Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

GOES-R WORK: Lockheed Martin will perform design and risk-reduction work for NASA's Solar Imaging Suite (SIS), scheduled to fly on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites R series (GOES-R), the company said Sept. 27. The work will be done under a $6 million, 18-month contract. SIS instruments are to study solar activity and the effects of the sun on the Earth. The launch of the first GOES-R satellite is scheduled for 2012.

Sept. 27 - 29 -- SAFE Association 42nd Annual Symposium, Grand America Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah. Call (541) 895-3012, fax (541) 895-3014 or email [email protected]. Sept. 28 - 29 -- International Quality & Productivity Center Defense IQ Divison's Electronic Warfare 2004, The Cafe Royal, London. For information call +44-207-437-9090 or go to www.iqpc-defence.com. Sept. 28 - 30 -- ISR Transformation Government Symposium, "New Vision for Global ISR," Denver, Colo. For information call 1-800-603-8899 or go to www.federalevents.com.

SPACE WEATHER: Solar and space physics research will play a crucial role in NASA's future space exploration plans because it will enable better space weather prediction, according to a new commission report from the National Academies. "The successful exploration of the solar system on the scale and scope envisioned in the new exploration vision will require a prediction capability sufficient to activate mitigation procedures during hazardous radiation events," the commission says.

Raytheon Co. will provide 11 AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) and related equipment for a Foreign Military Sale to Australia, the U.S. Department of Defense said Sept. 24. The work is being done under a $10 million contract modification from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The contract includes six AMRAAM Air Vehicles Instrumented (AAVIs), instrumentation unit field kits and software configuration management. The work is to be completed by August 2005.

DIVESTING: Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC) of Portland, Ore., which builds metal components for the aerospace industry, is selling the pump and valve businesses of its Fluid Management Products segment, the company says. Sulzer Pumps Ltd., headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland, intends to acquire the businesses for about $36 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, PCC says.

BOWIE, Md. - The U.S. Army is exploring or pursuing several new features for its RAID surveillance system, government and industry representatives said Sept. 24. RAID, or Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment, has been fielded in Afghanistan and Iraq to allow troops to monitor their surroundings (DAILY, April 14, 2003; Nov. 21, 2003). The deployed equipment includes electro-optical/infrared cameras mounted on towers and 49-foot-long aerostats. The aerostats are unmanned, balloon-like devices tethered to the ground by cables.

ON HOLD: Canadian X Prize contender the da Vinci Project has put its planned Oct. 2 flight attempt on hold pending the delivery and integration of "key components" of its Wild Fire spacecraft, the team says. After a high-altitude launch from a helium balloon, Wild Fire is expected to ignite its rocket and climb to approximately 110 kilometers (68 miles) altitude. The flight is to take place from Kindersley, Saskatchewan.

SPACE CONGRESS: The International Astronautical Congress plans to hold its 55th meeting, "Infinite Possibilities/Global Realities," in Vancouver from Oct. 4-8, the first time it has been held in Canada. The congress, organized by several international space organizations, brings together researchers, scientists, engineers, managers, students and other space officials.

After regulatory review by the Federal Trade Commission, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) of Minneapolis has completed its $165 million purchase of Omaha, Nebraska-based PSI Group, ATK said Sept. 23. The PSI Group manufactures and designs components for commercial and military space-based applications, including deployable mast booms, reflectors, struts, satellite bus structures, navigation and communication satellites and global positioning.

The Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $26.7 million contract to demonstrate and develop an electronic combat support system, the company said Sept. 24. The Agile Rapid Global Combat Support (ARGCS) system will cover all branches of the U.S. military, several NATO coalition partners and a number of platforms.

EUROPEAN COMPETITION: A new European Commission (EC) Green Paper assesses how the EC can clarify the criteria to establish when buying military equipment, services and works can be exempted from competitive procurement requirements. The purpose of the Green Paper is to improve cross-border competition in certain types of defense procurement, the EU says.

TARS SAR: The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has begun flight-testing a Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS) modified to include a Lockheed Martin synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The first set of tests used an operational F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and was successful, Lockheed Martin said Sept. 23. Government-funded tests are expected to continue into the spring of 2005. Adding SAR imagery to BAE Systems' TARS is supposed to allow the pod to perform in bad weather. The original TARS pod recently was used in combat for the first time (DAILY, Aug. 25).

