RECOVERY VEHICLES: York, Pa.-based United Defense Industries Inc. has won an $8.8 million contract modification to provide manufacturing technical assistance for the co-production of 21 M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles in Egypt, the company said Jan. 4. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. The work will be done mostly at the Egyptian Tank Plant in Cairo from January through December 2006.
Amy Donahue, assistant professor of public administration at the University of Connecticut Institute of Public Affairs, will join the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
The U.S. Defense Department's industrial policy (IP) office is urging DOD leaders to consider adding a second supplier for its Active Denial System (ADS) on the grounds that demand for the nonlethal, directed energy weapon could eventually surge. ADS, which is designed to repel adversaries, uses an energy beam to heat water under the skin, causing pain but no damage. It is being developed for warfighters but could ultimately be useful for military peacekeepers and law enforcement agencies as well, the IP office wrote in a new report.
SUPPLEMENTAL TIMING: The Bush Administration plans to send its fiscal 2005 war-related supplemental spending package to Capitol Hill sometime in February or March, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. Administration officials previously indicated that the appropriations request would be sent to Congress sometime in early calendar 2005. The supplemental, intended to support ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, is expected to be worth tens of billions of dollars and could include money for munitions and other equipment.
ASSAULT SHIP WORK: United Defense Industries Inc.'s Norfolk, Va., shipyard, NORSHIPCO, has been awarded a five-year contract worth up to $228 million to work on six LHA and LHD class amphibious assault ships, the company said Jan. 4. The contract was awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command. An initial $350,000 award is for advance planning on the USS Saipan (LHA 2). The total work package is scheduled for completion in 2010.
A subsidiary of Tullahoma, Tenn.-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. will provide engineering and science services for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston under a five-year, $1.15 billion contract, the company said Jan. 4. The contract goes into effect on Feb. 1.
The U.S. Air Force has stopped grounding part of its Boeing B-1B Lancer fleet, deeming the bombers safe to fly after a recent landing gear collapse on one of the aircraft, a spokesman for Air Combat Command said Jan. 5.
CONTRIBUTIONS: Gregory H. Bradford, a self-employed international defense consultant and former chief operating officer of Washington-based EADS North America, has been named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. He was cited for his contributions "to the development and enrichment of French-American industrial and commercial cooperation."
Michael Romanowski has been named vice president of Civil Aviation. J.P. Stevens has been appointed vice president of Space Systems and executive director of the Team America Rocketry Challenge.
After repeated delays late last year due to bad weather, Aurora Flight Sciences plans to conduct the first autonomous in-flight transition to forward flight for its GoldenEye-50 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in mid-January at a private airfield near Manassas, Va., a spokesman told The DAILY. A ducted-fan UAV with wings, the GoldenEye-50 uses thrust vectoring to pitch over into a horizontal orientation and achieve dash speeds up to 100 knots. It is a smaller cousin to the GoldenEye-100, which was designed for speeds up to 160 knots (DAILY, Sept. 11, 2003).
TRUCK ARMOR: Jacksonville, Fla.-based Armor Holdings Inc. has won a $53.5 million contract modification to provide add-on armor for various U.S. Army heavy trucks, the company said Jan. 5. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. The work will be done in Phoenix and is scheduled to be finished in 2005.
The Senate Republican Conference has tapped Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to serve as the next chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Organizing
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are beginning to react to $30 billion in planned cuts in the Defense Department's budget over the next six years, with several saying the cuts outlined in Program Budget Decision No. 753 could hurt the Navy. "I am vehemently opposed to any cuts to the Navy's shipbuilding budget, most especially as our nation continues to fight a multifront, global war on terror," said Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), whose state is home to a substantial shipbuilding industry.
Electronic ballistics company Metal Storm Ltd. said Jan. 5 that is has not been given a contract award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), contrary to an announcement it made last month. Metal Storm said Dec. 21 that its "Metal Storm Weapons for Urban Environments" proposal was among 37 selected for awards under a DARPA program for developing technology for urban warfare (DAILY, Dec. 22). The researchers will receive between $130,000 and $2.7 million for initial six- to 12-month feasibility demonstrations, DARPA said.
Fairfax, Va.-based ManTech International Corp., which provides technologies for national security programs, has won a contract worth up to $76 million to provide training for C4ISR and other Defense Department systems, the company said Jan. 4. The contract has a five-year base period and eight six-month options. It was awarded by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego.
Due to an editing error, a Jan. 4 DAILY story, headlined "NASA to pick systems integrator for exploration by year's end," misprinted part of a quotation. The quotation should have read: "For this particular program, the integration of all the systems - the ground, the launch, the landing systems, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the comnav systems - is significant."
The U.S. Defense Department still seems interested in eventually developing a capability similar to the Joint Common Missile (JCM), despite a recent decision to kill the air-to-ground missile program.
