(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by Gen. Michael T. Moseley, nominated by President Bush to be chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He testified June 29, and was confirmed by the Senate on July 1.
PAV: NASA has teamed with the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation to offer a $250,000 prize to the teams that come up with the best technology improvements for general aviation aircraft. The Personal Air Vehicle competition is the fifth announced prize in the agency's Centennial Challenges program.
Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, and Burt Rutan, president of Scaled Composites, have agreed to form a new company to fulfill their goal of starting a suborbital commercial spaceflight industry. Scaled Composites won the X Prize last fall, just after Branson said he plans to offer suborbital space flights beginning in 2007 (DAILY, Sept. 30, 2004) using technology licensed from Scaled's financial backer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
GUN SYSTEMS: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products will produce 42 M61A2 20mm gun systems for the U.S. Navy's Boeing-built F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter under a $10 million contract award, the company said July 27. The General Dynamics Burlington Technology Center in Vermont will manage the program. The gun systems will be built at the company's Saco, Maine, facility, and the work is set to be finished by January 2007. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., as part of a planned multiyear procurement.
General Dynamics Land Systems has been awarded two contracts worth $22.9 million for work on the U.S. Army's Stryker combat vehicle and Abrams tank, the company said July 27. Under a $17.4 million contract, the company will provide logistics support for Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. This will include ordering spare parts, managing a spare parts warehouse, distributing repair parts worldwide and finishing Stryker maintenance.
DAHLGREN, Va. - A U.S. military program that is integrating a wide range of lethal and nonlethal capabilities onto a prototype ground vehicle will soon select contractors for two key components.
Submarines, space-based platforms and aerial refueling tankers would be primary U.S. military assets in any conflict with China over Taiwan, witnesses July 27 told the House Armed Services Committee, which hosted a hearing on China's military buildup. "There is no question that the Chinese military is a potential adversary of the United States in the Taiwan Strait," said Franklin D. Kramer, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Clinton Administration and now counsel in the Washington, D.C., law firm Goodwin Procter.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr., nominated by President Bush to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He testified June 29, and was confirmed by the Senate on July 15). Q: What is your vision for the role and priorities of the JROC?
A contract worth $15.6 million to build the microwave receiver subsystem on a new Global Precipitation Measurement satellite system has been awarded to EDO Corp. by Ball Aerospace and Technologies. The contract, announced July 27, is for one engineering model and one flight subsystem to be placed on the first of a constellation of spacecraft intended to allow improved climate and weather predictions as part of a joint project involving NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Society.
Boeing's second-quarter profit sank 6.7% to $566 million, including a hefty charge, but the company raised its earnings predictions for the full year thanks to growth in the aircraft and weapon systems unit and growing commercial aircraft deliveries. "Integrated Defense Systems delivered solid revenue growth and excellent margins driven by strong performance across its broad portfolio of defense, space and intelligence programs," new CEO Jim McNerney said.
Robert P. Iorizzo will retire as corporate vice president and president of the company's Electronic Systems sector. James F. Pitts will succeed Iorizzo.
EUROPE WORK: MTC Technologies Inc., which provides engineering, information technology, and other technical products and services, has been awarded two contracts worth $13.7 million to support U.S. Army Europe missions, the company said July 27. A $12.3 million contract primarily is for the reconstitution of heavy Army trucks. The work will be done in Speyer and Mainz, Germany. The contract was awarded by the Wiesbaden Contracting Center.
Financial results for the first half of 2005 show a substantial improvement over the same period last year, EADS said July 27, boosted by an increase in Airbus aircraft deliveries and "better results" from the company's space and defense divisions. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) totaled EUR 1.5 billion (US $1.8 billion, one euro equaling $1.20), a 57% increase over the same period last year. EADS now expects EBIT for the year to exceed EUR 2.6 billion.
The United Kingdom's Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) vehicle program is getting a close look in Parliament, with at least one member expressing skepticism that it is the right way to go. The FRES concept, like that of the U.S. Future Combat Systems (FCS), is to network soldiers, vehicles and other systems with sensors to allow a high degree of situational awareness.
LUH RFP: The U.S. Army plans to pick a prime contractor for its Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program on or about April 30, 2006, according to a newly released request for proposals (RFP). Industry responses to the RFP are due Sept. 12. AgustaWestland, American Eurocopter and Bell are expected to compete.
House Science space subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) plans to contact Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) to discuss NASA in advance of the upcoming House-Senate conference on the agency's authorization bill.
SUCCESSFUL BID: Armor Holdings Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., which produces vehicle armor and security products, has purchased Second Chance Body Armor Inc. at auction for $45 million, Armor Holdings said July 27. Armor Holdings will assume some of Second Chance's liabilities. The buy must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Michigan. The deal is expected to close on July 29. Second Chance is based in Central Lake, Mich., and has a manufacturing plant in Geneva, Ala.
Two former top executives of Information Systems Support Inc. (ISS), a Gaithersburg, Md.-based defense contractor, have pleaded guilty to conflict of interest charges relating to illegal job negotiations with a then-U.S. Army colonel who was the commander of contracting for the U.S. military in Korea, according to U.S. District Attorney for Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
