JOB INTERVIEWS: Unmanned aerial vehicle maker Aurora Flight Sciences of Manassas, Va., will conduct job interviews on Jan. 6-7 in Starkville, Miss., to staff its new Starkville facility, the company says. Aurora will build the Hunter II UAV in Starkville. The company is seeking a site manager, quality manager, office manager, composite lay-up technicians and assembly technicians. "We look forward to meeting face-to-face with many of the qualified individuals who will help Aurora launch this new venture," says Aurora Flight Sciences President John Langford.
International Launch Services (ILS) is expecting moderate growth in commercial satellite launches over the next few years as the high-definition television (HDTV) market grows in the U.S., according to ILS Vice President Frank McKenna.
DEFENSE FAIRS: South Korea will increase funding for the country's defense contractors to take part in overseas defense fairs to $952,000 in 2005, up from $48,000 in 2004, the South Korean ministry of defense says. South Korea also says it had more than $400 million in military exports in 2004, a 75% jump from 2003's $240 million. The MOD attributes the increase to Daewoo International's $150 million contract to provide the Indonesian navy with four landing platform docks and $54 million in ammunition sales by South Korea to the United States and Australia.
A new rifle sight that allows a soldier to aim at targets around corners and over or under barriers is being developed by Dayton, Ohio-based MTC Technologies Inc., the company said Dec. 22. The Parascope Urban Combat Sight contains a five-sided prism that enables a soldier to place a laser dot on a target from a variety of off-angle firing positions, the company said. Viewing ports from the rear are for normal firing and from the side for indirect firing. Only the hands and forearms of a soldier are exposed when shooting.
The U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School is asking for industry help in a study of ways to overcome shortfalls in U.S. air and missile defense capability. The school, at Fort Bliss, Texas, lists five "overarching" gaps in a Dec. 22 FebBizOpps notice: * "Cannot defeat the full spectrum of potential air and missile attacks on the U.S. Homeland * Cannot "completely defend ... critical assets against the array of potential ballistic missile, cruise missile, and rockets, artillery and mortar (RAM) threats
Unable to secure further funding support from the Army, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen to cancel the third phase of the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program, an industry source told The DAILY. DARPA and the Army originally planned to split the cost of the $500 million program roughly 50/50, with DARPA paying most of its share in the early years, including two-thirds of the cost of Phase III. However, the Army pulled its support earlier this year to pay for other aviation priorities (DAILY, Sept. 20).
NASA has selected Muniz Engineering Inc. of Houston to provide electrical systems engineering services to support the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., NASA said Dec. 22. The company will provide electrical engineering support services for hardware and software for space flight, airborne and ground systems, NASA said. The work includes developing and validating new technologies to enable future space and science missions.
Jan. 10 - 12, 2005 -- GOVCON: 4th Annual Government Convention on Emerging Technologies, "Enabling the National Security Community," Anaheim, Calif. For more information call 1-888-603-8899 or go to www.federalevents.com. Jan. 24 - 26 -- The ION National Technical Meeting, The Catamaran Resort Hotel, San Diego, Calif. For more information go to www.ion.org. Jan. 25 - 26 -- JPEO-CBD Advanced Planning Briefing for Industry, The DC Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org.
NASA has picked six proposals for science payloads to fly on its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the first spacecraft scheduled to be built as part of the agency's vision for space exploration. The LRO is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2008 and map the moon's surface, surveying natural resources and possible landing sites for future astronauts.
AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM: Adelaide, Australia-based Saab Systems will continue to work on Sweden's air defense system and a simulator under a 98 million kronor ($14.5 million) contract, Saab AB said Dec. 22. The system, called StriC, has been used by Sweden's air force since 1998. The simulator is called Strics. The work includes the integration of ground radar and NATO adaptations. Saab Systems is a subsidiary of Sweden-based Saab AB.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has begun final assembly of the first production T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer at its Sacheon, South Korea facility, the company and T-50 partner Lockheed Martin said Dec. 21. "We have finished ground structural testing and we are over 60 percent complete with our flight-test program," N.S. Park, the general manager of KAI's Sacheon plant, said in a statement. "The development program is validating an excellent design, and this has allowed us to proceed with production with no major changes."
Lockheed Martin has successfully conducted wind-tunnel tests of its Surveilling Miniature Attack Cruise Missile (SMACM), company officials said Dec. 22. During scores of hours of wind-tunnel tests Dec. 6-10 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, a quarter-scale model of SMACM showed "no significant anomalies" in the missile's design, said Jim Pappafotis, director of advanced programs for strike weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, Fla.
The Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite communications program has fallen a year behind schedule and gone $1 billion over budget due to delays in the delivery of cryptographic user equipment being furnished by the National Security Agency (NSA), according to the Air Force. Facing a 20% overrun on the $5 billion program, the Air Force on Dec. 3 notified Congress that AEHF was in violation of the Nunn-McCurdy Act. If the overrun reaches 25%, the program will have to be certified as essential by the Pentagon or face cancellation.
The U.S. Defense Department's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program has delayed demonstrating 25-kilowatt solid-state lasers by about three months because the three teams involved in the effort need more time, according to program officials. Three electrically-driven lasers developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon had been scheduled for laboratory tests in December (DAILY, Sept. 29). But those demonstrations have been moved to March 2005.
The Bell 210 helicopter made its first flight Dec. 18 at the Bell subsidiary Edwards & Associates in Bristol, Tenn., Bell Helicopter Textron said Dec. 21. The flight marked the first in a series of qualification flights as the Bell 210 goes through FAA certification testing. Bell expects to attain FAA certification in the first quarter of 2005, with deliveries following soon after.
ChoicePoint, which provides identification and credential verification services to government and industry, is buying i2, a United Kingdom-based provider of visual investigative and link analysis software for military, intelligence, and law enforcement markets. The transaction includes an initial payment of $90 million, with an additional payment of up to $10 million if some financial performance goals are met, ChoicePoint said Dec. 22. The acquisition is scheduled to close by Jan. 1, 2005.
Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Support Concepts, which creates innovative technology to support aerospace and defense platforms, is working on new logistics and maintenance technologies, including systems for the Army's Future Combat Systems and the Navy's F/A-18 aircraft, a company official said. Boeing's defense research and development support arm is supporting the modeling and simulation of the FCS' need for network centric logistics, Greg Burton, director of advanced support concepts for Phantom Works, told The DAILY.
BC Fed Group LLC has won a contract to lead role-playing exercises and provide Civilians on the Battlefield (COB) training for the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, the company said Dec. 21. Financial terms were not disclosed. The training will start in January at Fort Campbell, Ky. The contract runs through September 2005.
United Defense Industries Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., will provide the U.S. Army with 43 tank simulators and related technical support under a $38.2 million contract modification, the company said Dec. 22.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Dec. 22 that a recent test failure by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system should be viewed as a "learning experience" instead of a source of serious concern. "It's expected that there will be things like that that will occur," since GMD is still in development, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press briefing.
