Irvine Sensors Corp. said Aug. 11 that it posted a 75% gain in revenues in the third quarter of 2005 and reduced the amount of its net loss to less than $100,000. Driven by gains in research and development, revenue for the period ending July 3 grew from $3.5 million the year before to $6.2 million, the company said. R&D accounted for $5.6 million of the third quarter 2005 total. R&D revenue for the same period a year ago was $3.2 million.
Weight is expected to be a key challenge for the U.S. Army's Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) system when it heads into its development phase, an industry official said Aug. 11. The program will have to squeeze several items onto a JLENS aerostat, which will have room for about 5,500 pounds of payload, said Ralph Acaba, who manages JLENS for prime contractor Raytheon Co. Items that will have to fit include radios, cooling and power-generation systems and a radar.
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), an advocate of boosting the military's armored ground vehicle fleet, has targeted $390.1 million in additional funds for U.S. Army tactical wheeled vehicles.
Space Adventures Ltd. announced that it is selling two commercial seats on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that could be launched on a trip around the moon by the end of the decade. The seats in the three-person spacecraft would be priced at $100 million each, with the third seat reserved for the cosmonaut pilot. Space Adventures said it has identified more than 1,000 people around the world with the resources to buy tickets, and some have expressed interest.
ON THE WAY: Northrop Grumman cut one of the first pieces of steel, a 15-ton plate for a side shell unit, for the first of the next-generation CVN 21 aircraft carriers, the company said Aug. 11. The company also opened the Newport News sector's new heavy-plate bay facility, one of several new facilities for CVN 21 construction.
New Mexico's Republican and Democratic senators are calling for $3 million more to be authorized to U.S. Air Force research and development funds to study "the reliability of field programmable gate arrays for space applications." Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici say the R&D should include design of an assurance strategy, reference architectures and radiation hardening, as well as "outreach" to industry and localities to develop core competencies for the devices, which process information.
Satellite communications company Intelsat's revenues rose 11% for the second quarter of 2005, but it still had a net loss, the company reported Aug. 11. Intelsat recorded revenue of $289.8 million for the quarter, up 11.3% over the same period last year. The company largely attributed the increase to a jump in lease services as well as the acquisition of Comsat General last year.
The launch of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from Cape Canaveral, Fla., was put off 24 hours while engineers addressed a software problem with the Atlas V rocket's fuel sensor system. The problem was discovered the morning of Aug. 11 during fueling of the rocket, when a fuel gauge showed a faulty "dry" reading. Engineers didn't have enough time to troubleshoot the issue before the launch window closed, according to NASA.
BLACK HAWKS: Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) has submitted an amendment to the Senate's pending fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill that would boost the U.S. Army's UH-60 Black Hawk replacement fund from $29.7 million to $40.6 million. The move would allow the Army to buy four replacement helicopters instead of two. Lieberman would take the additional money from Black Hawk medical evacuation kit funds, which would cut the buy of those from 10 to six.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has signed a contract to provide aircraft maintenance and other support services to the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force for its fleet of E-3D Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, the company said Aug. 11. The company was selected over Boeing to do the work under the Sentry Whole Life Support Program by the U.K. Ministry of Defence last year (DAILY, Aug. 6, 2004).
NUMBERS DOWN: Revenue, income from operations and net income all fell for CPI Aerostructures in the second quarter of 2005, the company said Aug. 11. The firm, which makes structural aircraft parts mostly for the U.S. Air Force, reported revenue fell 12% to $6.3 million from $7.1 million the year before. Income from operations decreased 44%, from $1.5 million to $867,817. Net income dipped to $509,193 from $963,199, a 47% drop.
Simulation and modeling technologies provider CAE Inc. of Montreal posted a 15% jump in revenue in the first quarter of fiscal year 2006, the company said Aug. 11. Revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2006 was CDN 266 million (USD $221.3 million), compared with CDN 230.9 million (USD $192.1 million) for the same period a year ago. The company attributed the boost to higher simulation products revenues in its civil and military segments.
Early work by an engineering "tiger team" indicates that NASA is unlikely to find a quick fix for the remaining foam trouble spots on the space shuttle's external tank that would permit a September launch, according to Space Station Program Manager Bill Gerstenmaier.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicles (MKV) program is proceeding toward conducting a key experiment in 2007 now that it has successfully completed a critical design review (CDR), according to MDA officials. The CDR, which took place earlier this year at prime contractor Lockheed Martin's facilities in Dallas, "verified the maturation of key kill vehicle subsystems," namely the avionics, seeker, software and divert and attitude control system (DACS), an MDA official told The DAILY in a recent written response to questions.
Thaicom 4 has become the largest commercial communications satellite ever placed in orbit following its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on Aug. 11. Weighing 14,300 pounds (6,485 kilograms) at launch, Thaicom 4 takes the title away from the 13,118-pound (5,950-kilogram) Anik 2, which was launched on an Ariane 5 in October 2004.
The U.S. Air Force's new MQ-9 Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle is having a few developmental problems but is expected to overcome them, according to a top service official.
USAF CHIEF: Gen. T. Michael Moseley will formally succeed retiring Gen. John Jumper as U.S. Air Force chief of staff during a Sept. 2 ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Moseley, who has been the vice chief, received Senate confirmation July 1 to become the Air Force's 18th chief.
The U.S. Defense Department has given the Army's Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) aerostat program the go-ahead to begin the system's full-scale development. Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg signed an acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) Aug. 5 that will allow JLENS to enter its system development and demonstration (SDD) phase, according to a three-paragraph "information paper" released by DOD Aug. 10. JLENS is intended to provide over-the-horizon detection and tracking of low-flying cruise missiles.
Facing extended use of aging aeronautical systems due in part to declining budgets, the U.S. Navy is eyeing a five-year "FastTrack" program, worth up to $450 million to industry participants, which would help the military services and defense agencies find or reverse-engineer increasingly obsolete parts and systems on legacy aircraft.
