CAPITAL: Satellite and rocket builder SpaceDev of Poway, Calif., received $2.5 million from selling 250,000 shares of stock to the Laurus Master Fund, and increased its revolving credit facility to $1.5 million, the company said Aug. 30. The money will be used fund the continued growth of the business and help it get "new and larger contracts under more favorable terms," SpaceDev Chief Financial Officer Richard B. Slansky said in a statement.
The U.S. Navy should reopen a competition between PURVIS Systems Ltd. and Northrop Grumman Defense Mission Systems Inc. to provide support for anti-submarine and anti-mine programs, the Government Accountability Office said in a decision released Aug. 30.
The U.S. Defense Department says it is moving to meet congressional demands for an independent cost estimate of the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor. DOD has hired the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) to conduct the review of the Lockheed Martin-built fighter aircraft, a department spokeswoman told The DAILY Aug 27. The study is on track for completion by Aug. 15, 2005, the deadline set by the fiscal 2005 defense appropriations conference report.
A electronic malfunction in a steering mechanism is believed to have caused the Arrow missile defense system to miss its target during a flight-test last week, an Israeli government official and a contractor said Aug. 30.
The U.S. Navy's first exercise validating its new Fleet Response Plan, Summer Pulse '04, successfully simulated two carrier strike groups surging and seven simultaneously deployed, a Navy spokeswoman told The DAILY. "We had seven carrier strike groups under way simultaneously for this exercise," said Lt. Erin Bailey.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) said its acquisition of the PSI Group is expected to close in late September, after federal regulatory review and approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which is "currently ongoing." The deal previously had been expected to close in August. ATK announced its plan to acquire PSI Group in July (DAILY, July 14). PSI provides satellite components and propellant tanks, and ATK said buying the company would boost its military space work.
CERTIFIED: The German government has approved type certification for the UH-Tiger combat helicopter variant, Tiger maker Eurocopter announced last week. The governmental executive organization of the Tiger program also approved qualification of the helicopter. Type certification and qualification are considered the end of Tiger aircraft and weapon system development. They also were a prerequisite for delivering the first French and German Tigers to the Tiger pilot school in southern France, beginning in October.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Nanosolar Inc. a $10.3 million research and development contract to promote advances in the manufacture, device design and performance of solar electricity cells, the company said.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The top intelligence official at U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command here says his job is to tailor the information he sees for the chief of the two commands, currently Gen. Ralph E. "Ed" Eberhart (USAF). "There are a lot of intelligence people in Washington, and you could say, well, they could do all the jobs that our people do here," said the official, who, for security reasons, can be identified only as Mike.
India's navy plans to induct the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in 2005, according to the Indian defense ministry. Defence Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee, in a written response to parliament, said the missile has proven its performance against ship targets in a series of successful flight trials from ships and land.
PHOENIX FADING: The aging AIM-54 Phoenix missile will soon leave the U.S. Navy's inventory. The Navy says it has "very few" AIM-54s left in its inventory and expects to fire the remaining ones in training exercises by Sept. 30. The Navy began deploying the Raytheon-built air-to-air missile in 1974. The F-14 Tomcats that have carried the Phoenix still will have Raytheon's AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles for air-to-air combat.
RFP PENDING: A request for proposals for software for the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System (DEAMS) is expected within the next few months, according to the U.S. Transportation Command. DEAMS is a joint initiative involving USTRANSCOM, the Air Force and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. The goal is to modernize accounting and financial management systems and business processes to be in compliance with the Defense Department's Business Management Modernization Program/Business Process Re-engineering (BMMP/BPR).
Members of a congressional conference committee charged with creating a final fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill will have to overcome their differences on "Buy America" legislation, base closures and Air Force tanker aircraft procurement. Lawmakers are scheduled to return to work on Sept. 7 from the August recess. In its first week back, the House is likely to choose its members of the conference committee that will reconcile the bill with the Senate version.
OTHER THREATS: The Combined Intelligence and Fusion Center (CIFC), established to support the needs of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, handles other threats in addition to terrorism, according to center officials. The CIFC spends "a lot of time working on terrorism, but that's not all," says the official, who can only be identified as Mike. "There are other threats to North America, many of them traditional. Many of them have existed for a long time." For instance, the CIFC is "very involved" in ballistic missile defense, he says.
NO RESPONSE: U.S. Transportation Command Commander Gen. John Handy (USAF) says he has no response to a recent letter from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressing dismay with comments McCain says Handy made in a national magazine article.
The U.S. Marine Corps has successfully tested and integrated the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Litening Advanced Targeting (AT) system on the F/A-18D Hornet aircraft, the company said Aug. 27. The F/A-18D is the eighth U.S. platform with the system. The test culminated with the release of a laser-guided weapon that scored a direct hit on a target, the company said. The initial capability was achieved using Litening ATs borrowed from Marine AV-8Bs. The Marine Corps plans to procure 60 Litening AT pods to support its fleet of 72 F/A-18Ds.
PLANETS FOUND: A team of planet hunters will announce the discovery of a new class of planets beyond our solar system on Aug. 31, NASA announced Aug. 26. The discovery represents "a significant and much-anticipated advance in the hunt for extra-solar planets," NASA said.
Aug. 30 - Sept. 2 -- 2004 DOD Personnel Recovery Conference & Exhibition, Transforming Personnel Recovery, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, Va. For more information contact Karen Angie Gress at (703) 247-2568, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org. Sept. 6 -- 2nd World Symposium on Market Forecasts for the Satellite Business, Hotel Inter-Continental, Paris. For more information contact Linda Zaiche, email [email protected] or go to www.euroconsult-ec.com.
ADEQUATE FUNDING: The U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) have been getting the money they need, says Gen. Ralph E. "Ed" Eberhart (USAF), who commands both.
QUALITY ASSURANCE: The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Technical Operations Council (TOC) is helping small defense suppliers who can't afford to convert to new Department of Defense quality assurance standards, says Bruce Mahone, AIA's new assistant vice president of technical operations. DOD once had its own quality assurance standard to assure that a contractor's component was identical to all other parts of the same kind.
UNCONTESTED: Northrop Grumman Corp. won't protest the U.S. Army's Aug. 2 decision to pick Lockheed Martin as the prime contractor for the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) contract, a company spokesman says. Officials from the Army's Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) briefed the companies on the reasons for the decision, says an Army representative.
Cyber Aerospace Corp., with its first-generation Individual Unmanned Air Scout (IUAS), is designing and building a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the company said Aug. 26. Cyber Scout is the first lightweight UAV designed for use by a single warfighter or a person who needs surveillance capability in remote or dangerous locations, the company said.
The U.S. Defense Department is warning Congress that a Senate proposal to put conditions on buying F/A-22 Raptors could force the Air Force to trim its next order.
AIR COMMANDERS: The U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC) and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) are slated to get new commanders. President Bush has asked the Senate to confirm Lt. Gen. Ronald Keys, now the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for air and space operations, to succeed Gen. Hal Hornburg as head of ACC, which operates more than 1,200 aircraft. Hornburg is retiring Jan. 1. Bush also nominated Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, to replace Gen. Gregory Martin at the helm of AFMC, the weapon system development organization.
