Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

X-47B TESTS: Northrop Grumman completed a series of low-speed wind tunnel tests Sept. 22 on its X-47B unmanned combat aerial vehicle design, the company announced Nov. 9. The tests, which used a scale model, were conducted at company facilities in Hawthorne, Calif. The company is developing the X-47B for the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program, which is developing an unmanned strike/reconnaissance aircraft for the Air Force and Navy. The tests were the first in a series of wind tunnel tests planned under the J-UCAS operational assessment (OA) program.

BODY ARMOR: Ceradyne Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif. has received a $4.2 million delivery order from the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia to provide lightweight ceramic body armor, the company said Nov. 9. The order was made under a contract announced in September 2003.

The U.S. Army is modernizing and replacing its fleet while at the same time trying to reduce operations and maintenance costs, said Paul Bogosian, deputy program executive officer for Army aviation. The fleet took a beating in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, said Bogosian, who spoke Nov. 9 at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Helicon conference in Washington. The Army fleet flew "five to six times the peacetime operational tempo," Bogosian said. "We're in the process of fixing the fleet. ..."

A panel of analysts on Nov. 9 agreed that the presidential helicopter decision should be based on technical merit, although some expressed concern that the competition could be tainted by political sparring over which team's aircraft is more "American." "We've argued very strongly on the grounds that this should be a fair competition based on the merits," said Charles Pena, a senior defense analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington. "And I think it will be, but the question will be how politicized that decision becomes once a decision is made."

Northrop Grumman and Boeing have agreed to join forces to pursue NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) program as well as the other human and robotic space systems that will make up Project Constellation, the companies announced Nov. 9.

MORE JOBS: Aerospace companies have added 7,500 new jobs since June, bringing employment in the industry to 587,600 nationwide, the Aerospace Industries Association said Nov. 9. This shows an increase after a 50-year low that was hit in February, AIA said.

Lockheed Martin has delivered the flight structure and key payload support equipment to Northrop Grumman for the assembly of the first spacecraft for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program. A team of engineers and technicians from Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the AHEF system prime contractor, and Northrop Grumman Space Technology, the payload provider, will continue installing components and preparing the first flight payload.

Contracts from United Industrial Corp.'s defense sector have increased, boosting third-quarter sales, the company said Nov. 9. United Industrial's third-quarter net sales increased 42.5 percent to $98.7 million, compared with $69.3 million for the third quarter last year. Income from continuing operations for the quarter increased 176.5 percent to $7.7 million, compared with $2.8 million for the third quarter of 2003, the company said.

The deputy commander of U.S. European Command is expressing confidence that the Defense Department will begin to replace the service's aging fleet of refueling aircraft despite prolonged delays in pursuing the proposed acquisition.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $29 million contract to modify one C-130J aircraft for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, with options for two more planes, the company said Nov. 9.

Spacehab has filed a $79.7 million claim against NASA for the loss of the company's Research Double Module (RDM), which was destroyed when Columbia was lost on Feb. 1, 2003. Spacehab filed an $87.7 million claim for the module and related equipment with NASA in January (DAILY, Jan. 21). NASA responded by saying that its liability is limited to $8 million under the terms of its contract with Spacehab. The agency paid Spacehab $8.2 million (which included $200,000 of interest) in October. Spacehab is considering whether to appeal NASA's decision.

Recent scrutiny of the concept of lead system integrator, in which one contractor takes charge of integrating all aspects of a complex military system, is being sharpened by Boeing's troubles with defense programs, one analyst said. Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said there's no evidence that Boeing has made any missteps as lead system integrator of the Army's big Future Combat Systems program, but "there's still just this generalized feeling that something suspicious is going on."

El Segundo, Calif.-based Computer Sciences Corp. has won a four-year, $52 million contract to support Defense Department biometrics, the company said Nov. 9. CSC will provide the Biometrics Fusion Center (BFC) with technical support including educational outreach; program management; conformance testing and standards requirements; application research and biometric technology; and product evaluations, the company said.

The San Diego-based Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has awarded CACI International Inc. a three-year, $15.7 million contract to support the U.S. Navy's Command and Control Processor/Common Data Link Management System (C2P/CDLMS), the company said Nov. 9. A two-year option could increase the contract's value to $27 million. Most of the work will be done at CACI's San Diego offices, the company said.

GKN Aerospace of the United Kingdom has now been selected as the prime contractor for both metal and composite wing trailing edge subassemblies for the Airbus A400M military airlifter, the company said Nov. 7. The company was selected in March to provide composite main spar wing components, and under a new, $160 million contract, will provide the shroud box, ribs and panels and other equipment for the wing's trailing edge.

Diversified Global Resources of Silver Spring, Md., will help NASA solicit and select research investigations for funding under a five-year contract, NASA said last week. The company also will provide logistical support to workshops and conferences for sponsored research and education and maintain an Internet site and electronic database for submission and storage of proposals and their documentation. The contract has a minimum value of $15 million and a maximum value of $130 million, NASA said.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a large bomb the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is pursuing to destroy hardened and deeply buried targets, will have to be highly agile for its size, posing a key challenge for the weapon's developers, according to a laboratory representative.

The U.S. Air Force has asked the office of acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne to help enlist the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in taking over a review of protests by companies alleging bias by now-former Air Force official Darleen Druyun, a service spokesman said Nov. 8. Since Air Force rulings on the protests likely would spur the losing companies to appeal to the GAO, the Air Force believes it makes sense to shorten the process by having the GAO involved at the start (DAILY, Nov. 8).

DART SLIPS: NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) mission has once again been postponed from its most recently scheduled launch date of Nov. 9. Its first available backup launch date is Nov. 11, according to a NASA spokesman. DART will be boosted to orbit by a Pegasus rocket following release from the L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, which will take off from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. Two launch attempts in October were postponed for technical reasons (DAILY, Oct. 29).

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is scheduled to reach a historic high of 30 operational satellites following the checkout of GPS IIR-13, which was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Nov. 6. Checkout is expected to take two weeks. When GPS IIR-13 comes online, the overall constellation will consist of 18 Block II and IIA spacecraft and 12 new-generation Block IIR spacecraft. GPS requires a minimum of 24 satellites.

Engineers at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are conducting tests to learn more about how ice and frost formation forms on the foam insulation that covers the space shuttle's external tank, NASA announced Nov. 6. The tests are part of the agency's effort to understand and minimize the processes that can result in dangerous debris such as that which doomed Columbia. Lessons learned from the tests will be used in making launch day decisions, according to NASA.

The Boeing Co. has awarded Ducommun AeroStructures (DAS) $60 million in follow-on contracts to produce AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter main and tail rotor blades, DAS said Nov. 8. The work, which will cover both original equipment and replacement blade requirements, will be done at the DAS facility in Monrovia, Calif., the company said. The contracts are in addition to current production and will extend deliveries into 2006.

General Dynamics Land Systems has been awarded a $9 million contract by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command to perform transmission conversions on 151 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the company said Nov. 5 The work will improve the reliability of the transmissions, the company said. It will be performed during the remanufacturing process at the General Dynamics Land Systems' Muskegon, Mich., operations facility.