NO TIPS: The aerospace and defense industry should not expect any tips out of the Pentagon on the direction of defense acquisition over the next two decades until Feb. 6, 2006, when the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review is sent to Congress. At least that's what Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, tells an American Enterprise Institute audience in Washington. However, come that day, industry and Congress will get lots of information, as the Bush Administration will submit the QDR and its fiscal 2007 budget requests concurrently, he says.
The United States is at a "strategic crossroads" and the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review will be the most unique and important national defense review in decades, but one where a few precepts already are known, according to Ryan Henry, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.
Lockheed Martin successfully completed additional flight-tests of its Dual Mode Guided Bomb (DMGB) recently at the U.S. Navy's China Lake test range in California, the company said June 8. The weapons were released from Navy aircraft, maneuvered through controlled flight and hit their targets, the company said. The DMGB uses Global Positioning System/inertial navigation in addition to laser guidance, which would be used when the weapon is near its target for "improved endgame performance," Lockheed Martin said.
MOSCOW - Russian aircraft manufacturers hold the top two positions in a new annual rating of defense industry performance in 2004. The Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, based here, rates the companies mostly based on their own official data, not on the rankings of outside experts. The Sukhoi holding company held the top 2004 spot, with sales of $1.5 billion. Eastern Siberia's Irkut aircraft company, which builds some fighters developed by Sukhoi, came in second, with sales of $624.5 million.
NASA released the latest revision to its shuttle return-to-flight implementation plan on June 9, including the latest cost estimates for return to flight initiatives in fiscal 2005 and 2006. NASA estimates that it will spend a total of $602 million on return to flight activities in FY '05, of which $413 million has been formally approved by the space shuttle's Program Requirements Control Board.
Efforts to develop the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) Common Operating System (COS) are moving ahead with plans for an industry day on June 24. Organizations with human systems interface expertise are "strongly encouraged" to attend. Officials of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will present an overview of the business arrangement for development of COS, and the need for technology contributions, according to a June 6 FedBizOpps notice from DARPA.
APACHE GEAR: Boeing Co. has awarded Northstar Aerospace Inc. of Chicago $500,000 to continue developing a gear product for a transmission technology expected to be used in the Boeing-made AH-64 Apache multirole combat helicopter, Northstar Aerospace said June 9. Northstar will use the money for manufacturing, tooling and vendor development of its Face Gear technology, which would improve engine horsepower without adding weight, the company said.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's projection forces subcommittee, hopes an upcoming Groton, Conn., field hearing on nuclear submarines will bring "a new appreciation of submarines for our national defense and a new vision of what they could do for us in the future."
PURCHASE: Information technology provider SRA International Inc. of Fairfax, Va., has agreed to purchase Galaxy Scientific Corp., which provides systems engineering, information technology, and tactical communications services, SRA said June 9. Financial terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed. The transaction's completion is subject to closing conditions and Hart-Scott-Rodino approval. The closing is expected in late June or early July.
The Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) on June 9 embraced legislation proposed by Democratic Reps. Steve Israel (N.Y.) and Melissa Bean (Ill.) to require the transportation secretary to buy shoulder-fired missile defense systems to protect the nation's fleet of 6,800 commercial aircraft. "The expense of installing missile defense systems pales in comparison to the price tags of modern commercial aircraft and the thousands of lives at risk," CAPA President Jon Safley said.
Switzerland's parliament has approved a trimmed-down 2004 defense budget that includes funding for an army air surveillance system, combat simulation equipment and helmets, the Swiss Information Service said June 8.
REVENUE UP: Net revenue for Herley Industries Inc. rose 36.5% in the third quarter of 2005, but net income fell 7.6%, the company said June 9. Third-quarter net revenue was $41.3 million, compared to $30.3 million a year ago. Net income dropped from $3.9 million in the third quarter of 2004 to $3.6 million, the company said.
NASA's Deep Impact team remains confident as the spacecraft nears its July 4 high-speed rendezvous with comet Tempel 1, despite a focus problem that is hampering the capability of its high-resolution camera. When it nears Tempel 1, the Deep Impact spacecraft will release an 820-pound guided penetrator on a collision course with it. The mothership spacecraft has three sensors to observe the effects of the collision: the High Resolution Instrument (HRI), a Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI) and a duplicate camera on the Impactor Targeting Sensor (ITS).
An AH-1Z Super Cobra and a UH-1Y Huey helicopter have entered final modification periods before beginning operational evaluation, which is expected later this year, and operational pilots and aircrew are training for the review, U.S. Naval Air Systems Command said June 9. Meanwhile, with more than 95% of their development complete, the AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters reached their collective 3,000-flight hour June 1 during weapons accuracy testing in Yuma, Ariz.
A key U.S. senator is criticizing a House panel's vote to kill the Air Force's Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel whose state hosts some of the work that is done on the stealthy cruise missile, said late June 9 that he is disappointed with the House Appropriations Committee's June 7 decision to terminate the program (DAILY, June 8).
CALIPSO, a joint effort of NASA and the French space agency CNES, has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., to prepare for its launch later this year. CALIPSO - Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations - was shipped from Alcatel Space's facility in Cannes, France, on May 19. The spacecraft will use "revolutionary measurement technologies" to study aerosols, small liquid or solid particles in the air.
The Department of Defense still is facing "pervasive" and longstanding problems with its business management systems despite spending billions each year to operate, maintain and modernize them, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report. "Our reports continue to show that the department's stovepiped and duplicative systems contribute to fraud, waste and abuse," the report says.
MDA PLAN: The long-awaited interagency Maritime Domain Awareness plan will be unveiled and implemented this summer, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins told lawmakers on Capitol Hill June 8. "We locked the whole team up for six months and shoved pizzas under the door," Collins joked about the interagency effort to devise a common plan across the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce and others.
A June 7 DAILY story headlined "Raytheon team's TMOS proposal will stress flexibility, official says," should have said that the Raytheon team competing for the TMOS program includes AT&T in addition to Boeing and General Dynamics.
