PARIS - Industrial snags and persisting disagreement over force requirements and deployment strategies continue to plague French attempts to help forge a European road map for unmanned aerial vehicle development.
CONVERSION COMPLETED: General Dynamics Electric Boat said Jan. 9 that it has completed its conversion of the Trident submarine USS Ohio as a multimission vessel for covert tactical strike and special operations support. The subs USS Michigan, USS Florida and USS Georgia are also undergoing conversions. The work is being done under a $1.4 billion contract won by Electric Boat in 2002. It is set to be finished in 2007.
Pentagon leaders appear to have reached an agreement "in principle" to endorse Lockheed Martin and Boeing's proposed United Launch Alliance rocket merger, according to Jim McAleese of McAleese & Associates. First announced in May 2005, ULA would merge production of Lockheed Martin's Atlas and Boeing's Delta Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle families, both of which have struggled in the absence of a vigorous commercial launch market. The companies originally had hoped to secure approval for the deal by the end of 2005.
President Bush on Jan. 6 signed the fiscal 2006 defense authorization measure into law, which authorizes FY '06 appropriations for all Defense and some Energy department programs, as well as establishes detainee-related policies and modifies acquisition-related powers.
The U.S. Air Force has been a bit frustrated in its plans to convert Air National Guard units from manned to unmanned aircraft. First, there aren't enough pilots to remotely fly all the unmanned aircraft that are already available. Second, most of the states where the unmanned aerial vehicles are to go don't have the necessary restricted air space, a requirement that will stand until the Federal Aviation Administration allows UAVs to fly in national air space.
Boeing and partner Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) plan to open a new regional office for the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program in El Paso, Texas this February. The Boeing/SAIC team is the Lead Systems Integrator for FCS, which is developing a new family of networked manned and unmanned vehicles and equipment for the Army's future brigade. The regional office will be located at an existing Boeing facility.
PARIS - EADS officials are applauding a U.S. Congress decision not to include restrictive language concerning its participation in a future U.S. tanker replacement program in legislation passed at the end of last year.
Despite a lot of rhetoric about improving NATO's warfighting technology, investments are small and improvements are glacially slow. For example, NATO's development of its future airborne ground-surveillance system is expected to slide another year because of a lack of consensus about what is wanted in the system.
LONDON - The British Defense Ministry has carried out in-flight retargeting trials of an air-launched guided weapon using the Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake. A modified Raytheon Enhanced Paveway II precision-guided bomb was used for the trails, with a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 used as the weapons-carriage aircraft. The ministry is interested in the potential of in-flight retargeting for a number of its air-to-surface weapons, either already in service, or now in the procurement phase.
NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo., is being awarded a $24,000,000 firm fixed price contract modification. The award is within the previously established $500,000,000 contract ceiling. The supplies to be procured are high resolution commercial satellite imagery. The performance period is Feb. 1, 2006 through Jan. 31, 2007. At this time, $2,000,000 FY06 O&M funding has been obligated. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is the contracting activity (NMA30103C0001/P00053).
Textron Systems' approach to the military's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program is "very different" from that of competitor Northrop Grumman, according to John Boness, vice president for applied technology for the Wilmington, Mass., company. Northrop Grumman and Textron Systems were selected late last month to proceed to the next phase of the program, which was begun in 2002 (DAILY, Jan 6). In this new three-year-long Phase 3, the two companies must show that they can increase the power of their lasers to 100 kilowatts.
AIR FORCE BAE Systems Technical Services, Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., was awarded on Jan. 3, 2006, a $15,654,926 cost plus award fee, cost reimbursement no fee contract modification. The action provides for operation and maintenance at the Eglin Test and Training complex. The work will be complete in March 2006. At this time, no funds have been obligated. Headquarters Air Armament enter, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FO8635-97-C-0002/P00078).
IED SPIKE: Coalition forces in Afghanistan are seeing increased use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), more use of close-in explosives and even suicide car bombers, according to Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway, operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Before, insurgents typically relied on small-arms skirmishes, but the past six months have seen greater IED use than ever before there. "It looks like some of the things that we've seen in Iraq have perhaps migrated to Afghanistan," he says.
The U.S. Navy said Jan. 5 that it chose Northrop Grumman Corp. as the mission package integrator for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission modules program. Northrop Grumman won the long-awaited 10-year contract, which has a potential worth of $159 million - almost twice the five-year, $85 million award previously envisioned by the Naval Sea Systems Command (DAILY, Feb. 7, 2005). The fiscal 2006 portion of the contract, for $4.5 million, was awarded on Jan. 4.
Gen. Gordon Sullivan (Ret.), former Army chief of staff and current president of the Association of the U.S. Army, is cautiously optimistic about the prospects for the Future Combat Systems program, despite recent cuts to its budget.
EXPANDING RELATIONSHIP: International Launch Services will launch SES Astra's 1KR spacecraft in April on an ILS Atlas rocket, the first time that SES - a longtime Proton customer - has opted for Atlas. The satellite will be lofted to Astra's 19.2 degree east longitude orbital slot, where it will provide replacement capacity allowing older spacecraft to be redeployed. The 1KR spacecraft is based on Lockheed Martin's A2100 spacecraft bus.
BATTERY BUY: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has signed a contract with the Indian Space Research Organization to develop and manufacture a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery for the Insat series of satellites for long-distance telecommunications, radio and television program distribution, meteorological and Earth observation, and data relay. One of the Insat platforms will be configured with the Japanese Li-ion battery to provide full payload power requirements of 2,500-5,000 watts during eclipse.
READINESS RECHECK: Lockheed Martin engineers believe borescope examination of seams in an Atlas V first stage kerosene fuel tank will reaffirm the booster's readiness to launch the New Horizons mission to Pluto as early as Jan. 17. NASA slipped the original Jan. 11 launch date for extra inspections after a test tank ruptured during a water pressure test at the company's plant near Denver. That test was to validate Atlas V integrity under maximum loading conditions, with four or five solid rocket boosters attached.
