The third and final round of multinational negotiations for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter production has been scheduled for the first week in December in Baltimore, according to a program spokeswoman. The first two rounds of talks have already been held. The first session took place in May in Virginia (DAILY, May 17), and the second one occurred in September in Italy (DAILY, Sept. 23).
The Pentagon has asked the military services and defense agencies to cut planned spending by $32 billion over the next five years to help ease a money crunch. The reductions are outlined in an Oct. 19 memorandum from acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England to service leaders and other military officials, sources said Nov. 4. The memo calls for decreasing previously planned spending by $7.5 billion in fiscal 2007, $8.7 billion in FY '08, $2.1 billion in FY '09, $3.7 billion in FY '10 and $10.1 billion in FY '11.
Australia will deploy miniature unmanned aerial vehicles to Iraq to help protect its troops and aid in operational missions, the country's defense ministry said Nov. 3. Four Skylark miniature UAVs will be deployed with the Al Muthanna Task Group in southern Iraq, while two others will remain in Australia for training. Israel-based Elbit Systems built the Skylarks. The UAVs will be used for reconnaissance and surveillance missions and to provide real-time data on activities and terrain, Defense Minister Robert Hill said in a statement.
COMPROMISES: The House on Nov. 2 disagreed with a Senate bill that funds NASA and agreed to a conference. The procedural move allows negotiators to meet formally to work out their compromise for the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill for the year that started Oct. 1. Meanwhile, a similar vote to go to conference over the FY '06 defense spending bill did not take place as planned (DAILY, Nov. 1), likely pushing that conference to the week of Nov. 7.
New developments have extended the distance at which the U.S. Navy's premier fighter-attack aircraft, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, can fire air-to-air missiles and drop bombs, according to the Naval Air Systems Command. An Oct. 19 test shoot over Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Calif., showed an Active Electronically Scanned Array-equipped radar can "greatly" improve the aircraft's missile targeting range, Navair said Nov. 1. The precise distance of the advantage was not released.
Net sales jumped 28 percent and net income grew 20.7 percent for United Industrial Corp. in the third quarter of 2005, while net sales in the company's defense segment soared 29.6 percent, the company said Nov. 3.
CPI Aerostructures has received a new U.S. Air Force order for 71 ship sets of structural inlets for the T-38 Talon trainer aircraft propulsion modernization program. The $6.6 million order comes under a contract awarded in 2001, and the Edgewood, N.Y-based company expects an additional $27.2 million in orders over the next five years. Orders have totaled $33.8 million so far.
GETTING CLOSE: Global Military Aircraft Systems will open an office in Huntsville, Ala., to serve as the program office for the C-27J aircraft it is offering for the U.S. Army's Future Cargo Aircraft program. GMAS is a joint venture of L-3 Communications' Integrated Systems subsidiary and Alenia North America. Huntsville is home to the Army Program Executive Office for Aviation.
EDO Corp. of New York will design and develop pneumatic ejector bomb rack units for the U.S. Navy's P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft under a contract from P-8A builder Boeing. EDO has received a letter contract from Boeing while the final contract is being negotiated. The contract is expected to be worth up to $7.2 million and will include system design and development, qualification testing, documentation and training. The company already is under contract for the P-8A's sonobuoy-launching system (DAILY, Aug. 9).
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. - Construction of a major support facility for the U.S. Navy's VH-71A presidential helicopter program is under way at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The 202,000-square foot building, which will have room for up to eight aircraft parked side by side, will be a center of test activity after it opens next year. It will later house repair and other support work. The program's offices, now located in a temporary structure at Pax River, also are scheduled to move into the new facility.
The U.S. Air Force will soon kick off an effort to give a new variant of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) the ability to be redirected in flight.
REVENUE UP, INCOME DOWN: Intelligence and security services provider Analex Corp. of Alexandria, Va., said Nov. 3 that third quarter 2005 revenue rose 36 percent, but acquisition financing activities led to a net loss of $2.2 million. Third quarter 2005 revenue was $37.9 million, compared with $27.9 million in the third quarter of 2004. The company also suffered a net loss of $5.9 million in the third quarter of 2004.
Rockwell Collins and Honeywell have formed a limited liability company to market integrated guidance systems for precision-guided weapons, the companies said Nov. 3. The new company, Integrated Guidance Systems LLC, is a 50/50 joint venture.
Curtiss-Wright Controls will provide the Fighter Ordnance Hoist System and Ordnance Quick Latch System for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter under contracts from F-35 builder Lockheed Martin, the company said Nov. 2. The contracts call for designing, developing and delivering the hardware under the JSF's system development and demonstration phase. The contracts are worth $2.2 million in the SDD phase, with a potential total value of more than $120 million.
Start-up program delays and rescheduled shipments led to a decline in sales and earnings for electronic products provider LaBarge Inc. in the first quarter of fiscal 2006, the company said Nov. 3. Net sales for the St. Louis-based company were $39.6 million in the first quarter of '06, compared with $43.6 million for the same period a year earlier, a 9 percent dip. Net earnings fell 13 percent, from $2.3 million, or 15 cents per share, to $2 million, or 13 cents per share, in the first quarter of FY '06.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by John J. Young Jr., nominated by President Bush to be director of defense research and engineering, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He testified Oct. 25 and was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 28). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: How will you determine whether there is an adequate investment in basic research to develop the capabilities the department will need in 2020?
The space shuttle program is facing a budget shortfall of $3 billion to $5 billion through its scheduled retirement date in 2010, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told members of the House Science Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill Nov. 3.
FOURTH: Space Adventures announced Nov. 3 that Hong Kong resident and Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto will be the next private space tourist candidate. Following the completion of his orbital flight training, Enomoto is scheduled to visit the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in October 2006. Enomoto would be the first Asian commercial space tourist and the fourth overall, following Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen.
A panel of think-tank officials has suggested that the United States should not invest too much in protecting its space-based equipment but should look to unmanned aerial vehicles, airships and other aircraft to back up those spacecraft. The experts testified Nov. 1 before the House Armed Services Committee's asymmetric and unconventional threats gap panel. The subcommittee hosted a hearing on space security as part of the threat-and-capability assessment it is conducting in advance of the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review.
The European Space Agency's industrial policy and navigation program committees have agreed to additional financing for the first phase of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation program, satellite builder Alcatel said Nov. 3. The initial phase of the program calls for putting four satellites in orbit to demonstrate key technologies for the system, aimed at giving Europe a system to rival the U.S. Global Positioning System. The additional financing is for EUR 400 million (USD $476 million), DAILY affiliate Aviation Week & Space Technology reported.
The Government Accountability Office has denied a contract award protest from Research Analysis & Maintenance of El Paso, Texas, which said the Army's Threat Systems Management Office (TSMO) failed to consider it for a support follow-on contract when it was the incumbent contractor. The TSMO provides realistic threat simulations for testing weapon systems and for training and exercises, including operating and maintaining foreign ground and air systems dating as far back as the early 1950s.
