Aerospace supporters on Capitol Hill are gearing up to support NASA's FY '06 budget request as House and Senate appropriators hash out the agency's allocation in light of two hurricanes slamming the Gulf Coast and President Bush's ambitious moon-Mars manned exploration agenda.
Tom Byrd has been appointed director of program management for government business for Raytheon Aircraft Co. in Wichita, Kan. Mike Turner has been appointed senior manager, media relations for Raytheon Aircraft Co.
UAV STUDIES: The U.S. Navy has turned to the California Institute of Technology for up to $29.3 million worth of technical, engineering, and scientific services for atmospheric and oceanographic research to support the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for interdisciplinary remotely piloted aircraft studies. The potentially five-year contract, announced Sept. 26, was a noncompetitive procurement solicited online by the Fleet and Industrial Support Center, the Pentagon said.
Peter Challan has been appointed vice president of Washington programs for the Harris Government Communications Systems Division's Civil Programs business unit.
Scott J. Horowitz has been named associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Christyl Johnson has been appointed assistant associate administrator in the office of the administrator. Christopher Scolese has been named chief engineer.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin have decided to join forces rather than compete against each other for the second increment of the U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). The two companies had been expected to offer separate bids for SDB II, which is intended to give the small, precision-guided bomb the ability to destroy moving targets (DAILY, Sept. 15). But "both companies just came to the conclusion that they could put forward the best solution and proposal" by teaming with each other, an industry source told The DAILY Sept. 28.
Federal Aviation Administration officials are preparing for a surge of interest from other industry hopefuls following the announcement that FAA has awarded the first experimental airworthiness certificate to an unmanned aerial vehicle. General Atomics' Altair became the first UAV to earn such a certificate on Aug. 25, allowing it to conduct certain constrained flights within the national airspace for research and development, training, or market survey purposes (DAILY, Sept. 27).
The Irish air corps said Sept. 27 that it recently received the first of two EC-135 P2 helicopters from Eurocopter. The second aircraft will be delivered in October.
MORE C4ISR: CACI International Inc. will receive $7.4 million more to boost its support of Navy, Army, Air Force, Special Operations, and other agencies' command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance electronic systems. The additional work, under a contract modification awarded by the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aircraft Division, will be finished in February.
Rounding out its boost to the bomb-finding Man Transportable Robotic System program supporting ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded iRobot Corp. of Burlington, Mass., a $140.7 million modification for its PackBots. In mid-September, Foster-Miller Inc. received $133.3 million more for similar lifecycle support and spare parts for its Talon IV robot systems (DAILY, Sept. 20), which are also part of the program. Both companies' awards run through October 2012.
With the V-22 Osprey starting to close in on its initial fielding date, the U.S. Marine Corps is exploring how the Bell-Boeing tilt-rotor transport aircraft could be enhanced by potential manned and unmanned aviation systems.
Lockheed Martin Aircraft Center of Greenville, S.C., has been awarded a $35.4 million contract modification to provide aircraft depot maintenance for 19 C-9 Navy aircraft and four C-9 Air Force aircraft, the Defense Department said Sept. 26. The work will be done in Greenville and is expected to be finished in September 2006. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., awarded the contract.
CORRECTION: The Sept. 27 DAILY story "Director: DARPA to play no role in revamped J-UCAS program" incorrectly named Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Gary Payton, currently the Missile Defense Agency's deputy for advanced systems, will become the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space beginning on Oct. 2. Payton will report to new Air Force Undersecretary Ronald Sega, the Defense Department's executive agent for space and the authority on all space acquisition programs. Formal approval of the nomination by the secretary of the Air Force is pending.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has devised a way out of its own defined-benefit pension plan policy problem, which has been holding up Gordon England from fully filling the No. 2 position at the Pentagon, and will require nominees to consult with governmental ethics officials before certain acquisitions.
A good place to start a national debate on the response to Hurricane Katrina, which President Bush suggested Sept. 26, would be to ask when data on the hurricane from National Technical Means satellites was first requested, one analyst said. "I want there to be a robust discussion about the best way for the federal government, in certain extreme circumstances, to be able to rally assets for the good of the people," Bush said in response to a question during a press conference in Washington.
FCS: The Boeing Co. has been awarded a $219.2 million increment for the Future Combat Systems' development and demonstration phase, the Defense Department said Sept. 26. The award is part of a $17.3 billion contract. The work will be done in St. Louis; Huntington Beach, Calif.; Seattle; Philadelphia; Huntsville, Ala.; Orlando, Fla.; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Mesa, Ariz.; Sterling Heights, Mich.; Santa Clara, Calif.; Bloomington, Minn.; and Plano, Texas. It is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2014. The contract was awarded by the U.S.
Kongsberg Maritime Simulations Inc. of West Mystic, Conn., has been awarded a $12.1 million contract to provide the U.S. Navy with Navigation Seamanship/Ship-handling Trainers, the Defense Department said Sept. 26. The contract includes logistics, maintenance and other support. NSST provides seamanship and ship handling training to the ship's helmsman on various Navy platforms. The work will be done in West Mystic and is expected to be finished by September 2011. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., awarded the contract.
After the Senate votes Sept. 29 on the nomination of John Roberts to be chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the chamber will take up the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill, according to Senate majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). The Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee passed its draft of the $440.2 billion legislation Sept. 26, and the full SAC is scheduled to mark up the draft Sept. 28. The Senate version so far includes $50 billion in supplemental Defense Department funds for Iraq and Afghanistan operations.
