Defense analysts said the U.S. Navy likely will not be able to afford a 375-ship fleet and will have to consider vessel requirements over quantity to more effectively address future combat threats. "They need to focus on capabilities-based planning. The fleet of the 21st century is heterogenous, with the biggest difference being mix of weapons [aboard]," said Col. Robert Work (USMC-Ret.), an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
EA-18G WORK: EDO Corp. of New York will provide an interference cancellation system for the EA-18G aircraft under a $14 million, three-year subcontract from the Boeing Co., EDO said Sept. 21. The work could be worth about $70 million over the life of the aircraft's anticipated production.
Australia-based ADI Ltd. and Forgacs are teaming to bid on the Australian Department of Defence's oil tanker conversion and $2 billion amphibious ship projects, ADI Ltd. said Sept. 20. The amphibious ship program is the largest of the two projects and involves the construction of the biggest warships ever built in Australia. The work would be done at the companies' Queensland and New South Wales facilities, Sydney-based ADI said.
The recovery of scientific samples from the wreckage of NASA's Genesis sample return capsule continues at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, although there is no firm schedule for shipping the samples to their intended home at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston.
Aerospace and defense component supplier Esterline Technologies, based in Bellevue, Wash., will supply sensors and be the sensors integrator for the turboprop engine on the Airbus A400 military transport program, Robert Cremin, Esterline chairman, president and CEO, told The DAILY Sept. 21. This is the first time Esterline will both supply sensors and be the sensors integrator on an aircraft program, he said.
A key design review for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicles (MKV) program has been delayed by about four months, according to Defense Department officials. The critical design review (CDR), which will detail plans for an upcoming experiment, had been scheduled for October 2004 but now will occur in February 2005 instead, DOD said in a statement responding to questions Sept. 21.
The Boeing Co. has awarded Telephonics Corp. of Farmingdale, N.Y., a contract for its Secure Digital Intercommunications (SDI) system for the U.S. Army's CH-47F Chinook helicopter modernization program, Telephonics Corp. said Sept. 20. The eight- to 10-year contract is worth more than $25 million, the company said. The SDI system is part of the Common Avionics Architecture system.
The British Ministry of Defence takes exception to a House of Commons Defence Select Committee statement that the MOD is moving too slowly in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. "The Department is actively embracing" UAV technology, the British government said Sept. 20 in one part of a 22-page response to the committee's July 1 report on a Defence White Paper of December 2003.
A new report from the National Academies urges NASA to quickly choose a systems integration approach for Project Constellation, and "staff the selected approach adequately before making major commitments to hardware procurement." Project Constellation includes the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) for human transport, various robotic precursor missions and associated systems supporting the exploration of the moon and Mars.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has made some progress in tracking its foreign military sales of Stinger missiles, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official said Sept. 21. "They said yesterday they have issued a contract to establish a centralized electronic database to keep track of U.S. Stinger inventory and sales. They will have preliminary results from the database in October, and hope to have the database deployed in January," Joseph Christoff, director of GAO's international affairs and trade team, told The DAILY.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Sept. 21 to cut NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget to $15.5 billion, a figure $200 million higher than the agency's FY '04 enactment but $665 million lower than its request. The committee approved $268 million for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), which would be used to transport humans beyond low-Earth orbit, and $20 million for lunar exploration.
Ionatron Inc., which develops directed-energy weapon technology products, acquired substantially all of the assets of North Star Research Corp. of Albuquerque, N.M., which builds defense and aerospace high voltage equipment, Ionatron said Sept. 20. Tucson, Ariz.-based Ionatron paid $700,000 for North Star's assets, issued 199,063 shares of Ionatron common stock and assumed liabilities for warranty claims against the purchased assets in an amount not to exceed $35,000, Ionatron said. .
The U.S. Navy says it "remains committed to fielding a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)," even though a request for proposals (RFP) that was supposed to be released months ago has yet to be issued.
ONLINE PROGRAM: SpaceTEC, of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and RWD Technologies of Baltimore are offering an online certification program to test and qualify people as certified aerospace technicians, the companies said Sept. 20. The tests will be administered by RWD Technologies' CertificationNet. SpaceTEC's partner community colleges will administer the core skills certification exams at their proctored testing centers.
The U.S. Air Force plans to delay the E-10A Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft by a year due to congressional budget cuts, according to an industry source. The fiscal 2005 defense appropriations act cuts $115 million from the Air Force's $539 million request for the E-10A. As a result, the initial operational capability, with four jets, will be moved from 2013 to 2014, the industry source told The DAILY late Sept. 20. Air Force officials could not be reached for comment.
OFFERING: B/E Aerospace Inc., a manufacturer of aircraft cabin interior products and an aftermarket distributor of aerospace fasteners, plans an equity offering of 13.5 million shares of its common stock, the company announced Sept. 20. Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Investment Bank will be the joint book running managers for the offering. B/E will grant the underwriters an option to buy up to an additional 2,025,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.
Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) aircraft division awarded BAE Systems Applied Technologies of Rockville, Md., a $6.6 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for shipboard communications systems. Under the agreement, NAVAIR can exercise an option for technical and engineering support services for the development, procurement, integration, testing, installation and certification of shipboard communication systems.
The first flight of the first NH90 helicopter bound for Finland's military was a success, the aircraft's manufacturer, Eurocopter, said Sept. 17. The more than one-hour flight took place Sept. 15 in France over Marseille and Eurocopter's headquarters and production site in Marignane. Two flight engineers and one test pilot conducted the flight under full fly-by-wire conditions, the company said in a statement. The flight envelope also was tested and the aircraft reached high speeds. A Finnish government representative watched the test.
SpaceDev is designing a reusable, piloted, suborbital space ship it calls the "SpaceDev Dream Chaser," the Poway, Calif.-based company said Sept. 20. SpaceDev founder and CEO Jim Benson signed a recent Space Act memorandum of understanding with Scott Hubbard, director of NASA's Ames Research Center, Calif., to investigate using the company's technologies for new small launch vehicles and flight-test platforms.
Boeing flight-tested the A160 Hummingbird unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the first time since it bought the technology as part of its acquisition of Frontiers Systems Inc. in May, Boeing said Sept. 20.
General Dynamics has completed its purchase of TriPoint Global Communications Inc. of Newton, N.C., the company said Sept. 17. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. TriPoint Global Communications provides wireless communication and ground-based satellite equipment for data, voice and video applications. The company also supplies wireless backhaul products, VSAT antennas and antenna systems, and earth station and base station communications services and products. TriPoint Global Communications has about 1,450 workers in 14 locations.
PARTNERS: Communications companies Equant, Intelsat and iDirect Technologies have partnered to provide satellite-based wide area network (WAN) services, Equant said Sept. 20. The partners can provide communications services to underserved areas with features not previously available, Equant said. The company will offer its Internet protocol-enabled virtual private networks (IP VPN) service on Intelsat satellites. IDirect Technologies will provide broadband satellite access with its Netmodem product line.
