Lt. Gen. William "Tom" Hobbins (USAF) has been nominated for a fourth star and as commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, the Allied Air Component Command and the U.S. European's Command's Air Component, according to the Senate Armed Services Committee. All are based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
JSF GUN: General Dynamics, which is developing the gun system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is ahead of schedule and under cost with that effort and recently completed a successful critical design review, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Department's JSF program office. The company's GD-425 four-barrel Gatling gun will be mounted inside JSF's conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) version and be carried externally by the carrier variant (CV) and short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version.
Orbital Sciences launched a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency satellite on its Minotaur I rocket late Sept. 22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the company said. The STP-R1 satellite, also known as the "Streak" technology demonstrator, was inserted into its 300-kilometer (186-miles) orbit about nine minutes after launch, Orbital said. The satellite is part of DARPA's Space Test Program (DAILY, July 22).
Northrop Grumman will provide a new ground-based radar to the U.S. Marine Corps which consolidates four radar mission areas into one, the company said Sept. 22. The first increment of the system design and development phase for the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) is $7.9 million, and the whole program could be worth up to $125 million over four years, the company said.
Israel Aircraft Industries will build an AMOS 3 communications satellite for Spacecom under a $170 million contract, the company said last week. The spacecraft will be built at IAI's Systems Missiles & Space Group and is to be launched by the end of 2007. AMOS 3 is to replace AMOS 1, which has been operating since 1996 and is slated to continue until 2008. The new spacecraft will "implement advanced technologies," IAI President and CEO Moshe Keret said in a statement.
ARMORED VEHICLES: Canada expects full production to begin in 2010 on a fleet of new Multi-Mission Effects Vehicles for its army, the country's defense department says. The CAD 750 million (USD $640 million) project was announced Sept. 22 to design, develop, and deliver 33 of the wheeled light armored vehicles. The government is negotiating with Oerlikon Contraves Canada of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, over an expected CAD 100 million (USD $85.3 million) prime contract for the first phase of the project, which will cover design and development.
NCOIC LEADER: In October, Lorraine Martin of Lockheed Martin will become the new executive chair of the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium, taking over from Carl O'Berry of Boeing. Martin is vice president of flight solutions for Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training and Support. Including nearly 80 members, the year-old consortium is developing the basic standards that will allow defense technologies to interoperate in the future network-centric environment.
A Boeing 737-300 is being modified by BAE Systems in Mojave, Calif., to serve as an avionics test bed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The work will include the installation of an F-35 nose section, a Northrop Grumman fire-control radar and other sensors to help emulate the shape of the JSF (DAILY, Sept. 22). This picture shows what the finished product is expected to look like. Illustration courtesy JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
The Pathfinder-Plus solar-electric flying wing recently completed a series of research flights to investigate the effects of turbulence on lightweight, flexible wing structures, NASA said. The next stop for the 23-year-old craft is retirement, NASA said Sept. 21. The vehicle will be offered to a "major aerospace museum" for preservation and display, vehicle builder and owner AeroVironment Inc. said.
The United States and eight other nations are holding their second negotiating session to develop an agreement on production and sustainment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a program spokeswoman said Sept. 22. This week's talks are taking place in Turin, Italy, and are to be followed by a third and final round sometime later this year. The first session took place in May in Virginia (DAILY, May 17). The MOU is supposed to spell out such things as the number of aircraft each country will buy and the location of maintenance facilities.
The additional delays caused by Hurricane Katrina make it highly likely that the next space shuttle launch will slip to no earlier than May 2006, according to NASA. The agency had been planning tentatively to launch the shuttle in March, until Katrina struck both Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the shuttle's external tank is built.
PRICED: Axsys Technologies of Rock Hill, Conn., which makes optical equipment for the defense, aerospace and other markets, said Sept. 21 that its public offering of stock has been priced at $18 per share. The offering is scheduled to end Sept. 27.
MISSILE CONTRACT: Sweden-based Saab Bofors Dynamics has been awarded a SEK 350 million (USD $45.4 million) contract to help develop, produce and market the heavyweight anti-ship Missile System RBS15 Mk3 for Germany's navy, the company said Sept. 22. Saab will serve as system design authority while working with prime contractor Diehl BGT Defence. The missile systems will arm Germany's new K130-class corvettes.
Two years after the U.S. Navy tapped Raytheon to replace the aging ship-based Cobra Judy radar system, the program is facing a few challenges but is generally on track, according to a Navy official. The Cobra Judy Replacement (CJR) program held a "successful" preliminary design review (PDR) in February and is on schedule for a critical design review in January 2006, said Capt. Sheila Patterson, the Navy's major program manager for above-water sensors.
Defense electronics and propulsion company DRS Technologies is acquiring defense electronics and support firm Engineered Support Systems Inc. for $43 per share in cash and stock, the companies said Sept. 22. DRS will buy St. Louis-based ESSI stock for $30.10 per share plus DRS stock worth $12.90, as long as the average closing price of DRS's common stock before the acquisition's closing is between $46.80 and $57.20.
The Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group, which sailed into the U.S. Central Command's Iraqi theater early this month, is boasting the first formal naval deployment of an unmanned aerial system in maritime combat missions, a U.S. Navy official said Sept. 22.
SECURING APPROVAL: Boeing and Lockheed Martin plan to resubmit to the Federal Trade Commission their filing on the proposed United Launch Alliance, to give the FTC more time to make sure the merger doesn't violate antitrust law. FTC had 30 days from the time of the original filing to review the proposed alliance, but this was not enough time to fully consider such a complex proposal, according to Lockheed Martin spokesman Tom Jurkowsky. "It's a complicated review because there are a lot of government agencies with an interest in ULA," he said.
A teetering Russia hounded by socioeconomic pressures, internal corruption or another massive Chechnyan terrorist attack, as well as potential terrorist states developing throughout central Asia, represent the greatest threats out of that region for the United States over the next 20 years, a panel of Washington think tank experts said on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) defended beleaguered space technology acquisition programs during an address in Washington Sept. 22, warning that they should be dealt with "gently" to avoid undue damage to the industrial base.
Higher sales in repair and overhaul, maintenance, and other areas gave aviation and aerospace products and services provider AAR Corp. a 111% income boost in the first quarter of 2006, the company said Sept. 21. Net sales for the Wood Dale, Ill.-based company climbed 22% from the year before. Income from continuing operations was $5.3 million in the first quarter of FY '06, compared with $2.5 million for the same period a year earlier. Sales grew from $163 million in the first quarter of FY '05 to $199.6 million for the same period in FY '06.
Air Force Undersecretary Ron Sega is reviewing the Defense Department's space acquisition programs as DOD's new executive agent for space, although his office has not yet regained formal acquisition authority. "This is one of my tasks, to go through and look at all of our systems here," Sega told reporters at a space conference in Washington Sept. 22. "So I've had a first look at some of the systems, but not really drilled down into it."
PRAGUE - The Czech industry and trade ministry has cleared a version of the Czech-made Vera passive radar system for export to Pakistan. Officials said the ministry granted a license allowing Pakistan to lease the system for an unspecified period. A new license, they added, would be required if Pakistan were to buy the system. Details of the agreement have not been released for security reasons, according to the industry and trade ministry.
Congress is moving to pass changes to the Iran Nonproliferation Act that would create an exception for some U.S. payments to Russia in support of the International Space Station, but only through 2011. Introduced and explained by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate passed the bill Sept. 21 by unanimous consent. It has been reported in the House, where Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee, predicted safe passage.
