Government officials working on the congressionally mandated U.S. national policy on aeronautics say they expect it to be publicly released in December following signing by President Bush. NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) co-chair the committee that has been working on the policy since last fall. The group also includes participation from the Defense, Transportation and Commerce Departments.
The Homeland Security Department has issued a congressionally mandated solicitation for alternative technologies to counter the threat of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) to commercial airliners.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) has begun a looking-for-work lobbying campaign with the Kansas congressional delegation in the wake of Boeing's announcement that it will lay off about 900 workers at its Wichita Integrated Defense Systems factory this year. Program delays, contract completions, and defense budget cuts are blamed by Boeing for the layoffs.
ARMY McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded on April 17, 2006, a $44,372,772 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for remanufacture of six AH-64D aircraft. The work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by May 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 27, 2004. The Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-00-C-0124). NAVY
TANKER RFI: The Air Force's long-awaited request for information to recapitalize its aerial refueling fleet should be issued April 25, and is expected to include the option of buying tanking services as well. Boeing and Northrop Grumman, teamed with EADS, are vying to replace about 500 KC-135s. If requirements include major cargo lift, Boeing may have to consider a tanker version of the 777.
The Navy and Air Force will finally be forced to decide who gets the key missions of electronic warfare and signals intelligence due to planning for the 2008 defense budget, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley says. But this doesn't reflect current realities, top aerospace industry officials say.
DRS Technologies said April 24 that it has been awarded a $34 million contract, including options, to deliver embedded diagnostics systems for the U.S. Army's M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. DRS will manufacture Chassis Modernization and Embedded Diagnostics (CMED) Retrofit Kits under an initial $24 million award.
Until the U.S. and China come to terms on weapons-proliferation issues, closer space cooperation won't be possible, top NASA officials say. But that doesn't mean a charge in a white paper by the Center for Strategic and International Studies is true that a "Cold War mentality" on space has been adopted by the Bush administration.
JCM MEETING SET: The Defense Department's Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) is expected to meet later this month to discuss the fate of the Joint Common Missile (JCM) program. Senior Pentagon officials terminated the Army-led effort in December 2004 over the objections of some military leaders and members of Congress. Lawmakers since have inserted money into annual budgets to keep the program alive, including $30 million for fiscal 2006, but the Army has not requested any JCM funding in FY '07 (DAILY, March 29).
NEW DIRECTOR: Simon P. (Pete) Worden was named director of NASA's Ames Research Center on April 21. The retired Air Force brigadier general, who has wide experience in military space, will replace Scott Hubbard, who left office in January (DAILY, Jan. 26).
NASA's aeronautics mission directorate is reviewing an integrated proposal for continuing the agency's work in hypersonics that was crafted jointly by its Dryden, Langley, Glenn, and Ames research centers.
PRECISION ARTILLERY: The U.S. military is on the verge of having a precise, ground-based small artillery capability that could be used in urban combat, says Maj. Gen. David Ralston, chief of the Army Field Artillery Center. One system, the Precision Strike Suite for Special Operations Forces, will become a program of record for all services. Ground troops could deliver a 200-pound warhead within 10 meters accuracy against mostly permanent structures - such as buildings that insurgents have run into - as mapped by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
WAR SUPPLEMENTAL: The Senate will debate the latest fiscal 2006 supplemental spending request for up to two weeks after reconvening April 24 from its Easter break. In their committee markup of the bill, Senate appropriators boosted funding for C-17 and V-22 aircraft (DAILY, April 5). But debate, which Republican leaders had hoped to keep to a week, could be prolonged with internal-GOP arguments over nonmilitary earmarks, as well as Democratic efforts to use the bill to highlight election-year claims.
