Defense officials finally confirmed June 26 that they have decided to continue with Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. and its embattled H-1 helicopter upgrades program, although they also said more scrutiny was ahead. Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg signed an acquisition decision memorandum June 22 requiring the Navy to go ahead with the existing program but schedule another in-process review for October. At the same time, the Navy is to "develop a way forward to resolve various program issues," as well as "potential alternatives" to the existing program.
Congress is on its way to tightening award and incentive fees to aerospace and defense contractors when their programs fall short or run into problems, although any final requirement still has to be worked out. The Senate's fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill, passed June 22, calls for the Defense Department to issue new guidance on the "appropriate" use of award and incentive fees in DOD acquisition programs.
JERRVs: All 122 Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicles (JERRVs) originally ordered last year will be delivered to the U.S. military by the end of month, Marine Maj. Gen. William Catto told the House Armed Services Committee during a June 15 hearing. The v-bottom-shaped JERRVs, awarded May 2005, were expected by last month (DAILY, June 24, 2005). Still, Force Protection Industries Inc.
NORAD C2: SI International Inc. said June 23 that it received a 2.5-year, $14 million Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) contract to provide life-cycle planning, management and engineering and technical assistance to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and AFSPC. The company said it will help define, develop, field, test and sustain their command and control capabilities, including space, air missile, and command and control elements.
CHINESE OBSERVERS: The Defense Department hopes that inviting Chinese military observers to attend the Valiant Shield exercise in the Pacific Ocean will encourage a reciprocal invitation for the U.S. to observe the next Chinese-Russian military exercise. Ten Chinese officials were among the foreign observers watching Valiant Shield, a joint U.S. military exercise last week that included 30 warships, 290 aircraft and 22,000 service personnel. Three carrier strike groups - the Kitty Hawk, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan - participated in the weeklong exercise near Guam.
The U.S. Treasury Dept. has frozen the U.S. financial assets of China's Great Wall Industry, along with another Chinese space exporter, in response to charges that they and the Chinese government are aiding Iranian ballistic missile development. "The companies targeted have supplied Iran's military and Iranian proliferators with missile-related and dual-use components," said Stuart Levey, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Dept.
SPACE, UAVs: The Department of Defense will have to conduct an independent review of its management of military space and deliver the results to Congress, according to language added to the fiscal 2007 Senate defense authorization bill by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.). Meanwhile, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has amended the same bill to require DOD to deliver annual reports on the expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the national airspace.
SHUTTLE COSTS: NASA's latest published estimate sets the cost of making the space shuttle fleet safe to fly after the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia accident at $1.267 billion. That number includes expenses only through January, and not the cost of upcoming wind tunnel tests and other work on modifications to the external tank's ice/frost ramps.
With the possibility of a long-range missile test by North Korea looming, the director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said June 23 that he is "confident" of the current missile defense system's ability to defend the U.S. "Based on the testing that we have done to date, I'm confident that we could hit a long-range missile that would be fired at the United States," U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering said. "Obviously, in my mind, it's much higher confidence than has been described by some of our critics in the press."
NASA managers will wait until October to decide whether to launch a final space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, gaining time to analyze data from the upcoming STS-121 flight to the International Space Station. The previous NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, cancelled the Hubble servicing mission after the Columbia accident because the crew of another debris-damaged orbiter would not be able to use the ISS as a "safe haven" while awaiting rescue.
DARPA AWARD: The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has signed KLA-Tencor Corp. of San Jose, Calif., to a $5.44 million cost-share and technology-investment agreement to investigate the feasibility of various key requirements needed to develop reflective electron-beam lithography technology. The contract, announced June 21 by the Defense Department, runs through December. DARPA solicited bids online in January and multiple proposals were received, DOD said.
JULY MARKUP: Senate appropriators are not scheduled to mark up their fiscal 2007 defense spending bill as a whole committee until July 20. The defense subcommittee could meet any time before then, according to a Senate Appropriations Committee spokeswoman. The House has passed both its defense appropriations and authorization bills, and the Senate just passed its authorization (DAILY, June 23). Senate appropriators traditionally like to have the last word.
June 27 - 28 -- 2006 U.S. Coast Guard Innovation Expo, "Domain Awareness & Integration," Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, Fla. For more information go to www.ndia.org. June 29 -- Homeland Defense Training Conference, "Emergency Alert Notification Solutions for Government and Business," Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information call (703) 807-2758 or go to www.homelanddefensejournal.com.
SHIP TRIALS: The U.S. Navy's newest amphibious ship, the first-of-class USS San Antonio (LPD-17), is halfway through its testing, according to Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). The San Antonio has made "impressive progress" toward completing her post-construction tests and trials in the last six months since departing Northrop Grumman Corp.'s shipyard, NAVSEA said June 22. However, testing began on April 10 and was expected to conclude in early June, with results to be released six months after completion (DAILY, May 8).
TOPPING OUT: Some observers think a defense spending pattern that played out after the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Reagan defense buildup is about to happen again. The pattern suggests that when the total value of military outlays approaches half a trillion dollars, it bounces off an "invisible ceiling" and begins to drop, according to Lexington Institute's Loren Thompson. "Some people believe it is about to unfold again," he says, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a dual-spacecraft technology demonstration mission from Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral, Fla., June 21 aboard a U.S. Air Force/Boeing Delta rocket. The Micro-Satellite Technology Experiment (MiTEx) consists of two 500-pound U.S. military spacecraft that will demonstrate new technologies and formation flight in geosynchronous orbit. One spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin and the other by Orbital Sciences Corp.
GPS AWARD: The U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles awarded the Boeing Co.'s Navigation and Communication Systems division a $138.3 million contract modification for the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) Block IIF, the Defense Department said June 22. The contract provides for the "next generation" of advanced GPS satellites with navigation enhancements for both military and civilian users. The modification exercises the fiscal 2006 option to begin production of three satellites, Space Vehicles 10 through 12.
SPLIT FUNDING: Bush administration efforts to incrementally fund several large acquisitions, though backed by the aerospace and defense industry, are receiving a bumpy and uneven reception on Capitol Hill. An incremental proposal for F-22A Raptor aircraft was rejected by both the House and Senate, although a related proposal to allow a multiyear contract award passed (DAILY, June 23). Another incremental proposal for DD(X) destroyers could be blocked as well.
A General Aviation group wants the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to set strict standards for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) before their use expands from the military to the civilian sector. The International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA), which represents 470,000 aircraft owners and general aviation pilots in 64 countries, is worried that as UAV use increases it will come at the expense of manned aircraft.
FIRE SCOUT: Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) tried unsuccessfully to amend the Senate's fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill to require the Army to buy eight of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Fire Scout unmanned aircraft, as specified in the Bush administration's budget request, as well as earmark $29 million from Army research and development funds for experimenting with and fine tuning tactics for use of the drones. Lott introduced the amendment June 20 but it was never brought up for debate and vote.
The Senate on June 22 sided with Lockheed Martin Corp. and its F-22A Raptor industry team by approving a multiyear acquisition contract for the increasingly expensive fighter despite criticism by Senate Armed Services Committee leaders and defense acquisition reform advocates. In a vote of 70-28, senators added an amendment sponsored by Georgian Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) allowing the multiyear to the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill.
