REPLACED: Government-owned missile manufacturer Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL) has replaced its former managing director, retired Maj. Gen. P. Mohan Das, with retired Maj. Gen. R. Gossain. Das was fired "in the public interest," according to a defense ministry source, in a move related to an investigation of financial irregularities in the country's guided missile program.
Northrop Grumman Corp. is accepting the U.S. Navy's latest plan for developing and buying the DD(X) destroyer while General Dynamics Corp. has indicated that further discussion may be necessary, representatives from the companies have told The DAILY.
UAV FLIGHT HOURS: The ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle, developed by Boeing Co. and the Insitu Group, has surpassed 3,000 combat flight hours in Iraq in just 10 months, Boeing said May 26. The ScanEagle was deployed by the First Marine Expeditionary Force beginning in August 2004 and provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the company said.
DSP-23 SHIPPED: The last of the Northrop Grumman-built, missile-launch-detecting Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites was shipped to Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 9 to process it for launch, the U.S. Air Force says. DSP-23 is scheduled to lift off in December.
The value of new orders for the defense sector of the U.S. aerospace industry for the first quarter of 2005 indicates that the current boom will continue a bit longer than expected, said David Napier, director of the Aerospace Industries Association's Aerospace Research Center.
Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) is on a mission that hobby enthusiasts young and old could thank him for: cutting some of the cost of toy military aircraft and ship models. The lawmaker successfully amended the House's fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill to require the Defense Department to prohibit defense contractors from requiring U.S. toy and hobby manufacturers, distributors or merchants to obtain licenses from, or pay fees to, the contractor for the use of military likenesses or designations on items provided under DOD contracts.
Orbital Sciences Corp. announced May 27 that it is involved in a federal investigation into U.S. government launch vehicle contracts. The company said in a brief statement that federal authorities are believed to be probing contracting procedures for "certain" launch vehicle programs and that government agents executed search warrants May 26 at Orbital's Dulles, Va., and Chandler, Ariz., facilities.
SATS DEMO: NASA, the FAA and industry partners plan to demonstrate new small-aircraft aviation technology at "SATS 2005: A Transformation of Air Travel," on June 6 at the regional airport in Danville, Va. The Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) is intended to develop technologies to let small airplanes fly safely into community airports that don't have radar or extensive ground navigation systems, so people can fly from these airports on demand.
DE-MATING: Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will de-mate the shuttle Discovery from its external tank (ET-120) on May 31 and attach it to a new tank, ET-121, on June 7. The second tank to feature safety improvements developed in the wake of the Columbia accident, ET-121 originally was scheduled to fly with Atlantis on the second return-to-flight mission, STS-121. A new heater will be installed on ET-121 on the feedline bellows, where engineers are concerned that ice may form.
SUPER HORNETS: The Boeing Co. is open to selling additional numbers of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters to the U.S. Navy and to India and Japan, a Boeing official says. "We're always working with our Navy customer ... we'll sell as many Super Hornets to the Navy as they would like to buy," Bob Farmer Jr., Boeing's director of business development for the F/A-18, said recently.
The U.S. Navy late May 26 announced it had awarded roughly $30 million in research and development (R&D) work to General Dynamics Electric Boat Division of Groton, Conn., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., of Sunnyvale, Calif., for undersea warfare activity.
IN THEATER: Lockheed Martin's Short-Range Assault Weapon-Multiple Purpose Variant (SRAW-MPV) currently is being used by troops in Iraq, according to a Marine Corps spokesman. The SRAW-MPV is a variant of the Predator shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon.
South Korea will buy another round of fighter aircraft worth 5.6 trillion won ($5.6 billion) and spend 800 billion won ($799 million) on 20 other weapons programs between 2006 and 2010, the defense ministry said May 26.
June 1 - 2 -- National Small Business Conference, "Opening New Frontiers Through Effective Partnering," Los Angeles Marriott Airport, Los Angeles, Calif. For more information go to www.ndia.org. June 5 - 7 -- SATS 2005: A Transformation in Air Travel, "Demonstration of the capabilities of the Small Aircraft Transportation System project," Danville Regional Airport, Danville, Va. For more information contact September Moon Productions at 248-355-3700, email [email protected] or go to www.sats2005.com.
With renewed hope that NASA may restore funding for hypersonics, engineers at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., are crafting a revamped proposal for the X-43C, a larger follow-on to the record-setting X-43A demonstrator that flew twice in 2004. Funding for hypersonics appeared to dry up last year as the agency's space exploration plans took center stage and various aeronautics efforts were scaled back or canceled. Engineers at Langley were ordered to stop work on the X-43C, a 16-foot-long vehicle that would have used hydrocarbon fuel.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied a protest from HMR Tech LLC over a U.S. Coast Guard contract for project and acquisition management services. HMR, of Arlington, Va., protested the award to Enterprise Information Services Inc. (EIS) of Atlanta, saying the Coast Guard didn't properly evaluate whether EIS' lower bid was realistically priced, among other things. The GAO said that the Coast Guard "reasonably satisfied its obligation ... to perform a price realism evaluation."
CHINA RISING: Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) is forming the Congressional China Caucus because of the Asian giant's burgeoning economic and military capacity. "China's economic output is expected to triple over the next 15 years, and its militarization efforts have raised concerns worldwide," a Forbes statement says. "The Congressional China Caucus is being formed to raise awareness on and serve as a forum of discussion for U.S.-China interests in the U.S. House of Representatives." Other members include Reps.
ROCKET ORDER: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products of Charlotte, N.C., has won a $129 million delivery order to produce 2.75-inch Hydra-70 rockets, motors and warheads for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and foreign military sales, the company said May 26. The order was made by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., under a five-year contract worth up to $900 million that was signed in early May. Program management and systems engineering will be done at the General Dynamics Burlington Technology Center in Vermont.
PARIS PRESENCE: The U.S. Defense Department plans to display eight to 10 aircraft at the Paris Air Show in mid-June, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The aircraft likely will include Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, C-130J and C-17 transports and the F/A-18E/F fighter. In addition, the Boeing Co. says it plans to send over the first KC-767A tanker, which it built for the Italian air force. "It's one of the most robust shows we've had in a long time," Kohler tells The DAILY.
Boeing said its response to Pentagon officials earlier this week concerning the department's "show cause" letter and the possible termination of its billion-dollar Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) Cluster 1 program contract "is a first step toward developing a realistic plan for moving forward" with the program. "The response Boeing delivered to the government carefully reviewed all of its concerns and addressed them in a detailed and forthright manner," the company said in a statement released late May 25.
General Electric will upgrade an initial 95 F110 engines for F-16C/D aircraft as part of a service life extension program, the company said May 23. The work will be done under a $57 million U.S. Air Force contract. Ultimately, the SLEP program is expected to include about 800 F110 engines through 2012, and has a potential value of more than $280 million to GE, the company said.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE: Optimizing human performance in the military will be studied under a five-year contract worth up to 20 million pounds ($36.4 million) awarded by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. The Haldane-Spearman Consortium, led by QinetiQ Ltd., will conduct the research, QinetiQ said May 26. The consortium will study physical fitness, mental performance, nutrition, sleep, selection and training and making equipment easy to use, London-based QinetiQ said.
The United States has asked Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) to decide by the end of May whether it wants to buy 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft from the U.S., a MND spokesman said May 24. If Taiwan does not reply, the aircraft may be sold to other countries, Liu Chih-chien said.
