The second test of Lockheed Martin's Theater High-Altitude Air Defense system since a major overhaul was "successful" in meeting all objectives, according to Missile Defense Agency Director USAF Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering.
House homeland security appropriators, led by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), decided May 11 to fund the Homeland Security Department at $32.08 billion, $1.065 billion above the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 request, but also to withhold $1.3 billion until various requirements are met. The funding includes $893 million for the Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program - which is below the administration's $934.4 million request.
Douglas G. Bain will retire as senior vice president and general counsel, effective July 1. Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit will succeed Bain.
William Campbell has been named to the board of directors. Campbell served in the California legislature for 22 years, including 14 years as a state senator. Jerome Krantz has resigned as a director.
The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration on May 9 issued a request for proposals to begin phase one of the so-called Roadrunner supercomputer at the Los Alamos National Laboratories. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate energy and water development appropriations subcommittee, provided $35 million in fiscal 2006 funding to begin a three-phase program to acquire a supercomputer that is able to run at a sustained performance level of 1 petaflop, or a billion million computations per second.
NASA's Mars exploration program is in the middle of a strategic regrouping effort as it continues grappling with the nearly $3 billion five-year cut contained in the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 budget request, which has left it unable to make firm plans for missions beyond 2016. In response, the agency has formed an ad hoc group to draw up plans for the next 10 years of Mars exploration. That group's work should be completed this summer, according to Mars Program Lead Scientist Michael Meyer.
Four H-1 helicopters - two AH-1Zs and two UH-1Ys - left the Naval Air Warfare Center Patuxent River, Md., on May 9 to begin the H-1 program's long-awaited, and slightly delayed, operational evaluation (opeval) period.
JOINING BOEING: Judge J. Michael Luttig has resigned from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to become senior vice president and general counsel of the Boeing Co. Luttig will replace Douglas Bain, who is retiring effective July 1, the company said May 10. Luttig was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals by President George H. W. Bush in 1991.
Cuts in two Missile Defense Agency (MDA) long lead programs could delay them by 18 months or more, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen Henry Obering III , MDA's director, said May 10. Both the House and Senate Armed Services committees have recommended cuts to the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program in fiscal 2007. The House committee wants to trim $100 million and the Senate $200 million from the Bush administration's $406 million budget request.
The House on May 10 began consideration of its $512.9 billion fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill, including initial supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, and could wrap up as early as May 11. The House's first move May 10 was to adopt a manager's amendment sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, which included a provision to add $4 million for Call for Fire Trainer/Joint fires and Effects Trainer with an offset of $4 million from the Joint Tactical Radio System.
A prototype weather sensor whose development problems have contributed to the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System's (NPOESS) woes is entering thermal vacuum testing, according to Raytheon. Raytheon is developing the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to measure sea surface temperature and ocean color. Development problems have pushed delivery of the flight-ready sensor to NPOESS prime contractor Northrop Grumman from an original target of fall 2005 back to 2008.
Alcoa's Howmet operation is bringing a new furnace online to help keep up with soaring demand for aircraft components. The furnace at Howmet's Whitehall, Mich., facility will be dedicated to producing airfoils for manufacturers of new aircraft engines. Howmet says it is designed with the latest automation technologies and will help the company be more responsive to customers' production schedules.
M SHAPED: M Ship Co. announced May 9 that the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded it a $750,000 contract, including options, to validate the potential of an M-shaped hull design. ONR's Small Business Innovation Research contract represents phase II of research into the M-hull. Earlier this month, the company delivered the 88-foot M 80 Stiletto, built with $12.5 million from the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) as part of the OFT's Wolf PAC Distributed Operations Experiment, conducted with the U.S. Special Operations Command.
A strong rebound in commercial aircraft production helped Precision Castparts Corp. close out its fiscal year with record sales and profits. The supplier of gas turbine and structural aircraft components reported net income of $351 million ($2.58 a share) for the year ended April 2, compared with a loss of $1.7 million in the previous fiscal year. Sales rose 22 percent from a year earlier to $3.55 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corp., embroiled in a congressional debate over earmarks and defense spending, is defending a request for $200 million for hurricane disruption out of the supplemental measure working through Congress as fair for the Navy, the company and taxpayers.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a $22 million, 48-month contract to develop the Generalized Integrated Learning Architecture (GILA), the company said May 9. GILA will help U.S. Air Force planners better control air space over a battlefield, as well as train personnel.
