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.
The White House late Feb. 16 submitted its expected supplemental request to Congress, which among dozens of provisions would provide $389.9 million to fund the replacement of U.S. Air Force MC-130H aircraft, Predator drones, C-17 spares and various other items. A total of $65.3 billion of the new $72.4 billion request is for the Defense Department, while $2.9 billion is for intelligence community and classified programs supporting global antiterrorist operations, the White House Office of Management and Budget said.
An F-15K aircraft built by Boeing for South Korea's air force recently dropped three Mk-82 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) at the same time and scored three direct hits on ground targets during testing, the company says. They were the first guided releases of JDAMs from an F-15K.
The fate of NASA's troubled SOFIA observatory program will be decided following an "intensive" review due to conclude in April, according to agency officials. NASA chose to cancel the $57.1 million fiscal 2007 budget funding request for the airborne observatory following a two-year schedule slip and cost growth due to technical problems.
NASA continues to hold to May as the launch date for the space shuttle's second return-to-flight mission, STS-121, which will further verify safety procedures and equipment developed in response to the 2003 Columbia accident. But the agency is not rushing any steps to ensure it makes the window, according to STS-121 Commander Steve Lindsey.
SHIP ON WAY: A U.S. Navy ship is on its way to an island in the Philippines to help with disaster relief after a Feb. 17 mudslide killed at least 200 people and left more than 1,000 missing, the Defense Department says. The Philippine Red Cross has also asked the U.S. for helicopter support. The mudslide took place in the village of Guinsaugon on Leyte Island. The Navy ship, which was not identified, was taking part in Exercise Balikatan '06 at Subic Bay, which is less than 621 miles from Leyte Island.
JDAMS TESTED: An F-15K aircraft built by Boeing for South Korea's air force recently dropped three Mk-82 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) at the same time and scored three direct hits on ground targets during testing, the company says. They were the first guided releases of JDAMs from an F-15K. The testing took place at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The JDAMs were released at Mach 0.9 from about 20,000 feet and hit their targets within an average of 2.1 meters.
CAPITAL FUND: NASA is preparing a public/private investment fund -- patterned on the In-Q-Tel fund that Administrator Michael Griffin once ran for the CIA -- to back companies with technology that might aid the lunar exploration effort. Funded at $11 million in the current fiscal year, NASA says its Red Planet Capital fund could grow to $20 million a year. NASA tells potential fund managers in a request for information published Feb.
Representatives of the Boeing Co. proposing the HH-47 helicopter for the Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) aircraft competition are seizing a recent revision to the program's plans to re-emphasize supposed cost savings they are proposing. The revision, in which the Defense Department has asked how bidders would spend $849 million outlined in the defense budget (DAILY, Feb. 15), allows Boeing to highlight its proposal to incorporate Block 10 aircraft in the production line and retrofit fewer Block 0 helicopters than previously thought.
Exploration planners at NASA are interested in small nuclear reactor technology under development by Japan as a potential power source for future bases on the moon. Briefing reporters last week on NASA's fiscal 2007 budget request, Administrator Michael Griffin said his agency "will seek to leverage the work of other nations which have developed small nuclear reactors that could be applied to space," and specifically mentioned Japan.
NASA REVIEW: NASA should wrap up its review of practices and procedures in releasing scientific findings "in a few weeks," looking to fix apparent political meddling on global warming issues that triggered a flurry of unfavorable news accounts as the agency issued its contentious fiscal 2007 budget request. Administrator Michael Griffin has already weighed in on the inviolability of scientific results regardless of their political impact (Aviation Week & Space Technology, Feb. 13).
CHINA CARD: Some U.S. lawmakers warn that China is a threat to send humans back to the moon before NASA does. "NASA is hoping to schedule its first manned mission in about 2018," says Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee. "China is heading for a landing as early as 2017." Although most U.S. experts in China's human spaceflight program consider that unlikely, the agency is maintaining an arms-length relationship with the world's newest human-space power.
CORVETTE COMMISSIONED: The South African navy's first MEKO A-200 SAN corvette, the SAS Amatola, was commissioned during a Feb. 16 ceremony in Simonstown, South Africa, German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems said. The SAS Amatola is the first of four corvettes built for South Africa's navy by ThyssenKrupp in Kiel and Hamburg. The SAS Amatola was sent to Simonstown in 2003, followed by the SAS Isandlwana. The SAS Spioenkop and SAS Mendi arrived in 2004.
