The House and Senate have both ratified the fiscal 2006 conference agreement for the Homeland Security Department's spending measure. The agreement provides $30.8 billion for the year that started Oct. 1, $1.4 billion more than FY '05 and $1.3 billion above what President Bush requested.
NO POSSE: Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the ranking minority member on the House Armed Services Committee, says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told him that the Pentagon has no plans to recommend changes to the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits active, federal military participation in domestic law enforcement activities. "I agree with Secretary Rumsfeld that no changes need to be made to the existing law," Skelton says.
The Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator test platform, an early DD(X) destroyer design built by Dakota Creek Industries Inc., will undergo noise and wake trials in mid-November, U.S. Navy officials said Oct. 6.
NEW TANK: The external tank that will fly with Space Shuttle Discovery on its next launch is now undergoing additional retrofitting at the recently reopened Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The tank, ET-119, arrived at the facility Oct. 3 after a five-day barge trip from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The trip originally had been scheduled for August but was postponed by Hurricane Katrina, which flooded Michoud. The facility was closed for five weeks, finally reopening on Oct. 1.
SUMO: The Navy will hold an industry day to discuss the SUMO (Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits) program on Nov. 2 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. SUMO is a risk-reduction effort aimed at enabling an advanced servicing spacecraft capable of grappling other spacecraft tumbling in space without custom interfaces. "SUMO offers the potential for spacecraft salvage, repair, rescue, reposition and debris removal," NRL says. "This capability can extend service life by providing a safe and calculated disposal after propellant exhaustion."
SERVICE RIVALRY: The Air Force might be a little rankled by the Army's Future Cargo Aircraft program. Michael Wynne, tapped to be the next Air Force secretary, told senators Oct. 6 that an August 2002 Defense Department directive from then-No. 2 official Paul Wolfowitz says that the Air Force has the primary mission to provide air logistic support to the Army and other forces.
Oct. 11 - 13 -- The Global Outlook for Carbon Fiber 2005, "A Comprehensive Update of Strategic Market and Technical Developments for Carbon Fiber Composites," Hilton San Diego Resort Hotel, San Diego, Calif. For more information go to www.intertechusa.com/cf.htm. Oct. 15 -- The Wings Club Annual Dinner-Dance, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. Contact Candice Kimmel, (212) 956-5900 or email [email protected].
CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., said Oct. 6 that it has agreed to purchase National Security Research Inc., also of Arlington. Financial terms were not disclosed. The closing is anticipated this month. NSR provides professional and analytic security services and products to federal government, aerospace, and defense industry customers. Employee-owned NSR has about 100 workers and 50 consultants in Virginia, Albuquerque, N.M., and other U.S. sites. The company had $17 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30, 2004.
Lockheed Martin has pulled out of its partnership with MD Helicopters to offer the MD Explorer for the U.S. Army's Light Utility Helicopter program, the companies revealed Oct. 6. MD Helicopters now is going it alone in its bid for LUH and will be ready to deliver its proposal on time Oct. 12, according to company spokesman Ken Jensen. The decision to dissolve the partnership was "mutual," he told The DAILY.
Bell Helicopter Textron has decided to offer a different airframe than the one it originally intended for the U.S. Army's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) competition, citing recently disclosed Army requirements.
JSF CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, is being awarded a $6.5 billion contract modification to support recent changes to the program's system development and demonstration phase, the U.S. Defense Department announced late Oct. 6. JSF's first fielding was delayed from 2010 to 2012 to allow the program to solve the aircraft's weight problems.
U.S. soldiers have successfully test-fired three experimental weapons at a training area in Germany, the Defense Department said. The troops fired an upgraded XM25 semiautomatic rifle, XM312 machine gun, and SM320 grenade launcher at the Grafenwoehr Training Area on Sept. 24. The weapons were produced at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. The soldiers said the weapons produced little kickback and were easy to fire, with most hitting their targets on their first tries.
The South Korean air force soon will receive two new K-model F-15 Eagle fighters from the Boeing Co., the U.S. Air Force said. The aircraft, part of a 40-plane, $4.2 billion purchase, arrived at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, on Oct. 2 on their way to Seoul. Hawaii Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotankers will refuel the planes for a stop at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, before they arrive in South Korea.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Oct. 6 that he would vote to confirm Donald Winter to be secretary of the Navy after Winter pledged to abide by an ethics recusal policy, which apparently could see him removed from major naval shipbuilding decisions for a year after taking office.
The Senate late Oct. 6 was on the verge of passing the fiscal 2006 defense spending bill, but without the accompanying annual authorization legislation. Late on Oct. 5, the Senate turned back an effort by the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee to amend a modified version of their FY '06 policy measure to the spending bill. After lengthy - and sometimes testy - debate between defense appropriators and authorizers on the Senate floor, the chamber rejected the SASC effort by one vote.
Following an eight-day semifinal event, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has chosen 23 robotic ground vehicle teams to compete for the $2 million Grand Challenge prize on Oct. 8. The finalists will traverse a rugged, 150-mile course through the desert starting in Primm, Nev., that will include lakebeds, narrow roads, tight turns, gateways and treacherous mountain passes. The course will not be revealed to teams until two hours before the event begins.
Michael Wynne, the Bush Administration's nominee to be the next Air Force secretary, pledged Oct. 6 to "pursue competition at every level" if he takes over the service, which has been marred by high-level acquisition scandals and mistakes.
Boeing was awarded another delivery order under the Mission Planning Enterprise Contract, the company said Oct. 6. The $153 million order is for a joint planning system for B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers. Boeing will be the lead systems integrator, teaming with BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and the Air Force's Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, the company said.
MARINE VISION: DRS Technologies Inc. announced Oct. 5 that it won a competition for a potentially $660 million, five-year contract to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with up to 28,000 lightweight, handheld, battery-operated, infrared binoculars. The Tactical Range Thermal Imagers are used by the military for long-range observation and reconnaissance. "This new program establishes DRS as a major supplier of handheld thermal imaging devices," a company statement said. For the initial award, DRS will deliver more than 3,800 systems for $46 million.
The U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program is moving into a phase of more specific platform-level reviews and prototype manufacturing as it gears up for its overall preliminary design review in June 2006, according to program officials. Following a System of Systems Functional Review in August, the program now is moving more into the building, testing and integration of prototypes for the 18 interconnected ground and air platforms that comprise the core of FCS.
