The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has awarded BAE Systems a GBP 130 million (USD $230 million) contract for combined maintenance and upgrade (CMU) work on the Royal Air Force's fleet of Tornado GR4 aircraft, the company said Dec. 16. Under the decade-long contract, BAE Systems Customer Solutions & Support will provide maintenance and upgrade work at RAF Marham for the Tornado Integrated Project Team.
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts is seeking "revolutionary" ideas for the aerospace agency's space exploration plan, NASA said Dec. 19. Responders from outside the agency are invited to submit 2006 Phase 1 proposals by Feb. 13, 2006, NASA said. NASA is seeking advanced concepts for systems and architectures that meet the agency's "grand visions," NASA said. The institute wants ideas that could help NASA's long-range plans.
Several defense shipbuilding contracts to Northrop Grumman Corp. will see a boost of $1.7 billion under a congressional deal that Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) announced Dec. 18. Under a $32 billion hurricane-disaster legislation, negotiators agreed to provide the extra Navy and Coast Guard funding to "ensure continuation of naval shipbuilding activities on the Gulf Coast," according to Cochran's office.
The Senate agreed to a bill on Nov. 16 that calls for the U.S. Coast Guard to play a "major role" in every federal response to natural disasters in the coastal United States or offshore area. The nonbinding language does not change previously established authority under the Defense and Homeland Security departments for domestic incidents.
The Global Positioning System satellite GPS IIR-14(M) spacecraft launched in September has been declared fully operational for GPS users worldwide, satellite builder Lockheed Martin said Dec. 19. It was launched Sept. 25 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and is the most technologically advanced GPS satellite ever developed, the company said. It has a modernized antenna panel that boosts signal power to ground receivers, has two new military signals for better accuracy and enhanced encryption and anti-jamming capabilities.
The Marine Corps wrapped up its "Agile Lion" demonstration at Yuma, Ariz., on Dec. 15, in which dismounted troops were able to send and receive data to airborne targeting pods via Northrop Grumman's Advanced Information Architecture (AIA) system.
ARMY General Electric Aircraft Engine, Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded on Dec. 15, 2005, a $177,879,422 firm-fixed-price contract for an overhaul and repair effort for the entire T700 family of engines. Work will be performed in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 25, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 25, 2005. The Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. , is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-06-C-0038). NAVY
Congress has approved a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier fleet of 12 flattops, sparing the USS John F. Kennedy from being mothballed early and making Mayport, Fla., a nuclear-capable naval port. The decision is a relief to some Florida workers, shipbuilding advocates and the industrial base supplying aircraft carriers, which this year formed its own caucus to fight fleet reduction proposals (DAILY, Jan. 7).
Senate and House appropriators agreed to back the Navy's DD(X) destroyer program and add two Littoral Combat Ships as part of a deal on the fiscal 2006 defense spending bill, which also cuts some space programs and the Army's Future Combat Systems but fully funds the F-22A Raptor and the C-17 Globemaster III. The conference agreement details were released Dec. 18, and the House ratified the deal at 5 a.m. Dec. 19, less than six hours after the agreement's report was filed for consideration.
Lockheed Martin said Dec. 16 that it has agreed to buy Aspen Systems Corp. of Rockville, Md., which provides business process and technology systems mainly to U.S. government civil agencies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company said it is not expected to have a "material impact" on its operations, financial position or cash flows.
A Raytheon-built Precision Attack Air-to-Surface Missile (PAASM) was successfully launched Dec. 13 from an unmanned UH-1 Huey helicopter at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the company said Dec. 19. The PAASM was fired from a standard M299 digital launcher and "met planned test objectives," the company said. After getting the launch command, the missile successfully ignited and separated from the launcher, then transitioned into stable flight.
SOLE SOURCE: Although the aerospace industry is posing sales growth, the industrial base is not as strong as the figures might suggest, Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO John Douglass says. He warns that many products and components are produced by just one company. "It means that if that weapon system gets into political trouble" or stops being produced, there may be nothing to replace it. As an example, he says when the Navy decided to stop building Seawolf submarines in the 1990s, it created the Virginia-class sub to maintain the industrial base.
