Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

It is unlikely that the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) will file a lawsuit against the Boeing Co. or the U.S. Department of Defense in response to the sentencing of an ex-Boeing official for wrongdoing in an Air Force tanker deal, analysts said. However, EADS could use the threat of a lawsuit to gain leverage with the Air Force to reopen the negotiations, they said.

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has won a $6.9 million contract from the U.S. Army for the Common Drive Trainer (CDT) Stryker Variant, part of a line of drive simulators for training soldiers on tracked, wheeled, and heavy equipment vehicles. The contract, awarded by the Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), has a potential total value of $8.78 million if all options are exercised, the Army said Oct. 5.

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.

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.

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.

Team US101 for the first time flew the US101 medium-lift helicopter it is bidding for the VXX Presidential Helicopter Replacement program, the Lockheed Martin-led team said Oct. 6.

AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION, Arling-ton, Va. James "Rusty" Rentsch has been named lifecycle management director. ARINC, INC. Annapolis, Md. Maureen Woods has been appointed senior director, air traffic services. COMMITTEE ON THE PRESENT DANGER, Wash-ington Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic; Jose Maria Aznar, former prime minister of Spain; and George Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state, have joined the board. HAWK CORP., Cleveland

By acquiring Racal Instruments Group, EADS North America expects its defense revenue to jump by $50 million in 2005, EADS officials said Oct. 6.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit is suffering from a steering problem that may eventually force mission controllers to permanently disable their ability to lock the direction of two of its four steerable wheels. The two front and two rear wheels of the six-wheeled rover are used for steering. When not in use, the actuator motors that steer the wheels act as brakes to prevent unintended direction changes. The steering motors for the right-front and left-rear wheels failed to respond to commands sent on Oct. 1, according to NASA.

Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) Falcon 1 vehicle has been delivered to its launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for a series of preflight tests leading to an expected launch in late November or December.

In anticipation of future demonstrations of deep-space laser communications, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. is requesting information from industry on laser communication terminals that would be deployed in the stratosphere or in Earth orbit. The agency wants information on communication packages, telescope configurations, control strategies, and baffling or filtering schemes that would enable operation within three degrees of the sun. Responses are due Nov. 26.

The U.S. government is looking to use advanced technologies, such as satellite communications and the Global Positioning System, to track and monitor containers that enter and leave U.S. ports and territorial waters, according to Robert A. Jacksta, executive director of border security and facilitation with the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office.

The United States and the European Union blasted each other with charges that unfair subsidies are going to Europe's Airbus and America's Boeing Co. The latest development in a long-simmering dispute began Oct. 6 when the U.S. complained to the World Trade Organization that European governments were illegally subsidizing Airbus. The European Union fired back almost immediately with its own complaint to the WTO alleging "massive subsidies" to Boeing.

Iraq has selected a Jordanian company to supply small aircraft to patrol oil pipelines and other critical parts of the country's infrastructure. Jordan Aerospace Industries (JAI), through its partner Transatlantic Traders Inc., was chosen over several other competitors on Sept. 28. The contract will be awarded Oct. 29, according to Bob Hunt, a spokesman for U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Huntsville, Ala. AMCOM worked with the interim Iraqi government on the program.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence Procurement announced Oct. 6 that it had selected Atkins Defence of Bristol as the preferred bidder for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES), a family of vehicles with a range of combat, combat support, and service support roles using a common platform and components. Atkins will now proceed with the assessment phase of the FRES program. The ministry expects to sign a formal agreement by the end of the year. The potential value was not disclosed.

U.S. efforts to field a sea-based ballistic missile defense system remain on track, evidenced by plans for a ceremony later this month to mark the completion of the system's first deployable Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor, according to government and industry officials. The Defense Department has signaled for more than a year that it wants to have five SM-3s available for emergency use by the end of 2004, and a department official told The DAILY Oct. 6 that "things are still looking good for those five emergency rounds."

The National Reconnaissance Office is asking industry for ways to make it more capable and effective in launching satellites. It is interested in three specific areas - certification and qualification of parts, technologies for operationally responsive launches, and new approaches for secondary payloads. Proposals are due Nov. 29 and contracts of up to $350,000 each will be awarded by March 1, 2005, NRO says in a broad agency announcement (BAA) posted in the Oct. 4 issue of FedBizOpps.

SUB WORK: Northrop Grumman was awarded a $36.5 million contract Oct. 5 to plan and execute dry-docking work on the nuclear-powered submarine USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN 709). The work, which will be performed at the company's facilities in Newport News, Va., will include removal and overhaul of various valves, steering and diving gear inspection and repair and torpedo systems repairs.

A key Pentagon official is pushing the Defense Department's weapon system program managers to place more emphasis on safety when they design equipment. In a recent memorandum addressed to leaders across DOD, acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne wrote that program managers should be told to "integrate system safety risk management into their overall systems engineering and risk management processes." His memo calls for "active collaboration between system safety and acquisition communities as we execute our programs."

50 NANOSATS: Leading European space powers are proposing to simultaneously launch 50 nanosatellites in 2007 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. Each nanosat would weigh roughly 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram), and would be dedicated to a scientific experiment. The satellites would be deployed by a single Ariane 5 rocket. The mission was proposed during the recent 55th International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Congress in Vancouver, Canada.