BARTLETT'S BULLY PULPIT: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee, is continuing his effort to push the U.S. Navy toward greater use of nuclear power, as well as reduced ship staffing and even smaller aircraft carriers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's sole Predator B drone crashed early April 25 north of Nogales, Ariz., but the chief of Homeland Security Department's CBP Air and Marine division remains confident in the unmanned aircraft program, he told The DAILY and Aviation Week & Space Technology in an exclusive interview.
JSF ENGINE: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney Military Engines unit a $120 million contract for low-rate initial Lot 1 procurement of five F-135 engines for the Air Force's Joint Strike Fighter F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant. The engines will be built in East Hartford, Conn., and the contract should be finished in January 2010, the Defense Department announced April 20.
The U.S. space industry charges too much for the services it provides and must learn to do more with less, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said during a speech in Washington April 25. "We, the country, don't get enough back for what we spend" on space, Griffin told attendees of the Inside Aerospace symposium sponsored by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Space Foundation. "That means we don't get enough product for the amount of people's time invested in these activities. We have too many people doing every job we do."
MIXED RESULTS: Net sales jumped 9 percent and net earnings soared 60 percent for Lockheed Martin in the first quarter of 2006, the company said April 25. Net sales grew to $9.2 billion compared to $8.5 billion for the same period a year ago. Net earnings soared from $369 million to $591 million. Meanwhile, first quarter profits for Northrop Grumman decreased from $409 million in the first quarter of '05 to $358 million. Revenue declined from $7.8 billion to $7.18 billion.
JSF ENGINE: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney Military Engines unit a $120 million contract for low-rate initial Lot 1 procurement of five F-135 engines for the Air Force's Joint Strike Fighter F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant. The engines will be built in East Hartford, Conn., and the contract should be finished in January 2010, the Defense Department announced April 20.
AESA RADAR: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors and System Section an $8.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop lightweight, low-power density Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Integrated Sensor Structure program. The radar would be dual UHF and X-Band and bonded to the flexible hull material of an airship, the Defense Department said April 21. The ultimate goal is to find the feasibility of flexible scanned array.
"Reliability challenges" in Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program, which resulted in reduced Lot 5 production, will soon be worked out and production should get "back on track" in Lot 6, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Stephen Davis, JASSM Block 2 Squadron commander. Reliability concerns emerged during tests two years ago, he says, and officials believe that work instructions, such as for improved brazing, were not updated appropriately, Davis said.
A joint top-level U.K.-U.S. study mapping out strategic technologies for defense transformation is calling for more trans-Atlantic collaboration in key areas. The report, entitled "Defense Critical Technologies" is co-authored by the Defense Science Board and the U.K. Defense Scientific Advisory Council. Areas covered in the report are advanced command environments, persistent surveillance, power sources and management for networked sensors, high performance computing, and defense critical electronic components.
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.
