The House Armed Services readiness subcommittee on April 27 shifted $856 million within the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 budget request toward the military services' training and operational needs. The readiness authorizers, in their first markup of the FY '07 policy bill, also said they were concerned with the administration's flat spending request once rising fuel prices and inflation are considered.
Finally positioned vertically on its two solid rocket boosters, Lockheed Martin's 154-foot space shuttle external tank for the next mission is now also better positioned for any final modifications before the orbiter Discovery's scheduled attachment by mid-May. Whether such modifications are made will depend on final wind tunnel data on the effect on tank components of airflow changes without the hydrogen protuberance air load ramp, which was removed to eliminate a source of potentially dangerous foam debris.
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet team is negotiating with the U.S. Navy about funding a number of targeting improvements that will take fuller advantage of the aircraft's new APG-79 radar and reduce engagement times to a minute or less, according to Boeing.
Bob Ferris has been named interim chief executive officer. Ferris is currently president of VirTra Systems. L. Kelly Jones has resigned as board chairman and chief executive officer.
TRANSPONDER TEST: In-orbit testing of an eight-transponder payload on the Spainsat military communications spacecraft has been completed, U.S.-Spanish joint venture XTAR says. The spacecraft was launched on March 11. U.S. and allied government customers will be provided with a global X-band satcom capability by the Spainsat payload, marketed under the name XTAR-LANT, in combination with the venture's own XTAR-EUR satellite, orbited in early 2005.
Robert Hammerle has been named director of business development for homeland security. John Kefaliotis has been appointed director of business development for Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control programs. Ian Patterson has been named vice president and director of government relations. William Syers has been promoted to vice president and director of congressional relations. Chris Young has been named president and general manager of the space systems division.
The White House and government watchdogs have each ramped up their complaints about the Senate's version of the fiscal 2006 supplemental bill, including over tiltrotor V-22 Ospreys and Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Gulf Coast shipbuilding. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said April 26 that it was dismayed by efforts to remove funding for night vision goggles and other "effective" military equipment while funding for the "defective" V-22 would be increased.
Mark T. Esper has been appointed executive vice president of Defense and International Affairs, effective May 1. Craig Steidle is being replaced by Esper. Steidle is AIA's former National Security vice president.
Legislation requiring the Pentagon to fund an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and authorizing multiyear procurement for the F-22 Raptor and the V-22 Osprey was approved by a House Armed Services subcommittee April 26. The Armed Services tactical air & land forces subcommittee also added $1.4 billion in additional funding for 20 F-22 aircraft. The Air Force's $2 billion fiscal 2007 budget request assumes authorization of a three-year procurement contract of 60 aircraft, at 20 per year, between fiscal 2008 and 2010.
ID SERVICES: BAE Systems Technologies Inc. has been awarded a $25.2 million contract modification to provide engineering and technical services to support U.S. Navy identification system programs, the Defense Department said April 26. The work will be done at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, St. Inigoes, Md.; and California, Md. It is expected to be finished in April 2007. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, St. Inigoes, Md.
Senate lawmakers questioned NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on April 26 about unspent funds at the agency left over from previous fiscal years, which Griffin said were all slated to be spent on congressionally approved projects.
While Boeing posted overall growth for the first quarter of this year, revenues for its Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) business fell 6 percent to $7.2 billion, compared to $7.6 billion for the first quarter of 2005, the company announced April 26. Boeing attributed the decline to lower volume in proprietary and commercial satellite programs, launch delays due to the Delta rocket workers strike and the August 2005 sale of Rocketdyne.
Arianespace reported a 6.33 million euro pretax profit last year on revenues of 1.07 billion euros ($1.3 billion) - up 60 percent over the previous year - as its Ariane 5 heavy lift launcher finally moved into cruising gear. With this year's manifest showing six Ariane 5 missions - one more than last year - and three Soyuz launches, and prices continuing to firm, CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall expects to equal or surpass this showing in 2006.
Russian investigators have identified a blocked nozzle in the booster hydraulic pump as the likely culprit behind the Feb. 28 Proton launch failure that left the Arabsat 4A spacecraft stranded in the wrong orbit. Based on telemetry data, the investigation panel believes a foreign particle blocked the nozzle, which interrupted the supply of oxidizer to the engine and resulted in a premature shutdown (DAILY, March 2). Arabsat 4A was deliberately de-orbited last month.
Senate defense appropriators are poised to boost funding to outfit Air National Guard (ANG) F-15Cs with Active Electronically Scanned Array radar beyond the Defense Department's recent budget requests, Republican panel members said April 26.
