DRS Technologies Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., has been awarded several contracts worth about $25 million to design and produce power conversion, distribution and machinery control equipment for existing and next-generation U.S. Navy combatant surface ships and submarines, including new ships in the Littoral Combat Ship program, the company said May 16.
AIR FORCE Composite Engineering, Sacramento, Calif., is being awarded a $19,823,973 firm fixed price contract modification to provide for Air Force Subscale Aerial Target, Exercise of Low Rate Initial Production Option for Lot 2 (quantity of 36 AFSATs) and the procurement of Exhibit B-Data. No funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by March 2007. The Headquarters Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08635-02-C-0005, P00019).
NOMINATED: Gen. T. Michael Moseley has been nominated by President Bush to become the next Air Force chief of staff. Moseley, currently the Air Force deputy chief of staff, would succeed Gen. John Jumper. Moseley has been the Air Force's deputy chief of staff since August 2003. Jumper is set to retire in September after serving four years as Air Force chief of staff.
MDA LEADERSHIP: U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Marvin McNamara has been tapped to become the deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, succeeding Army Maj. Gen. John Holly, who is retiring, the Defense Department announced May 16. McNamara has been MDA's deputy director for force structure, integration and deployment.
NASA and Boeing have postponed the launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) NOAA-N satellite until no earlier than May 20 as engineers check for possible contamination of the spacecraft. During a de-tanking procedure May 12, a vent hose in the Delta II's intertank area broke loose, possibly allowing gaseous hydrocarbons into the rocket's payload fairing. Preliminary analysis of samples seems to indicate that the satellite is in the clear, according to NASA spokesman George Diller.
The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program is seeking additional funding from its overseeing agencies to try to stay on schedule for a first launch in November 2009, following a series of delays with a prototype demonstration satellite that have exhausted the program's budget reserves.
MOSCOW - Khrunichev Center has begun testing KazSat, a small telecommunications satellite that the center is building for Kazakhstan. In late April, thermal tests of the spacecraft were completed, and dynamic testing is now under way and expected to be finished by June. In the meantime, previously announced plans for piggybacking KazSat on a December 2005 launch along with Russia's Express AM-3 communications satellite have changed.
The Defense Department has awarded Force Protection Inc. a contract for roughly 120 mine-protected Cougar Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicles for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first delivery order, for $45.7 million, was announced May 16 for 71 vehicles, the company said. The first Cougars are expected to reach the field by early fall.
Backing its warnings with action, the Senate Armed Services Committee has included several provisions in the latest annual defense authorization bill that take aim at the Pentagon's acquisition practices, including requiring congressional approval of major weapons programs operating under accelerated procedures designed for commercial items. "These provisions would increase the size and quality of the acquisition work force, strengthen defense ethics programs and reduce the risk of contract fraud," according to a SASC announcement May 13.
The U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Titan Corp. a $19.9 million contract to provide installation, testing, and training for the Navy's Total Ship Training Systems (TSTS) program, the company said May 16. TSTS is a fleet-wide effort to train more on Navy platforms to maintain combat readiness.
Both the House and the Senate will consider their versions of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bills over the next two weeks. Subcommittees on both sides of Capitol Hill marked up their portions last week, and the full SASC even agreed to a committee version (DAILY, May 16). The HASC will meet May 18 to hash out its final version.
EA-18G MODS: The Boeing Co. has finished building the second of two F/A-18F Super Hornets that will be converted to flight-test assets for the U.S. Navy's EA-18G electronic attack aircraft program. The second aircraft was delivered to the modification shop in St. Louis in the middle of the week of May 9-13, trailing the first jet by about two weeks (DAILY, May 4). The conversion process, which will include installing mission equipment and making final structural modifications, is expected to last about a year.
Australia will conduct live firings of Hellfire II missiles from its new Eurocopter Tiger Helicopters through September, after which the missile system will be cleared for operational use, Hellfire maker Lockheed Martin said May 16. Lockheed Martin and Eurocopter successfully completed a series of launcher and platform integration tests, showing that the Hellfire II and M299 "smart" launchers work with the helicopter. Australia received its first two Tigers at a ceremony in December.
BRAC FOCUS: Anthony Principi has quit as vice president of drug manufacturer Pfizer Corp. to spend more time as chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The commission began hearings May 16 on the Defense Department's proposal to close 33 bases and realign 29 others, saving almost $50 billion over the next 20 years.
New mine countermeasure technology designed to neutralize anti-tank and anti-invasion mines in beach and surf zones, called the Venom Penetrator, is under development at the Naval Sea System Command Warfare Center, Indian Head Division. The Office of Naval Research is sponsoring the project as part of the Far Term Assault Breaching System. Indian Head is working with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Boeing Co. to demonstrate surf- and beach-zone mine-clearing systems.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the U.S. Army's modularity concept has found that proposals to field "medium-weight" formations equipped with Stryker vehicles and Future Combat Systems technology would improve unit deployment times only "slightly," but that additional naval transport ships for prepositioning equipment near conflict zones could help "substantially."
Composite Engineering Inc., which has just received a contract for low-rate production of 36 Air Force Subscale Aerial Targets (DAILY, May 16), will conduct the eighth of 12 scheduled AFSAT demonstration flights on May 20, according to Jeff Herro, vice president of business development for the Sacramento, Calif., company.
AMMO HANDLING SYSTEMS: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics of Fort Worth, Texas, has awarded General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products of Charlotte, N.C., a $10.6 million contract to manufacture 26 ammunition handling systems and spares for the F/A-22 Raptor aircraft, General Dynamics said May 12. Assembly work will be done at General Dynamics' Saco, Maine, facility. Program management and system testing will take place in Burlington, Vt. The contract extends production through April 2007.
FORCE PROTECTION: The House Armed Services Committee is expected to maintain its emphasis on force protection efforts as it marks ups the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill (H.R. 1815). In particular, research and development funding will be redirected for efforts that can be quickly fielded to military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We take a hard look at funding and direction of some of our defense research and development programs, and take action to ensure that the highest priority is placed on force protection research initiatives," says Rep.
JSF GUN: The critical design review for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter gun has been moved from late June to July 12-13 to allow for more analysis of data. Recent wind-tunnel tests for the gun produced results that differed from what was predicted, according to a spokeswoman for the Defense Department program. The brief delay in the design review is not expected to affect other program dates. The Lockheed Martin-built F-35 is to be equipped with a General Dynamics GD-425 4-barrel Gatling gun.
