Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Former Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim questioned the Air Force's need to buy the F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) at currently planned levels during a speech in Washington Dec. 3. "The Air Force is under tremendous budgetary pressure and its future resources simply can't sustain its stated needs," Zakheim said at the Heritage Foundation. Those needs include its space programs, airlift modernization, tanker support and increasing its fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, he said.

The U.S. Air Force and Navy have begun a joint study on the future of air-launched "air dominance" weapons, which are to help the American military maintain superiority in the skies, according to the Air Force. The study will explore the next generation of weapons that will handle missions now performed by the AIM-7 Sparrow, AIM-9X Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, as well as the AGM-88 HARM air-to-surface missile, which destroys radar-equipped air defenses.

MCM EXERCISE: The U.S. Navy is using the High-Speed Vessel (HSV) Swift 2 as its mine countermeasures (MCM) command flagship for a fully integrated MCM exercise, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Dec. 3. The Gulf of Mexico exercise (GOMEX) began Dec. 3 and runs through Dec. 14. "This will be the first time ever that we have supported five MCM/MHC (coastal mine hunter) vessels, plus their command ship simultaneously," said George Betz, director of Naval Support Activity-Panama City Operations.

Intelsat has regained control of Americas 7, a communications satellite that developed a sudden electrical problem last week, the company said Dec. 3. The company was able to regain contact with the satellite and control of it after "an intensive recovery effort," and is restoring service, Intelsat said.

NO MERGER: The European Aeronautics Defence and Space Co. (EADS) does not plan to merge with French defense electronics company Thales, says Philippe Camus, EADS co-CEO. "A merger with Thales is not on the agenda. Thales is an important partner and supplier for us," Camus says. "We're not looking for a major acquisition, due to our strong organic growth." The French government plans to renew its efforts to merge EADS with Thales SA early next year, according to the French press.

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) plans to break ground on a new U.S. aircraft facility in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 17 to deliver the CASA CN-235 MRS MPA (Medium Range Surveillance Maritime Patrol Aircraft) to the U.S. Coast Guard, a company official said Dec. 2. In February, EADS CASA won an $87.4 million contract from Integrated Coast Guard Systems for two CN-235s for the Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization program. Delivery is scheduled for 2006.

COMPLETED: Lockheed Martin Corp. has completed its acquisition of naval electronic systems supplier Sippican Holdings Inc., the company said Dec. 3. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, Undersea Systems, of Manassas, Va., will acquire Sippican's business portfolio. Sippican develops and produces surface ship countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare training and submarine communications systems, and meteorological and oceanographic instruments.

AUTHORIZING NASA: House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) "would really like to move a NASA authorization bill" next year, according to Bob Palmer, democratic staff director for the committee. However, he's not sure that NASA's space exploration vision will have sufficient support if it's put to a vote on the House floor. "I don't know if there's a way to get the 218 votes on the floor and still satisfy [Majority Leader Tom] DeLay and the president in terms of the space vision," he says. "It's very expensive.

PRV SCHEDULE: The U.S. Air Force remains on track to release a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) in January 2005 and a final RFP in May or June, a service spokesman says. The selection of a prime contractor is slated for the October-December quarter of 2005. Competitors are expected to include the Bell-Boeing CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, the EADS North America-Northrop Grumman NH-90 helicopter, the Lockheed Martin-AgustaWestland-Bell Helicopter Textron US101 helicopter and Sikorsky's S-92 helicopter (DAILY, Aug. 27).

JIMO STUDY: NASA and Northrop Grumman are conducting a study of alternate missions that could be performed by nuclear fission-powered spacecraft such as Prometheus One, which is being developed for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission. "It's really looking at it as a set of spirals, and what are the different possible spirals that one could do - JIMO being a mission within a spiral set," says Peggy Nelson, vice president and project manager for Prometheus One at Northrop Grumman.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program achieved a key goal Dec. 3 by conducting the "first flight" of the Lockheed Martin beam control/fire control system. The beam control/fire control system, designed to guide the kill laser to its target, took off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., aboard YAL-1, a heavily modified Boeing 747-400F. The aircraft flew about 22 minutes before returning to the base.

