GROWING CERTAINTY: The fiscal 2007 defense procurement budget likely will increase by at least 8 percent, including supplemental appropriations, while the core FY' 08 procurement budget should rise by around 17 percent, says analyst George Shapiro of Citigroup Investment Research. The strength of FY '08 supplementals later on is more uncertain, but weakening is unlikely as Democrats will be reluctant to quickly renege on the strong defense promises during recent campaigning.
Half of the companies that have listed their spacecraft buses on NASA's rapid-development satellite "catalog" are based in Europe, despite longstanding presidential policies giving preference to U.S. space hardware. Earlier this month NASA added Alcatel Alenia Space of Toulouse, France, to a list of potential suppliers that already includes trans-European EADS Astrium and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. of the U.K. U.S. companies participating are Ball Aerospace, Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpectumAstro.
DEFENSE RESEARCH: A coalition of technology companies, trade groups, academic institutes and current and former policymakers is urging President Bush to include funding for basic research performed by the Defense Department in his American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), as requested next February for fiscal 2008. The group on Nov.
Nov. 27 - 30 -- Defense Manufacturing Conference, Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, Nashville, Tenn. For information call (937) 426-2808, fax (937) 426-8755 or go to www.dmc.utcdayton.com Nov. 28 -- ISCe Satellite Investment Symposium, Jones Day 222 East 41st Street, New York, New York. For more information call (310) 410-9191, www.isis-nyc.com Dec. 1 -- International Aviation Issues Seminar, Hotel Monaco, Washington, For more information call 202-293-3037, or email [email protected].
DELAYED SPENDING: A three-month delay in regular fiscal 2006 appropriations, as well as supplemental spending finalized in mid-summer, could mean delayed 2006 revenue for defense and aerospace companies, according to William Farmer, co-president of Jefferies Quarterdeck and a defense and aerospace analyst there. Farmer said current and future earnings teleconference calls with Wall Street analysts should elicit executive excuses blaming Congress, which didn't appropriate regular FY '06 funds and authority until almost Christmas.
BIPARTSIAN SUPPORT: Few issues in Washington strike as much bipartisan support as keeping open an ongoing Defense Department program like the C/KC-130J. Fourteen Democratic and Republican senators wrote outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Nov. 15 to push for future acquisitions under the fiscal 2008 defense budget request, which Pentagon and White House officials are finalizing. "The C/KC-130J is the crown jewel in today's tactical air mobility fleet," said Sens.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has released $60 million in fiscal 2006 and 2007 funds to the Joint Common Missile (JCM) program. The Army received $51 million and the Navy $9 million, according to an OSD spokeswoman. An industry source told The DAILY that Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England had been scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss the program and make a formal decision on JCM. OSD said it is too early to comment on the missile's long-term future.
SOARING COST ESTIMATE: When the Homeland Security Department announced the solicitation earlier this year for SBInet, a network of sensors, cameras and communications equipment to create a "virtual fence" along the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, industry groups estimated the program could run as high as $2 billion. But when the agency picked a team headed by Boeing in September, the three-year contract with three one-year options was for a surprisingly low $67 million - mostly to establish operational control over a 28-mile stretch of the border in Arizona.
All objectives apparently were met as ATK and NASA ran a 123-second static test of a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) on Nov. 16 that produced results for three different space-agency efforts.
The federal budget for defense-related information technology will rise at a compound annual growth rate of 4.3 percent through fiscal 2011, according to federal IT consultancy Input. The firm, in its annual forecast conference Nov. 9 outside Washington, D.C., said the FY '08 budget for contracted defense IT spending should rise to $24.9 billion from $23.4 billion this fiscal year. Yet that will still pale in comparison to civil spending, albeit mostly for homeland security IT, of $28 billion next fiscal year.
ONE SHOT: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is holding an industry day for the Advanced Sighting System (One-Shot) program in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 20. The One-Shot program will develop new technologies to allow snipers to adjust the trajectory of their first shot to take downrange winds into account, allowing them to accurately hit whatever is in their crosshairs. In some cases a 10 mph wind can result in a miss at ranges as close as 400 meters, DARPA says.
VTOL UAV CONTRACT: Sagem/Bell Helicopter, Thales/Boeing and EADS/Vertivision have been awarded one-year contracts to study the feasibility of using a common VTOL UAV design for future French naval and army UAV requirements. The basis for the studies, worth 4 million euros ($5 million) in all, will be Boeing's LittleBird helicopter, the Bell EagleEye tiltrotor and Orka, a VTOL platform developed by Vertivision partners Eurocopter and Helicopters Guimbal.
The dramatic shift to Democratic control of Congress come January should mean major staff turnover in Washington, with an army of Republican staffers, officials and even departing lawmakers looking for private sector jobs while as many or more Democrats seek all levels of Capitol Hill positions over the next few months.
EELV AWARD: The U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded Boeing Co. a $674.1 million contract for Delta IV Launch Capability for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rocket program, the Pentagon said late Nov. 17. The work will be complete by September 2007, with more than $405 million already obligated.
The U.S. Marine Corps deploys every weapons system - even aviation ones - with its ground forces as the primary focus, and service officers see the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as the ultimate infighter, especially for certain electronic warfare roles. "For the Marines, there are no stand-off jammers," said Col. Robert Walsh, the Marines assistant deputy commander of aviation. "For us, it's all about persistence over battlefield."
The Netherlands said Nov. 15 that it has approved extending its participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program into the production and support phase. The country is the first of the program's partner nations to do so. Cees van der Knaap, the Netherlands' deputy defense secretary, and U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed the Production, Sustainment and Follow-On Development Memorandum of Understanding (PSFD MOU). The accord extends program cooperation beyond the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase.
SHIP SECURITY: Northrop Grumman Corp. said it received a contract from the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center and its sponsor, the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research, to develop an electro optic-based system to warn surface vessels and aircraft in violation of ship-protection zones of Navy and Coast Guard vessels at anchor or in port. The Detection and Unambiguous Warning System (DUWS) will be based on the Northrop Grumman Venom system, a gimbaled version of the company's lightweight laser designator rangefinder.
EXTENSION: ICO Global Com-munications has requested that the FCC grant it a six-month extension for the construction and launch of ICO's planned hybrid mobile satellite system because of production/delivery issues of the spacecraft's manufacturer, Space Systems/Loral. The extension would move satellite launch from July 1, 2007 to Nov. 30, 2007, and the in-service date from July 17, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2007. The hybrid system would use an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) in combination with space-based hardware.
Anatoly Perminov, head of Russian space agency Roskosmos, says an initial version of Parom, a planned reusable cargo follow-on to the Soyuz spaceship, could be launched as early as 2009. Designed for triple the upload capacity of Russia's Progress M, Parom would serve to resupply the International Space Station, much as Europe's ATV and Japan's CTV will do.
