The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $60 million contract to begin production of the next five RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. The contract covers long-lead items for the aircraft themselves, enhanced integrated sensor suites, one mission-control element and one launch-and-recovery element.
IED MEETING: Navy officials are meeting with university leaders Nov. 7 and 8 in Washington to discuss the service's "Manhattan Project" to counter improvised explosive devices. The long-term effort is focused on basic research to defeat the IED threat (DAILY, July 29).
U.S. Marines in Iraq are plagued by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) more than any other tactical threat, and the relatively low-key weapon will be the hallmark of future warfare, the commandant of the Marine Corps said Nov. 7. Gen. Michael Hagee, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, said IEDs should perhaps be renamed because they are no longer so "improvised."
BUYBACK: Northrop Grumman has entered into a $500 million accelerated share repurchase program with Credit Suisse First Boston, the defense giant said Nov. 7. The company bought more than 9 million shares at $55.15 each from CSFB. The accelerated program is part of the $1.5 billion share repurchase program the company announced late last month (DAILY, Oct. 26). The company expects to complete the buyback program in the next 12 to 18 months.
Sweden-based Kockums AB said it will upgrade two Swedish navy submarines that will be transferred to Singapore's navy. Financial terms were not disclosed. Kockums said Nov. 4 that it will modernize a pair of Vastergotland-class subs and convert them for operation in tropical waters. The contract also includes a logistics package and crew training. The training will be conducted by the Swedish navy in Karlskrona.
The Naval Air Systems Command has turned to Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Missile and Fire Control for a $65.5 million contract for qualification testing and retrofit of 5,100 laser-guided bombs with a Global Positioning System and inertial navigation system, as well as support equipment for the Dual Mode Laser Guided Bomb program. The work will be performed in Archbald, Pa., and is supposed to finish in April 2007. The contract was competitively procured and two offers were received, according to a Nov. 4 Pentagon announcement.
Pratt & Whitney is weeks away from completing the first flight-test engine for the U.S. Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, according to a company spokesman. Work on the major pieces of the F135 engine is "well under way," and Pratt & Whitney expects to finish assembly near the end of November, company spokesman Matthew Perra told The DAILY in a recent e-mailed response to questions. Pratt & Whitney began building the system in August in Middletown, Conn. (DAILY, Aug. 24).
DynCorp International of Fort Worth, Texas, has won a $9.1 million delivery order to refurbish U.S. Army UH-1H Huey helicopters, the Defense Department said Nov. 7. The order is part of a $406 million contract. The work will be done in Panama City, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Feb. 27, 2009. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
U.S. and British officials have tried to dampen speculation that financial or technical constraints could derail the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Although JSF has been mentioned as a potential candidate for termination or deep cuts due to U.S. budget constraints, an official from the United Kingdom, a key partner in the aircraft's development, downplayed such concerns.
The federal government is moving closer to buying another high-flying jet to be used for storm tracking. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) on Nov. 4 called for the government to buy a backup to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Gulfstream-4 that measures steering currents. Days earlier, the Bush administration submitted a budget request for an additional NOAA aircraft to improve observations of hurricanes as part of a $37.4 million allocation (DAILY, Nov. 3).
High-level Defense Department officials will meet for the U.S. Navy's planned DD(X) land attack destroyer milestone B review on Nov. 9, a DOD spokeswoman confirmed Nov. 7. The Milestone B will serve as a decision point between technology development and going ahead to system development and demonstration. The DD(X) has come under fire for burgeoning costs now reaching $3.3 billion for the first ship. It remains the target of a $1.7 billion, House-passed cap per ship that Navy officials have hinted could be fatal.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies will lead first-phase development of a system aimed at aiding the navigation of deep-space vehicles, the company said Nov. 3. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency selected the company for first-phase work on the X-ray Source-based Navigation for Autonomous Position Determination (X-NAV) program, which is also designed to provide a Global Positioning System backup for low-earth orbiting spacecraft.
SpaceDev announced a new modular microsatellite, the SpaceDev Modular Microsat Bus (MMB-100), which it said is a "highly capable," modular satellite bus based on "plug and play" technology. The 100-kilogram (220-pound) bus uses ethernet and universal serial bus interfaces and a Linux operating system, and should cost less than $10 million including the payload and payload integration, the company said Nov. 7.
DRS DIVIDEND: DRS Technologies said Nov. 7 that its board of directors has declared a quarterly stock dividend of three cents per share, payable Dec. 30 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 15.
South Korea's navy will receive the first of three Murena-e air-cushion landing craft from Russia on Nov. 11, the Korea Overseas Information Service said Nov. 7. The vessel departed from Khabarovsk, Russia, on Oct. 14 and is bound for Incheon, South Korea. After arrival it will be inspected, tested, and loaded with equipment before being formally delivered to South Korea's navy in late November. Russia will send South Korea two more of the vessels by 2006.
Defense spending rose on an adjusted basis by 7.7 percent in fiscal 2005 after averaging 14 percent growth in the previous three years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Raytheon's Non Line of Sight-Launch System Precision Attack Missile has successfully completed its preliminary design review, Raytheon announced Nov. 7. The NLOS-LS PAM will be part of the first "spin out" of technologies from the Army's Future Combat Systems program, scheduled for 2008. NLOS-LS is in its system development and demonstration phase.
Aircraft equipment maker K&F Industries said Nov. 7 that its third-quarter sales for fiscal 2005 were up 10 percent to $100 million, partly driven by a 15 percent increase in military sales. Its earnings increased $2 million, to $40 million, compared with the same period last year. The White Plains, N.Y.-based company makes wheel and brake systems, fuel tanks and de-icing systems for military and commercial aircraft.
Former space shuttle astronaut Michael Coats has been named director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA announced Nov. 7. Following service as a naval aviator, Coats joined NASA in 1978 as a member of the first astronaut class selected to fly the shuttle. He flew three missions, including as pilot for the first flight of Discovery in 1984.
CENSURE: Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has criticized Eric Edelman - whose recess appointment to be undersecretary of defense for policy Warner advocated - for not fully disclosing his involvement in special prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald's inquiry into the CIA-Plame leak case. "In my judgment, he would have been well advised to have disclosed to the committee his involvement with the Fitzgerald investigation," Warner said in a statement e-mailed to the press.
