Oct. 11 - 13 -- The Global Outlook for Carbon Fiber 2005, "A Comprehensive Update of Strategic Market and Technical Developments for Carbon Fiber Composites," Hilton San Diego Resort Hotel, San Diego, Calif. For more information go to www.intertechusa.com/cf.htm. Oct. 15 -- The Wings Club Annual Dinner-Dance, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. Contact Candice Kimmel, (212) 956-5900 or email [email protected].
CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., said Oct. 6 that it has agreed to purchase National Security Research Inc., also of Arlington. Financial terms were not disclosed. The closing is anticipated this month. NSR provides professional and analytic security services and products to federal government, aerospace, and defense industry customers. Employee-owned NSR has about 100 workers and 50 consultants in Virginia, Albuquerque, N.M., and other U.S. sites. The company had $17 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30, 2004.
Lockheed Martin has pulled out of its partnership with MD Helicopters to offer the MD Explorer for the U.S. Army's Light Utility Helicopter program, the companies revealed Oct. 6. MD Helicopters now is going it alone in its bid for LUH and will be ready to deliver its proposal on time Oct. 12, according to company spokesman Ken Jensen. The decision to dissolve the partnership was "mutual," he told The DAILY.
Bell Helicopter Textron has decided to offer a different airframe than the one it originally intended for the U.S. Army's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) competition, citing recently disclosed Army requirements.
JSF CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, is being awarded a $6.5 billion contract modification to support recent changes to the program's system development and demonstration phase, the U.S. Defense Department announced late Oct. 6. JSF's first fielding was delayed from 2010 to 2012 to allow the program to solve the aircraft's weight problems.
U.S. soldiers have successfully test-fired three experimental weapons at a training area in Germany, the Defense Department said. The troops fired an upgraded XM25 semiautomatic rifle, XM312 machine gun, and SM320 grenade launcher at the Grafenwoehr Training Area on Sept. 24. The weapons were produced at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. The soldiers said the weapons produced little kickback and were easy to fire, with most hitting their targets on their first tries.
The South Korean air force soon will receive two new K-model F-15 Eagle fighters from the Boeing Co., the U.S. Air Force said. The aircraft, part of a 40-plane, $4.2 billion purchase, arrived at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, on Oct. 2 on their way to Seoul. Hawaii Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotankers will refuel the planes for a stop at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, before they arrive in South Korea.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Oct. 6 that he would vote to confirm Donald Winter to be secretary of the Navy after Winter pledged to abide by an ethics recusal policy, which apparently could see him removed from major naval shipbuilding decisions for a year after taking office.
The Senate late Oct. 6 was on the verge of passing the fiscal 2006 defense spending bill, but without the accompanying annual authorization legislation. Late on Oct. 5, the Senate turned back an effort by the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee to amend a modified version of their FY '06 policy measure to the spending bill. After lengthy - and sometimes testy - debate between defense appropriators and authorizers on the Senate floor, the chamber rejected the SASC effort by one vote.
Following an eight-day semifinal event, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has chosen 23 robotic ground vehicle teams to compete for the $2 million Grand Challenge prize on Oct. 8. The finalists will traverse a rugged, 150-mile course through the desert starting in Primm, Nev., that will include lakebeds, narrow roads, tight turns, gateways and treacherous mountain passes. The course will not be revealed to teams until two hours before the event begins.
Michael Wynne, the Bush Administration's nominee to be the next Air Force secretary, pledged Oct. 6 to "pursue competition at every level" if he takes over the service, which has been marred by high-level acquisition scandals and mistakes.
Boeing was awarded another delivery order under the Mission Planning Enterprise Contract, the company said Oct. 6. The $153 million order is for a joint planning system for B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers. Boeing will be the lead systems integrator, teaming with BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and the Air Force's Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, the company said.
MARINE VISION: DRS Technologies Inc. announced Oct. 5 that it won a competition for a potentially $660 million, five-year contract to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with up to 28,000 lightweight, handheld, battery-operated, infrared binoculars. The Tactical Range Thermal Imagers are used by the military for long-range observation and reconnaissance. "This new program establishes DRS as a major supplier of handheld thermal imaging devices," a company statement said. For the initial award, DRS will deliver more than 3,800 systems for $46 million.
The U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program is moving into a phase of more specific platform-level reviews and prototype manufacturing as it gears up for its overall preliminary design review in June 2006, according to program officials. Following a System of Systems Functional Review in August, the program now is moving more into the building, testing and integration of prototypes for the 18 interconnected ground and air platforms that comprise the core of FCS.
EADS and DRS Technologies have agreed to collaborate on the U.S. marketing and production of EADS' Hellas laser-based obstacle warning system for helicopters. The agreement covers the Hellas-W (warning) system, which is already in use on German police helicopters, and the new Hellas-A (awareness) obstacle warning system being developed for the German military's NH90 helicopters. Hellas-A also has been identified for potential U.S. military use after a 2002-2003 U.S. Foreign Comparative Test evaluation, EADS said.
A British navy mine countermeasure vessel came to the aid of a Dutch trawler that snagged a World War II bomb in its nets, the British defense ministry said. The HMS Hurworth was on routine fishery protection duties in the North Sea on Oct. 4 when it responded to a call from the Onderneming, which said it had pulled the 250-pound bomb onto its deck.
PRAGUE - Defense officials have launched the testing phase of a CZK 20 billion (USD $805 million) tender for armored personnel carriers for the Czech military. Tests began Oct. 4 at Vyskov in south Moravia on carriers produced by three companies: Patria Vehicles of Finland, Rheinmetall Landsysteme of Germany and the Steyr Consortium of Austria.
