The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to expand a pilot program testing X-ray technology, which can detect weapons and explosives beneath a person's clothes, to airports in New York and Los Angeles. The TSA began its long-awaited test of the controversial backscatter X-ray passenger screening technology last week at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) with a closet-sized SmartCheck screening system manufactured by American Science and Engineering (AS&E).
PATHFINDER PLUS: The solar-electric Pathfinder-Plus unmanned flying wing developed by NASA and AeroVironment is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. With a wingspan of 121 feet, the Pathfinder-Plus set several altitude records for propeller-driven aircraft. Its last work for NASA was a series of research flights completed in 2005.
AIR FORCE United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Group, East Hartford, Conn., is being awarded a $49,625,682 cost plus fixed fee, firm fixed price and cost plus award fee contract. This action provides for F119-PW-119 Engine Lot 6, CY 07 sustainment undefinitized contract action. At this time, $24,763,215 has been obligated. The work will be complete by June 2007. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-05-C-2851). U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND
LONDON - British Defense Procurement Minister Paul Drayson is renewing warnings that the U.K. spends too little on research and technology, which will eventually threaten its defense-industrial capabilities. Drayson made the remarks Feb. 26 during a Chatham House conference on Research and Technology in the Defense Acquisition Process. "I believe we are not investing enough in defense research and development, either in government or in industry," he said.
In the wake of the White House's recently unveiled aeronautics research policy, NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD) have agreed to develop a cooperative strategy for maintaining the government's aeronautical test facilities. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Kenneth Krieg signed a memorandum of agreement (MOU), called the National Partnership for Aeronautical Testing (NPAT), in January.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Clearfield, Utah, is being awarded a $57,653,113 cost-plus-incentive fee contract modification. This procurement provides for 102 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Security Modernization Program (ISMP) Launch Facility secondary door or Fast B-Pug Element. At this time, total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by February 2009. Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity. NAVY
The TacSat-2 microsatellite is operating smoothly in orbit following the resolution of two technical setbacks early in the mission, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced Feb. 23. The problems were an incompatible radio configuration with the ground station and an error in the spacecraft's attitude determination and control system. Both have "long since been corrected," AFRL said.
General Dynamics Land Systems - Canada Corp., Oshkosh Truck Corp. and Protected Vehicles Inc. are each receiving delivery orders under a previously awarded set of contracts for Mine Resistant and Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, the Pentagon announced late Feb. 23. The three low-rate production contracts mean that, along with Force Protection and BAE Systems, five of nine companies with prototype MRAP contracts have now obtained production orders (DAILY, Feb. 21). Deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan
The U.S. Air Force's inability to fully fund the first increment of its proposed air defense system meant to prevent more terrorist attacks using civilian jets - coupled with stern testing measures - helped stymie the system's development, a recent report said. "In BCS Spiral 1, the U.S. Air Force identified 464 requirements as its objective, said the "Battle Control System White Paper December 2006," released last week by contractor ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS).
In what some military analysts called a surprise and rare decision, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced Feb. 26 that it sustained the protests against the Air Force contract award to Boeing for more than 140 combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopters in a deal worth between $10 billion and $15 billion. GAO protest decisions are nonbinding - it's up to the Air Force to decide whether to go through with the contract anyway.
ARMY BANDWIDTH: One of U.S. Army Gen. Richard A. Cody's directives is to make the Army equally competent in electronic warfare (EW) with other armed services, so the Army plans to replace a majority of Navy "advisors" with its own soldiers by March 2008, officials say. Cody, vice chief of staff, has also outlined a goal to make EW an Army core competency, meaning every soldier will be trained. The Army will base its approach partly on the Navy model. "Everyone's got to touch it now, which is a huge sea change," Col.
The U.S. Navy incorrectly used a new military acquisition test program to speed buys of relatively inexpensive purchases in a recent contract for satellite system equipment, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) inspector general ruled.
RQ-4 PARTS: Northrop Grumman will begin buying long-lead items for the seventh low-rate initial production (LRIP) block of the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle under a $5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
GE'S ROWE DIES: Brian H. Rowe, the larger-than-life figure who led General Electric's aircraft-engine business through a period of tremendous growth and to eventual market dominance, died Feb. 22 following surgery. He was 75. Under Rowe's leadership, GE launched the CF34 small turbofan series, the F110 fighter engine that helped stoke the so-called "Great Engine War" between GE and rival Pratt & Whitney, the GE90 that has become the world's most powerful aircraft jet engine, and the partnership with SNECMA of France that became CFM International.
SAT LAUNCH SET: EchoStar Communications will use an International Launch Services Proton Breeze M vehicle to launch a satellite in 2008. EchoStar is not disclosing what satellite that will be. A Proton M also will launch the Ciel-2 for Canada's newest satellite operator, Ciel Satellite Group, in late 2008. Ciel-2 is an Alcatel Alenia Spacebus 4000.
The Defense Department's fiscal 2008 budget request includes just more than $1 billion in programs that could support the development of anti-satellite and space-based weapons capabilities, according to a new analysis from the Center for Defense Information (CDI). "Congress must become more aware of these efforts, and ensure that such programs do not go forward without in-depth scrutiny of their purposes and possible long-term impacts on U.S. space security," CDI Director and report co-author Theresa Hitchens said in a statement.
Silence about the key capabilities of the second-generation Super Hornet's advanced radar and integrated sensor package is being broken by U.S. Navy and aerospace industry officials just as President Bush's budget faces scrutiny by Congress. The design will give the Block II Boeing-built Navy aircraft a fifth generation capability similar to that of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, says Capt. Donald Gaddis, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet program manager.
Feb. 26 - 27 -- 15th Annual International Conference on ISO 9000, Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, Fla. For more information call (412) 782-3383 or go to www.iso9000conference.com. Feb. 26 - 28 -- 18th Annual NDIA SO/LIC Symposium & Exhibition, "Warfare in the Seams: Defense and Industry Partnering to Win the Long War," Hyatt Crystal City, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.com.
OFFICIAL DENIAL: More than 20 countries have missile technologies, and in all likelihood, more will follow, says U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency. "We have been surprised in the past, and we anticipate that we will be surprised in the future," he said at a National Press Club event Feb. 22 in defense of U.S. proposals to base ballistic missile interceptors in Europe. They are not designed against Russian threats, he contends.
