NASA has added an unmanned orbital flight of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) in March 2013 to gather additional data prior to the first manned Orion flight scheduled for that October. "We wanted to insert an unmanned orbital flight before we put humans onboard," Exploration Launch Manager Steve Cook told The DAILY, Feb. 27. The Orion will be boosted to orbit by the Ares I - a modified five-segment space shuttle solid rocket booster.
Iran is expected to develop an operative nuclear weapon by 2015, top U.S. officials told Congress Feb. 27. While al Qaeda poses "the greatest [terrorist] threat to U.S. interests," the directors of National Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency told the Senate Armed Services Committee that because of their nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, Iran and North Korea "are the states of most concern to us."
WORKING EFFICIENTLY: Science Applications International Corp. identified itself Feb. 26 as one of four contractors chosen to bid for work under a $930 million, 10-year contract to help develop tactics, techniques and procedures for how the services can work more efficiently together. Other providers include Bevilacqua Research Corp., L-3 Communications' Titan Group and Wyle Laboratories Inc. (DAILY, Jan. 12). The multiple-award contract has a five-year base period of performance with five one-year options.
Bell Helicopter Textron is in the final stages of completing a nine-year, 7,000-hour fatigue test program for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The tests, which began in April 1998, ensure that the Osprey's structural integrity meets a fatigue-life spectrum equal to 20,000 flight hours, or two service lifetimes.
The Australian defense department has finalized the in-service support contract for its yet-to-be delivered Airbus A330-200-derived refueling aircraft. Australian airline Qantas, which operates a fleet of A330, will provide the 20-year engineering, maintenance, supply and training support. The contract involves establishing small organizations at two sites - Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley and Brisbane Airport.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to expand a pilot program testing X-ray technology, which can detect weapons and explosives beneath a person's clothes, to airports in New York and Los Angeles. The TSA began its long-awaited test of the controversial backscatter X-ray passenger screening technology last week at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) with a closet-sized SmartCheck screening system manufactured by American Science and Engineering (AS&E).
PATHFINDER PLUS: The solar-electric Pathfinder-Plus unmanned flying wing developed by NASA and AeroVironment is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. With a wingspan of 121 feet, the Pathfinder-Plus set several altitude records for propeller-driven aircraft. Its last work for NASA was a series of research flights completed in 2005.
AIR FORCE United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Group, East Hartford, Conn., is being awarded a $49,625,682 cost plus fixed fee, firm fixed price and cost plus award fee contract. This action provides for F119-PW-119 Engine Lot 6, CY 07 sustainment undefinitized contract action. At this time, $24,763,215 has been obligated. The work will be complete by June 2007. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-05-C-2851). U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND
LONDON - British Defense Procurement Minister Paul Drayson is renewing warnings that the U.K. spends too little on research and technology, which will eventually threaten its defense-industrial capabilities. Drayson made the remarks Feb. 26 during a Chatham House conference on Research and Technology in the Defense Acquisition Process. "I believe we are not investing enough in defense research and development, either in government or in industry," he said.
In the wake of the White House's recently unveiled aeronautics research policy, NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD) have agreed to develop a cooperative strategy for maintaining the government's aeronautical test facilities. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Kenneth Krieg signed a memorandum of agreement (MOU), called the National Partnership for Aeronautical Testing (NPAT), in January.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Clearfield, Utah, is being awarded a $57,653,113 cost-plus-incentive fee contract modification. This procurement provides for 102 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Security Modernization Program (ISMP) Launch Facility secondary door or Fast B-Pug Element. At this time, total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by February 2009. Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity. NAVY
The TacSat-2 microsatellite is operating smoothly in orbit following the resolution of two technical setbacks early in the mission, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced Feb. 23. The problems were an incompatible radio configuration with the ground station and an error in the spacecraft's attitude determination and control system. Both have "long since been corrected," AFRL said.
General Dynamics Land Systems - Canada Corp., Oshkosh Truck Corp. and Protected Vehicles Inc. are each receiving delivery orders under a previously awarded set of contracts for Mine Resistant and Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, the Pentagon announced late Feb. 23. The three low-rate production contracts mean that, along with Force Protection and BAE Systems, five of nine companies with prototype MRAP contracts have now obtained production orders (DAILY, Feb. 21). Deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan
The U.S. Air Force's inability to fully fund the first increment of its proposed air defense system meant to prevent more terrorist attacks using civilian jets - coupled with stern testing measures - helped stymie the system's development, a recent report said. "In BCS Spiral 1, the U.S. Air Force identified 464 requirements as its objective, said the "Battle Control System White Paper December 2006," released last week by contractor ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS).
In what some military analysts called a surprise and rare decision, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced Feb. 26 that it sustained the protests against the Air Force contract award to Boeing for more than 140 combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopters in a deal worth between $10 billion and $15 billion. GAO protest decisions are nonbinding - it's up to the Air Force to decide whether to go through with the contract anyway.
ARMY BANDWIDTH: One of U.S. Army Gen. Richard A. Cody's directives is to make the Army equally competent in electronic warfare (EW) with other armed services, so the Army plans to replace a majority of Navy "advisors" with its own soldiers by March 2008, officials say. Cody, vice chief of staff, has also outlined a goal to make EW an Army core competency, meaning every soldier will be trained. The Army will base its approach partly on the Navy model. "Everyone's got to touch it now, which is a huge sea change," Col.
The U.S. Navy incorrectly used a new military acquisition test program to speed buys of relatively inexpensive purchases in a recent contract for satellite system equipment, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) inspector general ruled.
RQ-4 PARTS: Northrop Grumman will begin buying long-lead items for the seventh low-rate initial production (LRIP) block of the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle under a $5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