A panel formed by the U.S. Navy to examine the military's targeting pod acquisition plans for fighter jets has completed its review, Navy officials said Sept. 24. As scheduled, the panel gave its findings to U.S. Navy acquisition chief John Young on Sept. 23 (DAILY, Sept. 13). But the Navy will not be ready to publicly release or comment on the study results for several weeks or months, the officials said.

SAVING UCAR: Although the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program remains in jeopardy as the U.S. Army attempts to pull its support in favor of other funding needs, it could be saved by intervention from the Pentagon, according to an industry source. "UCAR is not dead," he says. "The Army may choose not to fund it, but the final vote comes from the DOD itself." Director of Defense Research and Engineering Ron Sega may choose to "override" the Army's decision, "in which case the Army is going to have to deal with it," the source says.

APPLY AS NEEDED: Another way to save money on space-based boost-phase missile interceptors would be to initially deploy them over the most threatening countries, such as North Korea and Iran, Canavan says. As more potential threats emerge, satellite constellations could be added to counter them. "Coverage is a key issue. How do you place your satellites? That's where the real leverage is," he says.

Swiftships Shipbuilders of Morgan City La., will build six 25-meter fast patrol craft (FPCs) for Egypt, the U.S. Department of Defense said Sept. 24. The company also will provide technical data and training under the $32 million Foreign Military Sales program contract. "The FPC will be contructed of aluminum and conform to American Bureau of Shipping High Speed Naval Craft Requirements," the DOD said in announcing the Naval Sea Systems Command contract award.

The U.S. Army is scheduled to decide in October which type of engine system it will use for the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) and Non-Line-of-Sight Mortar (NLOS-M) manned ground vehicles, a Honeywell official told The DAILY Sept. 24. The vehicles are part of the Army's Future Combat Systems program. The Army will decide next month to go with a one- or two-engine system for the NLOS vehicles, said Rich Douglas, Honeywell's director of military propulsion, engines, systems and services, told The DAILY.

EA-18G PRODUCTION: The Boeing Co. plans to begin building the forward fuselage for the U.S. Navy's new EA-18G on Oct. 22, company officials say. The start of work on the forward fuselage in St. Louis, Mo., is supposed to coincide with the completion of a preliminary design review (PDR) for the electronic attack jet. The PDR will be followed by a critical design review in April 2005. Northrop Grumman began making the center/aft fuselage in July in El Segundo, Calif. (DAILY, July 1).

LESS EXPENSIVE: Deploying a system of space-based interceptors to shoot down missiles in their boost phase of flight may not be as expensive as some studies have indicated, says Gregory Canavan, an adviser to the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Physics Division. The deployment of the Iridium constellation of communications satellites indicates such a system could be put in orbit for $56.5 million per ton, for a total cost of $19.6 billion for a system aimed at liquid-fueled missiles.

The Naval Air Systems Command has awarded San Diego-based Cubic Corp.'s defense segment a one-year, $1.6 million contract to provide contractor instructors for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter maintenance training program, Cubic Corp. said Sept. 23. Cubic won the award under its indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract from NAVAIR for fielded training systems support. Cubic is one of seven companies awarded the ID/IQ in 2000, which allowed it to compete for about $500 million in simulator support work, Cubic Corp. said.

Northrop Grumman Corp. selected Aerosystems International and QinetiQ as core United Kingdom partners in its team for Project Helix, an upgrade to the Nimrod R1 aircraft electronic reconnaissance mission capabilities, the company said Sept. 23. As prime integrator, Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector leads one of the three teams selected by the U.K. Ministry of Defence to focus on the program's problem-understanding phase. One of the company's European divisions also is partnering with the Electronic Systems sector, Northrop Grumman said.

The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) has awarded a team led by Lockheed Martin the $2.11 billion prime contract for the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), a program whose total value is estimated at $6.4 billion. The seven-year contract includes options that could bring its value alone to $3.26 billion, according to SPAWAR. If all options are exercised, work will continue through 2015. The Lockheed Martin team beat a team led by Raytheon.

The Expedition 9 crew of the International Space Station (ISS) continues to troubleshoot the erratic Russian Elektron oxygen generation unit, which was thought to have been repaired last week until it failed again Sept. 23.

Northrop Grumman Corp. will manufacture and integrate a voice, data and multiplexing communications infrastructure for the U.S. Air Force under an initial order worth $18 million, the company said Sept. 24. The Theater Deployable Communications (TDC) modules and kits program is designed to securely transmit and receive voice, data and video.