Gen. George A. Joulwan (USA Ret.) and IAP President David W. Swindle have been named to the board of directors. Joulwan served as commander in chief, U.S. European Command and as NATO's 11th supreme allied commander Europe.
The U.S. Army and interested European users plan to develop an enhanced unitary warhead for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System that would be capable of attacking certain hardened targets. "Right now, the warhead that we're using is enhanced for blast-frag effects," said Rick Vallario, director of business development for tactical missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "The European community wants to also ... incorporate some types of fortifications into the requirement."
PRAGUE - Danish truck producer MAN Last & Bus will provide the Danish armed forces with 143 trucks under a DKK 269 million (USD $43.1 million) contract, the Danish Army Material Command said. Most of the vehicles will be delivered with a hydraulic loading platform, the DAMC said Sept. 30. All of the trucks will allow for the installation of communications and Global Positioning System equipment. Twenty of the trucks will have an armored cab to protect soldiers, while the rest will have a modular cab that will accommodate add-on armor if necessary.
NEW ADDITION: SpaceShipOne, the first privately built and operated vehicle to reach space, has joined other pioneering vehicles in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. As of Oct. 5, it hangs next to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1.
A surge in new business is forcing General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) to slow development a bit for the newest version of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. Predator C, billed as a more capable version of the MQ-9 Predator B, had been expected to take its first flight by the end of 2005. But that key event has now been moved to "the beginning" of 2006, according to a GA-ASI spokeswoman.
The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile program is seeking additional funding from the U.S. Army to keep it alive past September 2006 in the hopes of transitioning to a system development and demonstration program in 2008.
A proposal by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) authorizing $218.5 million for buying General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Predator MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicles this fiscal year is on its way to being approved by the Senate. Conrad's proposal (DAILY, Aug. 24) is one of more than 100 additions and changes that leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have approved as part of a manager's amendment to their fiscal 2006 defense authorization legislation.
The unique X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle is poised to resume flight-testing at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona later this month, roughly a year and a half after the 2004 crash that ruined the first X-50A prototype.
The industry teams competing in the U.S. Army's Future Cargo Aircraft program came out swinging at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting in Washington, with each touting the advantages of their offering. The final request for proposals for FCA is expected by early November, with an anticipated response time of 30 days. The winning contractor will be chosen in June of next year.
Contrary to recent press reports, the U.S. Army's overall schedule for fielding the first 15 Brigade Combat Teams in the Future Combat Systems program has not slipped, according to service officials. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker recently was quoted as saying that the first 15 BCTs would be fielded around 2030 rather than the previous target date of 2025, leading to speculation that the FCS deployment had slipped five years or more.
Bell Helicopter Textron plans to begin conducting computer simulations in the next few months to see whether its Eagle Eye vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VUAV) could be controlled from the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, a Bell official said Oct. 4.
MANPADS: Hungary and the United States have agreed to destroy more than 1,500 of Hungary's shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, the State Department said Oct. 3. A total of 1,540 Strela 2 (SA-7) man-portable air defense systems and related equipment will be destroyed. Hungary Minister of Defense Ferenc Juhasz and U.S. Ambassador George H. Walker signed the cooperation agreement Sept. 27 in Budapest. The accord was worked out between the Hungarian government, the U.S.
Alcatel Alenia Space will supply the payload for the Amos-3 communications satellite that Israel Aircraft Industries is building for Spacecom, the Paris-based company said. The contract calls for delivery of a communications payload with Ku- and Ka-band transponders and a telecommand and ranging system by 2007. The contract is the first major award announced by the new company, one of two new ventures recently created by France's Alcatel and Italy's Finmeccanica (DAILY, July 12).
SUB DESIGN: The Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat company a $107.3 million incentive contract for lead yard services, development studies and design efforts related to Virginia-class submarines. The contract provides services that will maintain, update and support Virginia design and related drawings and data for each sub, including research and development studies to evaluate new technologies for insertion and the post-shakedown availability period, the Defense Department said Oct. 3.
Chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations defense subcommittee are trying to preapprove a limited number of changes to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization and appropriations bills as Washington faces the possibility of not passing an annual defense policy act for the first time since 1961.
General Dynamics Land Systems said Oct. 4 that it has been awarded a $19 million contract to provide the Marine Corps with long-lead material for the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle for Low Rate Initial Production Lot 1. The company will furnish all components, material, parts and technical effort for 13 EFV-Personnel and two EFV-Command variants. The work will be done in Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, Germany, the Netherlands, Florida, Virginia, New York, Alabama, Maryland, Ohio, Canada, California and Michigan.
