The U.S. industrial base is "well positioned" to develop and apply the 1,428 most critical war-fighting technologies that the Defense Department seeks, with U.S. suppliers trailing foreign firms in only 7% of the technological areas, a DOD policy study has concluded.
AIR FORCE Carnegie Mellon University/Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., is being awarded a $411,105,411 cost reimbursement contract to provide for Software research and development, pertinent to national defense. At this time, $750,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be complete by 2010. Solicitation began March 2005 and negotiations were completed June 2005. The Headquarters Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (FA8721-05-C-0003). U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
As a dispute over who gets to operate nine of the Large Medium Speed Roll-On/Roll-Off (LMSR) ships for the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) continues, Patriot Contract Services is set to turn over the last LMSR to General Dynamics' American Overseas Marine Corp. (Amsea).
OUT FOR BUSINESS: Two new joint ventures created by France's Alcatel and Italy's Finmeccanica will aim to be leaders in the field of telecommunication satellite systems and to get "a strong position" on European programs such as the Galileo satellite navigation system, the companies said. Alcatel Alenia Space, 67% owned by Alcatel and 33% by Finmeccanica, combines the work of Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio. Telespazio Holding, 67% owned by Finmeccanica and 33% by Alcatel, combines Telespazio and Alcatel Space Services and Operations.
NEW SHIP: Navy Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, the program executive officer for ships, said the Navy looks forward later this month to delivery of the USS San Antonio, the lead ship of the new LPD-17 class. As the final milestone before ship delivery, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in late June successfully demonstrated main propulsion, engineering and ship control systems, combat systems, damage control, food service and crew support systems. The shipbuilder continues working compartment completion and certification tasks needed to complete the San Antonio.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems will provide the U.S. military with a variety of medium-caliber ammunition under four contracts worth more than $56 million, the company said July 8. The first award is a $9.2 million contract to produce 25mm M793 target practice-traced and 25mm M910 target practice discarding sabot-traced cartridges for the Army. The M793 is part of a family of 25mm Bushmaster munitions used on the Army's M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Marine Corps' Light Armored Vehicle. The work is set to be finished in July 2006.
John J. Young Jr., the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, on July 1 approved the AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System for low-rate production, the Naval Sea Systems Command announced July 8. The mine warfare package will be the first mission set deployed with the future Littoral Combat Ship, and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s AN/WLD-1 will be the primary unmanned vehicle used for mine hunting (DAILY, July 6). Before the LCS, the RMS will deploy aboard DDG 51-class Flight IIA destroyers.
The kill laser for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program has met or exceeded key expectations in months of ground tests, an industry official said July 8.
SPACE ACQUISITION: The House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee will host a panel of high-profile space program participants on July 12, coming on the heels of House and Senate moves to cut funds from proposed Defense Department space acquisition. Gen. Lance W. Lord, commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, A. Thomas Young, former Lockheed Martin Corp. CEO, Peter Rostan of the National Reconnaissance Office and Robert Levin of the Government Accountability Office are scheduled to testify.
A dispute between Boeing Co. and the State Department over the sale to China of airliners that carry certain microchips is one of a series of industry-government technology export conflicts that go back some 20 years, said Jim Lewis, director of technology and public policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Boeing sold airliners to China between 2000 and 2003 that used BEI Technologies' QSR11 microchip, designed to help determine an aircraft's orientation in the air, among other things.
Despite worries about Hurricane Dennis as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico toward landfall in the U.S., NASA on July 8 decided not to roll shuttle Discovery back from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. Shuttle managers feared they might have to roll Discovery back into the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building when Dennis began drifting eastward toward KSC on July 7. NASA's rules dictate that the orbiter be rolled back if sustained winds at the launch pad could exceed 69 mph.
SPENDING GROWTH: Overall federal outlays in the first nine months of fiscal 2005 were 7.4% higher than in the same period last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates in the latest monthly budget review. Defense and nondefense outlays have grown at similar rates so far this fiscal year: 7.8% and 7.3%, respectively, CBO said July 8. The Agriculture, Education and Homeland Security departments have recorded the largest increases; outlays for each of those agencies jumped 20% or more through June.
