AIRCRAFT COMING: Japan's Coast Guard has awarded a contract to Saab AB to provide it with a pair of modified 340Bplus Search and Rescue aircraft that will be delivered at the end of 2006, the company says. Financial terms were not disclosed. Saab also will furnish training, spare parts and logistics support. The used aircraft will be extensively modified to meet JCG specifications at Saab facilities in Linkoping, Sweden.
Embraer will sell 25 Super Tucano aircraft to Colombia's air force for internal security and border patrol missions, the Brazilian company said Dec. 8. Colombia's air force already has 14 Tucano basic training aircraft, which it bought in the 1990s. It picked the Super Tucano for its technological innovation, operating excellence and affordability, Embraer said. The Super Tucano is a turboprop trainer with advanced avionics and armament packages, according to Embraer.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program met a key goal earlier this month by firing its chemical kill laser at full power during a ground test, the agency announced Dec. 9. During the Dec. 6 test, the Northrop Grumman-built chemical laser exceeded the 10-second duration level needed to destroy ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight, MDA said. The precise duration of the firing was not disclosed for security reasons, the agency said.
NEW YORK - Prospective United Launch Alliance partners Boeing and Lockheed Martin still hope to receive an antitrust ruling from the Federal Trade Commission on their proposed rocket merger before the year is out, according to Boeing Integrated Defense Systems CEO Jim Albaugh. ULA would merge production of Boeing's Delta and Lockheed Martin's Atlas V launch vehicles, yielding a projected savings to the Air Force of $100 million to $150 million annually, according to the companies.
SPARE PARTS: North Carolina officials have launched the Eastern Region Advanced Machining Center at the GlobalTransPark (GTP) Education & Training Center in Kinston to train highly skilled metal workers to make spare parts for aging military aircraft. Lenior Community College received $1.9 million to create the machining center from the Golden LEAF Foundation, a nonprofit set up to disperse half the money the state gets from the settlement with tobacco manufacturers.
OPTICAL LINK: An optical link experiment between Japan's Kirari satellite and the European Space Agency's Artemis satellite will continue through 2006, when the spacecraft are to make several optical links under different environmental conditions. The first bidirectional link between Kirari and Artemis was made Dec. 9, ESA says. Optical technology has several advantages for data relay use, including the capability to provide high data rates with low mass and power requirements, ESA says.
Dec. 14 - 15 -- 35th Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Fletcher Conference on National Security Strategy and Policy, "Nuclear & Non-Nuclear Forces in 21st-Century Deterrence: Implementing the New Triad," Grand Hyatt Washington Hotel. Call 1-617-492-2116 or go to www.ifpafletcherconference.com. 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.
FORCE PROTECTION: Force Protection Inc., which is providing 122 Cougar Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicles under a $92 million contract to the U.S. military by spring, is building up manufacturing ability ahead of more expected U.S. orders. By January, the company will be able to deliver more than eight Cougars a month. "This has been the plan for some time, as recent events in the Middle East indicate an even greater need," says CEO Gordon McGilton. Army Col.
The Naval Sea Systems Command has contracted with Raytheon's Network Centric Systems for $7.2 million for fiscal 2006 item requirements for the U.S. Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) program. The order includes two Antenna Environmental Control Units; an Input/Output Converter and Planar Array Antenna Assembly, which comprise the AN/USG-2(A); three Installation and Checkout kits; and four Planar Array Antenna Assemblies.
General Dynamics Land Systems has delivered its first two low-rate initial production Stryker Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle variants to the U.S. Army, the company said Dec. 9. The vehicles were delivered Dec. 8 at Anniston Army Depot, Ala. The company will deliver 17 NBCRV variants during low-rate production, which is scheduled to last through March 2006. They will be used for tests and user milestones. The Army is expected to make a decision on full-rate production in the fourth quarter of 2007.
B-52 JAMMER: The U.S. Defense Department has scheduled a high-level Defense Acquisition Board meeting for Jan. 18, 2006, to review whether the B-52 Stand-Off Jammer (SOJ) program is ready to begin its technology development (TD) phase. The session originally was scheduled for September but was postponed to give the Air Force more time to prepare the complex program for the review (DAILY, Oct. 14).
LUH DEMOS: Industry teams vying for the U.S. Army's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) contract are expected to conduct demonstration flights in the January-February period. Competitors are the AugustaWestland North America/L-3 Communications US139, the Bell 412EP, the EADS North America/Sikorsky UH145 and MD Helicopters' MD Explorer. A contract award is expected in the spring.
The Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE), a major improvement to the U.S. Army's Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile, is expected to undergo a key design review in the January-March quarter of calendar 2006, an industry source said Dec. 9. An Army spokesman declined to specify the timing of the critical design review but said the MSE effort has made "tremendous progress."
HAA CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin was awarded a $149 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency to build and demonstrate the technical feasibility and military usefulness of a High Altitude Airship, the Defense Department said Dec. 8. The company is to build a HAA prototype that can stay aloft for a month. The work is to be completed by November 2010.
PREPOSITIONING: The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command has signed a potentially five-year, $65.6 million contract with Maersk Line Ltd. for the time charter of the M/V LTC John U.D. Page to preposition combat cargo and equipment. The ship primarily will be located at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to the Pentagon. The contract was competitively procured with more than 50 proposals solicited and one offer received. Meanwhile, Maersk has awarded a drydocking contract in 2006 to Braswell Shipyard, Panama.
NEW YORK - Alliant Techsystems plans to enlarge its footprint in space systems in the coming years as it introduces its own low-cost launch vehicle, according to Chairman and CEO Dan Murphy. "ATK is entering the fray as a prime contractor, as a developer of a lower-cost solution for space launch," Murphy said during Aviation Week's Aerospace & Defense Finance conference here Dec. 7. Currently, three quarters of ATK's annual sales are in solid rocket motors and conventional munitions, with the rest in advanced weapons and space systems.
Northrop Grumman has successfully completed a simulated exercise demonstrating the simultaneous control of four X-47B unmanned aerial vehicles during U.S. Navy aircraft carrier operations, the company said Dec. 9. The exercise was conducted Sept. 28 at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., and is part of Northrop Grumman's work on the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program.
FALCON 1: SpaceX expects to reschedule the long-awaited first flight of its Falcon 1 rocket for Dec. 20, pending the completion of Missile Defense Agency testing near the company's launch pad at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The low-cost commercial rocket is to carry the Air Force's FalconSat-2 spacecraft. SpaceX scrubbed a Nov. 26 launch attempt after an improperly set valve allowed liquid oxygen and helium to escape from one of the rocket's auxiliary tanks.
The British navy recently destroyed two World War II sea mines in the waters off Plymouth Sound, the United Kingdom defense ministry said Dec. 8. The mine hunter HMS Blyth found the first mine with its ultrasound sonar during routine surveying work, and the second mine was discovered while working to blow up the first mine. The mines were in 118 feet of water. Commercial vessels were kept 1,093 yards away for their safety.
The chief operating officer of the Air Transport Association has slammed the Homeland Security Department's effort to counter the threat of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) to commercial airliners, saying DHS focuses too much on MANPADS and isn't listening to companies tackling other aircraft threats.
NEW YORK - Navy leaders promise more "stability" in the Navy's shipbuilding accounts as the service tries to secure approval to build up to a fleet of more than 300 ships.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, the new head of the Transportation Command, said officials are considering ways to hedge losing Boeing's C-17 Globemaster III production ability, including storing the Long Beach, Calif., production line. Such a move could cost several hundred million dollars, he said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast on Dec. 8.
