IT WAIVER: The wheels of acquisition streamlining turn slowly, but when Congress enacts a reform you can expect to see lasting effects in, oh, four years, say. So it is with exemptions to the Buy America Act for military purchases of commercial information technology products. Congress inserted exemptions into appropriations bills for fiscal 2004, fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006, and the Pentagon is proposing a change in acquisition rules to make the exemption permanent.
A quiet battle is brewing over the U.S. Navy's plan to start funding construction of multiple Virginia-class submarines around fiscal 2012, rather than FY '09, with the service and General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat feuding over when they could reach a $2 billion per-boat price target.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will be sending 50 Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) to the 25th Infantry Division for experimentation this October, followed by a possible deployment of the system to Iraq.
EFV WORK: General Dynamics Land Systems has been awarded a $44.4 million contract to complete the systems development and demonstration phase of the Marine Corps ' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program. General Dynamics will provide materials, services, personnel and facilities, as well as perform studies, analyses, and other tasks, the company said. The work will be done by General Dynamics Amphibious Systems in Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Aberdeen, Md.; Sterling Heights, Mich.; and Woodbridge, Va. It is expected to be finished by September 2009.
Stanley A. Deal has been named president of Connexion by Boeing. Laurette T. Koellner has been appointed president of Boeing International Relations. Tom Pickering is being replaced by Koellner. Pickering is retiring.
STRYKER ORDER: The U.S. Army has ordered 306 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles worth $463.9 million from General Dynamics Land Systems, the company said April 12. The work will be done in Anniston, Ala.; Lima, Ohio; and London, Ontario, Canada. Deliveries are set for April 2007 through March 2008. The order is an extension of a 2000 contract to produce more than 2,100 Strykers. About 1,500 Strykers have been delivered to the Army so far.
David A. Ogden has been named assistant director of the aerospace engineering department in the aerospace electronics and information technology division.
The Pentagon's current chief information officer says network centric warfare is 80 percent along the way to being institutionalized in the Defense Department after the first CIO, John Stenbit, came up with the vision for the transformation. But John G. Grimes, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks Information and Integration and CIO, says implementing network centric warfare will be harder to accomplish.
John Lee has retired as senior vice president and CFO. Randall Shealy has been appointed to succeed Lee. Chris Warden has been named director of internal audit.
Rep. Todd Akin is in negotiations with NASA about keeping the X-43 hypersonics team intact, according to a spokesman for the Missouri Republican. The team, which includes Boeing Phantom Works of St. Louis, set airbreathing speed records with their two successful scramjet demonstrations in 2004. Akin, a member of the House Science Committee, met with NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Lisa Porter late last month to discuss the group's future.
Lockheed Martin satellite trackers in Australia confirmed the successful launch of the JCSAT-9 telecommunications satellite late on April 12 following its equatorial launch on a Sea Launch Zenit vehicle. Liftoff from the Sea Launch Odyssey floating launch pad came at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time from a position at 154 degrees west longitude. First acquisition of signal at Lockheed Martin's tracking facility in Uralla, Australia, came at 9:16 p.m. Eastern time.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has settled down in a safe spot to ride out the martian winter while its twin, Opportunity, continues its long journey to a large crater dubbed "Victoria." Spirit spent February and March at a plateau called "Home Plate." After one of its six wheels quit on March 13, the rover struggled to travel the short distance to a nearby north-facing slope where its solar arrays will be at a favorable angle to receive the maximum sunlight through the eight-month martian winter.
Yehoshua Eldar has been named corporate vice president for business development and subsidiaries. Danny Kleiman has been appointed IAI's corporate vice president for operations. Yair Ramati has been named IAI's corporate vice president for marketing. Joseph Weiss has been appointed corporate vice president and general manager of IAI's systems, missiles and space group.
Earl Sheck has been appointed vice president of military intelligence programs. George M. Simmerman, Jr. has been named vice president, assistant general counsel and sector counsel.
The U.S. Air Force is eyeing more of a service-wide information technology acquisition strategy to bridge East and West Coast industries, as well as push for greater cost savings, Ronald A. Poussard, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Combat and Mission Support Services, said April 13.
Frank Hepburn has been appointed senior director of sales and business development for 3D visualization. Tom Olechnowicz has been named senior director for simulation sales and business development.
The French space agency CNES says France has 5.5 million extra euros to spend on space missions, and they're already lining up for the funds. The extra money is coming from savings in overhead and administrative costs, cost reductions at the European space launch center in Kourou, French Guiana, and payment of the final installment on past debts.
Aero Gear Inc. of Winsdor, Conn., will announce April 13 that it has won an $11.1 million, three-year contract from the U.S. Army to re-engineer and manufacture replacement parts for legacy Army and other aging defense aircraft. The contract, awarded by the U.S. Army's Benet Laboratories, Watervliet Arsenal, N.Y, is a direct result of efforts by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), according to Aero Gear President Douglas Rose. Dodd will be at an AeroGear ceremony to announce the contract.
