Singapore's defense ministry said Feb. 6 that it has deployed the Landing Ship Tank RSS Endeavour to Iraq to aid in reconstruction. The ship and its crew of 180 will be deployed for three months, during which it will provide logistics support for coalition vessels and helicopters, protect the waters around key oil terminals, and conduct patrols and boarding operations. Singapore had earlier deployed to Iraq a C-130 transport aircraft, two KC-135 tanker aircraft and two LSTs.
SNIPER COMPOSITE: Lockheed Martin is evaluating the use of epoxy/carbon fiber composite in the housing for the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP). The current housing, 94 inches long and about 12 inches in diameter, is made of stainless steel and aluminum with a sapphire window. During a Feb. 1 tour of Lockheed's Missiles and Fire Control plant prior to the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., a spokesman said converting the housing to composite would reduce the cost of manufacturing the ATP.
NASA's fiscal year 2007 spending request uses science funds to pay down a $3-5 billion shortfall in space shuttle accounts and begin work in earnest on a shuttle replacement, allowing the agency to plan for at least 16 more space shuttle flights to assemble the International Space Station. That should be enough to orbit and attach all of the station hardware provided by NASA's international partners on the project -- a European laboratory module and a pressurized lab, exposed experiment facility and logistics module supplied by Japan.
The U.S. Navy and small businesses are developing safer, more efficient energy sources for unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs). During 2004, the Navy awarded two SBIR Phase I contracts, worth $70,000 each, to develop improved battery technology for UUVs. The Advanced Pressure-Tolerant UUV Batteries for Fleet Use project is focused developing high-energy density, renewable, air-independent submarine-safe power sources.
The Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program has been scaled back to a demonstration program in the Defense Department's $439.3 billion fiscal 2007 budget request, Pentagon officials said Feb. 6. ABL, a modified Boeing 747-400 freighter equipped with a high-energy chemical laser to shoot down ballistic missiles during their boost phase "will have more of a demo program" in the department's budget request, Vice Adm. Evan "Marty" Chanik said.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is delaying development of a second aircraft in the Airborne Laser (ABL) program until after ABL's first scheduled shootdown test in late 2008. The delaying of trade studies and initial engineering on the second aircraft will allow for more refinement of the design, the agency said in budget documents released Feb. 6.
The U.S. Air Force is requesting $9.8 billion for space programs in fiscal 2007, which is up $500 million from FY '06 and represents about 19 percent of the Air Force's total modernization funding for the year, according to service officials. The biggest single space program for FY '07 will be the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which is requesting $955 million. The request funds four launches and includes roughly $300 million to allow EELV providers Lockheed Martin and Boeing to sustain their infrastructure independent of launch rate.
The federal government awarded more than $28 billion in information technology (IT)-related prime contracts during the first quarter of fiscal 2006, and the Air Force drove the majority of the growth with more than $11 billion in awards, according to an Input report.
EXTERNAL TANKS: NASA has modified its order for the big external tanks that carry cryogenic propellant on space shuttle missions to accommodate retirement plans for the shuttle in 2010. But the order still gives the agency enough hardware to launch all of the International Space Station modules supplied by its international partners and to send astronauts to service the Hubble Space Telescope one more time. An order for 35 tanks that was signed in 2000, when NASA thought it would be flying shuttles at least until 2020, has been trimmed to 18.
AFRICAN IMAGING: South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has concluded a memorandum of understanding with Alcatel Alenia Space to collaborate in the space market. Potential areas of cooperation include geospatial data, landcover mapping, satellite broadband, navigation and astronomy. Alcatel Alenia also concluded a three-year preliminary agreement to develop broadband medical imagery applications for Africa in cooperation with Global Imaging Online, a French firm specializing in medical treatment and diagnostic imagery.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. said Feb. 2 that it will add Rockwell Collins Simulation & Training Solutions LLC and Aerospace Integration Corp. to its team competing for the U.S. Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue-X program to replace aging HH-60G helicopters. In an exclusive agreement, Rockwell Collins would be the training provider for Sikorsky's offering, the HH-92.
Net income zoomed 87 percent for Goodrich Corp. in the fourth quarter of 2005, while net sales climbed 11 percent, the company said Feb. 2. Four quarter '05 net income was $70 million, or 56 cents per share, compared to $37 million, or 30 cents per share, the year before. The gains were powered by increased sales for commercial aerospace original equipment and aftermarket products, the company said. Sales for the period grew from $1.25 billion in '04 to $1.39 billion.
QDR ON CHEM/BIO: For the next five years, beginning in fiscal 2006, the Defense Department is increasing funding for the Chemical Biological Defense Program (CBDP) by $2.1 billion, a 20 percent increase, according to the latest Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The department also plans to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years developing medical countermeasures against the threat of genetically engineered bio-terror agents, the report says.
General Dynamics Corp.'s Land Systems unit said Feb. 2 that it received a $128 million increment of a $257 million contract to provide 130 new eight-wheeled Light Armored Vehicles in various configurations for the U.S. Marine Corps. The contract has a total potential value of $307 million if a $50 million option for electric turret drives is exercised, the company said.
SETTING BOUNDARIES: So how do senior Pentagon leaders currently assess China as a military threat? "China is an emerging world superpower and we want to constructively work with them ... across a number of regional issues [and help] them along that path to making what we view is the right sort of choices," says Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Navy plans to adjust its force posture and basing to provide at least six operationally available and sustainable aircraft carriers and 60 percent of its submarines in the Pacific "to support engagement, presence and deterrence," according to the Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Bush administration will request $70 billion more this fiscal year for global military operations such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then an additional $50 billion for fiscal 2007 as part of the defense budget request on Feb. 6. One increase in supplemental funding will be for procurement - the need to replace and overhaul worn equipment, what the Defense Department refers to as recapitalization - as well as for force protection.
Washington is working with Brussels on ways to make it easier to exchange politically important but secret intelligence. Bureaucratic hurdles to giving European policy makers insight into U.S. intelligence information have traditionally been high. Washington policy makers were happy with the results last year when they provided threat information on China to their European counterparts as the European Union mulled lifting its embargo on arms sales to Beijing. But the process was cumbersome, says one Defense Department official.
Feb. 6 -- Disaster Summit, Omni Tucson National Golf Resort & Spa, Tucson, Ariz. For more information contact Dick Marchi at 202-293-3029, email [email protected] or go to www.aci-na.aero. Feb. 6 - 9 -- 25th Annual Satellite 2006 Conference & Exhibition, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.satellite2006.com.
