FEDERAL INTERVENTION: U.S. federal mediation, including binding arbitration, is the likely next step to settle a Machinists' Union strike against Boeing that is holding up the schedules of nearly 10 Delta launches at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The first of the delayed flights at the Cape is the GOES-N weather spacecraft to back up the primary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane monitoring satellite (Aviation Week & Space Technology, Dec. 12). Six of the flights are military or National Reconnaissance Office missions.
Bell Helicopter Textron's TR918 Eagle Eye unmanned aircraft lifted off the ground for the first time Jan. 26 in two flights. The vehicle took off vertically, hovered for nine minutes, performed yaw and translation maneuvers, landed safely and then flew a second time within 30 minutes. The test program will keep working on the tiltrotor nacelles to achieve full-airplane mode and increasing speed and payload capabilities.
Congress won't have a lot of time for taking care of business this year because of an early fall adjournment for election campaigning. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wants to adjourn Oct. 6, leaving only 130 working days between now and then, says Frist's budget and appropriations advisor, G. William Hoagland.
Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO John Douglass thinks there has been "spotty" progress in implementing the recommendations of the Aerospace Commission, which delivered its final report in late 2002, although he believes the commission has had a greater impact than most.
DIGGING DEEPER: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is getting in on the action to find ways to defeat hardened and deeply buried facilities without using nuclear weapons. The U.S. Air Force and Defense Threat Reduction Agency have already tried to develop weapons to thwart those targets, with mixed results.
PIRANHA PURCHASE: Ireland's defense department has awarded MOWAG GmbH, a part of General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems, a $37 million contract to provide 15 PIRANHA 8x8 wheeled combat vehicles, the company said Jan. 27. Nine of the vehicles will be equipped with a remotely controlled and stabilized 12.7mm Kongsberg weapon station. Six others will receive a stabilized Otomelara 30mm weapon system.
LIKE GOOGLE: The chief information officer of the Defense Information Systems Agency says the Defense Department wants to innovate more like Google. The Internet-search company designs different programs and puts little time or money into them until the firm gets positive feedback and knows that the programs are something Google wants to continue. DOD would like to follow this lead, CIO John Garing told an Input conference in suburban Washington.
'BLACK' AIRCRAFT: Military personnel stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan, have spotted what may be highly classified "black" aircraft that could be flying spy missions over North Korea. Two or three of the unknown aircraft appeared at Yokota periodically over the last year, flying night missions for two-three weeks at a time, then departing. USAF C-5 Galaxy transports may have accompanied the "black" aircraft.
NASA and Ad Astra Rocket Co., a Houston-based company, have agreed to collaborate on development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) technology pioneered by space shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Two vendors, not just one, will be chosen for the Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) program, says Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The program is intended to provide a secure way to share and retrieve decision-quality information to anyone in the DoD environment who has such requirements.
LONDON -- Britain had decided to deploy an additional 3,300 military personnel to Afghanistan to support the expansion of NATO operations in the south of the country. British Defense Secretary John Reid announced the force package on Jan. 26. The British presence in Afghanistan will peak at 5,700 during the initial stages of the three-year deployment before stabilizing at 4,700. There had been considerable doubt about the nature of the British package, as some NATO allies struggled with providing supporting forces.
Aerospace and defense industry executives expect the fiscal 2007 defense budget request will be "pretty much" what the Bush administration outlined previously and include a small drop in research and development funding, but a fairly large increase -- $12-$13 billion more -- in procurement. Certain sectors of the industry will face expected cuts, but Congress will have the final word and has boosted funding in threatened sectors before, one industry member has said.
The Marine Corps is equipping hundreds of its Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs) and tanks with night vision detection and targeting systems, contractor Raytheon announced Jan. 26. The company recently received a $96 million contract to install 416 Improved Thermal Sight Systems (ITSS) for the Corps' LAV 25s, and another $25 million in Firepower Enhancement Program (FEP) funds to outfit another 150 of the Corps' 403 M1A1 tanks with equivalent night vision systems.
TOP TEN: The Department of Defense on Jan. 26 released its fiscal 2005 report of "100 Companies Receiving the Largest Dollar Volume of Prime Contract Awards (Top 100)." According to the report, the top 10 defense contractors for fiscal 2005 were: 1. Lockheed Martin Corp., $19.4 billion; 2. The Boeing Co., $18.3 billion; 3. Northrop Grumman Corp., $13.5 billion; 4. General Dynamics Corp., $10.6 billion; 5. Raytheon Co., $9.1 billion; 6. Halliburton Co., $5.8 billion; 7. BAE Systems PLC, $5.6 billion; 8. United Technologies Corp., $5 billion; 9.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - As the Canadian government prepares to formally establish Canada Command on Jan. 31, it continues to grapple with a series of issues not unlike those that faced its American counterpart, U.S. Northern Command, when it became operational in 2002, according to Lt. Gen. Rick Findley, deputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be one of the few federal agencies to get a funding increase in the fiscal 2007 budget cycle, a top Senate budget expert predicts. G. William Hoagland, budget and appropriations director for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, said he doesn't know how much the DHS will get, but he noted the average annual rate of growth for governmentwide homeland security activities -- not just DHS spending -- has been nearly 20 percent a year.
Lockheed Martin's net earnings zoomed 53% in the fourth quarter of 2005 and 44 percent for the full year, the company said Jan. 26. Fourth quarter net sales also climbed 3 percent and were up 5 percent for all of '05. The company also increased its projected 2006 earnings per share. Fourth quarter net earnings were $568 million, compared to $372 million for the same period a year ago. For all of '05, net earnings increased from $1.3 billion in '04 to $1.8 billion, the company said.
The Defense Acquisition Board will conduct a Single Integrated Air Picture Capability Area Review on March 22, according to the board's Web site. The SIAP is the air component of the Common Tactical Picture generated by various sensors and command-and-control systems that make up the Joint Data Network for the Marine Corps.
The Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program plans this November to demonstrate the ability to compensate for distortions in the atmosphere and keep its laser properly focused, according to Air Force Col. John Daniels, director of the ABL program office.
The needed capability associated with the Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System (J-UCAS) has survived Quadrennial Defense Review brainstorming, but whether different requirements outlined by the military services affects the program remains to be seen, according to Navy Vice Adm. Evan "Marty" Chanik, Joint Staff director for force structure, resources and assessment.
REMEMBRANCE: NASA paused on Jan. 26 to remember its employees who have died in the line of duty. The agency's annual "Day of Remembrance" occurs on the last Thursday of January, near the anniversaries of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters.
