The Pentagon wants to find out whether unmanned aerial vehicle technology developed by Scaled Composites LLC could be useful to warfighters. James "Snake" Clark, director of the Air Force Combat Support Office, said May 17 that he and "a couple undersecretaries of defense" plan to travel May 19 to Mojave, Calif., where the Burt Rutan-founded company is based, to "see what he's got."
NAVY BRAC: The U.S. Navy's recommendations for the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process would create a center of excellence for undersea warfare near San Diego, as well as consolidate some submarine activity in Norfolk, Va., and Kings Bay, Ga. The moves come as the Navy is proposing to close Submarine Base New London, Conn., which the department said would save $1.58 billion over 20 years. The Navy also is recommending basing its East Coast maritime patrol community at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.
NUCLEAR PROPULSION: Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa., has been awarded a $104.2 million contract modification to provide naval nuclear propulsion components for the U.S. Navy, the company said May 17. Seventy percent of the work will be done in Pittsburgh and 30% in Schenectady, N.Y. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., awarded the contract.
The Unmanned Little Bird helicopter will deploy to Iraq early next year to provide communications relay for members of the 101st Airborne Division, according to manufacturer Boeing. The deployment follows a series of successful demonstrations at Fort Campbell, K.Y., in which the helicopter kept members of the 101st in touch as they maneuvered through simulated urban terrain. The Little Bird assumes the role of a communications satellite, because orbital satellites often are difficult for soldiers to communicate with from urban areas.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's military has accepted three new Mi-35 combat helicopters from Russia as part of an ongoing debt repayment process, a Czech defense official said. Vlastimil Martinek, who heads the Czech defense ministry commission overseeing the helicopter deal, said May 13 that the Mi-35s have been inspected and have no defects.
International defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. increased its revenue by 8% and bettered its net income by 6.5% in the first quarter of 2005, the company said May 17. The Haifa, Israel-based firm reported first quarter 2005 revenue of $230.7 million, compared with $213.7 million for the same period a year ago. Net income for the first quarter of 2005 was $13.1 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $12.3 million, or 30 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2004.
Employment in the U.S. commercial and military aerospace markets declined slightly from the end of December 2004 to the end of January 2005, coming as a bit of a surprise to the Aerospace Industries Association, but most of the lost ground was regained by the end of March 2005, a result that was in line with AIA forecasts.
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) wants the Defense Department to pay more attention to protecting U.S. space assets and developing payload technology for small satellites.
NEW DELHI - India's Parliament has approved a bill to prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction and related technology from India. The parliament was assured that the bill would not hinder development of defense capabilities in the country.
Aerospace North America is canceling its ANA2006 aviation conference and trade exposition and ceasing operations as an association later this month. "Citing the difficulty in structuring an event with a theme and focus that differentiated it from the increasing number of other aerospace industry events, the board concluded that limited support from affiliates and some leading industry companies made it doubtful that conference delegate and exhibition sales would reach acceptable levels," the group said in a statement issued last week.
NAVY OUTSOURCING: Consulting firm BearingPoint Inc. said the U.S. Navy awarded it a contract worth up to $55.8 million over five years to help with the service's outsourcing, privatization, divestiture and military conversion efforts. The company will help the Navy perform A-76 competitions - as in the Office of Management and Budget's revised Circular A-76, the Bush Administration's guidebook for competing federal services between federal employees and the private sector.
NEW MANAGER: Gordon England, formerly the secretary of the Navy, has taken over the duties of the second-highest ranking official at the Defense Department. President Bush designated England as acting deputy secretary of defense, replacing Paul D. Wolfowitz, whose resignation was effective May 13 as he prepares to become president of the World Bank. England awaits formal Senate confirmation, which is expected.
CLOUDSAT: NASA's CloudSat spacecraft is at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., beginning final preparations for launch later this year. Built by Ball Aerospace Technologies Corp., CloudSat will share space on its Delta II rocket with another NASA spacecraft, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO). Together the two satellites will give scientists new perspectives on Earth's clouds and aerosols that will answer questions about how they evolve and affect our weather, climate, water supply and air quality.
SM-1 CONTRACT: The Defense Department announced on May 13 that the Navy awarded Raytheon Co. an $11.2 million contract to provide full service support for the Standard Missile-1 (SM-1) program for U.S. allies. The contract combines purchases for Egypt (43%), Taiwan (26%); Spain (10%); Japan (6%); Turkey (6%); France (3%); Italy (3%); Bahrain (1%); the Netherlands (1%); and Poland (1%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. The work should be finished by September 2006. The contract was not competitively procured, the DOD said.
The U.S. Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is about to kick off formal negotiations with its foreign partners aimed at settling key production and sustainment issues for the stealthy jet. The talks are scheduled to begin the week of May 23 in Charlottesville, Va. The first session is expected to last about a week and is "just one of many" such meetings planned for the coming months, a program spokeswoman said May 16.
DRS Technologies Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., has been awarded several contracts worth about $25 million to design and produce power conversion, distribution and machinery control equipment for existing and next-generation U.S. Navy combatant surface ships and submarines, including new ships in the Littoral Combat Ship program, the company said May 16.
AIR FORCE Composite Engineering, Sacramento, Calif., is being awarded a $19,823,973 firm fixed price contract modification to provide for Air Force Subscale Aerial Target, Exercise of Low Rate Initial Production Option for Lot 2 (quantity of 36 AFSATs) and the procurement of Exhibit B-Data. No funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by March 2007. The Headquarters Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08635-02-C-0005, P00019).
NOMINATED: Gen. T. Michael Moseley has been nominated by President Bush to become the next Air Force chief of staff. Moseley, currently the Air Force deputy chief of staff, would succeed Gen. John Jumper. Moseley has been the Air Force's deputy chief of staff since August 2003. Jumper is set to retire in September after serving four years as Air Force chief of staff.
MDA LEADERSHIP: U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Marvin McNamara has been tapped to become the deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, succeeding Army Maj. Gen. John Holly, who is retiring, the Defense Department announced May 16. McNamara has been MDA's deputy director for force structure, integration and deployment.
NASA and Boeing have postponed the launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) NOAA-N satellite until no earlier than May 20 as engineers check for possible contamination of the spacecraft. During a de-tanking procedure May 12, a vent hose in the Delta II's intertank area broke loose, possibly allowing gaseous hydrocarbons into the rocket's payload fairing. Preliminary analysis of samples seems to indicate that the satellite is in the clear, according to NASA spokesman George Diller.
