Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The U.S. Defense Department's use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the war on terrorism continues to expand, with hundreds of UAVs currently deployed with U.S. forces overseas, according to Dyke Weatherington, head of the Pentagon's UAV Planning Task Force.

Congress approved wording in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 that will benefit the aerospace industry, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) said Oct. 12. A House-Senate conference committee reached an agreement on the bill last week. The House approved it Oct. 7 and the Senate passed it Oct. 11.

Congress has agreed to drop Senate-proposed language that could have forced the Air Force to trim its next order of F/A-22 Raptors. The Senate version of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill would have cut F/A-22 procurement in FY '05 from 24 jets to 22 unless the program met its delivery schedule. But the final version of the bill, approved by a House-Senate conference committee Oct. 7 and the full House and Senate Oct. 9, does not contain the Senate restriction.

Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems announced Oct. 12 that they have filed protests with the U.S. Air Force in light of recent revelations that Boeing may have received preferential treatment in a competition to modernize the avionics on C-130 transport aircraft.

J-UCAS: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Boeing a $767 million contract modification to build and flight-test three full-scale X-45C Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems vehicles, the Defense Department said Oct. 12. DARPA also is funding competitor Northrop Grumman for similar work in the program (DAILY, Aug. 23).

Northrop Grumman has won a contract that will allow it to compete for up to $39 million in airframe work for NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., the company announced Oct. 11. The company won the five-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract for its Structures and Materials and Aerodynamic, Aerothermodynamic, and Acoustics Technology for Aerospace Vehicles (SMAcTAV) proposal.

The House of Representatives voted unanimously Oct. 7 to extend the law under which the government insures companies that launch satellites for damages or deaths sustained by third parties.

South Korea's navy has awarded Raytheon Co. a $25 million contract to provide three KDX-3 Aegis Class destroyers with the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Weapon System, the company said Oct. 11. The RAM weapon system defends against anti-ship missiles and helicopters, aircraft and surface craft (HAS), Raytheon said. It is the fourth direct commercial sale of the RAM weapon system in South Korea.

An upgrade of the EP-3E Aries II Sensor System Improvement Program (SSIP) has passed a review by the commander of the Operational Test and Evaluation Force, the U.S. Navy said Oct. 8. On Sept. 7, a final report on the operational assessment of the fleet issue 4.0 upgrade was issued. It found that the system is operationally suitable and operationally effective. It also said the upgrade "is recommended for fleet introduction" and is a "significant improvement in capability over previous versions."

AMC-15: SES Americom's AMC-15 telecommunications satellite is ready for launch Oct. 15 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, aboard a Proton rocket, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin. AMC-15 will carry 12 125-MHz Ka-band spot beams along with 24 36-MHz Ku-band transponders. The launch is being managed by International Launch Services (ILS), which offers flights on Proton and Atlas launch vehicles. AMC-15 will be the third spacecraft launched by ILS so far in 2004, following AMC-10 and AMC-11. AMC-16 is scheduled to follow on an Atlas V in December.

October 4, 2004 AIR FORCE

The House and Senate approved a fiscal 2005 spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security that includes $724 million for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, $88 million above the White House's budget request.

SkyTower Inc. is seeking $40-50 million in government funding to pay for the development of a commercial follow-on to the Helios unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that could serve as a long-duration telecommunications platform. Jointly developed by NASA and SkyTower parent company AeroVironment, Helios had a 247-foot wingspan but weighed less than an average car. The highly flexible flying wing was in the midst of a flight-test program designed to demonstrate flight durations of several days when it crashed last year (DAILY, June 30, 2003).

Boeing Co. has awarded BVR Systems Ltd. of Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel, a $1.5 million contract to integrate the EHUD Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) system on Boeing F-15K aircraft that will be supplied to the Korean air force, BVR Systems said Oct. 11. BVR will provide integration, hardware upgrades and software for the EHUD ACMI system in Korea to support the advanced capabilities and features of the Boeing F-15K fighter, BVR Systems said. Boeing will deliver the F-15K to Korea beginning in 2005.

Lockheed Martin has received another increment in its overall $1.5 billion contract for the Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2) program, intended to modernize the command and control system of North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Strategic Command. The $54.2 million contract exercises the fifth option for ISC2, according to an Oct. 6 announcement by the Department of Defense.

An instrument on the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite has helped create a high-resolution global atmospheric map of nitrogen dioxide pollution to show how human activities affect air quality, ESA said Oct. 11. The Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) records the spectrum of sunlight shining through the atmosphere. The results then are studied to find spectral absorption "fingerprints" of trace gases in the air, ESA said.

ELACHI ADDRESS: Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and director of advanced planning for the aerospace agency, will address the Wings Club luncheon in New York on Oct. 21. He plans to discuss how JPL achieved success with its Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and the Saturn orbiter Cassini, as well as how NASA plans to organize its exploration of the moon, Mars and outer solar system.

The U.S. Army's schedule for the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program calls for release of the draft request for proposals (DRFP) late this month, with a day of briefings for industry to follow. "The Light Utility Helicopter Product Office anticipates release of the draft RFP no earlier than 29 October 2004," and the industry day "to follow the release of the draft RFP," according to an Oct. 7 Army Aviation and Missile Command FedBizOpps notice.

House and Senate lawmakers approved a $447 billion fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill on Oct. 9, sending it to President Bush for his approval. The bill authorized an Air Force purchase of 100 new tanker aircraft but prohibited a lease-buy arrangement the service had worked out with the Boeing Co., confirmed another round of base closings in 2005 and included a modified version of a House "Buy American" provision (DAILY, Oct. 11).

The U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program is progressing toward a Pentagon review next spring that will determine whether the air-to-surface weapon can begin low-rate production, according to a program official. The program has conducted 13 flight-tests so far with positive results, said Air Force Col. Jim McClendon, SDB's program director. "In every case, the key aspects we've looked for have functioned," McClendon told The DAILY in a recent written response to questions.

Ottawa, Canada-based Telesat's Anik F2, the world's largest commercial communications satellite, became fully operational this week after final in-orbit testing, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) said Oct. 7. With its C- and Ku-band transponders and Ka-band demonstration module, the Anik F2 will give customers across North America multimedia services and is the first satellite to fully commercialize the Ka frequency band, CSA said.

INTELLIGENCE REFORM: The House of Representatives on Oct. 8 passed by a vote of 282-134 the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act (HR 10), a measure that would overhaul how the U.S. intelligence community is structured. The Senate passed its measure, the National Intelligence Reform Act (S 2845), on Oct. 6 by a vote of 96-2. Both bills would create a national intelligence director to oversee U.S. intelligence activities. The measures now go to a House-Senate conference committee.

All of the space shuttle's bolt catchers produced from 1995 to 1998, including those that flew on Columbia's last mission, should have been rejected by government inspectors, according to a recent report by NASA's inspector general (IG).

UNCLEAR SUCCESSION: The U.S. Air Force is seeking to resolve a succession problem caused by the decision of Gen. Gregory S. Martin to withdraw his name from consideration for commander of U.S. Pacific Command (DAILY, Oct. 8). Criticism from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over Martin's past as an acquisition official led to the withdrawal, although Martin said he was not involved with the KC-767 tanker lease deal with Boeing Co. that McCain opposes. However, Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson already has been confirmed to take Martin's place as head of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC).