Four Republican senators representing NASA research centers and a Democrat from Washington state are trying to amend the agency's appropriations for the next fiscal year to maintain the same level for aeronautics research and development programs as in fiscal 2005. Sens. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), George Allen (R-Va.), John Warner (R-Va.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have proposed an amendment to the FY '06 spending bill covering NASA that would earmark $906.2 million for aeronautics R&D out of NASA's budget.
William W. Parsons has been named the new director of the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, NASA said Sept. 13. Parsons succeeds Rear Adm. Thomas Donaldson (USN Ret.) and returns to the position he held before becoming space shuttle program manager in 2003.
The National Reconnaissance Office and Naval Research Laboratory have declassified Poppy, a Cold War-era electronic intelligence reconnaissance program that involved seven satellites launched from 1962 to 1971. NRO Deputy Director Dennis Fitzgerald hosted a recognition ceremony at NRO headquarters in Chantilly, Va., on Sept. 12 to recognize key program participants.
BAE Systems said Sept. 13 that it has been awarded a ZAR 15 million (USD $2.3 million) contract to upgrade a second batch of the South Africa army's Olifant MK1B Main Battle Tanks. The award follows a ZAR 11 million (USD $1.7 million) contract the company received in 2003 for similar work.
Suppliers for the U.S. Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will soon be asked to formally bid for work on the program's first production jets, according to prime contractor Lockheed Martin. A draft request for proposals (RFP) for those initial production aircraft will be sent to suppliers later this week, said Dan Crowley, executive vice president and F-35 general manager at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.
Boeing's first in-flight test of the Northrop Grumman Multi-mode Electronically Scanned Array radar aboard a 737 aircraft for Australia's Project Wedgetail was "very successful, very clean," according to a Boeing official. The six-hour test, conducted Aug. 1 over Washington state, achieved mission objectives, said Jack DeLange, airborne early warning and control integration and test manager. "Northrop Grumman was wildly enthusiastic about the data that they got," he said in a telephone interview.
Despite rumors that the German government's effort to buy Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle might be delayed further or even canceled, the company hopes it will receive a contract for the first air vehicle by next spring.
PRAGUE - Bristol, United Kingdom-based communications products firm Scotty Group said Sept. 13 that the prototype phase of its Aero Mission Gear package has been successfully completed in flight trials with a German army helicopter.
Hoping to reverse cuts in its purchase of F/A-22 Raptors, the U.S. Air Force has begun arguing that the reductions could inadvertently hurt the multiservice F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
The retooled Joint Unmanned Combat Air System program is expected to appoint a Navy flag officer to head its new joint office within the next few weeks as the program transitions from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency over to Air Force ownership.
Kimberly Johnson, Airports editor for our sister publication Aviation Daily, has embedded in Iraq with the 2nd Marine Division for three months. She is reporting for The DAILY from there, covering the performance of specific weapon systems, the realities of warfare in Iraq and other topics important to our readers. She also writes and takes photographs for "Mother of All Blogs," a Web journal about her experiences. It is located at http://www.moab-iraq.blogspot.com.
Representatives of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., still shaking off their loss of the presidential helicopter replacement program to a Lockheed Martin Corp.-led team, are expressing cautious optimism that their consortium will win the U.S. Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) aircraft program.
Boeing says it will have to begin shutting down the production line for the C-17 cargo aircraft if it does not receive by January 2006 firm commitment from the Air Force for additional procurement beyond the initial program buy of 180 aircraft.
RERP MILESTONE: Technicians have installed the first engine pylon on a C-5 Galaxy Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program test aircraft, marking a "critical" milestone in the RERP effort, Lockheed Martin said Sept. 13. The RERP is the second part of a two-phase C-5 modernization program.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has given Bluefin Robotics Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., $6.6 million to design and develop the Battlespace Preparation Autonomous Undersea Vehicle, destined for the Littoral Combat Ship. Conceived as an autonomous unmanned system capable of bottom-mapping and gathering other oceanographic data to support the LCS' mine warfare mission module, it is intended for close-shore, clandestine intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and survey work.
AWS CERTIFIED: The U.S. Navy has certified that the latest advancement of the Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis Weapon System, Baseline 7, has been approved for deployment, the company said Sept. 12. The Baseline 7 AWS contains the first complete commercial-off-the-shelf Aegis advanced processing computing architecture and the new AN/SPY-1D(V) radar.
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch a program in early 2007 to examine weapons that could be adapted to destroy large, heavily defended ships at long ranges, an industry official said Sept. 12. Air Combat Command is spearheading efforts to begin the advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) program on maritime interdiction, said Ed Whalen, director of strike weapons business development at Lockheed Martin.
TRANSPARENT ARMOR: BAE Systems said Sept. 12 that will provide more than 1,000 Transparent Armor Gun Shields kits and spares for U.S. Marine Corps vehicles under a contract modification worth as much as $40 million. The kits will be installed on Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement units, Humvees and Logistics Vehicle Systems starting in October and continuing through next February. The U.S. Marine Corps System Command has already funded $19 million under the modification.
Metal Storm Ltd. said it lost $5.9 million in the first half of this year, up slightly from the $5.7 million loss recorded for the same period in 2004, but within company expectations. The ballistics company said it has enough money to last through September 2006 even if it doesn't generate any revenue or raise any more money until then. Company CEO and Managing Director David Smith said Metal Storm made "good progress" in the first half of the year in its drive to commercialize its technology, particularly its 40mm grenade launcher.
ARMY Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was awarded on Sept. 1, 2005, a delivery order amount of $5,700,000 as part of a $5,700,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Common Avionics Architecture System. Work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is expected to be completed by April 26, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on March 14, 2004. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-03-D-0015).
