GW RETURNS: Northrop Grumman said Dec. 20 that it has returned the USS George Washington (CVN-73) to the U.S. Navy following almost 11 months of maintenance availability. First delivered to the Navy in 1992, the George Washington is the sixth nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier built by Northrop Grumman Newport News.
Germany's army has received a prototype of the new Puma infantry fighting vehicle, Rheinmetall Defense said Dec. 20. The vehicle was produced by Projekt System und Management of Kassel, Germany, a joint venture of Rheinmetall Landsysteme and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. The German Bundestag's budget committee approved a EUR 350 million (USD $455 million) low-rate production of the Puma last year (DAILY, Dec. 6, 2004). The contract's first phase called for building prototypes for field trials. An option for full-scale production is valid through 2007.
The U.S. Marine Corps' old heavy lift helicopter, the nearly 30-year-old CH-53D Sea Stallion, recently had its capabilities expanded to operate from the Navy's newest class of LHD multipurpose amphibious assault ships, according to the Naval Air Systems Command. Based on an airframe dating back to the early 1960s, the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s CH-53D was never tested for suitability aboard the LHD because it was not anticipated that the aircraft would still be in service when the LHDs were rolled out, Navair said.
BAE Systems said Dec. 20 that it will supply the Danish army with 45 CV9035 Infantry Fighting Vehicles under a GBP 123 million (USD $215 million) contract. BAE Systems' Land Systems Hagglunds will produce the vehicles along with Denmark-based Hydrema Export A/S. The companies may also provide maintenance and upgrade support.
The stalemate continues between Boeing and the union representing much of the company's Delta rocket work force, which has been on strike since Nov. 2. Roughly half of the company's Delta employees went on strike after a three-year contract between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 725 expired. Talks on a new contract broke down in late October. Some union-represented employees have since returned to work, according to Boeing.
American Pacific Corp., which produces specialty chemicals for space flight and defense systems, said Dec. 20 that it suffered a $9.7 million net loss in fiscal 2005 that included a $14.1 million non-cash charge for a 45-year environmental cleanup project. The Las Vegas-based company said its '05 net loss grew from a loss of $400,000 in FY '04. FY '05 revenue increased 40 percent to $83.3 million, compared with $59.5 million in FY '04.
The fiscal 2006 House-Senate agreement reached Dec. 18 by defense authorizers on Capitol Hill could allow for nuclear-related research on an earth-penetrating bunker-buster bomb, according to a House Armed Services Committee aide. This could set up a conflict with what appropriators have decided. "Our conference - the authorizing committees - has not mooted this to either conventional or nuclear," a HASC aide told reporters Dec. 19. "It's various options."
NASA's authorization bill for fiscal years 2007 and 2008 reaffirms Congress' expectation that NASA will do all it can to maintain a "continuous" ability to send human beings into space.
SPOKESMAN: The Senate Armed Services Committee on Dec. 19 favorably ordered that the nomination of J. Dorrance Smith as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs be reported to the full Senate for confirmation. Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.), the ranking SASC Democrat, had expressed discontent with Smith's assertions that there was an indirect relationship between U.S. media networks and Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda through al-Jazeera.
HELO DELIVERED: Boeing Co. said Dec. 20 that it has delivered the first AH-64D Apache Longbow multirole combat helicopter for the Japanese government. The helicopter was received Dec. 15 in Mesa, Ariz., by Fuji Heavy Industries, which teamed with Boeing to produce the helicopter in Japan. Designated the AH-64DJP, the helicopter is the first production Apache to be delivered with air-to-air Stinger missile launcher capabilities. FHI will deliver two more of the Apaches to the Japanese government in March 2006.
The Government Accountability Office has denied a contract protest from Marine Industries NW, which said it was unfairly left out of a contract for repair services to Navy ships. The contract request for proposals, issued in March, contemplated the award of up to four fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts, under which the winners could compete for work.
Northrop Grumman will implement an emergency response management system for the U.S. Navy to support Navy police, firefighters and emergency medical services at shore locations in the continental United States, the company said Dec. 19. The work will be done under a two-year, $25.6 million contract. Northrop Grumman's Information Technology sector will provide the material to develop, deploy and maintain the Navy Emergency Response Management System.
The USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) is receiving structural and equipment upgrades to become the first U.S. Navy warship to accommodate the Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The contracted upgrades are part of an array of maintenance and equipment modifications performed during the Kearsarge's shipyard period at BAE Systems in Norfolk, Va., until late February.
TRAINING: FlightSafety International Inc. will provide academic and simulator training for Navy UC-12B/F/M Huron turboprop utility transport aircraft, including pilot and aircrew training, under a $6.7 million contract, the Department of Defense said Dec. 19. The work will be done in Daleville, Ala., and is expected to be finished in October 2008.
The Government Accountability Office denied a contract protest by M&M Ret. Enterprises, which said the Air Force should have found the winning bid for information technology work from TD Support Services unacceptable.
Under a $50 billion immediate supplemental allotment to the Defense Department for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, congressional appropriators will fund Air Force Hellfire missiles for additional Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights, as well as provide $3 million for the Pioneer tactical UAV.
SpaceX scrubbed the long-awaited first launch of its low-cost Falcon 1 rocket from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 19 because of a "structural issue" with the first stage fuel tank that must be repaired, the company said. "Consistent with our policy, we must be 100 percent green for launch with no outstanding concerns whatsoever," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. "It is not just a matter of repairing the damage, but also understanding at a fundamental level how to ensure it never happens again."
House and Senate authorizers negotiating a fiscal 2006 defense authorization measure agreed to per-ship cost cap of $2.3 billion on the fifth DD(X) destroyer that the Navy contracts for, hoping to "discipline" the Navy but allow the program to continue. House Armed Services Committee aides told reporters Dec. 19 that the negotiators also maintained a prohibition on contracting the ship to just one shipyard - that is, one major shipbuilder.
