GLOBAL HAWK: The U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle program is expected to receive formal Pentagon recertification this week after last year's violation of Nunn-McCurdy cost growth caps, according to an industry source. Under the law, for the program to avoid cancellation the Pentagon must certify that it has a good cost estimate for the program, it is essential to national security and no viable alternatives exist.
June 5 - 7 -- 2006 Navy Opportunity Forum, "Transitioning Technology to the Fleet," Hilton Washington, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.navyopportunityforum.com. June 12 - 14 -- ACI-NA Marketing & Communications Conference and Jump Start, Hyatt Regency Austin, Austin, Texas, 202-293-3032, email [email protected].
The Defense Department needs to improve operational planning for ballistic missile defense, a congressional report said yesterday. The Pentagon must provide Congress with complete data on the operational costs of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), according to the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.
A lost foot restraint slowed but didn't stop the two-man crew of the International Space Station, who completed a 6 1/2-hour spacewalk last week after controllers in Moscow allowed them to add an hour to the time they spent outside in the Russian Orlan spacesuits.
MRO LAUNCH: NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has picked Lockheed Martin's Atlas V rocket to launch the Mars Science Laboratory rover to the red planet in the fall of 2009. The firm-fixed price launch contract is worth $36.2 million, including the rocket and mission integration requirements. The car-sized rover will spend two years exploring Mars searching for the building blocks of life.
SES Americom will use a Land Launch Zenit-3SLB-based booster to orbit its AMC-21 telecom spacecraft in mid-2008 under the sixth contract award for the Sea Launch spinoff.
A long-awaited, in-depth review by the Congressional Budget Office of the U.S. Navy's 313-ship shipbuilding and force structure plan concludes that unless shipbuilding budgets increase significantly in inflation-adjusted terms, or the Navy designs and builds much cheaper ships, its fleet size will fall substantially. In turn, a powerful congressman said June 1 that the CBO report "provides additional validation that the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan is unaffordable" for both the U.S. budget and national security.
The Customs and Border Protection's unmanned Predator B aircraft that crashed April 25 was downed by an apparent combination of pilot error and technical glitches, according to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) preliminary notice.
Congressional restrictions on the U.S. Air Force's ability to retire its oldest aircraft appear to be easing up as the fiscal 2007 defense authorization process continues, according to Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, military deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.
Adar Azancot has resigned as chief executive officer. Major Gen. (Res.) Herzle Bodinger, RADA's president and chairman of the board, will replace Azancot.
L-3 Communications is establishing a new operation to coordinate its far-flung homeland security businesses and has tapped the head of the Massachusetts Port Authority to run it. Craig P. Coy will take over as president and chief operating officer of L-3's Homeland Security Group, which is scheduled to begin running on July 24.
SOHO EXTENDED: The European Space Agency has agreed to provide funding to extend the mission of the venerable Soho solar observatory, allowing it to be used in combination with five new spacecraft due to join the international solar fleet over the next two years. The additional money will extend the operation of Soho, launched in 1995, from April 2007 to December 2009. Japan's Solar B is to be launched later this year, along with NASA's Stereo twins. ESA's Proba-2 will follow in September 2007 and NASA's Solar Dynamics Orbiter the year after.
Steve Campbell has been appointed president of the precision components group. B. Christopher DiSantis has been named president of the friction products and performance racing groups.
Developing an engine with all the necessary power and flexibility to both fly supersonic and then land - vertically - a stealthy, bomb-carrying fighter is proving to be a tough proposition for all the engine companies involved.
Thomas A. Corcoran, Glen M. Kassan, Warren G. Lichtenstein, Robert F. Mehmel, Gen. Richard I. Neal (USMC Ret.), and Frederick M. Strader have been re-elected as directors.
