UAV MARKET: Teal Group predicts that worldwide spending on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will more than triple over the next decade, going from its current level of $2.7 billion annually to $8.3 billion and totaling nearly $55 billion over the next 10 years. The latest edition of Teal Group's worldwide UAV forecast projects that the United States will account for 77 percent of the worldwide UAV technology development spending during the decade and 64 percent of UAV procurement spending.
DFI GOVERNMENT SERVICES, Washington James Blackwell has been named vice president of defense programs Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. has been chief operating officer.
ICAP III Block 3: The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $2.7 million contract to develop the EA-6B Prowler's Improved Capability (ICAP) III Block 3 software, the company said Oct. 16. ICAP III Block 3 will be delivered in 2007. The company has already delivered 10 Prowler aircraft modified with the new ICAP III system and is producing another lot of aircraft due to be delivered in 2008, all with ICAP III Block 3 software.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has completed its first week of science observations and all of its instruments are working normally, the agency announced Oct. 16. From Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, the spacecraft's science instruments surveyed dozens of sites that reflect different episodes in Mars' history. The orbiter will begin its primary science mission phase in early November when Mars re-emerges from conjunction, when it will pass nearly behind the sun.
Less than 2 percent of international terrorist attacks have hit maritime targets, according to a RAND Corp. review of more than 30 years of terrorist activity, and researchers there suggest there is no observable evidence that terrorists and piracy syndicates are collaborating to carry out attacks. Successful maritime terrorist attacks are difficult to carry out and they rarely cause the large loss of life or generate the heavy news coverage that terrorists seek, according to a RAND study released Oct. 16.
SPACE ROAD MAP: China has published a new white paper setting out a space road map for the next five years. One priority of the plan - China's second - will involve developing and operating a high-resolution Earth observation system, a polar and geostationary weather satellite network and a system of small disaster protection spacecraft, along with associated satellite, launcher, ground production and operating facilities.
KENYAN BOATS: The United States is selling six boats to the Kenyan navy to help patrol the African ally's waters against arms and drug traffickers. "This is particularly important in view of the deteriorating situation within Somalia, about which the Kenyan and U.S. governments share similar concerns," the State Department said Oct. 5. The $3 million deal covers 25-foot Defender boats and one 42-foot Arch-angel boat, as well as additional equipment, supplies and training. Naval intelligence, otherwise called Maritime Domain Awareness, is a major post-Sept.
JOINT VENTURE: Japan's Mitsui & Co. and Israel Aircraft Industries are expected to join a 50:50 joint venture in January to perform 767-300 conversions, according to the Nikkei business news service. IAI's Bedak unit is a major aircraft modification and conversion center but does not hold licenses from Boeing for such work. The announcement came as Boeing chose Italy's Alenia Aeronavali as its partner for the 767-300 Boeing Converted Freighter Program.
SLIRBM DEMO: GenCorp Inc.'s Aerojet announced Oct. 16 a $4.96 million contract award from the U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs office to provide a boost motor demonstrator for the Submarine-Launched Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (SLIRBM) concept. During the 12-month program, Aerojet will design, develop and test an advanced boost motor that remains affordable (DAILY, Jan. 11).
CIT GROUP INC., New York, N.Y. David A. Davis has been appointed senior vice president and general manager of CIT Aerospace, Business Aircraft division.
AIR FORCE General Atomics, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $5,845,134 cost-plus-fixed fee contract modification. This action will provide for continuation of the work completed on the base effort. The goal of the proposed activity is to develop reactor systems for recovering energy from the Department of Defense solid and liquid waste. At this time, $1,500,000 has been obligated. The work will be complete June 2009. Air Force Research Laboratories, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. (FA8651-04-C-0158/P00005)
International Launch Services has scheduled its next Proton M launch - the second since the booster returned to service and the first since the withdrawal of Lockheed Martin - for Nov. 9. The payload will be Badr-4 (Arabsat 4B), the first of two fourth-generation satellites to be put in operation by Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat).
ARMY RESET: In fiscal 2007 alone, the Army will reset 666 aircraft, 8,787 missiles, more than 4,000 tracked vehicles and 11,500 wheeled vehicles, 3,700 generators and 17,000 small arms, says Gen. Benjamin Griffin, commander of Army Materiel Command (AMC). Griffin said during the Association of the U.S. Army's annual symposium that AMC priorities are now determined by Army decisions on which units go where and when.
SON OF ACS?: It sounds like a typical movie preview for a sequel: You though it was over, but it's back. The Aerial Common Sensor, a terminated Army intelligence aircraft program, could make a renewed appearance this Halloween. On Oct. 31, the Army's program executive office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors will hold its first post-termination industry day to begin to address questions about developing a system to succeed the RC-12 Guardrail.
Oct. 17 - 18 -- Ninth Annual New Zealand Defense Industry Association Seminar, Te Papa, Wellington. For more information email [email protected] or go to www.defencetech.co.nz. Oct. 17 - 19 -- Joint Air Power Competence Center Conference 2006, "The Transformation of Joint Air and Space Power: The Exploration of Unmanned Aerospace Capabilities," Kleve, Germany. For more information call +49 (282) 490-2225 or go to www.japcc.de.
SALES PITCH: The Air Force is overselling its F-22 Raptor and neglecting electronic warfare support to ground troops, a Navy official says. "The Air Force will sell its soul, your soul, my soul, to get F-22s," the official says. "Publicly they will make claims of the F-22 ability to conduct a lot of the ancillary EW mission," such as signals and communications intelligence gathering and electronic attack.
LONDON -- Senior Pentagon and British defense ministry officials will hold vital meetings in the coming weeks crucial to London's planned purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. U.S. Defense Department acquisition czar Kenneth J. Kreig will meet with his British counterpart, Peter Spencer, to try to finally nail down assurances on technology access issues. Meetings are likely to take place on both sides of the Atlantic.
