San Diego-based National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO), a General Dynamics subsidiary, will build two more T-AKE combat logistics force ships for the U.S. Navy under a $586 million contract option, the company said Jan. 11. NASSCO has now been awarded a total of eight ships with a contract value of $2.5 billion. The T-AKE contract includes options for four more ships.
Irish Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea signed a contract for four new Bell Agusta Aerospace Co. AB 139 utility helicopters for the Irish air corps, the defense ministry said Jan. 12. The helicopters, which will be built at Agusta's facilities near Milan, Italy, will be delivered in 2006 and 2007 for 49 million euros ($65.2 million), the ministry said. Ireland also plans to buy two light utility Eurocopter EC135s, and a contract for those is expected to be signed "shortly," the ministry said. They are to be delivered later this year.
The release of a study on U.S. Air Force tanker modernization options has been delayed again, according to a congressional source. The Defense Department had planned to brief Capitol Hill in mid- to late-January on the results of the analysis of alternatives (AOA), which RAND Corp. conducted for DOD. But a congressional source told The DAILY Jan. 13 that the briefings have been moved to February because the Pentagon needs more time to determine whether the AOA is adequate.
NETWORK CAPACITY: A subsidiary of broadband satellite products provider Hughes Network Systems Inc. of Germantown, Md., has launched a new 500,000 euro ($663,554) dedicated Network Operations Center (NOC) at its European teleport in Griesheim, Germany, the company said. Hughes Network Systems Europe's NOC will support additional satellite transponder capacity made available in December to satisfy growing demand for satellite broadband services. The NOC will support broadband access, LAN interconnection, and IP multicasting, the company said.
Despite the fact that Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne already has won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, several of the 25 other teams that registered for the competition are pressing on with plans to fly their own private suborbital space vehicles, according to X Prize Chairman Peter Diamandis. "We had 26 teams in seven countries, and amazingly, we had literally 26 different designs," Diamandis said at a Jan. 13 luncheon in Washington sponsored by the Washington Space Business Roundtable. "None of these looked like anything on the drawing board elsewhere."
RECON PODS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Co. an $8 million contract to acquire parts for the F/A-18 Shared Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) systems, the company said Jan. 13. Raytheon Technical Services Co. LLC will acquire and integrate key subsystems and components for six SHARP systems. The Navy will receive the systems in 2006. They will be made in Indianapolis. The Naval Air Systems Command awarded the contract. SHARP provides Navy carrier-based air wings with high-resolution, digital tactical air reconnaissance.
The Boeing EA-18G electronic attack jet under development for the U.S. Navy is nearing completion of wind-tunnel testing, according to a company spokeswoman. The tests began in June 2004 and are expected to wrap up by early February, the spokeswoman said Jan. 13. Several facilities are being used to verify that the aircraft's design is aerodynamic. The EA-18G, a derivative of the F/A-18F Super Hornet strike fighter, underwent a preliminary design review in October (DAILY, Oct. 25, 2004). The Navy has not yet announced the results.
Preliminary results from recent tests show the Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor is proving to be up to "80 times better" than the Boeing F-15 it is designed to replace, a U.S. Air Force official said Jan. 12. The difference between the two air-to-air fighters is "staggering," Air Force acquisition chief Marvin Sambur told the Defense Writers Group. "The combination of supercruise, stealth and advanced avionics gives the F/A-22 a considerable capability advantage over everyone else," Sambur said.
Maj. Gen. Silas R. Johnson, Jr. (USAF-Ret.) has been appointed director of marketing, advanced tanker programs. Guy M. Hicks has been named vice president, communications.
The Air Force plans to make the case for restoring recent Pentagon cuts to the F/A-22 Raptor program during the upcoming quadrennial defense review (QDR) this summer, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper. Shortly before Christmas, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz signed a program budget decision (PBD) instructing the Air Force to stop buying the Lockheed Martin fighter at the end of fiscal year 2008, stopping Raptor procurement at 181 jets instead of the 277 the service had planned (DAILY, Jan. 4).
Michel Mathieu has been named TRS chief executive officer. Terry Heil has been appointed chairman. Lou Laroche has been chosen as chief financial officer.
CARRIER VEHICLES: Belgium has ordered 220 Dingo2 all-protected carrier vehicles worth 170 million euros ($223.3 million) from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann of Munich, Germany, the company said Jan. 10. There is an option to buy 132 more vehicles. The first Dingo2s are set for delivery in late 2005. Additional deliveries are scheduled from 2006-2011. The vehicles will be built in Munich. Dingo2s hold a crew of up to eight and protect against hand-held weapons, artillery fragments, and anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.
EADS North America is holding a competition for a new aerial refueling tanker production facility and will make a site selection at the end of this year, company officials said Jan. 12. A request for information on potential center locations was issued to all 50 states on Jan. 12. An industry day is planned for Feb. 15 in the Washington area, and responses to the RFIs are due March 30. A request for proposals will be released in the second quarter of this year, said EADS North America Chairman and CEO Ralph Crosby.
The U.S. Navy's nascent Sea Basing concept, whereby the U.S. military could base itself abroad from the ocean rather than relying on forward land bases, would push the frontier of supply transport and management technology, according to Rear Adm. John C. Harvey, deputy for warfare integration, Naval Operations. "We're going to be pushing technology awfully tough. We're going to be doing this ... at sea, with connectors coming in, skin-to-skin transfers," Harvey said Jan. 12 at the Surface Navy Association's national symposium in Arlington, Va.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens probe is nearing the end of its 20-day journey to Saturn's moon Titan, where on Jan. 14 it is to descend through the atmosphere and make humanity's first hard-landing attempt in the outer solar system.
Robert D. Johnson will retire as president and CEO of the aerospace business in January 2006. Robert J. Gillette will replace Johnson. Adriane M. Brown has been named president and CEO of the transportation systems business.
Defense departments will spend about $28.5 billion on key electronic warfare systems over the next decade, including work on systems for the EA-6B Prowler, its EA-6G "Growler" replacement and the Joint Strike Fighter, says a new report from Forecast International Inc.
Capt. James D. Wetherbee (USN-Ret.), the space shuttle lead in the Independent Technical Authority at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, and a former astronaut who flew six times aboard the space shuttle, has retired. Steve Isakowitz has been selected as deputy associate administrator for the exploration systems mission directorate.a
