Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. have both demonstrated dual-mode guided bombs for the U.S. Navy, which is evaluating such weapons at the direction of Congress. Raytheon announced June 2 that an F/A-18 successfully dropped Enhanced Paveway II bombs at China Lake Test Range, Calif., in May. Lockheed Martin announced in May that it had achieved similar test results in April with its Dual Mode Guided Bomb.
The U.S. Navy has approved Northrop Grumman Corp.'s AN/SLQ-32(V) Electronic Surveillance Enhancement (ESE) for low-rate initial production, the company announced June 2. John Young, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, test and evaluation, gave the "go-ahead" after ESE met or exceeded all test objectives during its operational assessment, Northrop Grumman said.
Underwriters at Lloyds of London have dropped their complaint against Spacehab and joined the company in its pursuit of claims against NASA for the loss of Spacehab's Research Double Module, which was destroyed in the Columbia accident in February 2003. Soon after Columbia's loss, Lloyds paid Spacehab $17.7 million in insurance proceeds for the lost module. Then in January 2004 the underwriters filed a complaint against the company seeking the money's return on the grounds that Spacehab was pursuing reimbursement separately with NASA.
Despite uncertain funding, NASA's aeronautics directorate hopes to fly a high-altitude unmanned aircraft by 2009 that is capable of staying aloft for 14 straight days without refueling. Although the budget is not yet in place to proceed to full-scale development, NASA engineers are hopeful they can sell agency leaders on the value of the aircraft as a means of studying hurricanes as they develop, according to Rich Wlezien, division director for vehicle systems at NASA headquarters.
The Air Force has released a request for proposals for the Transformational Satellite Communications (TSAT) Mission Operations System (TMOS), and has scheduled a bidders' conference for June 2. Responses to the RFP, released May 27, are due July 25. A single TMOS contractor is slated to be chosen by the end of fiscal year 2005, or Oct. 1.
TANKER REPORT: Top Defense Department officials said June 1 that the department's inspector general's report on the now-failed Boeing 767 tanker lease-buy contract has been sent to Congress. The IG probe is a response to a letter sent to the Pentagon late last year by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), ranking member Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The senators complained about what they said was an atmosphere devoid of accountability or oversight that led to the deal.
ATV PURCHASE: The Netherlands has agreed to buy 74 BvS10 All Terrain Vehicles worth 43 million pounds ($77.8 million) for its marines from BAE Systems Land Systems Hagglunds, the company said June 1. The ATVs will come in four variants: troop carrier, command, repair and recovery, and ambulance. They will be used as logistics vehicles to carry troops and equipment. Deliveries of the ATVs will begin in January 2006 and be finished by April 2007. The British Royal Marines currently are using the vehicles, and they are being tested by the French and Finnish militaries.
JUNO: NASA announced June 1 that the proposed Juno mission to Jupiter will proceed to a preliminary design. The second mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program, Juno would place a spacecraft in polar orbit around Jupiter to investigate the existence of an ice-rock core and study the planet's atmosphere and magnetic field. To launch before mid-1020, the mission will be capped at $700 million.
JSOW CABLES, HARNESSES: Raytheon Missile Systems has awarded LaBarge Inc. of St. Louis a seven-year contract worth up to $24 million to provide cables and harnesses for Raytheon's Joint Standoff Weapon system, LaBarge said June 1. About $1.65 million will be released under the contract for 2005. The cables send electronic data signals throughout the weapon, which uses Global Positioning System data to find its target and can change its path during flight. The cable assemblies are used to perform tests for JSOW functionality.
TARGETING: BAE Systems announced June 1 that it would provide geopositioning software for Defense Department applications under the U.S. Navy's Common Geopositioning Services Project (CGSP). The contract, awarded by the Naval Air Warfare Center, is valued at $4.6 million and includes options through 2008. Specifically, BAE Systems will develop a modular set of software geopositioning services capable of calculating accurate, three-dimensional geographic coordinates for weapons targeting.
Defense electronics and support company Engineered Support Systems Inc. overcame a financial hit suffered by a key military program by posting revenues from other business segments and recently acquired subsidiaries. The St. Louis-based company reported record net revenues of $263.8 million for the quarter ended April 30, a 25% increase compared with the same period last year, the company said June 1.
Ron Genova has been appointed to the scientific and commercialization board of advisers. Genova is a former executive with JDS Uniphase of San Jose, Calif.
Glen Kassan, Warren G. Lichtenstein, Gen. Richard I. Neal (USMC Ret.), and Frederick M. Strader have been elected to the board of directors. Kassan is executive vice president of Steel Partners Ltd. Lichtenstein is president and CEO of Steel Partners Ltd. Strader is UIC president and CEO.
U.S. Navy Adm. Vernon Clark, chief of naval operations, and Royal Australian Navy Vice Adm. Chris Ritchie, chief of the navy, recently extended their statement of principles for "enhanced cooperation" between the navies on submarines for at least another five years, the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command said. The agreement is designed to make the two countries' submarine forces fully interoperable and sustainable.
The tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program has completed two key events in as many weeks, according to MEADS International, which is developing the anti-aircraft, anti-missile system.
DOUBLY SMART: EDO Corp. said June 1 that it was awarded an $11 million contract for the first production lot of 135 BRU-55 dual-carriage, "smart" bomb racks for the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 aircraft. The deal runs roughly two years and includes an option for additional production units. The BRU-55 works with the GBU-38 (500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition) and doubles the smart-weapon carriage capacity of an F/A-18, EDO said. Cmdr.
NASA is considering testing a free-floating camera for future inspections of the space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) in orbit. Developed at Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera (Mini AERCam) is a free-flying robotic inspection vehicle derived from the AERCam free flyer that flew as an experiment aboard the shuttle in 1997. The spherical Mini AERCam is 7.5 inches across and weighs about 10 pounds.
Boeing's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) had it longest flight to date in a test conducted last month, flying more than 55 miles and coming within 34 inches of its target, the company said June 1. In a May 11 test, conducted near Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the SDB was launched from an altitude of 30,000 feet, flew its record distance and hit a target barge in the Gulf of Mexico.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that the concern of some U.S. officials over technology transfer issues still is "a point of contention," but with Bush Administration support, progress is being made. "It's a bit more the [Capitol] Hill here than the Administration," the NATO leader said during a June 1 Defense Writers Group breakfast meeting before he was scheduled to meet with President Bush. "It is Congress, which is perhaps more strict in that sense than the Administration."
The U.S. Defense Department has given its final blessing to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program's strategy for fixing the aircraft's weight problems. In a two-sentence statement, DOD said June 1 that Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne has approved a detailed version of the "re-plan" that is intended to overcome JSF's weight woes. Wynne's decision follows a May 5 Defense Acquisition Board review of the program (DAILY, May 6). A more conceptual version of the re-plan received DOD's endorsement in 2004.
