The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is fueling significant interest among foreign countries that do not take part in the current development program but might be declared eligible to buy the jet, according to the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
Orbit International Corp. said it has received orders worth more than $630,000 for the development of new software applications and enhancements to its Control Display Unit (CDU), which will be used on U.S. Army vehicles. The production award, from Honeywell International Defense and Space Electronic Systems, will give the Army's ground system vehicles additional battlefield information, the Hauppage, N.Y.-based company said May 19.
EADS Defence Electronics will supply the Missile Launch Detection System (MILDS), or AN/AAR-60, for the Australian military's Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters, the company said May 18. The work will be done under a contract worth more than 10 million euros ($13 million), EADS said. The MILDS will be integrated with the helicopters' self-protection suites under the "Echidna" project.
Proponents of naval shipbuilding and increased fleet size are feeling bolstered by amendment victories this week in the House Armed Services Committee's fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, and they are cautiously optimistic that their initiatives can survive all the way through conference with the Senate. Reps. Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.) and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) spoke to reporters in Washington May 19 at an event sponsored by King Publishing Group. They maintained that Congress is starting to realize that it has been neglecting shipbuilding needs.
Finmeccanica, Italy's largest defense contractor, has created a new Defence Electronics division, making it Europe's second-largest company in the field, it said May 18. The new division will have revenues of more than 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) and will employ 19,000 people, Finmeccanica said.
The U.S. Navy said it would christen the lead ship of the new T-AKE class of replenishment ships the USNS Lewis and Clark on May 21, during a launching at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. in San Diego. The USNS Lewis and Clark is the lead ship in the new 11-ship T-AKE Class. T-AKE is a new combat logistics force vessel for transferring cargo such as ammunition, food, limited quantities of fuel, repair parts, ship store items and expendable supplies and material to ships and other naval warfare forces at sea.
A maximum range test of the SLAM-ER missile - more than 170 miles - demonstrates the missile's ability to meet or exceed Navy requirements, Boeing Co. said May 19. The test was conducted about two weeks ago, said Chris Haddox, a Boeing spokesman. The Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response flew farther than a SLAM-ER has ever flown, scoring a direct hit on a mobile ship target, Boeing said.
The U.S. Defense Department has appointed a Navy official to a new position designed to improve oversight of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). Dennis Bauman, the Navy's program executive officer for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence and space, is now also serving as DOD's joint program executive officer for JTRS.
The equipment that U.S. military personnel are using in Iraq and Afghanistan is getting two to eight times its peacetime use in just one year, the Defense Department has reported to Congress. The report, "Ground Force Equipment Repair, Replacement and Recapitalization Requirements Resulting from Sustained Combat Operations," went to Capitol Hill last week.
NASA and the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI) announced a new Centennial Challenges prize competition on May 19, which would award $250,000 to the first team that can extract breathable oxygen from simulated lunar soil. The prize for the MoonROx (Moon Regolith Oxygen) competition expires June 1, 2008, said NASA and FSRI, a statewide center for space research.
The House Armed Services Committee has authorized $49.1 billion in supplemental funding in fiscal 2006 for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and antiterrorism efforts elsewhere. The move, which came May 18 as the committee marked up the FY '06 defense authorization bill, followed the Senate Armed Services Committee, which May 13 authorized $50 billion. With U.S. involvement in Iraq facing its third anniversary next March, and no withdrawal formally planned yet, many lawmakers have said the costs of military operations are increasingly known.
NASA is studying the phaseout of the Air Force's Titan IV rocket and other programs as it forms its plan for retiring the space shuttle and introducing the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) - a plan being anxiously awaited by shuttle contractors worried about retaining their work force and expertise during the transition.
A U.S. Air Force general insisted May 18 that the Defense Department's overall Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is not in trouble despite problems that have arisen with part of the communications program. Lt. Gen. William Hobbins, Air Force deputy chief of staff for warfighting integration, said the MIDS JTRS cluster and the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF) JTRS cluster are on track, even though they plan to draw on some of the technology being developed by the embattled, Army-led Cluster 1.
Lockheed Martin has signed a contract with the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) of Japan to build its next geostationary telecommunications satellite, BSAT-3a. The 1.8-kW spacecraft will provide direct broadcast services throughout Japan following launch during the second quarter of 2007. BSAT-3a will be based on Lockheed Martin's A2100A satellite bus, which is built at company facilities in Newtown, Pa.
Axsys Technologies Inc. of Rocky Hill, Conn., has received the initial infrared lens production order release from BAE Systems for the U.S. Army's Thermal Weapon Sight II (TWS) program, the company said May 18. The order is worth $4.4 million, and the work could be worth up to $24 million over five years, depending on Army demand.
NEW DELHI - India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has completed 406 test flight sorties, according to the Aeronautical Development Agency. Technology Demonstrator-1 and Proto Vehicle-1 were flown last week for 47 minutes each, the agency said. The flight tests were conducted to calibrate air data systems at different altitudes and speeds for TD1, which is now ready to explore the flight envelope further. TD-1 has been fitted with a new nose air data probe after its 75- hour scheduled servicing.
A new national space policy that apparently features more robust language on space weapons is in draft form and should be issued soon by the White House, analysts said. The last policy, published in 1996 by the Clinton Administration, was not as strong as some would have liked on space control and the Bush Administration's update is expected to be more forward-leaning in that regard, said John Pike of Global Security.org in Alexandria, Va.
The battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan are "rife with examples" of net centric warfighting that have changed the way U.S. service members engage the enemy, a Raytheon Co. official says. Dean W. Cash, director for joint concepts and experimentation for Raytheon NetCentric Systems (NCS) and director of the Net Centric Enterprise Priority, made the comment at a Raytheon press briefing in Arlington, Va., on May 18.
VALIDATION: NASA has awarded Titan Corp. of Reston, Va., and Northrop Grumman Information Technology of Falls Church, Va., contracts worth up to $200 million for Independent Verification and Validation of Software Services, NASA said. The work will be done at NASA's IV&V facility in Fairmont, W.Va., and other locations. The verification will determine whether software safety requirements are being fulfilled. The validation determines whether software designed for an intended use meets the agency or mission needs.
