The competing industry teams working on the Air Force's Transformational Satellite effort are bracing for likely schedule slips as they await the final numbers on the fiscal 2006 budget cut to be levied by skeptical Capitol Hill lawmakers. House lawmakers have voted to cut the Air Force's $835.8 million FY '06 request for TSAT by $400 million, while Senate authorizers cut $200 million. The final scope of the reduction won't be known until the Senate finalizes its numbers and goes into conference with the House.
Alcatel Space will build the Thaicom 5 communications satellite for Thai satellite operator Shin Satellite Inc. to replace the aging Thaicom 1 and Thaicom 2, which are to be retired in 2008 and 2009. The contract covers delivery of the satellite, its launch and support for in-orbit testing. Thaicom 5 would allow Shin Satellite to expand its Ku-Band channels over Thailand and neighboring countries.
Congressmen are reconsidering the investment threshold and involvement that venture capital firms can have in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) recipient companies, many of which have answered the Pentagon's call for needed innovations.
United Defense's Ground Systems Division will provide seven Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift and Evacuation System (HERCULES) vehicles and spare parts to Australia under an $8.9 million contract, the U.S. Department of Defense said July 7. The work is to be completed by May 31, 2006.
Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the lead integrator for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, has reissued its call seeking suppliers that may have new technologies and product capabilities for the work.
Axsys Technologies, which supplies optical systems for the aerospace and defense markets, said it has revised its fiscal 2005 guidance upward due to its May acquisition of thermal imaging company Diversified Optical Products (DiOP). Its revenue guidance has been revised up by 15%, from $114 million to $131 million, and its operating income guidance has been revised upward by 24%, from $11 million to $13.6 million.
The U.S. National Guard Bureau is considering setting up joint squadrons of Army and Air National Guard forces to operate future light cargo aircraft, a key general said July 7. Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the bureau, said he is exploring setting up several joint units across the country to move people and cargo for homeland security and overseas deployments. One potential site is North Dakota, which is looking for new missions to replace the military aircraft it is slated to lose to retirement and relocation.
ManTech International Corp., which bought intelligence technology firm Gray Hawk in June, said July 7 that Gray Hawk won an $11.4 million contract from the Naval Sea Systems Command to provide modeling and simulation/tactical training applications for the Integrated Warfare Systems Program Executive Office. Under the nearly three-year contract, the ManTech unit will apply its interactive modeling and simulation to anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air warfare training, as well as to expeditionary, strike and electronic warfare training.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A F-5 fighter aircraft that Indonesia bought from Israel in the 1990s and sent to California for an upgrade still is in storage because of a U.S.-imposed arms embargo and has racked up more than $1.8 million in storage fees. The aircraft was caught in the embargo established after Indonesia soldiers shot pro-independence protesters in East Timor in 1991.
Boeing Co. declined to comment on a report that airliners it sold to China contain microchips that the State Department has said have military applications and can't be sold to other countries. The Seattle Times reported July 6 that Boeing airliners sold to China between 2000 and 2003 contained the QRS11 chips, made by BEI Technologies. The inertial sensors help determine an aircraft's orientation in the air, among other things.
Raytheon Co. and the Boeing Co. have finalized a $60.8 million contract for Raytheon's "continued participation" on the Boeing-led P-8A Multimission Maritime Aircraft industry team. Under the system development and demonstration (SDD) contract, Raytheon will provide two upgraded APS-137D(V)5 maritime surveillance radars, contribute to related software design, and provide radar simulation for design labs and program reviews, Raytheon announced July 5. Before the formally negotiated contract, Raytheon worked under a letter contract.
The Titan Corp. announced July 6 that its Sea Fighter (FSF 1), the Littoral Surface Craft Experimental developed by a Titan-led team for the Office of Naval Research, successfully completed sea trials jointly required by the U.S. Navy and the American Bureau of Shipping.
A recent preliminary design review (PDR) for the U.S. Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM) went smoothly and did not identify a need for design changes, an official at prime contractor Lockheed Martin said July 6. "There were no surprises and no issues that came out of it," said Rick Edwards, vice president for tactical missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "We were very satisfied, and all indications are that our customer was very satisfied as well."
Arianespace's planned launch of a telecommunications satellite atop an Ariane 5 booster has been delayed a "few days" due to an anomaly with some ground equipment used to prepare the launcher, the company said July 6. The booster was to launch Thailand's Thaicom 4, or Ipstar, satellite on July 8, but then it was pushed to July 11 and now has been moved again. Thaicom 4, built by Space Systems/Loral, will be used by Thailand's Shin Satellite to provide Internet access and multimedia services for the Asia-Pacific region.
NEW DELHI - The India-U.S. Joint Working Group has agreed to investigate establishing a ground receiving station in India for the U.S. National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The working group, formed last year in Bangalore following a conference on U.S.-Indian cooperation on civilian space projects, also will study the "comparability and complementarity" of data from U.S. Landsat and Indian remote sensing satellites.
ALCATEL ALENIA SPACE, Paris Pascale Sourisse has been named president and CEO. Giorgio Zappa has been appointed chairman of the supervisory board. BEARINGPOINT INC., McLean, Va. Judy Ethell has been named executive vice president of finance and chief accounting officer. FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, Washington Dale G. Goodrich has been appointed executive director of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Institute. KPMG LLP, Tysons Corner, Va.
Any war within two years after the U.S. military finishes operations in Iraq would be "less precise" because military equipment would still have to be reconstituted, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace told senators late last month. At his confirmation hearing to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Pace said it would take two years just to process worn and used equipment through military depots and contractors to get it to "like-new" status.
Lockheed Martin flew the first F-16 produced for the Chilean air force late last month, the company said July 6. Two flights were accomplished successfully in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 23, with "no discrepancies reported on either flight," the company said. "First flight is a significant milestone and the first of several leading to the planned arrival of the aircraft in Chile early next year," June Shrewsbury, vice president of F-16 programs, said in a statement.
The Organic Air Vehicle II program took another step forward with the selection of Aurora Flight Sciences and Honeywell International to proceed to the next phase. The program, conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is intended to develop a prototype unmanned aerial vehicle that can be operated by small Army units. DARPA awarded contracts to Aurora and Honeywell on June 30 to move on to Phase II of the program. BAE Systems, which had also been competing, was dropped.
Telephonics Corp. of Farmingdale, N.Y., will provide radar and identification-friend-or-foe equipment for Canada's Maritime Helicopter Project under a subcontract from General Dynamics Canada. Sikorsky Aircraft won a contract last year to provide 28 H-92 helicopters to Canada, with General Dynamics Canada as part of its team.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to take a slow, deliberate approach to resuming flight-tests of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system to ensure the program does not repeat the kind of glitches that marred recent tests, according to a government source.
