NATO AGS: NATO and an industry team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) on April 28 signed a contract worth about $30 million (23 million euros) to conduct "definition" work for the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program. The contract, the first major one for the program, is to be followed by early 2006 by a $642 million (500 million euros) award for the design and development phase.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition John J. Young Jr. approved the AN/AQS-20A sonar mine detecting set for low-rate initial production (LRIP) on April 28. The approval followed a successful Milestone C review. The Navy's Program Executive Office, Littoral and Mine Warfare, said the LRIP marks a "significant milestone" in the development and acquisition of a new generation of Navy mine warfare capabilities.
Two sets of activities just getting under way would lead to a technology development program for a Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) aircraft, according to Bruce Tenney, associate director for technology at the U.S. Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), Fort Eustis, Va. "The last four or five years have seen a real resurgence of interest in developing the concept of a heavy vertical lifter," Tenney said in a May 2 telephone interview.
Several key aspects of the U.S. Air Force's Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) program have changed, and another new twist could be on the horizon. The Air Force said it has increased the number of PRVs it plans to buy from 132 to 141, based on additional analysis it recently conducted. The Air Force also has delayed releasing a draft request for proposals (RFP) from March to May, saying "acquisition strategy approval took longer than originally expected."
LONG DURATION: European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany is set to become the first European to live and work on the International Space Station (ISS) on a long-duration mission. ESA and Russia's Federal Space Agency recently signed a deal to put Reiter in a crew position originally scheduled for a Russian cosmonaut. He is to fly to the station later this year, although that could change as the shuttle's return to flight schedule is altered.
POSTPONED: The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group, which is assessing NASA's response to the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, has postponed its May 6 meeting and news conference to give NASA more time to assess potential debris hazards and to give the task group the information it needs to complete its work. NASA said April 29 that it is postponing the shuttle's return to flight from May to July to give itself more time to study potential problems.
Steadicopter Ltd. of Haifa, Israel, is seeking investors for a new unmanned aerial vehicle that could be used for homeland security, the company said April 28. The company combined a patented computer program and Global Positioning System capability with an existing minihelicopter capable of autonomous takeoff, hovering and landing. "There are miniature helicopters that can be flown with remote control or from a ground-control station, but none that are completely autonomous like ours," Amir Rochman, the company CEO, said in a statement.
FLYING GLORY: NASA is continuing to develop the instruments for its Glory mission despite "uncertainty" about what satellite the instruments ultimately will fly on, according to Al Diaz, the agency's associate administrator for science. Glory is designed to measure and characterize atmospheric aerosols and solar irradiance, providing insight into climate change.
PRAGUE - The European Commission has given the green light to the creation of two joint space-related ventures resulting from French electronics company Alcatel merging its space activities with those of Alenia Spazio and Telespazio, part of Italian defense and engineering company Finmeccanica.
E-WARFARE: Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. of Newport News, Va., has been awarded a $9.7 million contract modification for airborne threat simulation capabilities. The company will train shipboard and aircraft squadron weapon systems operators and aircrew on how to counter potential enemy electronic warfare and attack operations using supersonic and subsonic aircraft, the Navy said late April 28.
Net sales rose 20% but net earnings were down 7% for Curtiss-Wright Corp. in the first quarter of 2005, the company said April 28. Net sales totaled $258.5 million, compared with $214.9 million in the first quarter of 2004. Purchases made in 2004 and 2005 added $35.8 million in incremental sales in the first quarter of '05, the Roseland, N.J.-based company said. Net earnings fell to $14.5 million, or 67 cents per share, from $15.6 million, or 74 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.
NASA has postponed the launch of shuttle Discovery on mission STS-114 until July, giving the agency time to conduct additional troubleshooting and analysis as well as install a heater to eliminate ice formation at an area of concern on the external tank's liquid oxygen feedline.
UAV AGENT: Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, is defending a Pentagon push to increase coordination among unmanned aerial vehicles, citing the proliferation of various types of UAVs flown by the military services. The Defense Department is considering designating the Air Force as the executive agent for UAVs, but the term "scares the hell out of everybody because it means that, 'oh my God, you might have a say over budgets,'" Jumper says.
Net income was up $27.6 million and revenue jumped 25% for ITT Industries Inc. in the first quarter of 2005, the company said April 29. The technology products and services provider also increased its '05 earnings target to $5.10-5.25, compared with the previous target of $5-$5.15. ITT's first quarter '05 net income rose to $116.5 million, compared with $88.9 million for the same period last year. Revenue was $1.9 billion, compared with $1.5 billion in the first quarter of '04, the company said.
MOBILITY STUDY: The Mobility Capability Study (MCS), which the Defense Department hoped to finish in April, will take a little more time than expected and is now slated for completion sometime in May, a Pentagon spokeswoman says. Proponents of the Air Force's Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules hope the MCS, which is looking at DOD's overall mobility needs, will support their case for reversing DOD's decision to stop production of the transport aircraft. Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita says DOD hopes to finish reassessing its C-130J decision "soon."
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is exploring the possibility that moisture in an interceptor silo contributed to a recent failed test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.
PERSONNEL EXPERIMENT: Navy engineering, acquisition and aviation engineering duty officers would receive "demonstration authority" under a Defense Department proposal to experiment with changes to officer personnel management. DOD officials want to test changes in compensation, promotions and retention. Among other changes, the project would allow for lateral entry into positions normally reserved for workers who have risen from a lower position. Army foreign area officers also would be subjected to the demonstration.
CLOSING IN: NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has photographed its quarry, the comet Tempel 1, and is closing in for its high-speed July 4 rendezvous, NASA says. "With daily observations beginning in May, Tempel 1 will become noticeably more impressive as we continue to close the gap between spacecraft and comet," says Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, Deep Impact's principal investigator.
EA-18G MODS: The Boeing Co. has finished building the first of two F/A-18F Super Hornets that will be adapted for use as EA-18G flight-test assets, a company spokeswoman says. The jet will now undergo about a year of modifications in St. Louis to equip it for the U.S. Navy's EA-18G electronic attack program. Boeing expects to finish building the second F/A-18F May 12 before converting it to an EA-18G test jet. The EA-18G program plans to begin flight-testing in September 2006.
SPACE CADRE: Gen. Paul Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces, has only a small number of space personnel spread throughout the Pacific, but can supplement them as needed with a "plug" of personnel from Air Force Space Command, he says. "It's similar to our cooperation with Air Mobility Command," Hester says. "When we see a tension that requires a ... more significant focus on air mobility, then Air Mobility Command sends us a plug of people - a specially trained group of people to come and sit in our air ops center." Similarly, AFSPC Commander Gen.
May 3 - 5 -- 2005 Joint Service Power Expo, "Power - Energy Sources for Transformation," Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, Fla. For more information go to http://www.ndia.org. May 9 - 12 -- 13th Global Demilitarization Symposium & Exhibition, John Ascuaga's Nugget, Sparks, Nev. For more information go to http://www.ndia.org. May 24 - 25 -- Military Satellites, "Ensuring Optimal Secure Satellite Communications," Hilton Silver Spring, Silver Spring, Md. For more information call 1-800-882-8684 or go to http://www.idga.org.
