European Space Agency science program committee members OK'd two new missions following an injection of additional funding at the agency's ministerial summit in December. The BepiColombo Mercury mission and the Gaia planet-finding observatory will go ahead as planned. But to fit them in, the committee delayed the start of the Solar Orbiter from 2013 to 2015.
CLARIFICATION: The White House has requested $1.8 billion for the Defense Department in the latest supplemental spending request for last year's hurricanes, of which $1.05 billion would be used to replace destroyed or damaged equipment for Navy ships and associated work force costs at affected Gulf Coast shipyards (DAILY, Feb. 22). The $1.8 billion also includes $405 million for military construction in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Eying the shift to a stealthier force with a larger number of unmanned aerial vehicles, the U.S. Air Force hopes to retire or divest 1,124 planes across the course of the Future Years Defense Plan. The service wants to retire more than half those aircraft during the next two fiscal years -- FY 2007 and FY 2008 -- and nearly a quarter of the retirements are accounted for by the Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighter force. Not surprisingly, older Boeing F-15A/B fighters also account for a large share of retirements, as does the KC-135 tanker force.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $144,300,000 cost plus fixed fee contract modification. This undefinitized contract action provides for F-22A Lot 6 Weapon System Support as a Capability Performance-Based Agile Logistics Support (PALS). At this time, $72,005,700 has been obligated. Negotiations were complete in January 2006. The work will be complete by May 2006. The Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-05-C-2850/P00010).
Gen. Bantz Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, says he sees "great potential" for aerostats, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites to help with the monitoring of illegal traffic to and from Central and South America. Such platforms should be coupled with "software to be able to provide, quick, real-time downlink," Craddock said during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington Feb. 21. "I think we've got to pursue that."
The Joint Strike Fighter, the Army's Future Combat Systems and the Navy's DD(X) destroyer are "obvious candidates" for defense programs likely to be scaled back by the end of the decade or beyond as Washington deals with a budget crunch, according to two independent analysts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
RUMSFELD PRIORITY: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Executive Director Andrew Krepinevich said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has shown personal interest in special operations aviation - and maybe more than any other particular new capability discussed in the Quadrennial Defense Review. "That probably insulates from some of the pernicious things that can happen along the line," he told a public audience near Capitol Hill.
Several U.S. Navy ships, 22 helicopters and a Marine Corps expeditionary unit are taking part in relief efforts following a devastating Feb. 17 mudslide in the Philippines, the Defense Department said.
GALILEO DEBRIS: The spent inertial upper stage that first sent NASA's Galileo spacecraft on its way to Jupiter in 1989 re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 3:53 a.m. on Feb. 20 and landed in the ocean off the west coast of South Africa, according to NASA. A significant portion of the 11-foot long cylinder's 1.5 tons was expected to survive re-entry because the stage contained an inner cylinder made of titanium. Galileo was deployed by the space shuttle on STS-34 in October 1989.
ARMY AM General L.L.C., South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Feb. 10, 2006, a $75,731,226 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for production of M1152 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. The work will be performed in South Bend and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 2000. The Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
Northrop Grumman Corp. and other defense contractors are set to benefit from a White House request for more spending related to Navy shipbuilding and other defense procurement ostensibly affected by last year's hurricanes. In a Feb. 16 request, the White House asked Congress for $1.05 billion to replace destroyed or damaged equipment for Navy ships and to fund related work force costs at Gulf Coast shipyards.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $148 million contract to begin work on the fourth satellite in the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite system, the company announced. The contract covers nonrecurring engineering and advanced procurement for the spacecraft, known as WGS F4, which will be based on Boeing's 702 satellite bus. Boeing also is building the first three satellites in the WGS constellation.
LAUNCHERS: Lockheed Martin Corp. has been awarded a $51.5 million contract modification to provide U.S. Marine Corps missile launchers and support equipment, the Defense Department said Feb. 21. The work will be done in Grand Prairie, Texas, and East Camden, Ark. It is expected to be finished by Feb. 28, 2008. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
ARMY Smith and Wesson Corp., Springfield, Mass., was awarded on Feb. 15, 2006, a $14,946,139 firm-fixed-price contract for SW9VE 9mm pistols, level 2 duty holsters, and gun oil. The work will be performed in Springfield, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 30, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Jan. 25, 2006. The Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52H09-06-C-0088).
About 600,000 missiles worth $103.7 billion are expected to be built globally from 2006-2015, a Teal Group production forecast says. The forecast was released at Asian Aerospace 2006, an international aerospace exhibition being held Feb. 21-26 in Singapore. The largest number of missile types expected to be sold are air defense missiles, the forecast said. The 48,194 missiles represent 23.4 percent of the total market and are worth $24.3 billion.
The Chinese government will boost spending on overall research and development to 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product over the next 15 years, a key factor for future Chinese military and space system development. In an announcement, China said the 2.5 percent figure equates to a doubling in R&D spending over current levels and a tripling over 1999 levels when China spent 0.83 percent of its GDP on research and development.
'INSURANCE': Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says maintaining most major legacy acquisitions -- as the Quadrennial Defense Review and fiscal 2007 budget request do -- is providing "insurance" against future adversarial countries. "You do need high-end capacity," the chairman says. There are near-peer competitors, and we "want to keep it that way." Many critics have said recent defense planning didn't match acquisitions to the Pentagon's transformation rhetoric.
SPACE CONFERENCE: The Air Force is holding an executive forum for space acquisition leaders to discuss policies, trends and lessons learned at Los Angeles Air Force Base on Feb. 22-23. The inaugural National Security Space Program Manager's Conference "may be the first time we've actually gotten all the [space] program managers together to share ideas across programs and identify best practices," Air Force Undersecretary Ron Sega says.
HELOS CRASH: Two Marine Corps CH53E helicopters crashed Feb. 17 off the coast of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, according to wire service reports. The fate of the crews was uncertain. The helicopters were based at a French military base, Camp Lemonier, used as the headquarters of Task Force Horn of Africa, which tries to prevent the infiltration of terrorist groups.
