X-BAND RADAR: The Raytheon Co. has been awarded a contract worth up to $261 million to provide logistics support services to operate and maintain up to four forward based X-Band Radar-transportable radars to support the Ballistic Missile Defense System, the Defense Department said June 8. Most of the work will be done at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Woburn, Mass. The work is set to be finished in May 2010. The Missile Defense Agency awarded the contract.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on June 8 stood by demands made a day earlier for a full, unredacted report by the Defense Department's Inspector General on the Boeing tanker lease imbroglio. "There's going to have to be some progress or else all hell is going to break loose around here on documents," Levin said. "It's inexcusable that an IG uses redacted documents that leaves out names of people who made decisions."
Philip A. Dur is retiring as corporate vice president and president of the company's ship systems sector. Philip A. Teel has been chosen to replace Dur. Michele Toth has been named vice president, human resources and administration, for the company's information technology sector.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Japan will move its sea-based missile defense research program to the development stage next year, said Yoshinori Ono, the chief of Japan's defense agency. Yoshinori, who was in Singapore for the Asia Security Conference over the weekend, said the first fiscal year of development will begin April 1 and is expected to cost several billion yen. He declined to give details, but said a request for a budget for the first fiscal year will be forwarded to the government.
Senate Democrats, including Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.), the minority leader, and Carl Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on June 8 called on Senate GOP leaders to bring the SASC version of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill to the chamber floor. The senators, accompanied by other SASC Democrats, complained that judicial nominations have occupied the Senate's time while the SASC bill (S. 1042) has been ready for debate for a month.
The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group closed out four more shuttle safety recommendations during a meeting June 8, and anticipates closing out the remaining three recommendations and delivering a preliminary report to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin before the end of this month.
The United States and French governments have agreed to establish a Transoceanic Abort Landing site for the space shuttle at Istres Air Base 125 in southern France. The agreement provides for landing at the French air force base for a shuttle that has an emergency and is unable to reach orbit or a landing site within the U.S. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and French ambassador Jean-David Levitte signed the agreement in Washington June 7.
PRAGUE - Saab Bofors Dynamics has received a $114 million order from German Diehl BGT Defense (DBD) to produce subsystems of the IRIS-T IR-guided air-to-air missile, according to the Sweden-based company. Saab said June 1 that it will produce the European short-range missile's Signal Processing Unit and the Aircraft Interface Unit, which distributes signals between the aircraft and the missile. Production will start later this year and continue until 2011.
Efforts to build part of Israel's Arrow interceptor missile in the United States soon will take several sizable steps forward, according to industry officials.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said June 8 that Gordon England's nomination for deputy secretary of defense is being held up on an ethics concern but that the problem will be fixed, possibly as soon as this week. Levin stressed to reporters that England is a strong candidate for the No. 2 Pentagon job and he enjoys ardent bipartisan SASC support, but the committee has a longtime anti-conflict requirement that has temporarily stifled moving England's nomination to the full Senate for confirmation.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has chosen to replace Associate Administrator for Exploration Craig Steidle, who will be leaving the agency by the end of June.
The ARTEMIS satellite payload being developed by Raytheon Co. (DAILY, June 1) is intended to help demonstrate the feasibility of the "responsive space" idea, according to a company official. ARTEMIS - Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer - would fly on satellites that "would be launched on demand when needed, versus the current practice of maintaining an expensive fleet of long-life satellites in orbit," Dave Shingledecker, vice president for Raytheon Strategic Systems, said in a company announcement.
NAVAL READINESS: CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., has been awarded a three-year, $73 million contract to support the Naval Aviation Enterprise and the Naval Aviation Readiness Integrated Improvement Program, the company said June 8. CACI will provide technical services and program management to support Navy cost-saving initiatives in its readiness programs, the company said. CACI experts will help evaluate current polices and procedures, collect and analyze data, and identify and remove barriers to improve processes, training, and resource management.
Jane P. Chappell has been appointed vice president of the strategic imaging systems product line for its intelligence and information systems business. T.W. Scott has been named chief information officer for intelligence and information systems business.
The South Korean company Samsung Techwin is the "rising star" of the international market for self-propelled artillery, according to a new analysis from Forecast International Weapons Group. The market for such artillery is "robust," the new version of the annual study says, with more than 4,200 systems worth more than $14 billion expected to be produced over the next decade.
The International Space Station's Elektron oxygen generation system and Control Moment Gyros remain the most pressing repair needs onboard the outpost, according to Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, who returned from his six-month stay in April. The Russian Elektron unit has "been balky for several missions now," Chiao said during an exclusive interview with The DAILY and affiliate Aviation Week & Space Technology. "Our flight was no exception."
