Analysts on Jan. 31 predicted even more partisan bickering in Congress and a return to interservice rivalries over the fiscal 2008 defense budget. While professing no inside knowledge of the Pentagon's budget request, scheduled for release Feb. 5 along with the rest of the Bush administration's fiscal 2008 budget, experts from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) said plans to increase the end strength of the Army and Marine Corps has the other services worried about where the money is going to come from.
SOYUZ DELAYED: Plans to begin flying Soyuz rockets from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, may slip a bit because of problems encountered in building a giant deflector under the new launch pad. According to Yannick d'Escatha, director general of French space agency CNES, which is supervising construction of the launch site for the European Space Agency, construction of the deflector has been delayed by the need to remove large granite blocks and consolidate loose soil that had not been detected during site exploration.
TEXAS PSA: General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat shipbuilding unit is set to receive as much as $85 million for post-shakedown activity (PSA), as in post-sea trial repairs and modifications, for the Texas (SSN 775), the second submarine of the Virginia class. The PSA award runs through February 2008, the company said Jan. 26, and includes a $25 million contract modification announced by the Pentagon. The Navy awarded another $9.7 million modification for additional ship alterations days earlier (DAILY, Jan. 18).
The U.S. Air Force on Jan. 30 released its long-awaited request for proposals (RFP) for the KC-X competition to build 179 refueling tankers, and officials say they've allayed the concerns of Northrop Grumman/EADS North America that prompted threats to back out of the duel with Boeing.
DESIGNER AWARDS: The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Corp. a $257.4 million contract option to complete the detail design of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, bringing the total effort to $337.4 million for the company. The Naval Sea Systems Command also awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $268 million contract, bringing that company's award to $307.5 million. The awards, announced Jan. 29, fund further DDG-1000 detail design and procurement of vendor-furnished information and long-lead materials, and run through 2013.
Nine companies have all received initial contracts from the Marine Corps to build 36 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) test vehicles within 60 days under a $34.6 million effort, the kickoff to an interim Army-Marine program for thousands of MRAPs and a later, larger vehicle acquisition. The awards come in an accelerated - and somewhat doubted - effort by military officials to meet an urgent need for armored personnel carriers ahead of plans to grow overall U.S. ground forces, let alone an increase in U.S. troops in Iraq (DAILY, Jan. 19).
SAT CONTRACT: Space Systems/Loral has won a contract to build a new direct broadcasting satellite for EchoStar. No date was announced for delivery of the spacecraft, EchoStar XIV. It was the second award for SS/L, which was earlier tabbed to provide a comsat for Intelsat.
The proposed U.S. missile defense site in Poland clearly is not "oriented toward Russia" and would not negate that country's ballistic missile arsenal, according to U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Deputy Director Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly. To be operational by 2011, the Polish site would host up to 10 interceptor missiles at a total cost of about $3.5 billion. Formal talks about the site are getting under way. Meanwhile, the U.S. also is in discussions with the Czech Republic about hosting the radar that would support the interceptors (DAILY, Jan. 26).
U.S. Navy Adm. William Fallon, head of Pacific Command, would emphasize greater missile defense, as well as naval and air superiority in the Persian Gulf and Middle East if he becomes head of Central Command, according to sentiments expressed at his Jan. 30 nomination hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The U.S. Coast Guard is instituting procedures to avoid future cost overruns and structural problems in the troubled Deepwater fleet modernization program, the service's commandant told Congress Jan. 30.
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has taken control of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's (DMSP) F-17 spacecraft, which was launched Nov. 4 on the first Delta IV to carry an unclassified payload from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. It was the second of the Block 5D-3 spacecraft that Lockheed Martin has built for the U.S. Air Force. The first, F-16, was launched in October 2003 on the last of the Air Force's Titan IIs.
ALMDS RAMPS UP: U.S. Navy officials say they expect to award another low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract for the new Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) this spring for an additional two pods following developmental testing. Delivery of the first one Jan. 26 from Northrop Grumman Corp. stemmed from an initial $35.7 million contract awarded in April 2006 for an LRIP of two AN/AES-1 ALMDS pods. The third LRIP contract and full-rate production are planned in 2009 and 2010, respectively, for an additional 11 pods.
ARMY AM General L.L.C., South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Jan. 19, 2007, an $8,529,906 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for the addition of M1035A1 and M1151A1 vehicles. Work will be performed in South Bend, Ind., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 2000. The U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
Engineers are troubleshooting a second failure of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope, after an apparent malfunction of the backup power feed for the instrument. The entire telescope went into a safe mode at 7:34 a.m. Eastern time Jan. 27, apparently as a result of the anomaly. Controllers recovered the orbiting observatory at about 2 a.m. Eastern time Jan. 28, and plan to begin observations with the remaining instruments this week.
BLUM AGAIN: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum for a two-year extension as chief of the National Guard Bureau. President Bush nominated Blum for the extension in December and the Senate confirmed him Jan. 26. Blum will have served as chief for four years come April. He has bucked top Army leaders in a previous attempt to cut Guard personnel and has brought focus on the Guard's readiness and equipment deficit, actions that have helped lead to likely growth in both areas of the overall Army.
The YAL-1A, a modified Boeing 747-400F - the Airborne Laser (ABL) - is undergoing a long-term test phase that started this month at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., that includes the test firing of the aircraft's low-power lasers in flight for the first time. The Missile Defense Agency is testing and developing the Airborne Laser as part of the boost phase defense segment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
SAT MODERNIZATION: Russia and India are planning to sign a bilateral agreement to jointly expand and modernize Russia's Glonass satellite navigation system. The countries are expected to launch two Glonass satellites using GSLV boosters and to share development and construction of a new generation Glonass-K satellite system.
SAT OPERATION: The first unit in Germany's 400 million euro ($515 million) SARLupe radar reconnaissance satellite system has entered operation. The one-meter resolution spacecraft, built by OHB System, was launched on Dec. 19 and began sending images on Jan. 12. By Jan. 18, all planned modes and resolutions had been verified, the company says. The second satellite is to be launched in July.
Countering China's recently tested anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon system with America's missile defense arsenal would be a "straightforward" job for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) if it were given that mandate, according to MDA Deputy Director Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly.
