Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

MORE HELOS: Ninety-six of the U.S. Army's inventory of AH-64A Apaches will be remanufactured into Block II-configuration AH-64D Apache Longbows, Bogosian says. These are in addition to the current Army multiyear contract for converting 501 AH-64As to AH-64Ds. AH-64Ds have improved equipment and greater firepower, and Block II helicopters have increased digital capabilities, including digital mapping and messaging (DAILY, Nov. 12).

The German government is poised to award a 3.05 billion euro ($3.95 billion) contract to purchase 410 Puma infantry combat vehicles to a joint venture company owned by Rheinmetall De-Tec and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, a German newspaper has reported.

SUBMITTED: Lockheed Martin U.K. Ltd. has submitted a proposal for the next phase of the British navy's Merlin helicopter program, the company says. The Merlin Capability Sustainment Plus program is aimed at cutting costs and solving obsolescence issues by investing in new technology, the company says. That technology also would provide improvements such as an open computing architecture system with memory storage and processing speeds more than 250 times greater than current systems, Lockheed Martin U.K. says. "Merlin is at the core of our business in the U.K.

A new study by Dittmar Associates of Seabrook, Texas, has found strong support among the public for NASA's overall space exploration plans, including returning astronauts to the moon, but less support for a human Mars landing. Sixty-five percent of respondents supported a moon return, although only 18 percent supported a Mars landing, which was seen as riskier. "Interest and excitement about the vision for space exploration is strong for near-term aspects of the plan," Dittmar Associates said in a statement.

The Boeing Co. recently rolled off the first 737-700 aircraft for Turkey's Peace Eagle airborne early warning and control program from its Renton, Wash., production line, the company said Nov. 11.

SMART-1 ARRIVES: The European Space Agency's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-1 (SMART-1) probe is expected to enter orbit around the moon late Nov. 15 or early Nov. 16. Europe's first lunar probe, SMART-1 was launched into Earth orbit in September 2003. In the months since, it has used a solar-powered ion engine to slowly expand its orbit and eventually allow gravitational capture by the moon.

C-130 PROTESTS: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans to weigh in by about mid-February on Lockheed Martin's protests over Boeing's selection to be prime contractor for the Air Force's C-130 avionics modernization program (AMP) and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). Lockheed Martin submitted the complaints Nov. 10. BAE Systems and L-3 Communications are expected to file similar protests over the C-130 AMP program in the near future.

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program has completed the first round of interceptor emplacements at Fort Greely, Alaska, a Defense Department official said Nov. 12. Fort Greely has now received all six operational interceptors it has been slated to get in 2004. The sixth one was placed in an underground silo on Nov. 11, less than four months after the first interceptor missile was installed at the Alaskan site (DAILY, July 26). Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is expected to get its first two GMD interceptors by December.

The two major space-based observatories planned for NASA's "Beyond Einstein" program are proceeding with development despite severe funding constraints that already have caused a two-year slip in the launch of the first mission. Beyond Einstein is dedicated to answering fundamental questions about the origin, evolution and eventual fate of the universe. The centerpieces of the program are the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Constellation-X missions, both of which will study black holes.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems will design and develop the Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS) that is to be transported to the field by the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, the company said Nov. 10. The contract, awarded by the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, has an initial value of $18 million but could be worth up to $300 million if initial production and fielding options are exercised.

United Kingdom-based Satamatics said the U.S. Coast Guard has approved the use of its Ocean Alert Ship Security Alert System for use by U.S.-flagged vessels, the company said Nov. 11. Ocean Alert uses satellite relays to provide ship location and security alerts, such as if a hatch is opened without authorization, the company said.

ORBIT/FR Inc., which builds automated microwave test and measurement systems for the aerospace and defense markets, reported that its revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 increased 17 percent to $5 million. Revenues for the nine months ending Sept. 30 were up 25 percent, to $15.1 million, compared with the same period in 2003. The Horsham, Pa.-based company has "capitalized on strong market conditions and recognized our third straight quarterly profit," Israel Adan, the company's president and CEO, said in a statement.

SEARS SENTENCING: Former Boeing chief financial officer Michael Sears is expected to plead guilty in U.S. District Court Nov. 15 in connection with allegations that he improperly recruited Darleen Druyun to the company while she was still an Air Force acquisition official overseeing contracts with Boeing. Sears faces up to six months in jail. Druyun was sentenced Oct. 1 to nine months in prison (DAILY, Oct. 4).

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking industry input on ways to disrupt an enemy's command organization and increase the effectiveness of friendly battlefield command structures.

A Soyuz 2-1a launch vehicle had a successful first flight on Nov. 8 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, the European Space Agency said Nov. 9. The modernized version of the launcher incorporates a digital control system to provide additional mission flexibility and enable control of the vehicle with a larger fairing, said ESA, a partner in the flight along with Russia's Starsem and Arianespace.

Net sales for engineered products supplier Hawk Corp. jumped 23.2 percent and income from operations grew 14.3 percent in the third quarter of 2004, the company said Nov. 11. The Cleveland-based firm reported net sales of $59.4 million in the third quarter of 2004, compared with $48.2 million in the same period last year.

A host of enhanced command-and-control, munition and sensor technologies are needed to improve air-, land- and sea-based assaults on enemy ground forces, according to a Pentagon advisory panel. In a new report, "Integrated Fire Support in the Battlespace," a Defense Science Board task force says the Defense Department should keep developing navigation upgrades and more affordable seekers and data-links so that munitions are better able to destroy moving targets.

The U.S. Defense Department may be nearing completion of a roadmap on directed energy (DE) programs. Ron Sega, DOD's director of defense research and engineering, is expected to receive a presentation Nov. 29 on the proposed roadmap, which his office has been developing at the request of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. If Sega endorses the document, it will be delivered to Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, for his review.

The Excalibur contractor team of Raytheon Missile Systems and Bofors Defence of Sweden successfully fired a GPS-guided 155mm artillery shell earlier this month in Tucson, Ariz., Raytheon announced Nov. 11. The shell hit less than 11 feet from an aim point 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) away, which is well within the performance specification for Excalibur, Raytheon said.

A chart in the Nov. 10 issue of The DAILY carried the wrong headline. It should have been headlined, "Total Employment, Calendar Years 1982 to Date."

Elbit Systems of Haifa, Israel, has won a $43 million contract from the Romanian Defense Ministry to supply eight IAR-99 lead-in trainer aircraft, the company said Nov. 10. Romanian aircraft manufacturer Avioane Craiova and other Romanian industries will cooperate in fulfilling the contract over three and a half years, Elbit Systems said.

Lockheed Martin's choice of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to supply solid rocket motors for its Boost Vehicle-Plus portion of the Ground Based Missile Defense system gives ATK a leg up in the missile defense business, but will have little effect on the makeup of the U.S. rocket motor industry where there has been talk of consolidation for some time, industry officials said.

C-130J FACILITY: Lockheed Martin has chosen the Italian firm Officine Aeronavali Venezia S.p.A (OAN) to operate the first C-130J heavy maintenance facility. Venice-based OAN will conduct scheduled and unscheduled C-130J maintenance at a newly built facility in Brindisi, Italy. The facility will work on the 22 C-130Js operated by the Italian air force's 46th Air Brigade at Pisa.