Members of the Launch Services Alliance defended the arrangement against criticisms that it is "pointless" during a panel discussion in Washington Feb. 21, with Boeing Sea Launch President Robert Peckham arguing that it really does provide schedule assurance even if manifests appear booked up. Formed in 2003, the Launch Services Alliance is an agreement between Sea Launch, Arianespace and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in which each company's fleet of rockets serves as a backup to the others to provide schedule assurance for their customers.
The German government has signed a long-anticipated contract to upgrade some of its CH-53G heavy lift helicopters. Eurocopter will perform the upgrade on 40 helos. The German military operates 80 of the rotorcraft, although some are set aside for special missions.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are preparing to launch an investigation into the Feb. 21 crash of Bell Helicopter Textron's prototype ARH-70A Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter on a golf course in Mansfield, Texas. According to Bell, the single-engine helicopter was on its first flight and had departed Bell's XworX facility at Arlington Municipal Airport and had been in the air for about 30 minutes when the engine failed. The aircraft was being flown by a Bell pilot and an Army pilot. The crew initiated an autorotation to landing.
A leading Senate Republican on governmental reform issues is introducing legislation that aims to rein in sole-source contract awards, support inspectors general, limit the degree of subcontracting and targets lead systems integrators. "The federal government's prodigious purchasing can create abundant opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse," Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the ranking Republican and former chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in announcing her proposed Accountability in Government Contracting bill.
NASA's two Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) partners have passed milestones in their efforts to develop private vehicles to deliver cargo and eventually crew to the International Space Station.
A revamp of the Khrunichev Space Center recently approved by the Russian government should streamline production processes and quality control problems, according to International Launch Services, which markets the center's Proton launch vehicle. The reorganization is aimed at fixing problems that have slowed output, in particular with the Block M upper stage, which are currently limiting the Proton launch rate.
Northrop Grumman Newport News will be able to meet cost caps and price reductions for the new class of carriers - CVN-21 or CVN-78 - by designing the ship to meet threshold capabilities, said William Deligne, acting executive director of the Navy aircraft carrier program executive office.
CHENEY PLEASED: Vice President Dick Cheney says he is "very pleased" with how senior commanders of the U.S. and Japanese military forces are working together on plans against weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missile threats and terrorist cells in the Pacific realm. Cheney, at the Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, said relations between the United States and Japan have "never been better" nor more vital than now. "This briefing gives me confidence that we are working to improve the interoperability of our forces - strategic, operational and tactical," he said. "The U.S.
A staffer for House Strategic Forces subcommittee chair Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) sees little chance for major reform of U.S. export control law in the near term, despite the recent congressional leadership changeover. The two House committees with jurisdiction over export control -International Relations and House Armed Services - still have leadership that "is more pro-security than pro-business in many ways," said Simon Limage, Tauscher's deputy chief of staff. "I would see a fairly conservative outlook for major change in the short term."
The Navy has "changed its acquisition model" to reconfigure, develop and deploy a new warfare center for its proposed next generation carrier, the CVN-21 or CVN-78, said William Deligne, acting executive director of the Navy aircraft carrier program executive office. The warfare center is essentially the combat brains for the carrier. Previous efforts to make the center more efficient and lethal for the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush had failed.
LONDON - British efforts to acquire a family of medium armored vehicles "is a sorry story of indecision, constantly changing requirements and delay," according to Parliament's Defense Committee. The British army's Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) is the latest of several efforts to provide ground forces with a family of vehicles to replace in-service platforms, some original designs of which are 40 years old.
RAVEN AWARDS: U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command has awarded AeroVironment Corp. more than $53.5 million for RQ-11 Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, known as Ravens, for the Army and Marine Corps. The contract modifications, awarded Feb. 14, were announced late Feb. 20 and run through Jan. 11, 2008. The hand-launched Raven is expected to remain in the Army's inventory until the Future Combat Systems' Class I ducted-fan drone is fielded around 2010.
China has joined other members of a United Nations technical subcommittee in approving draft guidelines for mitigating manmade space debris, after receiving "considerable criticism" for adding to the space-debris problem with its Jan. 11 anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test. The Feb. 21 vote came as experts tracked a new debris cloud following the apparent rupture of a Russian rocket fuel tank on Feb. 19.
GLOBEMASTER SUSTAINMENT: McDonnell Douglas Corp. has been awarded a $10 million modification to the C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership contract to perform material improvement projects for the Air Force, the Defense Department said Feb. 21. The work will be finished by September 2011. The contract was awarded by Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Sea Launch is hoping to conduct two more launches before the end of 2007, according to President Robert Peckham, following the Jan. 30 failure that destroyed the SES New Skies NSS-8 communications satellite and its Zenit-3SL booster. Prior to the failure, the company had six launches on its manifest for 2007, which is the maximum the equatorial Odyssey launch platform can manage in a year due to processing times. The company conducted five flights in 2006.
Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.) and John Kerry (Mass.) are pushing new legislation they say is aimed at preventing contracting waste, fraud and abuse by Pentagon contractors in foreign operations.
ARMY Hellfire Systems L.L.C., Orlando, Fla., was awarded on Feb. 7, 2007, a $196,710,306 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for various Hellfire Missiles in containers. The work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 1, 2005. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-05-C-0221).
SONAR SYSTEMS: Raytheon Co. said Feb. 19 that it has received a $50.8 million U.S. Navy contract for 19 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems, also known as the AN/AQS-22. The system is the primary undersea warfare sensor for the Navy's MH-60R multimission helicopter. The contract extends the program's full-rate production that has been accelerated since the initial fielding of the MH-60R into the fleet last year. The company also received a subsequent $5.6 million contract for sustainment of the Navy's existing inventory.
PROGRAM DELAYS FALL: French armaments agency DGA says average program delays dropped to 2.9 months last year from 3.1 months a year earlier. Associated penalties decreased, too. However, delays are still higher than the figure two years ago (2.5 months) and well above the objective of 1.5 months. DGA chief Francois Lureau says he hopes to reach this target in 2007.
KNOW MORE: Mark Schaeffer, director of systems and software engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Office of Acquisition and Technology, says it is imperative from a systems-engineering stance to fully understand pre-Milestone A investments in new programs and projects. Working with the National Academy of Sciences, the Defense Department is looking at cost overruns and how to revise the planning and estimating process to reduce cost overrun potential.
LIFE EXTENSION: Romanian radars are to receive a 15- to 20-year life extension through a contract with Lockheed Martin. The FPS-117 three-dimension, L-band, long-range radars were delivered in 1998-99 and are used for air traffic control and strategic air surveillance. Britain and Germany have contracted for similar upgrades.
