal Register. The move further will permit their procurement unless otherwise restricted by law, such as Section 8015 of the fiscal 2007 defense appropriations act. The domestic preference requirements can be waived if their enforcement impinges on an ally with whom the United States has an acquisition arrangement and the ally does not discriminate against U.S. goods more than the United States does likewise.
SBIR PROMO: Democratic Sens. John Kerry (Mass.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa) are urging defense appropriators to include an additional $100 million in funding for the Defense Department's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The House version of the fiscal 2008 defense spending bill included the funding to increase the use of small, high-tech businesses to help the military develop the best technologies, diversify the supply base and reduce costs, according to the senators. Kerry, Harkin and Sen.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Claire Grandy, director of contracting and procurement for the U.S. Coast Guard, is vowing to clearly define expectations on future projects "to ensure we get the best possible performance from a cost and schedule perspective." Grandy says that in the past, "broad statements of objectives weren't always clear. We've moved away from [that] to more detailed specifications for what we require." She cites the National Security Cutter (NSC) as an example of the Coast Guard taking "a step back" to re-evaluate the process.
DWINDLING EURO: "Defense spending continues to be a relative afterthought throughout European capitals, despite the increased demands placed on Europe's militaries to participate in out-of-theater operations under multiple banners," according to Forecast International. The consultancy says limited defense finances of European states could be drained by NATO and European Union defense structures and analysts doubt that a recent mushrooming of missions is sustainable.
GET ORGANIZED: Washington would be unwise to discard or significantly alter major network-centric warfare (NCW) programs like the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems or the Air Force's F-22 until the military community gets a better grasp on a new leading concept of operations now NCW has lost its fervor, a conservative think tank analyst warns. But they need a new theory soon, before lawmakers and taxpayers demand and make changes of their own, says Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute.
Loral Space & Communications and Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP) have completed the acquisition of Telesat Canada for CAD 3.25 billion ($3.45 billion) and the assumption of CAD 160 million in Telesat debt.
Raytheon predicted a potential market for over 1,000 fighters and systems to be upgraded with its advanced active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system over the next 20 years, as it announced the selection of the system for Boeing's F-15E.
TEL AVIV -- Moshe Keret, long-serving chief of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), says he now feels vindicated by what he considers an extremely fast end to the government's investigation of him for corruption charges.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] Nov. 5 - 8 -- Tenth Annual Directed Energy Symposium, Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Ala. For more information call (505) 998-4910 or go to www.deps.org. Nov. 5 - 8 -- California Space Authority's Conference and Spotbeam Awards Dinner, Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles International Airport Hotel. For more information call (805) 349-2633 or go to www.californiaspaceauthority.org.
HURRICANE HUNGER: NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sent an unmanned aircraft into hurricane-force, 80 mph winds for the first time Nov. 2, to give researchers a real-time, low-altitude look at the storm. The five-foot-long, 10-foot wingspan Aerosonde from AAI Corp. was launched at 2:08 p.m. from NASA's Wallops Island, Va., facility and was expected to penetrate the center of Hurricane Noel at 10 p.m. In September 2005, the Aerosonde was flown from Wallops into Tropical Storm Ophelia on a 10-hour mission.
Rescheduling forced by the major power-generating problems on each end of the International Space Station (ISS) threatens to delay delivery of the pressurized ISS laboratory modules long awaited by Europe and Japan.
President Bush vowed Nov. 1 to veto a Democratic effort to combine short-term war funding, annual Defense Department and other domestic spending into packaged appropriations. Reiterating his opposition to such a "three-bill pile-up," Bush said Congress should pass his budget requests instead, starting with the $196 billion off-budget bill for Iraq, Afghanistan and other supplemental spending.
URBAN CHALLENGE: Eleven finalists will compete in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Urban Challenge robotic race Nov. 3. The teams include Team Cornell, Honeywell/Intelligence Vehicle Systems, MIT, Team Oshkosh Truck, and the Stanford Racing Team, whose "Stanley" vehicle became the first DARPA Grand Challenge winner in 2005. The team's robotic vehicles will perform simulated supply missions at a military urban training facility in Victorville, Calif.
The U.S. Army estimates that the total program cost for the Bell Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters (ARH) will be about $3 billion, following cost increases due to problems at Bell's manufacturing facility as well as the Army's decision to increase its buy to 512 of the Bell-407 derived aircraft. The per-aircraft cost now is expected to be about $9 million, up from just under $5.5 million before management issues arose, according to Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of Army Aviation.
Japan's Selene moon explorer successfully stretched out its Lunar Magnetometer (LMAG) and its Lunar Radar Sounder's (LRS) dipole antennas, and positioned its Upper Atmosphere and Plasma Imager (UPI) between Oct. 28-31. Selene is in the middle of checking out all 14 instruments aboard the satellite, which is expected to take until mid-November. LMAG has a sensor attached on the tip of its 12-meter (39-foot) mast, capable of measuring magnetic fields 1/100,000 weaker than Earth's. The mast was folded to 60 centimeters (2 feet) before launch.
Following similar action last spring with Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Navy said it is canceling construction of the second of two expected Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) from General Dynamics' industry team. According to a Nov. 1 Pentagon statement, the Navy worked "closely" with General Dynamics to try to restructure the deal for LCS 4 to "more equitably" balance cost and risk, but the two sides could not come to terms and conditions that were acceptable to both parties.
Germany has launched its third SARLupe X-band radar satellite, further expanding Europe's new SAR (synthetic aperture radar) reconnaissance capability. The spacecraft was launched atop a Cosmos 3M booster from Plesetsk in northern Russia on Nov. 1, joining the first two units, launched in December 2006 and July 2007 (DAILY, Aug. 7).