READYING DISCOVERY: Work continues at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to prepare shuttle Discovery for its next mission, STS-121, scheduled for no earlier than May 2006. On Dec. 14 technicians installed the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, which is used to inspect the shuttle's heat shield, in the shuttle's cargo bay. Adjustments of the mechanical release latches that hold the 50-foot boom in place will follow in the next few weeks, NASA says. Meanwhile, wire inspections and chafe protection installation continue on the vehicle's steering jets used in space.
FIRE SCOUT: Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to conduct shipboard testing of the Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle, including shipboard installation and flight testing on the High Speed Vessel 2 (Swift), under an $8.3 million Navy contract. The add-on testing will be performed in San Diego and is expected to be completed in June 2006. The Swift, a contracted Australian ship, and its sister ships have been test beds and predecessors to the Littoral Combat Ship (DAILY, Nov. 21).
Jan. 9 - 12, 2006 -- American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics' Aerospace Sciences 44th Annual Meeting & Exhibit, Reno Hilton, Nev. Call 1-703-264-7500 or go to www.aiaa.org. Jan. 11 - 13 -- Aviation Symposium and Exhibition: "Army Aviation, Enabling Transformation Through Modernization," Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, Washington. Call +1 (800) 336-4570 or +1 (703) 841-4300 or go to www.ausa.org.
The Air Force understated the cost growth in the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle program when it notified Congress earlier this year that the effort had breached Nunn-McCurdy cost growth caps, according to a Dec. 15 Government Accountability Office report. In April the Air Force said the unit cost of the Global Hawk program had increased 18 percent over the original baseline estimate. However, this calculation did not include $400.6 million in additional procurement costs that should have been factored in, the GAO said.
General Dynamics on Dec. 15 delivered the first two of 72 low-rate initial production (LRIP) Stryker mobile gun system (MGS) variant vehicles to the U.S. Army at Anniston (Ala.) Army Depot. The Stryker MGS variant is a direct-fire infantry platform with a 105mm cannon mounted in a stabilized turret and integrated into the Stryker chassis. It carries 18 rounds of NATO-standard 105mm main gun ammunition; 400 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition; and 3,400 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, according to General Dynamics.
The 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) will result in relatively few programmatic changes or cancellations, let alone major transformation, while military officials are "scrambling" to find $7 billion to close a gap in the next Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP), according to a well-connected think tank expert.
READY: The dual-satellite payload has been integrated on an Ariane 5 booster in preparation for its Dec. 21 launch, Arianespace said Dec. 16. The booster is to carry India's INSAT-4A satellite and Europe's MSG-2 satellite into orbit from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana.
FALCON 1: On Dec. 19 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, SpaceX again will attempt to have the first flight of its Falcon 1 rocket from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Priced at $6.7 million per launch, the two-stage Falcon 1 is the lowest-cost orbital rocket in the world, according to SpaceX. If successful, it also will be the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit, the company says. The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency purchased the flight, which will orbit the FalconSat-2 spacecraft.
DELAYED: The European Space Agency's plan to launch its first Galileo satellite navigation system spacecraft on Dec. 26 has hit a snag, as a problem detected in the ground station network for the satellite will delay the launch by at least two days. The spacecraft, GIOVE-A, is to be launched atop a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is intended to lead to a 30-satellite system to give Europe its own global positioning and timing system.
NAME CHANGE: The U.S. Air Force's Raptor fighter has been declared to have reached initial operational capability, and has gotten a name change to boot. The former F/A-22 Raptor now is the F-22A Raptor, aircraft builder Lockheed Martin says. The F-22 was renamed the F/A-22 in 2002 to show that it was a multirole system capable of air-to-ground strike (DAILY, Sept. 18, 2002), but this month the Air Force reversed that.
