NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) team has managed to free the Opportunity rover from a sand trap in which it had been stuck for more than a month, NASA announced June 6. The rover drove into a small dune of windblown dust and sand on April 26, where its six wheels became partially buried. The rover had to churn 629 feet worth of wheel rotations before gaining enough traction to move three feet and escape the trap. The rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., directed the drives in small increments from May 13 through June 4.
PRAGUE - European officials may examine the flow of defense technology between the United States and Europe because of concerns that the U.S. is accessing European markets while protecting its own, a European Defence Agency official says.
ARMY DRS Optronics Inc., Palm Bay, Fla., was awarded on May 31, 2005, a $13,600,000 firm-fixed-price contract for visual module assemblies for the Bradley Missile weapon system. Work will be performed in Palm Bay, Fla., and is expected to be completed by April 6, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were three bids solicited on July 9, 2004, and one bid was received. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-05-C-0129).
Sikorsky Aircraft has been awarded a $245.4 million low-rate initial production contract to provide the U.S. Army with 22 new UH-60M Black Hawk advanced utility helicopters, the company said June 6. The contract also has options for up to eight additional helicopters. Deliveries are set to begin in July 2006 before the start of initial operational test and evaluation in September 2006.
ACQUISITION CHIEF: Kenneth Krieg formally became the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics on late June 3, the Pentagon announced June 6. Krieg, previously the special assistant to the secretary and director of the office of Program Analysis and Evaluation, was nominated by President Bush on April 4 and confirmed by the Senate May 26. Senators have advised him to address defense acquisition ethics concerns as a top priority (DAILY, April 22).
The head of the Aerospace Industries Association said June 6 that his group is pushing to reduce the frequency of international air shows, citing their cost and declining utility. John Douglass, AIA's president and chief executive officer, told reporters that the shows have become "very expensive" for participants but have fallen out of favor as venues for selling aircraft and unveiling new technology.
Spurred by strong support from FAA, the Access Five group is reprioritizing and accelerating elements of its four-step plan to enable routine access to the national airspace for high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. "The effort is off the ground and moving, I think, probably at a pace much faster than we had anticipated," Access Five government lead Jeff Bauer told The DAILY. "Clearly what we're seeing within the FAA is much more interest, awareness and commitment of resources to UAVs in general."
APPROPRIATIONS: The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled June 7 to mark up the fiscal 2006 spending bills for the Defense Department, NASA and other departments. DOD appropriations are expected to follow authorizers' topline budget authority of $441.6 billion, as well as provide for a supplemental spending amount. However, programmatic details are unclear as HAC defense subcommittee members have kept mum about details they worked out May 24.
AURORA, Colo. - Raytheon Co.'s proposal for the TSAT Mission Operations System will be different from those of its competitors because it has paid close attention to the "dynamic nature" of the challenge, according to Chuck Corwin, the company's TMOS infrastructure manager. The purpose of TMOS is to manage communications over the Pentagon's projected multibillion-dollar Transformational Satellite network, a complex and difficult task that focuses on allowing warfighters to do what they can't easily do today - communicate on the move.
EADS Defence Electronics, an EADS subsidiary, has been awarded a contract worth tens of millions of euros to supply the Norwegian Coast Guard with four TRS-3D naval radars and integrated identification systems to improve Norway's coastal surveillance and guide its helicopters in extreme weather, the company said June 3.
The U.S. Navy has released a broad agency announcement (BAA) seeking proposals for research support as the service rethinks and recapitalizes its maritime and littoral intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission requirements. In particular, the Navy wants to hear industry's ideas for the role and capabilities that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will play as the service pursues the U.S. initiative called Maritime Domain Awareness - essentially command and control of the seas.
BRIDGE BOATS: The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command has awarded Aluminum Chambered Boats Inc. of Bellingham, Wash., an $8.4 million contract modification for 31 bridge erection boats (BEB), associated trailers, warranties and training. A total of 54 out of a maximum 66 BEBs have been ordered under the contract. The contract work will be performed in Bellingham and should be finished by June 2006.
Boeing has received an $8.3 million contract modification from the U.S. Army that will extend its shipment of Avenger gunner consoles through October 2008, the company said June 6. The consoles are spare parts for Boeing's Avenger short-range air defense fire units, use Stinger missiles and 50-caliber machine guns, and which are deployed worldwide. The consoles provide power, circuitry and a gunner interface, and are built in Huntsville, Ala., Boeing said. The modification brings the contract's total value to $10.7 million, Boeing said.
Phoenix, a Mars lander, has been given the green light to prepare for launch in August 2007, NASA said June 2. The $386 million mission is the first in the Mars Scout Program of competitively selected missions intended to be relatively low-cost complements to the aerospace agency's core Mars exploration program.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated a study of aircraft carrier manpower allocation and usage on May 31, and expects to develop an analytical approach by June 30, a U.S. Navy official told The DAILY. "Promising, high-payoff technologies for follow-on DARPA evaluation" will be identified by Oct. 31, Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman Kevin Sykes said.
LONDON - Pakistan has been quietly developing a comprehensive nuclear command and control system, amid concerns over the security of its deterrent stockpile, given the country's role in the global war on terror and the popularity of some radical Islamist elements within its borders.
EXPANDING: Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Aurora, Colo., facility has been expanded, which will facilitate the company's 30% increase in employment in two years and "position the company for future growth," Northrop Grumman says. The company added an 80,000-square-foot addition to its intelligence and defense business in Aurora. The company expects another 150 jobs by 2006 at the site, which develops algorithms and data management techniques for military and intelligence organizations.a
The House Armed Services Committee's projection forces subcommittee will host a public hearing on the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine force in Groton, Conn., on June 13. The lawmakers will hear from Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, and Vice Adm. Charles L. Munns, commander of Naval Submarine Forces.
The U.S. Air Force announced plans June 3 to create a "family" of Global Hawk and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles in North Dakota, saying the state has many ideal conditions for UAV training. Air Force officials also revealed that Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) intends to stand up its first Predator squadron, which will be based in Nevada.
The U.S. Navy is planning for a vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VUAV), now called the Marine VUAV, to follow the Pioneer UAV, according to Capt. Paul Morgan, program manager for U.S. Navy unmanned aerial vehicles. However, the Pioneer program will have to be sustained for the Marine Corps until 2012 or even 2015, a plan Morgan said he expects top defense officials to approve over the next month. Morgan spoke June 3 at the Navy Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation's industry day in California, Md.
U.S. Navy officials should release the concept of operations for the proposed Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) by the fall, said James Lackey of the Naval Air Systems Command's Maritime Surveillance Aircraft Program. Currently, the officials are moving from a systems function review to a preliminary design review, slated for September. Lackey told attendees of the Navy Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation's industry day on June 3 that the program is on schedule and within budget.
