Honeywell has signed an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to provide spacecraft flight operations and ground systems sustaining engineering for the Landsat 7 satellite, the company announced May 5. Honeywell currently provides the same services under an existing 3.5-year year agreement with USGS. The new eight-year contract is intended to cover the rest of the spacecraft's mission life.
The critical design review (CDR) phase of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite program has been completed and the production phase has begun, Lockheed Martin said May 5. CDR is part of the program's system development and demonstration phase, which began in November 2001 with an award of about $2.7 billion to the company to develop the satellite system. CDR culminated with an April 20-23 review at Lockheed Martin Space Systems' Sunnyvale, Calif., facility, according to Steve Tatum, a company spokesman.
RESERVE: President Bush asked Congress on May 5 to establish a $25 billion contingency reserve fund for fiscal year 2005 to meet military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. "While we do not know the precise costs for operations next year, recent developments on the ground and increased demands on our troops indicate the need to plan for contingencies," Bush said in a statement. He said the Administration will pursue a full fiscal year 2005 supplemental request when costs can be better estimated.
DISPLAYS: Elbit Systems Ltd. subsidiary EFW Inc., of Fort Worth, Texas, will design and develop Upfront Control Display and Multi-Purpose Color Display units for F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, the company said May 4. The contract includes options for production units of up to 360 aircraft, and could be worth more than $45 million, the company said. EFW will provide form, fit, function and interface replacements of the existing aircraft configuration, with the work to take place from 2005 to 2009.
The House Armed Services Com-mittee's projection forces subcommittee has voted to authorize $890 million more than President Bush's $401.7 billion request for the Department of Defense fiscal year 2005 budget. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over 500 programs and projects totaling about $28 billion. In its markup on May 5, it added $20 million for 17 additional B-1 bombers and provided $49.7 million to replenish Tactical Tomahawk missile stocks, bringing that program's budget to $305.7 million.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has conducted the first flight test of its new Long Range Air Launch Target (LRALT), MDA announced May 5. During the May 3 test, the missile was dropped from the back of a C-17 transport aircraft that was flying west of Hawaii. After being released from its parachute system, the missile boosted a simulated re-entry vehicle over the Pacific.
A recent RAND Corp. study of U.S. Coast Guard assets that said the service should buy more cutters and aircraft may not be realistic, commandant Adm. Thomas Collins said May 5.
CURTISS-WRIGHT, Roseland, N.J. David J. Linton has been named president of the Flow Control segment, Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corp. (CWFCC). He replaces Richard Langseder, who has served as interim president, and will become executive vice president for CWFCC. GENERAL DYNAMICS, Falls Church, Va. Sir Robert Walmsley, the former chief of defense procurement at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, has been elected to the board of directors. INTEGRATED COAST GUARD SYSTEMS, Rosslyn, Va.
Sens. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) introduced a bill May 5 that would require federal contractors to provide valid taxpayer identification numbers before they could be eligible to receive federal contracts. The bill would establish a Central Contractor Registry with the U.S. Department of Defense. As a part of the registration process, individuals and companies would be required to provide a tax identification number and their consent to validate that number with the Internal Revenue Service.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is setting up a new unit to oversee the growing area of modeling and simulation (M&S). The creation of the M&S directorate reflects MDA's increasing use of computer-based tools to predict and emulate how actual anti-missile systems would work, an MDA spokesman said May 5.
RESTON, Va. - Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) hopes to create a "pot of money" in the Defense Department's budget that would help defense manufacturers find alternatives to outsourcing work overseas. The money would help "create ways to have small businesses ... come in and come up with alternatives to the outsourcing that's occurring in many of our major manufacturers," Weldon said during a speech at the Navy Opportunity Forum here May 4.
Lockheed Martin has been picked to be the prime contractor for the U.S. Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM) program, the Army announced late May 5. The company, which edged out teams led by Boeing-Northrop Grum-man and Raytheon, will conduct a four-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase for the air-to-ground missile.
Defense contractors could see positive changes to the U.S. Department of Defense's procurement process once the Business Modernization and Systems Integration Program starts realizing its goals, according to Paul Tibbits, who became the program's new director in February.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing May 5, Chairman Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) repeatedly questioned NASA about options for retiring the space shuttle early and finishing the space station by other means, saying he is "not convinced" that the agency has given enough thought to other possibilities. The shuttle is expected to return to flight in March or April of next year. NASA's plan is to retire the shuttle fleet after it completes assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) at roughly the end of the decade.
The Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM) program has received the Defense Department's approval to move into development, clearing the way for the selection of a prime contractor. Based on a review led by acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne, JCM was cleared May 3 to enter a four-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase, DOD said in a brief "information paper" released May 4.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the written responses by Tina Westby Jonas, who has been nominated to be undersecretary of defense (comptroller), to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Jonas testified April 27.) Q: At what point, if any, do you believe it will be appropriate to include funding for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in the [defense] department's annual budget requests?
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the written responses by Dionel M. Aviles, who has been nominated to be assistant secretary of the Navy (financial management and comptroller), to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Aviles testified April 27.) Q: What do you view as the major readiness challenges that remain to be addressed and, if confirmed, how would you approach these issues?
MARKUPS: Two Senate Armed Services Committee panels held mark-up sessions May 4 on the fiscal year 2005 Department of Defense authorization bill. The airland and seapower subcommittees held closed sessions, but made no substantive changes to the $401.7 billion bill, according to a committee aide. The sessions were classified, and aide told The DAILY, and details likely will not be released for several weeks.
ACQUISITION: Austin Semiconductor of Austin, Texas, has acquired SAAT Technology LTD. of Alton, Hampshire, United Kingdom, a silicon design company. The acquisition will provide Austin Semiconductor with a "sister company in Europe with common goals and aspirations," the company said. SAAT Technology will change its name to Austin Semiconductor Europe Ltd. The buy will bolster Austin Semiconductor's move into the military and aerospace market, the company said.
RESTON, Va. - Under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Navy, Foster-Miller, Inc. of Waltham, Mass., is developing a small robot that would inspect the propeller shafts of 688-class submarines without requiring the shafts to be removed.
RESTON, Va. - The U.S. Navy is sponsoring the development of a tool that would allow maintenance personnel in different locations onboard ships to collaborate and share knowledge over a wireless network. Navy ships are entering an era of increased automation and reduced crew sizes, according to Joseph Tesar, director of research and development for Cybernet Systems Corporation of Ann Arbor, Mich. For example, the DD(X) will have about 130 personnel onboard, compared with roughly 300 on a comparably sized ship today, he said.
EDO CORP. will deliver eight Joint Enhanced Core Communication System (JECCS) terminals to the U.S. Marine Corps under a $19.3 million delivery order, the company said. JECCS is a multifunction communication system mounted on a Humvee. Designated AN/TSQ-231, it provides voice, data and satellite communication capabilities for Marine Expeditionary Units. The order was made under a contract awarded to Darlington Inc., which EDO acquired last year and incorporated into its Combat Systems Division.
