Charlotte, N.C.-based General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has been awarded a $4.8 million contract to develop a storage and retrieval system for U.S. Navy ships, the company said June 20.
The U.S. Navy enjoys a large lead over potential competitors, perhaps the greatest in history, and U.S. leaders should not be afraid to "ride it" for several years, especially with an annual shipbuilding budget limited to $9-11 billion for the near future, a defense expert said June 20.
United Defense Industries Inc. of Arlington, Va., has been awarded contract modifications worth up to $471 million to speed up component and technology development of two variants of the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems' manned ground vehicles, the company said June 20.
New Zealand's military is seeking a new training/light utility helicopter (T/LUH) to replace its Bell 47 Sioux aircraft, according to the ministry of defense. The trainer must be capable of training pilots and air crews day and night, including while using night-vision goggles and carrying underslung loads. "Respondents will be assessed on the helicopters' ability to provide pilots and air crewmen with the skills and experience necessary to progress to the [NH Industries] NH90 and the [Kaman Aerospace] SH-2G," the ministry said.
ARMY Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., was awarded on June 10, 2005, a $36,292,500 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment System. Work will be performed in Elizabeth City, N.C. (25 percent) and Bedford, Mass. (75 percent), and is expected to be completed by April 30, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on May 17, 2005. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity (W9113M-05-C-0188).
NEW PLATFORM: The European Space Agency, French space agency CNES, EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space have agreed to begin work on Alphabus, the new European platform for next-generation telecommunications satellites. The program was approved by ESA's member states in 2001 and the companies signed the contract at the Paris Air Show last week, and plan to produce the first flight model around 2009. EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space are the joint prime contractors for the platform, ESA said.
The House on June 20 moved to pass the $408.9 billion, fiscal 2006 defense spending bill without substantially changing what the House Appropriations Committee approved last week. A final vote was not expected until late June 20, but early afternoon debate on H.R. 2863 revolved around Democratic amendment attempts - later withdrawn - to shift money from missile defense initiatives to other efforts such as nonproliferation measures. Later, House consideration was held up over contentious debate over religion and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The scheduled June 24 launch of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-N, from Cape Canaveral has been postponed to June 26 to allow technicians time to check for possible damage to the Delta IV rocket's electrical systems from nearby lightning strikes off the coast on June 16.
LE BOURGET, France - NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program intends to reassess the numerical mix of manned and unmanned aircraft it is slated to buy, according to industry officials.
TURBOPUMP: General Corp. will continue to research the Upper State Engine Technology effort under a $5 million contract from the Air Force. The objective of the program is to enable the rapid design, development and testing of a liquid rocket propulsion turbopump, the Defense Department said June 17.
LE BOURGET, France - In the two years that it has existed as a separate unit within the reorganized Saab Aerospace, Saab Aerostructures has strengthened its position as an important supplier to key military and civil programs on both sides of the Atlantic. At home in Sweden, Aerostructures maintains its natural power base as the main source of structural components for the Gripen fighter. Also for Sweden, Aerostructures is taking on an important role in the NH90 helicopter program.
LE BOURGET, France - Greece's air force has ordered four Embraer EMB 145 AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) aircraft and holds another two options.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the fiscal 2006 appropriation bill that includes NASA by a vote of 418 to 7 on June 16, fully funding the agency at $16.5 billion and reversing the Bush Administration's proposed cuts to its aeronautics budget. Lawmakers approved the House Appropriations Committee's version of NASA's budget appropriation without any changes, according to a HAC spokesman. The approved $16.5 billion level is $275 million more than was enacted in the FY '05 bill and $15 million above the president's request.
LE BOURGET, France - Six months since the victory of the so-called "Orange Revolution" in the Ukraine, the new government has announced its intention to consolidate its aerospace companies - Antonov Design Bureau, the Kiev-based Aviant plant, Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Co. and the Ukrainian Research Institute of Aviation Technologies - into a single corporation. News of the possible merger already has split key players into two warlike camps, according to Aviation Week's ShowNews.
STUDYING T-50: Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) and Lockheed Martin will evaluate the jet-training needs of the Greek air force and "the potential contribution each could make" if Greece buys the T-50, the companies say. Executives from the companies signed a memorandum of understanding for a one-year study at the Paris Air Show.
OVERHAUL: "The final answer to past problems may lie in a complete restructuring of the way the [Defense] Department accomplishes acquisition for all of its goods and services," says Gordon England, the acting deputy secretary of defense. England told senators this month that the infamous Boeing tanker lease proposal already has led to "many individual corrective actions in our acquisition processes," but Pentagon officials are willing to go much further. A high-level review, including re-examining the Goldwater-Nichols Act, is under way, he says.
BUYING WEIGHTLESSNESS: NASA researchers will conduct experiments later this year on two low-gravity flights operated by the Zero Gravity Corp., the aerospace agency says. The flights will allow NASA to evaluate the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company's ability to provide parabolic research flight services, which use special maneuvers to temporarily mimic weightlessness. The flights, set for mid-September, will be similar to those NASA has performed for years with its own specially equipped research aircraft.
LE BOURGET, France - Inventors of the FanWing technology, which uses "squirrel cage" fans mounted across the length of an aircraft's wings, have shown a prototype here at the Paris Air Show and are developing a version they hope could fly for up to 10 hours. The fans are driven by a motor connected to a belt drive. As they rotate, they pull in air from the front and project it over the rear of the wing, creating a lot of lift with little power.
COSMOS 1: The Cosmos-1 solar sail spacecraft is set to launch atop a converted ICBM from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea on June 21. A joint effort by the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, Cosmos-1 will attempt the first controlled flight of a solar sail in orbit. The spacecraft was mated to its Volna ICBM on June 15 and soon will be placed inside the Russian Delta III sub. After Cosmos-1 is checked out in orbit, it will begin deploying its windmill-shaped sail panels on June 26.