STUDENT SAT: European students are putting the finishing touches on SSETI Express, an experimental satellite that largely has been designed and built by students collaborating over the Internet. SSETI Express - SSETI stands for Student Space Education and Technology Initiative - is scheduled to launch in May, says the European Space Agency, the program's main sponsor. The dishwasher-sized spacecraft carries three smaller "cubesats" built by universities in Germany, Japan and Norway.

The German Bundestag's budget committee has approved low-rate production of the Puma infantry fighting vehicle, Puma maker Rheinmetall DeTec said Dec. 2. The LRIP contract, valued at 350 million euros ($455 million), is to be awarded to Projekt System und Management of Kassel, Germany, a joint venture of Rheinmetall Landsysteme and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

NOMINATED: Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, President Bush's nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, will "build on the historic accomplishments of Secretary Tom Ridge," the president says. Bush announced Kerik's nomination Dec. 3 at a White House press conference. Ridge announced his resignation last week (DAILY, Dec. 1).

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) predicts it will bring in $10 billion from U.S. defense sales within the next five years, out of about $40 billion in contracts for which it is competing. EADS' goal for 2006 is $1 billion in revenue from U.S. defense sales, but it "plans to gross more from the U.S. defense market in the next four to five years," EADS co-CEO Philippe Camus said Dec. 2 at a media seminar in New York City. In 2004, EADS made $600 million in U.S. defense sales, an EADS representative told The DAILY.

GETTING READY: Three Space Shuttle Main Engines will be moved from the Main Engine Shop to the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., this week for installation on the shuttle Discovery, NASA says. The work is part of the continuing effort to return the shuttle to flight.

GMD INTERCEPTORS: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is scheduled to have its first interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system installed in an underground silo Dec. 7. One more interceptor is to be emplaced at Vandenberg by year's end, complementing the six already installed at Fort Greely, Alaska. The Defense Department has indicated that GMD could become operational in the next few weeks to defend against long-range ballistic missiles.

The U.S. Army is redesigning the ammunition loading hardware for the Mobile Gun System (MGS) Stryker variant in response to reliability problems that put the program in "crisis" over the summer, according to Col. Peter Fuller, the Army's Stryker project manager.

Virtual training systems maker FATS Inc. of Atlanta has won a $1.7 million contract from the U.S. government to provide law enforcement training systems to the Baghdad police academy, the company said Nov. 30. The police training systems contain multi-user configurations and scenarios and can monitor weapon diagnostics for instructional feedback, the company said. FATS' Bluefire Glock 17, a sensored, wireless firearm simulator, also is included in the contract.

General Dynamics Land Systems of Sterling Heights, Mich., has won three delivery orders worth $206 million to provide the U.S. Army with 95 additional Stryker armored combat vehicles, the company said Dec. 2.

More than 5,000 military rotorcraft worth about $84 billion will be produced through 2013, Forecast International said in a new report. This includes new helicopters and major modifications, such as Boeing's AH-64D and Sikorsky's UH-60M, Forecast said. A total of 1,668 such modifications, worth about $14.3 billion, are expected.

Despite the Stryker vehicle's requirement that it be transportable within a C-130 cargo aircraft, so far Stryker brigades in Iraq have not used the aircraft for intra-theater movement, according to Col. Peter Fuller, the Army's Stryker project manager. "I'm not saying it's always faster [than a C-130], but they find that it's very fast because it's a wheeled vehicle," Fuller said during the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's Light Armored Vehicles conference in Washington Dec. 2.

The U.S. Defense Department is studying whether the B-2 bomber, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and four other weapon system programs should pursue a relatively new, more flexible approach to logistics aimed at increasing equipment reliability.