Sea Launch Co. successfully launched DIRECTV's Spaceway F1 satellite into orbit on April 26, and early data indicates the spacecraft is in "excellent condition," the company said. The satellite was launched from the company's Odyssey Launch Platform stationed at the equator, carried by a Zenit-3SL booster. A ground station in South Africa acquired the satellite's first signal less than an hour after liftoff. Spaceway F1 is a Boeing 702 model built by Boeing's Satellite Development Center in El Segundo, Calif. It has a design life of 12 years.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has postponed marking up the fiscal 2006 Coast Guard authorization bill to settle member disagreements, a congressional aide told The DAILY. In hearings, committee members have homed in on the service's Deepwater recapitalization program and many have expressed frustration with the White House for not accelerating the effort.
A major review of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is forecast to wrap up within the next few weeks, an MDA spokesman said April 26. The review, led by Navy Rear Adm. Kathleen Paige, is expected to conclude roughly in early- or mid-May, MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said.
Northrop Grumman announced April 26 that it has achieved milestones for three U.S. military aviation programs: the multiservice F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy's E-2D Advanced Hawkeye battle management plane and an upgrade to the Navy's EA-6B Prowler electronic attack plane.
Even with efforts to cut the costs of future submarines and destroyers, the U.S. Navy still would have to spend more every year on shipbuilding efforts than it has on average for the last five years, congressional budget officials have said.
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) will build a communications satellite for ICO Satellite Management LLC to provide voice and data communications throughout the United States, the company said April 26. The satellite will be based on Space System/Loral's 1300 platform and will operate in the 2 gigahertz frequency band. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who has been nominated to be chief of naval operations, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mullen testified April 19). Q: What is your view of the extent to which these defense [Goldwater-Nichols Act and Special Operations] reforms have been implemented?
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s net earnings grew 27% in the first quarter of 2005, net sales were up 2%, and its 2005 outlook for sales and earnings per share has been increased, the company said April 26. The company reported net earnings of $369 million, or 83 cents per share, in the first three months of 2005, compared with $291 million, or 65 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2004. Net sales climbed to $8.5 billion from first quarter 2004 sales of $8.3 billion.
Orbital Sciences Corp. said April 26 that it successfully flight-tested the final development vehicle in the U.S. Navy's GQM-163A "Coyote" Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target (SSST) system. The test for the Naval Air Systems Command occurred April 22 at Point Mugu, Calif., and marked the end of the SSST's development and flight-test program, which included seven launches over the last two years, including five guided and two unguided launches (DAILY, March 28).
NAVY FINANCES: The U.S. Navy has outlined four contracts worth a total of as much as $430 million for accounting services to support its financial improvement plan. The service on April 25 announced that Science Applications International Corp. of McLean, Va., was awarded a potential $110 million contract while IBM Business Consulting Services of Fairfax, Va., won another for about $104 million.
Northrop Grumman said it has received a $48.2 million contract from the U.S. Navy for production of 60 BQM-74E aerial targets in 2006. The contract includes an option for 60 more of the systems in 2007, the company said April 25. The subsonic, subscale BQM-74 series was introduced in 1966. The E model was fielded by the U.S. Navy in 1993 and is used to replicate enemy cruise missiles and aircraft for fleet training and to test and evaluate anti-ship and anti-aircraft weapon systems, Northrop Grumman said.
The U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) will call together contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. and other groups working on the Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) for a terse update ahead of a planned Milestone C decision in December, defense officials have said. Meanwhile, the commanding general of the Special Operations Command, a unique combatant command that buys for its forces as well as trains and equips them, has told senators that the program's "battery problem" is about to be solved and that the ASDS is destined to get "across the finish line."
Boeing has awarded LaBarge Inc. of St. Louis a contract worth more than $1 million to provide wiring harnesses for the X-45C, which Boeing is developing as part of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program. LaBarge will build more than 150 wiring harnesses that distribute power and data signals at its facility in Joplin, Mo. The company expects to begin production this month and wrap up in November.
DRS Technologies Inc. has been awarded a $9.2 million contract to provide a Fiber Optic Data Multiplex System (FODMS) for the South Korean navy's newest KDX-III Aegis-class destroyer, the company said April 25. The FODMS is a dual network system that provides data and integrated communications between propulsion and power control systems, steering, navigation sensors, weapons systems, alarms, indicators, integrated bridge systems, and Aegis combat systems, the company said.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $143,000,000 contract modification to provide for contract price increases and funding to account for Global Hawk EMD Overrun. At this time, $8,851,651 of the funds has been obligated. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-4600, P00090).
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by Gordon England, who has been nominated to be deputy secretary of defense, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. England testified April 7).
Boeing will produce ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicles, communication links and ground equipment for the U.S. Navy under a $14.5 million contract, the company said April 25. The UAVs and related equipment will support Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terror, Boeing said. It did not disclose the number of vehicles that are to be provided.
A ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems-built U32 submarine began its final sea testing on April 20 in preparation for its scheduled July delivery to the German navy, the Hamburg-based company said April 24. Extensive tests will take place in deep water on the south Norwegian coast and in various shallow waters of the Baltic Sea. The shallow-water tests will gauge the sub's handling, while the deep water tests focus on sensors, weapons and guidance systems.
Subscriptions to direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services - the main competitor to cable TV - have grown rapidly since 2001, and DBS is increasing its penetration in urban and suburban markets, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report. "DBS penetration rates have been and remain highest in rural areas, but since 2001, DBS penetration has grown most rapidly in urban and suburban areas, where the penetration rates were originally low," the report says.
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) will provide MK46 weapon station turrets, remote consoles and related engineering support for three LPD-class ships, the company said April 25. The work, done under an $18.9 million contract from Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, is for the LPD-21, 22 and 23. GDLS is to provide two turrets and two consoles for each of the ships, and complete the work by June 2007. The MK46 turrets allow close-in gun system capability for defending against surface threats.
Congressional budget estimators say the U.S. Navy would need to spend about $15 billion a year on total shipbuilding efforts just to reach the low end of a range that Pentagon leaders say is an acceptable future fleet size - nearly twice what the White House proposed for fiscal 2006 and billions more than the service currently believes. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office said the Navy's minimum plan of 260 ships still would produce a "peak-and-valley" construction pattern that industry has lamented in recent years.
InterSense Inc. has delivered a helmet tracking system for use with the night-vision goggle capability on the U.S. Air Force's F-16 Mission Training Center program, the company said April 25. The training systems, developed by Lockheed Martin, provide realistic, immersive training. The initial order for the IS-900 tracking system was used in a critical design review demonstration to the Air Force, the Bedford, Mass.-based company said.
