Some defense information technology (IT) contracts would be delayed and possibly curtailed if new contractor language in the fiscal 2005 National Defense Authorization Act is approved, according to industry analysts.
The U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has achieved a significant milestone with the start of testing for the aircraft's alternate engine. The F136 engine, which is being developed by General Electric Aircraft Engines and Rolls-Royce, ran for the first time July 22 at GE facilities in Evendale, Ohio.
A U.S. Air Force national security space strategy document will be released soon, according to Peter Teets, undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force for space, who outlined some key points of the document in a speech in Washington last week.
C-130H UPGRADE: Sweden has requested an Avionics Modernization Program upgrade for eight C-130H aircraft, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $120 million, DSCA said. Boeing would be the prime contractor for the deal, which could involve one or more offset agreements.
CV-22 BUY: Although the U.S. government is slated to buy 50 CV-22 Ospreys for special operations forces, that number eventually may go up as new uses arise for the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor aircraft, potentially including combat search and rescue, according to Mike Tkach, who oversees Boeing's Osprey efforts. "There just are a lot of emerging requirements that indicate that there could be a market higher than 50," he says.
During a meeting in the Netherlands July 23, space agency leaders from the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada agreed on the final configuration for the International Space Station (ISS), which NASA said should be completed by the end of the decade if the space shuttle resumes flying on schedule next March or April.
DESIGN REVIEW: The preliminary design review of the TP400-D6 engine for the A400M Airbus military transport aircraft was successfully concluded last month, Rolls-Royce said July 22. Rolls-Royce and three other firms formed EPI Europrop International GmbH to develop the engine. EPI will now begin all detail design and certification tests.
GOING UP: The realignment of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) will increase the program's cost by $20-25 billion over the life of the program, Yakovac says. "The $20-25 billion is for the addition of a fifth infantry carrier vehicle, [bringing back] five deferred systems ... [adding] active protective systems to all manned ground variants, and spiraling out technology into the current force," says an Army spokesman.
Canada has picked a team headed by Sikorsky Aircraft to replace its aging Sea King helicopters with new H-92s, ending a sometimes contentious competition that ran for about 10 years. The first of 28 H-92s will be delivered under a C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) contract in 2008, with the rest to follow at one-month intervals.
NO WEAPONS: The United States doesn't need to deploy weapons in space in the next five years to protect commercial and military satellites, says a new report from the Federation of American Scientists. However, the group recommends that research and development of such weapons should continue, but not at a level that could be considered early deployment. The report found that small satellites or space mines could cause damage to one or more satellites in geostationary orbit, and that ground-based directed energy weapons could damage or disable satellites.
Congress approved a $416.2 billion defense appropriations bill on July 22 for fiscal year 2005 that will fund Department of Defense operations and programs and provide a $25 billion emergency fund for the ongoing military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure now goes to President Bush's desk for his signature.
FARNBOROUGH, England - AgustaWestland's unveiling of a full-scale mock-up of its new A109S Grand development of the earlier A109 series helicopter is aimed at filling a niche by stretching the basic design into the intermediate segment.
FARNBOROUGH, England - International interest in modernizing the aging P-3 Orion seems to be growing, but it is unclear how much business will actually flow to U.S.-based Lockheed Martin Corp., which built the maritime patrol aircraft and continues to offer improvements.
AWARDED: Aviation Week Group editors won seven Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards from the Royal Aeronautical Society and l'Aero-Club de France. Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine senior editor Craig Covault was awarded the Airbus Decade of Excellence Award. Other awards went to David Hughes and Michael Dornheim of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Fred George and David Esler of Business & Commercial Aviation, and John Morris, Robert Hewson and Bill Sweetman of Show News.
The House approved the Commercial Aviation MANPADS Defense Act of 2004 (CAMDA), a measure aimed at deterring the global proliferation of shoulder-fired missiles, last week. The measure passed July 22 by a vote of 423 to 0.
FALCON CHANGES COURSE: The fiscal 2005 House-Senate Appropriations conference committee report directs the Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S. (FALCON) program to pursue only "non-weapons related research" in fiscal year 2005. The FALCON program is developing a Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) and Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) capable of deploying small satellites or delivering the Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), which would carry submunitions (DAILY, April 19).
GMD INTERCEPTOR: One down, 19 to go. That's the latest interceptor installation scorecard for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The first interceptor was placed in an underground silo July 22 at Fort Greely, Alaska. By the end of 2005, MDA plans to install up to 15 more interceptors at Fort Greely and up to four at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
WIN-T: The U.S. Army hopes to award the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program contract to General Dynamics as the prime, and Lockheed Martin as the subcontractor, says Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac, director of the Army Acquisition Corps. The Army is waiting on a Department of Justice (DOJ) decision concerning the fairness of the contract award process, he says. WIN-T deployment is being accelerated, along with many of the other new technologies involved in the FCS program (DAILY, July 22).
The Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program received $457 million in the Fiscal 2005 Defense Appropriations Bill - $48 million more than what the House proposed and $105 million more than what the Senate proposed.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Partners for NATO's airborne ground surveillance program hope within weeks to clear the first of several potential stumbling blocks on the path to signing the formal design and development contract in about a year's time.
The Pentagon's inspector general recommended July 23 that the Air Force suspend future upgrades to the C-130J until the transport aircraft meets operational requirements, but the Air Force rejected that advice.
Aug. 3 - 5 -- AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America 2004, "The World's Largest Unmanned Systems Symposium and Exhibition, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Calif. For information call (703) 845-9671, email [email protected] or go to www.auvsi.org. Aug. 3 - 6 -- Smart TechTrends 2004, Global Gateway for Science & Technology, Strengthening the Mid-Atlantic Region for Tomorrow, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pa. For more information go to www.techtrends.org.
FARNBOROUGH, England - NASA is developing small walking robots that could be used to inspect and maintain future spacecraft. Such spider-bots, shown here at the Farnborough Air Show by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be equipped with stereoscopic cameras that could orient a spider-bot, locate and inspect objects and control the manipulator arm to grasp, move and assemble objects.
