In the battle for the U.S. Air Force's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter fleet construction contract worth up to $15 billion, the amount of downwash the aircraft can produce is stirring up controversy.
EVOLVED SEASPARROW: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding Raytheon a $223 million firm-fixed-price contract modification for 294 Evolved Seasparrow Missiles and 68 shipping containers and spares for the NATO Seasparrow Consortium. The contract runs through February 2010, according to the June 27 contract announcement. The missile is an international upgrade effort over the RIM-7 NATO Seasparrow missile.
The Mars rover Opportunity will begin its descent into Victoria crater on about July 9. The descent will be at a location called Duck Bay near where the rover first arrived at the half-mile-wide, 200-foot-deep crater last fall. Opportunity has spent months going about one-third of the way around the edge of Victoria, scouting its steep walls for key science discoveries and also looking for the best way in and out.
While American-led and other global military actions have splintered many terrorists groups, anti-terrorist efforts also have forced some of these groups to share technology and combine resources, according to a recently released RAND report. "Operation Enduring Freedom and the global war on terrorism forced many members of al Qaeda to disperse," the report says. But "some like-minded terrorist groups that perhaps do not have the global reach of a pre-9/11 al Qaeda nevertheless have formed regional alliances." 'Emerging alliances'
NOORDWIJK, Netherlands -- European Space Agency executives appear to have accepted the idea of launching the Automated Transfer Vehicle freighter after the Columbus orbital laboratory, even though policy since the two programs were conceived has been predicated on exactly the opposite.
A reinvigorated missile defense caucus in the House is speaking up to try to support President Bush's missile defense spending requests, especially more money for the Airborne Laser (ABL) boost-phase effort and approval to move forward with proposed ground-based interceptor facilities in Eastern Europe. Ardent missile defense advocate Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), a caucus co-chair and member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), said June 28 the group will push for full authorization of the Bush administration's $550 million ABL request.
In a Senate Appropriations Committee markup hearing June 28, Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Subcommittee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) agreed to postpone the introduction of an amendment to the fiscal 2008 CJS spending bill that would add $1 billion to help NASA recover from the lingering financial effects of the 2003 Columbia accident.
Logistical problems associated with the rebuilding of Chinook helicopters because they were transported on commercial vessels prevented some wartime training for the aircraft, according to a recent Pentagon inspector general (IG) report. "We initiated this audit in response to allegations made to the Defense Hotline," the June 21 report says. The IG "identified an internal control weakness" in U.S. Transportation Command's (TRANSCOM) compliance with DOD policies in the use of commercial transport during wartime.
Bigelow Aerospace launched its Genesis II inflatable space module June 28 on a converted Russian ICBM as the company continues the highly successful orbital test of its first sub-scale module, Genesis I, launched last July.
In what is becoming a trend in India - opposing what the other political party endorses - the planned visit of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to the Chennai Port has the Left party raising questions as to why it is being permitted to dock. The carrier's visit is a part of the government's move to expand defense cooperation with the U.S. The Nimitz is set to dock at Chennai Port on July 1 and will be anchored until July 5.
RRW CUT: The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2008 Energy Department spending bill that includes $66 million for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program -- a cut of roughly 25 percent from the Bush administration's $88.8 million request. Committee member Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said during a markup hearing June 28 that RRW should proceed slowly until the U.S. makes decisions about the future of the country's nuclear stockpile. The House denied the RRW request in their version of the bill for similar reasons.
Due to accounting changes and incomplete reviews, the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center's (NAWC) data for past year-end carryover funding amounts for working capital funds -- such as depot maintenance, ordnance, and research and development -- were unreliable, and the amount needed may be greater than set aside, a recently released U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
Leaders of a House Homeland Security subcommittee complained June 27 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was not devoting enough money to cybersecurity research. Only $37 million of the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate's budget request was for cybersecurity R&D, said Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), chairman of the emerging threats, cybersecurity, science and technology subcommittee. 'This program hasn't been taken seriously," he said.
GERMAN RAM: Raytheon's German partner for the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), RAM-System GmbH, has been funded to develop an evolved missile radio frequency sensor that will provide better sensitivity and target discrimination in light of potential future guidance radars, Raytheon said June 27. The combined U.S.-German RAM Block 2 system demonstration and development should reach initial operating capability in 2011.
Russia will replace all six German-made computers that shut down during the STS-117 International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission just completed, even though the hardware is back up and stable.
Raytheon's protest of a $2 billion U.S. Army award to a competitor hinges on what company officials feel was an errant scoring process during the source selection this spring.
A new report by a leading House Democratic government watchdog and ardent Bush administration critic claims to identify 189 federal contracts valued at $1.1 trillion that have been "plagued by waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement."
The proposed takeover by BAE Systems of Armor Holdings has been approved by the interagency U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment but still awaits Justice Department antitrust approval, as well as shareholder approval. An article June 27 on BAE Systems stated U.S. approval was granted. Aerospace Daily regrets the error.
