TALON ROBOTS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Foster-Miller Inc. a $63.9 million contract for new Talon robots and related support for the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office. The contract includes operator and technician training and spare parts, and is for Joint Robotics Repair Facilities and imbedded repair teams deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced May 22. The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division's contract runs through May 2008.
European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says ESA is studying four different scenarios for participating in a proposed U.S.-led lunar exploration program, even though the agency's clear priority will be on Mars.
Aerospace specialty metals supplier Precision Castparts Corp. has received a go-ahead from U.S. government regulators to finalize its acquisition of Specialty Metals Corp., a leading supplier of high-performance nickel-based alloys and super alloys. The $540 million deal was announced last August, but took nearly nine months to clear an anti-trust review by the Federal Trade Commission. Precision Castparts, which will pay $295 million in cash and assume $245 million of Specialty Metals' debt, said it expects to close on the purchase within two weeks.
AUSA CHIMES IN: The president of the Association of the United States Army wrote congressional leaders warning that "a disaster is looming" if Congress recesses two weeks for Memorial Day without passing a supplemental appropriations measure to cover continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "By the end of June, funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, support programs for soldiers and their families, daily maintenance activities and other needs will be completely exhausted," retired Army Gen. Gordon Sullivan said.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, chair of the Senate Commerce subcommittee that oversees NASA, said May 23 that she would support more money being added to the fiscal 2007 appropriation for the agency. Congress' recent five-year re-authorization bill for NASA approved a topline FY '07 budget of about $1.1 billion more than President Bush's $16.8 billion request.
Three European Union countries - Spain, Hungary and Denmark - will not be part of the common defense equipment market being established starting July 1. The market opening is based on a voluntary code of conduct and is supposed to open competitions for defense items to industries across EU states, rather than having them go to national entities as has been typically done. The Treaty of Rome that opened trade within the EU exempted defense purchases from the mandate, which the code of conduct aims to rectify.
European Space Agency officials are expressing bemusement at recent statements by former research Commissioner Philippe Busquin and other specialists that the European Union should consider scaling back the Galileo satellite navigation system from 30 spacecraft to 24-25 to help cope with budget problems.
The French government wants to field a new family of precision-guided ground-to-ground weapons starting next decade. After several years of work with the army staff and military acquisition organization, the DGA, the defense ministry is asking industry for input on what may be the art of the possible. The program is called the precision-guided ground-to-ground artillery ammunition effort, known by the French acronym MAPESD.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is beginning to shuffle its Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) spacecraft constellation as the advanced new Boeing GOES-N is readied for launch from Cape Canaveral as early as May 24.
PAYLOAD ADAPTORS: Saab Ericsson Space has won a contract to provide modular payload adaptors for Boeing's new Land Launch booster, which will provide medium-lift geosynchronous transfer orbit launches from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, starting next year. The adapter systems, including harness, purge lines and initiators, are earmarked for PanAmSat-11 and Horizons-2, both of which are scheduled for a 2007 launch.
The nonlethal Active Denial System (ADS), which shoots a radar signal that causes a burning sensation under the skin, is set for its debut in Iraq with the Army and Marine Corps, according to an ADS advocate. But defense officials are still trying to gain more distance in the weapon's use. Mikel Ryan, head of the Navy's mid-Atlantic area frequency coordination office, said May 23 that the Army and Marines each wanted seven vehicles outfitted and deployed with ADS there by now, but he's not sure at this point when it would happen.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said May 23 that he planned to hold "lessons learned"-type hearings into the Boeing Co.-Justice Department settlement that ends federal investigations into two procurement scandals. "I think it's appropriate that our committee hold hearings for the purpose of reviewing once again - not just for Boeing but for the industry - what took place and how it could be avoided," Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) told The DAILY.
TEXAS SWEEP: The Texas (SSN 775), the second submarine of the Virginia class, completed initial sea trials on May 17 and returned to port with a broom tied to one of its masts, signifying the Navy's traditional symbol of a clean sweep, according to the Naval Sea Systems Command. Delivery to the Navy is planned for next month. Texas is the first of the class to be delivered by Northrop Grumman Newport News (NGNN), which the Navy has quietly criticized for poorer waterfront operations compared with General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Atlantic Microwave Corporation, Bolton, Mass., is being awarded a maximum $49,000,000 firm fixed price contract for antenna for the Army. There were three proposals solicited and two responded. This is an indefinite quantity type contract with four one-year options. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Date of performance completion is May 18, 2007. Contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC), Columbus, Ohio (SP0920-06-D-7734). NAVY
U.S. Air Force officials are pressuring military satellite designers and program managers into "unhealthy compromises" by dictating that launch costs must be included in a spacecraft's total program cost, a space-industry executive said. To effectively reduce the per-satellite cost of using Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, the service is dictating that "dual manifests will be used whenever possible," the executive said.
BRIDGE WORK: BAE Systems announced May 22 the award of a potential $4.8 million contract to its San Diego shipyard by Military Sealift Fleet Support Command for the USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10) mid-term availability (MTA) repair this summer. During a typical five-year maintenance cycle, which includes a dry docking period, T-AOEs undergo MTAs every 15 months.
COAST GUARD AEROSTATS: The U.S. Coast Guard is partnering with the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology directorate and the department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to try out technology for some of their "thorniest" problems. Efforts include converting a tethered aerostat from only detecting airborne targets to a system that also can track ocean vessels and identify nuclear and radiological material, as well as aid in port and harbor surveillance and other maritime domain awareness, two rear admirals tell House Coast Guard authorizers.
NASA's aging network of antennas for communicating with spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit may not be able to keep up with future demand as the agency tries to fulfill its mandate to return to the moon and land astronauts on Mars, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
JASSM-ER B-1B: Lockheed Martin Corp. said May 22 that its extended-range JASSM conventional cruise missile system successfully performed its first development flight-test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., recently. JASSM-ER is in Phase II development, which includes design and verification testing and culminates with flight-testing.