EF-35? Although an electronic-attack variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been mentioned as a possible replacement for the U.S. Marine Corps's aging EA-6B Prowler, the U.S. Defense Department's JSF program office has no plans, at least for now, to participate in a study on the Marines' future electronic-attack needs, according to JSF's leader, Navy Rear Adm. Steven Enewold. Enewold tells The DAILY that the F-35 program has to focus on doing several more years of design work for its three fighter variants before getting involved in possible development of an EF-35.
UAV COORDINATION: The Defense Department is forming two organizations to better coordinate the development and use of unmanned aerial vehicles. The Joint UAV Overarching Integrated Product Team will promote commonality among UAVs, and the Joint UAV Center of Excellence, to be located at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., will try to improve interoperability. The organizations are in lieu of making the Air Force the executive agent for UAVs, a proposal resisted by other services.
COMET HUNTER: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft is expected to discover its 1,000th comet this summer, says NASA, which jointly developed the spacecraft with the European Space Agency. The SOHO spacecraft, built to study the sun, has turned into a champion comet finder. Almost all the SOHO-found comets have been discovered using images from the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronograph instrument. SOHO has enough fuel to continue comet-hunting for decades as long as LASCO keeps working, NASA says.
PRV RENAMED: What's in a name? Apparently something, at least in the view of the U.S. Air Force, which says it is changing the name of the Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) program to Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) to "more accurately describe" the aircraft's mission. "Personnel recovery is the umbrella term that encompasses many forms of recovery operations from civil search and rescue to unconventional recovery," the Air Force says. "The Air Force performs combat search and rescue ...
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - The Blue Force Tracker locator system is helping to blend military tactical resources in Iraq, although more compatibility among systems is needed, according to a Marine communications officer stationed in Al Anbar province. "Functioning on a joint battlefield, and trying to see each other out here is usually problematic," said Maj. Peter Schiefelbein, who oversees communications and information systems for 2nd Marine Division Regimental Combat Team-2, based out of Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq.
Kuka Robotics Corp. of Clinton Township, Mich., has joined forces with six other automation companies to develop new manufacturing processes for the aerospace industry. The industry needs to reduce production time by using new generations of flexible robots, sensors and "intelligent fixturing," the company said July 7.
CATCHING UP: The Senate faces both the authorization and spending bills for the Defense Department next fiscal year as it reconvenes from its July 4 break. Senate Democrats have complained that the authorization bill has been ready for debate since early May but was stifled by what they deem GOP preoccupation with confirming judges (DAILY, June 9). Meanwhile, Senate appropriators have yet to mark up their version of the fiscal 2006 spending, although they agreed on an allocation of almost $408 billion (DAILY, June 22). The House has approved both of its related bills.
SONIC BOOM: Four industry teams are studying how to build aircraft that make quieter sonic booms under NASA's Sonic Boom Mitigation Project. The studies will determine whether it's feasible to modify an existing aircraft or necessary to design a new one to demonstrate quieter booms. Based on the results of the studies, NASA could begin work on a demonstrator aircraft as early as this fall, the agency says.
July 11 - 12 -- 10th Annual Corporate Aircraft Transactions, Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, N.Y. For more information call 1-800-599-4950 or go to www.srinstitute.com/cx542. July 19 - 20 -- Tactical IA, "Precise, Immediate, Secure Information Exchange on the Battlefield," Doubletree Hotel Crystal City, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.idga.org. July 26 - 27 -- Nanotechnology for Defense, Georgetown Conference Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-882-8684 or go to www.idga.org.
The decision by defense research company QinetiQ to move into the U.S. defense and security markets has paid off, according to the United Kingdom-based company. QinetiQ, which has acquired several U.S. defense technology companies in the past year, announced strong results July 6 for the 2004-2005 financial year. The company reported a 9.7% increase in sales, from 795.4 million pounds ($1.38 billion) to 872.4 million pounds ($1.51 billion), with operating profit up by more than 33% to 69.6 million pounds ($120.6 million).
WORK HARDER: Gen. Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, laments the inability of private sector and government researchers to find a solution to the problem of roadside bombs and mines, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), plaguing coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. "What I'm not satisfied with is the speed at which our scientific and engineering community - and I know they're working hard - are coming up with new technologies to address this problem," he says.
