The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has awarded BAE Systems a $58 million technical services contract, which could reach $314 million over five years, for antiterrorism force protection systems at U.S. government facilities worldwide. The award, replacing an existing contract, is expected to be completed by March 2006.
NEW SAT: Orbital Sciences Corp. said April 18 that it will build a new communications satellite for PanAmSat Corp. The spacecraft, PAS-11, will carry 16 C-band and 18 Ku-band transponders to provide telecommunications and direct-to-home TV broadcasting services. It is to be delivered in the first quarter of 2007.
Titanium forging companies, locked into firm fixed price contracts with their prime contractors, are "expecting an answer in the next couple of weeks" on whether the Defense Department will change regulations to protect them from rising titanium costs, an industry representative told The DAILY April 18.
Lockheed Martin said it is delivering two upgrades of the Theater Battle Management Core System (TBMCS) that make it easier to coordinate air battles. TBMCS, which was first deployed in October 2000, is the primary system for planning and executing the joint air campaign, according to the company. It said it has evolved from a large client-server system to a much more streamlined, Web-based enterprise.
The U.S. Department of Defense expects to unveil the first part of a massive two-phase shipbuilding study and industrial plan by late May or early June, which will call on Congress to create a Shipbuilding Industrial Base Investment Fund to help industry. It also is expected to suggest ways to cut the amount of work that the U.S. Navy itself creates, such as through design changes to ongoing ship construction.
LONDON - The United Kingdom may not build complete airliners anymore, but a recent report from the House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee says the U.K. aerospace industry seems to be in good health, bouncing back from downturns in global air travel caused by the 9/11 attacks, SARS outbreaks and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The U.S. Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM) program is gearing up to conduct several more tests before a late-June review that could help decide its fate. An instrumented measurement vehicle that closely resembles JCM's structure is being integrated onto an Apache helicopter at Fort Rucker, Ala., and will soon fly aboard the aircraft for "captive carry" tests to ensure the missile does not hurt the helicopter's aerodynamics, officials at prime contractor Lockheed Martin said April 18.
The U.S. Navy has announced that Magneto Inductive Systems Ltd. USA of San Bernadino, Calif., was awarded an $8.6 million contract to further develop its Magneto-Inductive Signaling Device System. The new hardware is supposed to improve precision demolition from very shallow water to beaches where acoustic or radio signals cannot permeate, the Navy said April 15. Most of Magneto's work will be done in Head Jeddore, Canada, with the rest in San Bernadino. Work should be finished by April 2008.
GAS DETECTION: Honeywell said April 18 that it will acquire Zellweger Analytics of Uster, Switzerland, which provides hazardous gas detection technology. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2005. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell said the Zellweger buy will allow it to enter the worldwide gas detection market.
APPROVED: The Defense Department announced decisions for two major Air Force programs late April 18, saying it has approved full-rate production of the F/A-22 Raptor and continued funding of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. Although the decision to move from low-rate to full-rate production of the Lockheed Martin-built F/A-22 had been expected for weeks (DAILY, April 1), the significance of the Global Hawk decision was not immediately clear.
In his quest to make sure production of the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules continues, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has introduced a provision that would force the Air Force to keep funding the program at least until October. Chambliss' amendment, offered as part of the fiscal 2005 supplemental bill now on the Senate floor, has the support of at least 14 other senators.
The mission team for NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous technology hopes to finish validating its hardware through ground testing and analysis, following an on-orbit anomaly that ended the mission prematurely on the evening of April 15.
The United States should begin soon to develop a future non-nuclear long range strike system to attack time-sensitive targets, and the most cost-effective way to hit most of them will be with manned or unmanned platforms flying at a top speed of no more than Mach 2.5, according to a new report.
SUB CYBERSECURITY: The University of Texas (UT) Austin Center for Information Assurance and Security has announced a joint project with the U.S. Navy to help improve protection of Navy defense data systems. The project includes a combination of research and advanced development on high-performance information assurance technologies for use on submarines, the Naval Sea Systems Command said.
MMA TESTS: The U.S. Navy's P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) program is gearing up for more wind-tunnel testing. The Boeing Co., the program's prime contractor, plans to return to Philadelphia in May for more low-speed tests with an 11% scale model, which underwent an earlier round there in late 2004, says Neal Mosbarger, Boeing's flight technology manager.
NASA plans to release an announcement of opportunity (AO) no later than May 1 for a scientific instrument that will fly onboard the agency's Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) when it launches in 2009. This proposed investigation must "support the science theme of Mars Climate/Weather Monitoring identified by the MTO Science Definition Team," according to NASA. Proposals will be due 90 days after the AO is released.
AERONAUTICS: "Aeronautics is a core part of the NASA mission, always has been, in my view, always will be," says new NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. However, the agency must brace itself for some painful "dislocations" among its aeronautics work force as it gears up to execute its space exploration agenda, he says. "I don't see a way to avoid some of those dislocations at present. We do live in a world of limited resources and we do have to set priorities. But setting priorities is not a binary event.
Four U.S. Air Force programs are slated to receive fresh scrutiny by the Defense Department's Inspector General (IG), further expanding a probe into the service's procurement practices.
