Team US101, competing to provide the next-generation helicopter fleet for the U.S. president, has selected seven more Texas firms to supply components and systems for its US101 medium-lift helicopter, team leader Lockheed Martin announced Aug. 9. The companies are Chelton Inc. of Lewisville; Garlock Metallic Gaskets of Houston; Honeywell International of Roanoke; Mark IV - Luminator Aerospace of Plano; Marathon Norco Aerospace Inc. of Waco; Parker Aerospace - Stratoflex Division of Fort Worth; and Wilsonart International Inc. of Dallas.
COMBAT READY: United Defense Industries Inc. has won a $42.9 million contract modification to team with the Red River Army Depot and the Army's PM Combat Systems to return 131 Bradley A2ODS vehicles returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom to combat readiness. United Defense will partially disassemble the vehicles and ship more than three dozen subsystems and components to Red River for overhaul and repair. The contract includes a $3.8 million option to integrate the enhanced 25mm main gun used on the Bradley A3 into these vehicles.
7E7 DISPLAYS: The Boeing Co. has tapped Thales to supply the Integrated Standby Flight Display for the 7E7 Dreamliner, Boeing announced Aug. 9. The displays will provide an integrated display of airspeed, altitude and airplane pitch and roll attitude. Thales also was tapped last week to supply the Electrical Power Conversion System for the aircraft.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is evaluating industry proposals for the preliminary design of the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft, in anticipation of awarding a contract by October. Teams led by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman submitted their final proposals last month, according to Ray Taylor, acting director for Project Prometheus at NASA's Office of Exploration Systems. In collaboration with JPL, the winning team will create a preliminary design for the spacecraft, which NASA plans to launch sometime in the next decade.
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is testing a new technology system that could aid the Department of Defense (DOD) in locating and identifying missing military survivors and evaders. The Personnel Recovery Extraction Survivability aid by Smart Sensors (PRESS) is an Advanced Concept Tech-nology Demonstration (ACTD) scheduled to be completed in 2006, JFCOM officials told The DAILY.
A missile system that destroys intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in their boost phase of flight could cost as little as $14 billion or as much as $224 billion to develop, build and field for 20 years, depending on the design, the Congressional Budget Office says in a new report. The report identifies five options for boost-phase interceptor missiles, which could shoot down enemy missiles in their first few minutes of flight. Options 1, 2 and 3 are for systems operating at land or sea, and Options 4 and 5 are space-based.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security are expected to complete the Integrated Deepwater System mission needs study in early fall, according to a spokeswoman for the program's prime contractor. The study is a detailed review of all assets within the $20 billion Deepwater program that will give officials an indication of what changes, if any, would be required for aircraft and sea vessels.
SNIPER TEST: Lockheed Martin has begun flight-testing its Sniper Extended Range (XR) targeting pod on U.S. Navy F/A-18 aircraft to demonstrate its system for upcoming pod competitions in Australia and Canada and to try to influence a U.S. Navy review of targeting pod requirements. The company-funded testing began Aug. 4 at China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Calif., and is scheduled to last five to six weeks. While earlier tests used a preproduction version of Sniper XR, the current effort uses the production configuration.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has been using small businesses to develop new autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) on which to deploy sensors for mine detection and ocean exploration, said Frank Herr, acting head of ONR's Ocean, Atmosphere and Space Department. Herr spoke Aug. 4 at the Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference 2004 in Washington.
NEW PROCESS: The U.S. Navy is implementing a new training process that takes the tenets and methods of the Surface Force Interdeployment Training Cycle (IDTC) and adapts them to fit the new readiness requirements of the Fleet Response Plan. "The new process, called 'Shiptrain,' allows commanders at any echelon to effectively and efficiently monitor readiness levels throughout the force," the Navy says. Rear Adm. Terrance Etnyre, commander of the Naval Surface Force for the U.S.
IED TECHNOLOGY: The Office of Naval Research (ONR) plans to award contracts within the next few weeks to small businesses with promising technologies to defeat improvised explosive devices (IED), according to Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, who spoke at the Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference 2004 in Washington last week. A Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) request for proposals that closed June 17 elicited 289 responses. "The simple systems are the hardest ones to defeat.
NIPPING BURT'S HEELS: According to the X Prize foundation, The da Vinci Project Team of Canada plans to launch its "Wild Fire" suborbital spacecraft on Oct. 2, just three days after Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne is scheduled to make its own X Prize qualification flight (DAILY, July 28). The $10 million prize is being awarded to the first private team that launches a human being into suborbital space, returns that person safely, then repeats the flight within two weeks using the same vehicle.
MORE HEARINGS: The House Armed Services Committee plans to hold hearings this week to address the Defense Department's role in national intelligence. The committee has scheduled four hearings on the recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission. The committee will hear testimony Aug. 10 on the commission report from commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton.
FALCON: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to begin developing a hypersonic cruise vehicle (HCV) for deploying military payloads as part of the Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S. (FALCON) program, the Defense Department announced Aug. 6. Work under the $7.6 million award will be performed at company facilities in Palmdale, Calif., and King of Prussia, Penn., and is scheduled to be complete by February 2005.
CV-22 DISPLAYS: Honeywell will provide Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) and cockpit displays to Boeing for 50 CV-22 Osprey special operations forces tiltrotor aircraft, the company said last week. The collision avoidance systems warn pilots when other aircraft come near, and are standard equipment on most commercial aircraft that operate in high-density traffic areas, the company said.
Given the disappointing number of orders placed with satellite manufacturers so far this year, European launch provider Arianespace is bracing itself for a smaller launch market next year, according to CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall. The market leader, Arianespace won eight of 17 competed launch contracts in 2003, managing to post a modest profit for that year after three straight years of losses.
Aug. 9 - 12 -- 2004 Warheads & Ballistics Classified Symposium, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. For information call Bruce Roulstone at (202) 257-2574, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org. Aug. 16 - 19 -- 2004 Space and Missile Defense Conference and Exhibition, Missile Defense: Deployment and Beyond, Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama. For more information go to www.ndia.org.
ACS REVIEW: Although the ink is barely dry on the announcement of a prime contractor selection for the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS), the Pentagon already is shuffling paper to prepare for another review of the program. A high-level Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) intends to meet sometime in the first quarter of 2005 to consider approving the Navy's integration into the Army-led program. If the DAB gives the go-ahead, ACS acquisition plans will be updated "to include Navy cost, schedule and performance parameters," the Defense Department says.
FULL FUNDING: The Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) is asking Senate appropriators to fully fund NASA's $16.2 billion fiscal year 2005 budget request. In a letter to Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's VA-HUD-NASA subcommittee, and ranking member Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), GEIA President Dan Heinemeier says that a cut approved by their House counterparts would endanger President Bush's plan to return humans to the moon and on to Mars.
SBIRS PAYLOAD: Lockheed Martin has delivered the first payload for the Space-Based Infrared System High (SBIRS High) program, the company announced Aug. 6. The payload will be carried on a classified host satellite to be launched into a highly elliptical orbit (HEO) around the Earth. A second payload for another classified HEO satellite is scheduled for delivery by the end of the year.
U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is ordering its first big batch of Wind Supported Air Delivery Systems (WSADS) to provide precision air-dropping of leaflets used for psychological operations, according to the manufacturer.
