The Homeland Security Department and the Bush administration are unlikely to speed up the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, according to remarks made by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, speaking to reporters on Jan. 18 at a Washington briefing hosted by King Publishing Group, said the department would like to fund Deepwater at its preplanned budget, but that the 25-year, $24 billion program will already face competition for funding.
International Space Station Astronaut Bill McArthur and Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, Expedition 12 commander and flight engineer, respectively, have completed an upgrade to the U.S. Quest airlock that should stretch the amount of oxygen available on board.
HELO RADIOS: The U.S. Army's Communications and Electronics Command has awarded Raytheon Co. a five-year, $312 million contract to provide ARC-231 radio systems for much of the service's helicopter fleet, the company said Jan. 19. More than 1,100 aircraft are expected to eventually receive the ARC-231. The radio system is currently being used on Army helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on Navy and Air Force aircraft.
About $14 billion will be spent on the European air battle space management (ABSM) market by 2014, according to a new study. But if NATO decides to develop a common missile defense capability, this part of the market will see "phenomenal growth," with expenditures in this segment alone hitting nearly $84 billion, the study said. The ABSM market consists of four segments, says the study by market analysis firm Frost & Sullivan: missile defense, static ground-based systems, deployable ground-based systems, and air platforms.
U.S. Joint Forces Command will play an "increased role" as the military moves further toward network-centric operations, according to retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The U.S. Navy has awarded DynCorp International LLC a contract to provide maintenance and support services for the Kuwaiti Air Force's F/A-18 program under the Foreign Military Sales Program, the company announced Jan. 19. The five-year contract's potential value is nearly $64 million. This is a repeat award for DynCorp, which has performed the work since 1997.
The European consortium that is developing the A400M military transport has filed the paperwork for European type certification, the latest in a series of contractual milestones for the aircraft, says Gustav Humbert, Airbus CEO. Humbert says all major contractual milestones on the program have been met. However, the first engine run occurred about two months later than originally planned and supplier selections have been running behind schedule. Nevertheless, Airbus officials indicate the original schedule is largely holding.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin $144.3 million more for continued development of the Advanced Deployable System, the company announced Jan. 18. Lockheed Martin will provide system engineering, detailed design and program management required for a detailed design review, as well as build a system that will be deployed from the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship deck for technical and operational evaluation, according to the company.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command has bought three maritime prepositioning ships for $210 million total from Braintree II Maritime Corp., Quincy, Mass., according to a Pentagon announcement Jan. 17. The container-and-roll-on/roll-off motor vessels are the PFC Dewayne T. Williams, 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez and the 1st Lt. Jack Lummus. They were transferred to federal ownership on Jan. 17 and will continue to operate worldwide, the Defense Department said.
Northrop Grumman is kicking off an effort to convince military leaders and lawmakers of the value of laser weapons, armed with a new study touting their value that recommends fielding a variant of the company's Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL).
Singapore's military is conducting its first live-firing of a light-weight howitzer called Pegasus during Exercise Thunder Warrior, an annual artillery training exercise in New Zealand Jan. 12-24, the country's defense ministry said. The Pegasus, the world's first self-propelled and heli-portable 155mm lightweight howitzer, was commissioned in Singapore last October, the defense ministry said.
The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) has become too cumbersome and isn't doing the job Congress intended for it to do, say several defense analysts, who suggest it may be time to drop the massive study of Pentagon assets, needs and strategies.
TANKER AOA: Pentagon acquisition czar Ken Krieg formally received and approved the RAND Corp.'s analysis of alternatives for the Air Force KC-135 tanker replacement program during a Defense Acquisition Board meeting Jan. 18. A decision on how to proceed will be made after the AOA is "digested," according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Astronomers using a Dutch radio telescope have found more evidence that a cloud of hydrogen in the Virgo Cluster is actually a galaxy made up of mysterious dark matter. Radio imagery of the feature known as VIRGOH1 21 shows that it appears to be spinning, which suggests that it is a dark galaxy with an estimated mass 10 billion times the mass of the sun. Although only 1 percent of that mass shows up in radio images as neutral hydrogen, indirect evidence seems to show the effect of the remaining unseen dark matter in VIRGOH1 21 on another galaxy nearby.
The White House announced Jan. 17 that President Bush will nominate Preston Geren, currently special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to be undersecretary of the Army. Geren, a former congressman, was once acting secretary of the Air Force. Bush also has nominated David Norquist to be the chief financial officer of the Homeland Security Department. Norquist currently is deputy undersecretary of defense for budget and appropriations affairs.
The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium has added five new members, and four of them are from outside the United States, the organization said Jan. 17. The new members are Instrumentointi Oy of Finland; International Data Links Society of the United States; Maritime Technical Centre R&D Institute of Poland; Military Communication Institute of Poland; and OrderOne Networks of Canada. The NCOIC now has member organizations from 16 countries.
The Defense and Homeland Security departments want to make flight restrictions over the Washington, D.C., area permanent, despite strong opposition from suburban airports, general aviation businesses and pilots.
The Naval Air Systems Command said Jan. 18 that it demonstrated the potential for an aerial refueling capability with Northrop Grumman Corp.'s aging E-2C Hawkeye command-and-control aircraft.
Cybersecurity for the Global Information Grid, the U.S. military's own Internet-like network, "needs to be better than commercial best practices," according to Linton Wells II, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration. "We can't just go buy what's out there in the market, we have to find a way to make it better," he said at WEST 2006, a technology, communication and national security conference co-sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute.
Lockheed Martin will provide Israel with a Flight and Systems Trainer (FST) for Israeli F-16I pilot training under an $18 million contract, the company said Jan. 18. The FST will train Israeli aircrews in flight and emergency procedures, as well as aircraft, tactical and weapon systems operations. Lockheed Martin hardware and software will simulate F-16I aircraft systems, sensors, weapons and flight dynamics. The company will also provide an Instructor Operator Station, debrief capability and synthetic environment.
