NINE LIVES FOR CIEL: Canadian satellite communications startup Ciel has filed nine applications for new orbital positions across several frequencies. The applications were submitted in response to the largest call for proposals ever issued by the Canadian government. Ciel has already been awarded a slot at 129 degrees west longitude, where it plans to deploy its first dedicated spacecraft, Ciel-2, in late 2008.
TAKEOVER APPROVED: The White House has approved the $11.8 billion takeover of Lucent Technologies by Alcatel, including Lucent's famous Bell Labs, clearing the transaction to go forward. The purchase had drawn concerns by Congress that security issues related to classified work done at the Bell Labs had not been sufficiently addressed. A panel of government experts had agreed that steps taken by Lucent, including placing sensitive units in a new affiliate headed by U.S. citizens, adequately addressed these concerns.
Supporters are calling on Congress to preserve and expand funding for NASA's Centennial Challenges prize program, which Senate appropriators have voted to zero in fiscal 2007. Although House lawmakers have supported the effort, Senate appropriators have now cut all funding for the program two years in a row, complaining that it doesn't give them enough oversight of how NASA spends its money.
EMP PROTECTION: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has turned to General Electric Co. for a $12.5 million effort to demonstrate the resilience of aircraft flight control, electric actuation and power management and distribution subsystems against high-power microwaves and nuclear electromagnetic pulses. The focus of the program is a near-term solution to the need to make aircraft immune to electromagnetic environmental effects, the Defense Department said. The award runs through November 2011.
The California Air National Guard's 163rd Air Refueling Wing, March Air Reserve Base, Calif., will become the home for a new MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) unit, the National Guard Bureau and the Adjutant General of California announced Nov. 28. The 163rd Air Refueling Wing is being renamed the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing.
Small arms and light weapons are proliferating worldwide, according to a new book by Rachel Stohl of the Center for Defense Information, Matthew Schroeder of the Federation of American Scientists and Daniel Smith of the Friends Committee on National Legislation.
The White House's Small Business Administration and Office of Federal Pro-curement Policy are taking heat for an apparently watered-down version of a new requirement for supposed small businesses to recertify their status, an issue that impacts defense and aerospace acquisition activity.
B-2 bomber prime contractor North-rop Grumman says that based on the in-formation it is gleaning from the U.S. Air Force, the service's next-generation long-range strike (NGLRS) platform will complement the B-2, but not replace it when it enters service around 2018-2020.
OCEANOGRAPHY EFFORTS: France's national space agency, CNES, and Ifremer, a French supplier of in-situ oceanography data, have agreed to reinforce efforts to develop operational oceanography services.
OUT OF TIME?: Analysts worry that WorldSpace may be running out of time in its effort to market digital audio radio in India. Indian retail sales were down 70-85 percent in October and 40-75 percent in November from a year ago, according to retailers surveyed by Kunal Madhukar of Bear, Stearns. Madhukar said retailers complained of weak communications links with WorldSpace, inconsistent inventory and receiver headaches. Although shops hope for a pickup in December, they still expect sales to remain well below 2005 levels.
ITAS PRODUCTION: The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command has awarded Raytheon Co. a $161.78 million contract modification for system production for the Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS). The work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2012. This was a sole-source contract initiated on Dec. 22, 2005 - the command on Sept. 11 awarded Raytheon the $285.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for ITAS production (DAILY, Sept. 18).
NATO will launch a Special Operations Forces Initiative that will strengthen the ability of special operations personnel from NATO nations to work together, President Bush says. Bush, in Riga, Latvia, for the NATO summit, said the alliance also will announce an expected new Strategic Airlift Initiative that will ensure that participating NATO members have a dedicated fleet of C-17 aircraft.
Pressing operational requirements in the field are causing future Army information technology (IT) initiatives to be cut and delayed, which could jeopardize the service's future integrated IT vision, according to a top Army IT official.
The U.S. Air Force is scrutinizing different communication networks to help make the F-22 Raptor a better aircraft for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as command and control. While service leaders have been touting the Raptor's ability to shine in these types of missions, F-22 pilots acknowledge the aircraft has shortcoming in those roles.
TB-34 AWARD: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors $9 million for TB-34 next-generation, fat-line towed bodies, interface hardware and associated services in support of the TB-34 towed array system. The contract was competitively procured with two proposals received. The TB-34 was developed to provide improved antisubmarine warfare and contact avoidance capability in cluttered littoral environments, as well as to maintain the submarine fleet's ready for issue fat-line towed array inventory.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Maritime Systems & Sensors (MS2) Littoral Ships and Systems, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded $26,545,787 to exercise an option under previously awarded contract (N00104-01-D-ZD52) for the manufacture of spare and repair parts used in the MK-41 Vertical Launching System. The pending award will be an undefinitized contractual action for the MK-41 Vertical Launching System Performance Based Logistics (PBL) supply support contract. The work will be performed in Ventura, Calif. (85 percent) and Baltimore, Md.
JSF APPROVAL: Australia has decided to give first-pass approval to the Joint Strike Fighter, which under the "two-pass" approval process equates to a government agreement to consider the aircraft in further detail, with a final acquisition decision made at second pass. The final decision to buy the JSF, i.e., second-pass approval, will be made in 2008, subject to ongoing detailed analysis and assurance that the program's capability, schedule and affordability goals will be met, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said in a Nov. 27 newsletter.
ULYSSES RETURNS: Europe's Ulysses spacecraft is once again passing over the sun's south polar area as it continues tracking sunspots and other cyclical solar activity. Previous solar probes have remained near the plane of the sun's equator, according to the European Space Agency. From its highly inclined orbit, Ulysses has twice before orbited over the sun's polar areas, first during a lull in sunspot activity and then again during the period when sunspots were frequent.
STRATEGIC PLANNING: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat Corp. a $20.3 million contract modification for consolidated planning yard, engineering and technical support for nuclear submarine operational ships and shore facilities. Most of the work will be performed in Groton, Conn., although 10 percent will occur in Kings Bay, Ga., with the rest in Bangor, Wash., and Quonset, R.I. The award runs through November 2009.
DAGRS AWARD: The U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning Systems Wing has extended Rockwell Collins Inc. an $82.7 million contract modification for 37,787 defense advanced GPS receivers (DAGRs) and accessories.
Newly elected Democrats from key defense industry states, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia, will be joining the Senate Armed Services Committee in January when Democrats take control of Congress. They are among 10 newly-elected senators - eight Democrats, one Republican and one independent - who will be sworn in next year as members of the 110th Congress.
