THUMBS UP: More than 71% of Europeans favor deploying a NATO missile defense, according to a poll sponsored by the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. Seventy-five percent of poll respondents in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Denmark said that missiles could be used "as instruments of blackmail or coercion" against NATO or NATO countries, the alliance said. Although European leaders have been cool to U.S.
The Pentagon's new undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics said the Defense Department is reviewing its supply chain operations, acquisition requirements, and planning in light of increasing globalization. Kenneth Krieg, who filled the No. 3 DOD position June 3, further said the department will "scour the world" to find the "best" industrial sources for its defense needs, and that the largest federal department must become "creative" in research, acquisition and delivery, especially to encourage competition.
The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has modified an existing contract and awarded Raytheon Systems $17.1 million more for 150 AIM-9M/9X tactical missiles for Saudi Arabia under the Foreign Military Sales program. The deal also includes 30 spare guidance control sections and eight guidance control system containers. Raytheon will perform almost all of its work in Tucson, Ariz., and finish by December 2006.
C. Wayne Grubbs has been named senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, effective immediately. Stephen C. Matthews has been appointed senior vice president for business development.
The German government has awarded EADS a contract to provide 150 FAUST tactical command and control equipment sets for vehicles in German elements of the multinational NATO Response Force 7, the company said Sept. 7. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Christopher E. Camargo has been appointed director of the Avionics and Support Systems Department in the Aerospace Electronics and Information Technology Division.
Peter Edwards has resigned as president of Bombardier Business Aircraft, effective immediately. Pierre Beaudoin, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace, will fill in for Edwards until a new president is appointed.
PRAGUE -- BVR Systems (1998) Ltd. has won a $2.1 million subcontract to help provide a new F-16I fighter aircraft simulator to Israel's air force. The Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel-based company said Sept. 6 that the deal would lead to additional future orders through Israel's Elbit Systems, the prime contractor for the Israeli portion of the simulator program.
Ronald B. Cohen has been named principal scientist in the Space Materials Laboratory. Kirk Nygren has been appointed principal director of mission integration and systems engineering in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Division.
An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., early on Sept. 7 to test the missiles reliability and accuracy, the Air Force said. The missile's two unarmed re-entry vehicles traveled about 4,200 miles in 30 minutes, hitting predetermined targets at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marhsall Islands.
It's not clear which missile-defense related equipment will be transferred from the Missile Defense Agency to the military services, making it hard for the services to make plans and realign budgets to "support the missile defense mission," the Government Accountability Office says in a new report.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin visited Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Sept. 7 to survey the damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. Griffin and several other senior emergency operations personnel flew from Washington to Stennis in the morning, then took a previously scheduled supply helicopter flight to Michoud, which still is only accessible by aircraft or boat.
SUPPLEMENTAL SPENDING: President Bush will ask for $51.8 billion in additional spending for relief and recovery efforts due to Hurricane Katrina, and the House will debate a supplemental bill Sept. 8. The Defense Department, which received an initial $500 million in the first Katrina measure last week, is due for more as the size of its forces performing Katrina response missions has increased. U.S. Northern Command reported Sept. 7 that 18,000 active-duty ground forces and almost 43,000 National Guardsmen are committed.
Michael R. Boyce has been named to the board of directors. Boyce is currently chairman and CEO of PQ Corp., an industrial chemicals business owned by JP Morgan Chase Partners; and chairman and CEO of Peak Investments, which buys and operates chemical and mineral businesses.
Lockheed Martin Corp. said a recent $50.8 million U.S. Navy contract to improve the communications capabilities of the MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters will include adding Link 16 equipment to allow all future MH-60Rs, and armed versions of the MH-60S, to swap situational awareness information and coordinate weapons engagement with friendly forces.
Kakali Banerjee has been appointed vice president for business systems modernization, U.S. Agency for International Development Program. Patrick Burke has been named senior vice president for the Command and Control, Communications and Intelligence Sector. Dorothy E. Cleal has been named vice president and director of the Navy and Marine Corps Business Program. Allen H. Deitz has been appointed vice president and deputy program manager of the U.S. Agency for International Development Program.
ASN ANNOUNCED: President Bush has nominated Delores M. Etter of Maryland to be assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, replacing John Young Jr., who has been tapped to oversee Defense Department research efforts (DAILY, Aug. 1). The White House said Etter is a professor in the electrical engineering department at the U.S. Naval Academy, but had assumed the position of acting director of defense for research and engineering, the position for which Young was nominated. In addition to Etter, the White House on Sept.
The U.S. Air Force faces several challenges with large unmanned aerial vehicles as it fields a growing number of those aircraft, a service general said Sept. 7. Among the challenges is "assured communication," or encrypting information flows to ensure an enemy cannot "redirect" a UAV or otherwise "deny you the ability to control that platform," said Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, who recently became the military deputy in the Air Force acquisition office.
Titan Flyby: On Sept. 7 NASA's Cassini probe made its latest flyby of Saturn's moon, Titan, coming within 668 miles of its cloud-covered surface. The spacecraft focused its sensors on Titan's high southern latitudes, where earlier photographs have shown possible indications of lakes.
SPANISH MISSILES: The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on Sept. 6 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Spain of 94 Standard Missile-1 Block VIB Tactical missiles for as much as $41 million. The agency said the principal contractors are the Raytheon Co. and Aerojet General Corp. "It is vital for the U.S. to assist Spain's development and maintenance of a strong self-defense capability that is consistent with U.S. regional objectives," a DSCA statement said.
