Kenneth C. Dahlberg has joined the board of directors. Dahlberg is chairman of the board, CEO and president of Science Applications International Corp.
Top Navy officials said March 1 that they will conduct an acquisition strategy review for the proposed DD(X) destroyer sometime this fall, including the engine that the embattled program will use. Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations (CNO), told the House Armed Services Committee March 1 that the program - which last fall went through a cost-cutting exercise bound for all major Navy programs including aviation, according to Mullen - still enjoys "very strong" Navy support.
Big questions about cost and technical feasibility still hang over the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official told Senate lawmakers during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 1. It still will be several more years before the FCS program's requirements are firm, according to Paul Francis, GAO's director of acquisition and sourcing management.
William M. Daley has been appointed a new board member on the finance committee. Daley is chairman of the Midwest region for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Gen. John M. Shalikashvili (USA, Ret.) will not stand for re-election to the board of directors.
CONTRACTORS: Senate Demo- cratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on March 2 will announce new legislation to address "the persistent problem of waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting." Among other provisions, the new bill would "ban war profiteering, rewarding corporate cheaters and hiring corporate cronies," according Senate Democratic staff.
Charles J. Greene has been appointed vice president-tax and treasurer. Gary McArthur has been named vice president and chief financial officer. Pamela Padgett has been appointed vice president of investor relations and corporate communications.
CARTRIDGES: Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Plymouth, Minn., has been awarded a $49.7 million contract modification to provide the U.S. Army with M831A1 Target Practice Tracer 120mm Cartridges and M865 Target Practice Cone Stabilized Discarding Sabot Tracer 120mm Cartridges, the Defense Department said Feb. 28. The work will be done in Middletown, Iowa, and is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2008. The contract was awarded by the Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill.
ADELAIDE, Australia - An unmanned aerial vehicle with the most combat hours, a prototype Global Hawk, left here on the final leg of its return to the U.S. from duty in the Middle East. It's last surveillance mission was a flight from Australia to Japan and back. Continuing a trip on Feb. 20 from RAAF Edinburgh that began in the Middle East about two weeks ago, it headed toward Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where it may conduct some additional test flights.
Australia's defense department said Feb. 28 that it has chosen Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) as a new long range air-to-surface missile for its military's F/A-18 Hornet fleet. The missiles are worth between 350 million Australian dollars ($259 million) and 450 million Australian dollars ($334.5 million) Lockheed Martin said. The JASSM is set to be working on the aircraft by late 2009. Purchasing such a missile has been part of the defense department's capability plan since 2001. Details were unveiled in 2004.
Al-Qaeda terrorists, Iran and North Korea pose the greatest international threats to U.S. national security, top intelligence officials told Congress Feb. 28. "Al Qaeda remains our top concern," Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Negroponte told a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Attacking the U.S. homeland, U.S. interests overseas and U.S. allies - in that order - are al-Qaeda's top operational priorities," Negroponte added.
Leading lawmakers are increasingly criticizing the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 budget requests for the Homeland Security Department, and in particular the Coast Guard, by accusing the White House of treating domestic security as an unwanted "stepchild" next to the U.S. military and failing to back its rhetoric with funds.
NASA is considering whether to remove a tiny particle of debris caught in a pre-valve screen in one of shuttle Discovery's engines that some engineers worry could cause problems if it is dislodged and pulled into the engine. NASA's worry about the piece, which Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale described as being about the size of the point on a mechanical pencil, is that it could either clog up engine components or ignite in the oxygen-rich environment of the engine.
EADS North America on Feb. 26 announced the first order from the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit for 10 Light Sign Cutter EC120 aircraft under a deal for as many as 55 helicopters worth $75 million. "This success positively reflects our unique capability to support vital national security missions, including our offer of the UH-145 helicopter for the Army's Light Utility Helicopter requirement," chief executive Ralph Crosby Jr. said in a statement.
NASA's latest estimate for the total cost of returning the space shuttle to flight following the Columbia accident is $1.267 billion total spent from fiscal 2003 through FY '06. The cost estimates are included in the latest update to NASA's return-to-flight (RTF) implementation plan. The update, released Feb. 24, is the 11th edition of the plan and the first since the shuttle resumed operations with mission STS-114 in July 2005.
