Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

TURKEY F-16s: Turkey plans to buy up to $4 billion in equipment from the United States to modernize 218 F-16s, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says. If all options are exercised, the proposed deal, which Congress is expected to approve, will include the purchase of 180 AN/APG-68(V)9 radars, 200 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, 200 AN/AVS-9 Night Vision Goggles, 225 AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles and small quantities of several weapons for integration and testing.

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).

SWORN IN: Dionel M. Aviles was sworn in Oct. 8 as undersecretary of the Navy. Before his appointment, Aviles was assistant secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller. From 1995-2001, he was a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee.

WestStart-CALSTART of Pasadena, Calif. has been awarded a $4.4 million contract by the U.S. Army's National Automotive Center (NAC) to speed development of advanced heavy-duty vehicle technologies for commercial and military uses, the company said Oct. 6. The contract will cover dual-use technology development and heavy-duty hybrid truck deployment.

MISSILE TRACKER: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) program is on schedule to launch two research and development satellites in less than three years, according to a Defense Department official. The sensor payloads, under development by Raytheon, are due to be delivered to STSS prime contractor Northrop Grumman in 2005 and integrated with the rest of the spacecraft in 2006. The two satellites, which are designed to track hostile ballistic missiles, are slated to lift off aboard a single Boeing Delta II booster in June 2007.

The U.S. Air Force's top two officials flew aboard the V-22 Osprey for the first time Oct. 8, according to a spokeswoman at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., where the flying took place. Although the Air Force had no immediate comment on the trip by Air Force Secretary James Roche and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper, the Marine Corps spokeswoman said the event went as planned, including a parachute drop from the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor aircraft by Army Gen. Bryan Brown, head of U.S. Special Operations Command.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Senate defeated an amendment proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would have given appropriations authority to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, a move recommended by the 9/11 Commission. McCain proposed the amendment Oct. 7 to Senate Resolution 445, which contains an amendment offered by Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that overhauls how Congress oversees U.S. intelligence activities (DAILY, Oct. 6).

UPCOMING DEADLINE: A request for proposals for the U.S. Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) is expected by early December, an Army representative says. Responses are due back from industry within about 45 days and a decision is due next spring, the Army says. The draft RFP for the ARH, released Sept.

SEA LAUNCH: Sea Launch says it's ready to return to flight following an independent review that confirmed a cable short as the likely culprit in an anomaly that left Telstar 18 in a lower-than-planned orbit after its June 28 launch. The short caused the Zenit-3SL rocket's Block DM-SL upper stage to consume fuel faster than planned and shut down prematurely. Telstar 18 later was raised to its proper orbital position and is fully operational. Corrective actions have been taken to ensure the fault doesn't happen again, according to the company.

According to a new report from EADS North America, the company's KC-330 tanker "offers the best overall performance relative to the [EADS] KC-310 and both versions of the [Boeing] KC-767," which the Air Force planned to lease from Boeing before the deal was suspended.

ROBUST GPS: The Global Positioning System could continue to function even if up to four satellites were disabled, according to a study commissioned by the Federation of American Scientists. The study found that the GPS constellation is "very robust because of the altitude (roughly 20,000 kilometers, high enough that it takes 12 hours for each satellite to complete one orbit) and the large number of satellite used, a total of 24." The FAS study recommends that smart weapons that use GPS be "made more robust."

Space Imaging's future is in doubt following the loss of the second and final NextView contract, which was integral to the development of the company's next-generation imaging satellites. Competitors DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo., and Orbimage of Dulles, Va., both have received NextView contracts from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that could be worth up to $500 million each and will help the companies build next-generation imaging satellites with resolutions of 0.5 meters or higher.

Oct. 12 - 14 -- Aviation Week presents MRO Asia, Shanghai Convention Center. To register go to http://www.AviationNow.com/conferences. Oct. 12 - 14 -- Precision Strike Technology Symposium, "Accelerating Joint & Coalition Technology Advances for Precision Strike," Kossiakoff Conference Center, The John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. For more information, go to www.precisionstrike.org.

Finmeccanica would be required to ensure that AgustaWestland will have the capabilities to design, develop and maintain helicopter systems within the United Kingdom before acquiring the company under an Oct. 6 proposal from U.K. Competition Minister Gerry Sutcliffe. Italy's largest defense company said earlier this year that it would buy GKN's 50 percent stake in AgustaWestland, their joint helicopter venture (DAILY, May 27), for $1.9 billion to "directly increase its exposure to the U.S. and U.K. defense budgets."

The Bush Administration's spending on research and development for space weapons is creating an "unstoppable momentum" that will result in deployment of those weapons in the near term, said Leonard Weiss, chairman of the Federation of American Scientists Panel on Weapons in Space.

ISC2 CONTRACT: The Department of Defense has awarded Lockheed Martin Mission Systems of Colorado Springs, Colo., a $54.1 million contract modification for the Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2), the DOD said Oct. 6. ISC2 will modernize the command and control (C2) system of the U.S. Strategic Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command into an interoperable, integrated, state-of-the-art capability to support the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff and the National Command Authority, the DOD said.

NO PAYMENT: NASA will only pay Spacehab Inc. $8 million for the loss of its Research Double Module, which was destroyed when the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed last year, Spacehab said Oct. 6. Spacehab filed an $87.7 million claim against NASA earlier this year (DAILY, Jan. 21) for the loss of the module, but said NASA has determined it owes only $8 million for an indemnification claim.

IT CONTRACT: Anteon International Corp., an information technology and systems engineering and integration company based in Fairfax, Va., has won a five-year, $150 million contract to support the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS) and Linked Operations Intelligence Center Europe (LOCE) programs, the company said Oct. 5. The contract to support these two multinational information-sharing programs was awarded by the Department of Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center, Aberdeen, Md.

ENDGAME: House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Oct. 7 on the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization legislation. A compromise measure is expected to come up for a vote in both chambers Oct. 8, according to Harald Stavenas, a spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee. He declined to provide details of the agreement, except to confirm that a modified version of the "Buy American" provision had been retained in the compromise.

The Boeing Co. plans to begin flight-testing a laser-guided version of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) before year's end in hopes of fueling U.S. government interest in the weapon variant. The Boeing-funded testing, which will continue into 2005, will include dropping the modified air-to-surface munition from a fighter aircraft, said Donald Hutcheson, a Boeing business development manager for precision-guided weapons.