UUV LAUNCHED: BAE Systems said March 21 that it launched its new autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), the Talisman. Backed by an unidentified amount of BAE Systems' private venture funds, the program was started in late 2004. The vehicle is based on a carbon fiber composite hull, with internal carbon fiber composite pressure vessels containing the electronics systems and payload. The hull is fitted with commercial-off-the-shelf vector thruster pods.
BOEING CO., Chicago Shephard W. Hill has been named senior vice president for business development and strategy. Christopher Raymond has been appointed vice president for Boeing IDS business development. EADS NORTH AMERICA DEFENSE, Arlington, Va. David R. Oliver, Jr. has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer and will continue serving on the board of directors. John H. Young, Jr. has been named chief executive officer. INTELSAT LTD., Pembroke, Bermuda
Ahead of this week's first-of-its-kind, high-level Pentagon policy review of the Air Force's proposed combat search and rescue (CSAR-X) aircraft competition, Lockheed Martin Corp. is disputing that its US101 helicopter derivative is developmental. "There's probably nothing further from the truth," Dan Spoor, Lockheed Martin's vice president for CSAR-X, told The DAILY.
An air-launched Pegasus winged rocket spun three small NASA testbed satellites out like Frisbees over the Pacific yesterday in a picture-perfect launch of the ST5 mission. Adding icing to the cake, the McMurdo Ground Station in Antarctica picked up the satellites as they passed overhead on their first orbit. McMurdo used an untried X-band uplink and downlink capability that was installed to provide for extended operations of the ST5 constellation after its three-month nominal mission using NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN).
AEGIS UPGRADE: The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a $20.8 million contract to deliver the first Aegis Combat System upgrade ship-set for a cruiser modernization program, the company announced March 22. The work will be done on up to 22 existing Aegis-equipped cruisers. The first naval surface defense system upgrade will be installed aboard the USS Bunker Hill (CG 52). Aegis is deployed on 77 ships around the globe, with more than 25 additional ships planned.
Snow Aviation International is conducting preliminary flight-tests of a C-130E equipped with eight-blade Hamilton Sundstrand propellers in place of the transport's original 54H60 units. The tests are being conducted at the company's home base, Rickenbacker International Airport, Columbus, Ohio. The propellers, designated NP2000, were installed under an agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The final downselect for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Organic Air Vehicle II (OAV II) program is expected in early April, according to a spokesman for Aurora Flight Sciences. Aurora is competing in OAV II with a team led by Honeywell, which was the prime contractor on DARPA's OAV I program. OAV II is intended to mature the technology of ducted-fan unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and prepare it to serve as the Class II UAV in the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
A new analysis is putting some numbers behind the widely-held view that aerospace and defense companies are the driving force behind robust mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the government information technology (IT) sector. Two thirds of 118 M&A transactions in government IT and defense in 2005 were focused on security and defense, with an emphasis on military communications, sensors and signal processing technologies, according to the analysis released earlier this month by Input, an IT market research firm in Reston, Va.
CEC: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has tacked on another $11 million to Raytheon Systems' contract for the Navy's new sensor netting system to boost naval anti-air capability. The company will provide more Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) design agent support, according to a March 16 announcement from the Pentagon. CEC collects and distributes sensor-derived information to all participating CEC units. Last December, Navsea contracted with Raytheon's Network Centric Systems for $7.2 million for fiscal 2006 item requirements for the program (DAILY, Dec.
The Bush administration's recent update to the National Security Strategy downplays the harm the administration's policies have done to the aerospace and defense industrial base, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. "The president fails to discuss the threats to U.S. security from the erosion of the domestic manufacturing base, our increasing reliance on foreign production to meet U.S. military needs, and our need to borrow massive amounts of money from foreign governments to prop up our current trade and economic policies," he said.
ST5 SLIP: NASA is now targeting March 22 to launch three ST5 spacecraft, hoping that will be enough time for engineers to figure out why a fin-locking pin didn't withdraw as planned shortly before the most recent launch attempt of its Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus vehicle on March 15 (DAILY, March 16). As of March 17, no clear cause had been found, and another launch readiness review was set at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., late March 20.
'IMPOSSIBLE' MARKUP: Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee, expects $5-$6 billion in plus-up requests for his panel alone from other lawmakers and the Defense Department. He also said he expects an "impossible" markup of the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill in the House over the next three months since Congress won't have enough money to do what it wants already. He said industry was busy compiling its wish list and asked DOD officials for candor to help the process.
The Coast Guard is interested in the Navy's force protection-antiterrorism unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) under development for the Littoral Combat Ship mission modules, but nothing formal has been worked out, according to Navy Capt. Walt Wright, program manager for LCS mission modules. Wright, briefing reporters at the Washington Navy Yard on March 15, said he has briefed Coast Guard Adm. Patrick Stillman, program manager for the Homeland Security Department armed service's massive Deepwater recapitalization effort, on LCS modules.
ARM INVESTIGATION: NASA has formed a board that will investigate the March 4 accident that damaged the shuttle Discovery's robotic arm. Hugo Delgado, deputy director for the Office of the Chief Engineer at Kennedy Space Center, is chairman of the five-member panel. The group's report is expected this summer. During the accident, shuttle technicians accidentally bumped the 50-foot arm, creating two indentations in its protective outer layer and a small crack in the carbon-fiber composite underneath. The arm was removed March 14 and sent back to the vendor for repair.
EMALS CHANGES: The Navy has awarded $6 million more to General Atomics for two proposed changes to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), the Defense Department announced March 16. The work - for the Center Deck Display and a revision to the Launch Control System Motor Controller - should be finished in April 2009. EMALS, a state-of-the-art replacement for the current steam catapult system used to launch aircraft off Navy aircraft carriers, is envisioned for the CVN-21 flattop.
NUCLEAR USE: The White House's latest National Security Strategy strengthens the role of nuclear weapons in pre-emptive military strikes against terrorists and hostile states armed with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists. In stronger language than used in the 2002 strategy, the update speaks more directly about the importance of nuclear weapons and lumps them together with other military action in a pre-emption scenario.
UNRESTRAINED PLAN: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee, has asked for and expects the Navy to provide his panel with a long-term shipbuilding and force structure plan that is wholly unrestrained by current budget pressures. Bartlett's request echoes deep Capitol Hill concern that recent Defense Department budget plans include decisions based on reduced funding as much or more than military requirements.
