EFFICIENCY: The continuing transformation of the U.S. Air Force "very much depends" on another base closing round, according to Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff. "It is not only the money," Jumpers says. "As I said before, it is also the people. Every 10,000 people in our Air Force costs us $1.5 billion a year. I owe it ... to make sure that we do not have any more people wearing the uniform than needs to be wearing the uniform. We try as hard as we can to reach efficiencies.
ON SCHEDULE: The deactivation of Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles is continuing "safely, securely, on budget and on schedule," says Maj. Gen. Frank Klotz (USAF). The three-year program to deactivate 50 Peacekeepers is slated to be complete "by this time next year or a little later," Klotz says. The deactivations are "not a trivial task," and doing so faster would be "difficult" and "not without risk," he adds. Klotz, commander of the 20th Air Force, spoke at a Capitol Hill Club breakfast in Washington.
SPACEWALK RESCHEDULED: The Expedition 9 astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will make a second spacewalk attempt to restore power to one of the station's Control Moment Gyros (CMGs) no earlier than June 29, according to NASA. One of the station's CMGs, which are responsible for maintaining its orientation, went offline in late April due to a faulty Remote Power Controller (RPC). The CMGs are located in the station's Z1 Truss, and the RPC is on the S0 Truss.
NO TRIP: Prospective space tourist Greg Olsen has been dismissed from spaceflight preparations due to health reasons, which is putting an additional burden on Russia's cash-strapped space program, officials say. Olsen, who heads the New Jersey-based Sensors Unlimited Inc., had planned to fly to the International Space Station in 2005. Federal Space Agency deputy chief Nikolai Moiseyev says the base cost of a trip to the space station on a Russian Soyuz still is $20 million, but the final price depends on the mission program and any additional services that are provided.
SPEEDED UP: Preliminary design and final requirements work on the Deepwater program's Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) program will begin immediately, accelerating the launch of the vessel by three years, according to Northrop Grumman. A contract awarded to Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS), the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, established the first-step engineering efforts that will occur over the next year, the company says. The OPC will be a 341-foot boat with a maximum range of roughly 9,000 nautical miles.
British soldiers are honing their small arms skills on a virtual battlefield simulator officially unveiled June 24 by Lord Willy Bach, the United Kingdom defense procurement minister. The Dismounted Close Combat Trainer (DCCT) allows troops to train on a variety of infantry weapons, using a combination of video and computer-generated imagery, according to an announcement by the British Ministry of Defence (MOD). It said 99 of the systems have been ordered.
June 29 - 30 -- Maintenance Repair & Overhaul for Aerospace, "Managing, Training and Research to Support Commercial and Military Aircraft, Hotel Intercontinental, Miami, Fla. For information go to www.idga.org. June 29 - 30 -- Blue Force Tracking: Situational Awareness, Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, Washington, D.C. For information call (800) 882-8864, email [email protected] or go to www.idga.org.
CARRIER RESTORED: Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) says work on "critical" U.S. aircraft carrier programs can continue now that the Senate has restored money that could have been cut from nuclear carrier work. The Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee voted to cut $140 million from the $1.4 billion fiscal 2005 request for advanced procurement of the CVN-21, a next-generation aircraft carrier being built by Northrop Grumman. It also voted to cut $110 million from the CVN refueling/complex overhaul (RCOH) program, which had a budget request of $333 million.
EDO Corp. will build the Transition Switch Module for the U.S. Marine Corps under a contract that could be worth up to $240 million, the company said June 25. The module will provide digital voice, data and video communications to deployed Marine units, and will dynamically allocate bandwidth to help support network centric warfare, the company said. The first delivery order under the contract is worth $3.3 million. Work under the overall contract is scheduled to be complete in 2011.
CORRECTION: A June 24 story on the Hubble Space Telescope incorrectly stated which shuttle mission deployed the telescope. Astronaut Charles Bolden was a crewmember on the shuttle mission STS-31, which deployed the telescope in April 1990. He commanded shuttle mission STS-45 in 1992, but it did not visit the observatory.
Lockheed Martin Corp. probably will not acquire San Diego-based Titan Corp., since it appeared that Titan would miss its June 25 deadline to secure a plea agreement from the Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations concerning improper payments to foreign officials, industry analysts said. Lockheed Martin informed Titan Corp. that it is "unwilling to extend the June 25 date by which Titan must secure a definitive plea agreement relating to alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," Titan said late June 24.
BUILDING UP: European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. "has taken on some major fixed-price development and production programs as it seeks to build its defense business from 7 billion euros in 2003 (24 percent) to 10 billion euros in 2004 (30 percent)," according to Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), which have spent nearly double their scheduled mission time on Mars, still are performing well as they prepare to enter even more challenging territory, according to NASA.
NEW DELHI - Kenneth I. Juster, U.S. undersecretary of commerce, said he hopes India's new government will move "expeditiously" on the "next steps in the strategic partnership initiative" with the United States. Juster addressed the India-U.S. Conference on Space Science, Applications and Commerce at Bangalore last week. The initiative set out a vision to expand cooperation in civil nuclear, civil space and high-technology trade and to expand dialogue in missile defense.
Senate appropriators said they have serious problems with several U.S. Air Force space programs, citing in a budget report their high cost, unproven technology and schedule delays. "The committee remains acutely concerned that projected investments in Air Force space programs are not sustainable," says the Senate Appropriations Committee report on the fiscal 2005 defense budget.
The Senate approved a $447 billion defense authorization bill late June 23 that would set aside a $25 billion reserve fund for military operations in Iraq, allow continued study of nuclear "bunker buster" weapons and provide funding for the missile defense system set to be deployed later this year. The bill, approved in a 97 to 0 vote, includes spending for the Department of Defense and defense programs handled by the Department of Energy.
After scrubbing three previous launch attempts, the U.S. Air Force successfully deployed a replacement Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, GPS IIR-12, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:54 p.m. EDT June 23. Bad weather prompted launch officials to scrub launch attempts on June 19, 20, and 21. June 22 was spent rechecking the rocket, according to Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva.
A congressionally mandated Department of Defense strategy to combat extensive corrosion of military equipment and infrastructure falls short of addressing the problem, and could hurt safety and readiness and lead to the loss of "billions of dollars in avoidable maintenance costs," a General Accounting Office study has found. The June 2004 report said the DOD's strategy: * Does not identify funding levels and needed personnel resources to implement its plan.
U.S. laws and policies governing defense contractors working in Iraq will remain in effect once the new government assumes power on July 1, military officials told a House subcommittee June 24. Members of the House Armed Services Committee's readiness subcommittee questioned Department of Defense officials about the management of defense contractors in Iraq and force protection, particularly for contractors working in convoys that have often been attacked with small arms fire and roadside explosives.
A study of options to replace the aging Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is slated to formally get under way in about a month and will take a year or so to complete, according to a U.S. Air Force general.
The European military aircraft market is likely to benefit from recently announced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) agreements between key European companies, but the payback isn't likely to come soon, according to an industry analyst.
NASA is streamlining its organizational structure to better support President Bush's vision for space exploration and ensure that the agency is "wired for success," according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. As part of an organizational "transformation," NASA is restructuring its Strategic Enterprises into four Mission Directorates: aeronautics research, science, exploration systems, and space operations.
MORE STRYKERS: The U.S. Army has ordered 116 Stryker vehicles to complete a fourth Stryker Brigade, vehicle maker General Dynamics Land Systems said June 24. The additional order for 106 infantry carriers and 10 engineer squad vehicles is valued at $163 million, the company said. Deliveries of the vehicles, and another 212 vehicles ordered in March, are scheduled to be completed in February 2006.
