The U.S. Air Force is evaluating whether to fix an F/A-22 Raptor test jet involved in a September mishap at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., according to a service official. Col. Arnold Bunch, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., who led the board that investigated the Sept. 28 mishap, said that no external damage is visible on Raptor 4003 but that some components would probably have to be replaced.
The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said April 7 that MDA plans to take several steps to avoid repeating the kinds of flight-test failures that have recently plagued the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.
COMBS CONTRACT: L-3 Communications' Vertex Aerospace subsidiary has been awarded a one-year, $6.6 million contract to provide Contractor Operated and Managed Base Supply (COMBS) for the U.S. Army National Guard's worldwide C-23 Sherpa aircraft fleet, the company said. L-3 Vertex will provide total contractor supply chain management services for the C-23 fleet, including worldwide procurement, spares repair, quality assurance and inventory tracking.
If Congress grants funding this year to restart a study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), defense officials would study one warhead and are confident they would soon find out whether the concept is realistic, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration has told lawmakers. Administrator Linton F. Brooks told the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee that officials selected the B83 warhead to study because that was where the RNEP study was when funding was pulled from the program last year.
Gen. John A. Gordon (USAF-Ret.) has been named to the board of directors. Gordon is a former homeland security adviser to President Bush and served as deputy director of central intelligence at the CIA. Gen. Richard Hawley (USAF-Ret.), Paul G. Kaminski, William Schneider Jr., and Fred Whitridge are returning for a second three-year term on the board of directors.
Jim Sweizer has been named vice president of federal programs, effective April 18. Sweizer is former chief of the U.S. Air Force voluntary education, dependent schools and veterans benefits programs.
Computer models of flight deck operations, ordnance handling and aircraft fueling show that the desired sortie generation rate (SGR) on the futuristic CVN-21 aircraft carrier can be achieved, Northrop Grumman Corp. has told The DAILY.
Aurora Flight Sciences announced April 7 that it has delivered the first aft fuselage for the RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle to prime contractor Northrop Grumman. Aurora also said it is building the first set of vertical tails and engine nacelle components for the RQ-4B, whose first flight is planned for 2006. The RQ-4B is a larger, more capable version of the RQ-4A that the U.S. Air Force is now using for high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance. The Air Force plans to buy 44 RQ-4Bs.
GRIFFIN HEARING: The full Senate Commerce Committee will consider the nomination of Michael Griffin to be the next administrator of NASA during a hearing in Washington on April 12. The former chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration at NASA, Griffin currently heads the space department at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. Before that he led In-Q-Tel, a venture-capital organization supported by the CIA that develops cutting-edge technologies for espionage and intelligence work (DAILY, March 14).
The Strengthening the Mid-Atlantic Region for Tomorrow (SMART) Congressional Caucus will host a daylong conference on Defense Department unmanned aerial vehicles on April 8 at Naval Air Engineering Station, Lakehurt, N.J. The UAV Payloads and Integration conference will be a technology-focused event, concentrating on recent research and development efforts.
NASA officials on April 7 laid out the day-to-day schedule for the space shuttle's return-to-flight mission (STS-114), which will spend 13 days in orbit testing new safety procedures and resupplying the International Space Station (ISS).
Frederick J. Doyle Jr. has been appointed vice president of special programs. Doug Neam, who Doyle is replacing, is returning to his prior position of vice president, program operations.
Tom Ridge has been named to the board of directors. Ridge is a former Pennsylvania governor and was the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Pentagon plans to determine within the next month or so how much it would cost to terminate the C-130J Super Hercules production line, an Air Force official said April 6. The cost estimate will be finished by late April or early May, in time to support congressional deliberations on the Defense Department's fiscal 2006 budget request, said Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez, who testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is getting ready to start putting the landing gear on its first flight-test jet. Prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. plans to install the nose landing gear on the aircraft's forward fuselage the week of April 11 at the company's plant in Fort Worth, Texas, according to a company spokesman. The single-tire, forward-retracting device is about 26 inches wide and 6 feet high in the extended position. The two main landing gears will be added to the center fuselage sometime later.
SALE ADVICE: Satellite imagery provider Space Imaging of Thornton, Colo., has hired Banc of America Securities to advise it on the possible sale of the company. Space Imaging is being forced to take this step after losing out on the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's NextView program, which has awarded $500 million each to competitors Digital Globe and Orbimage for the companies to develop their next-generation satellite systems.
H-1 LRIP: The Marine Corps has awarded Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth, Texas a $104 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for the second low-rate initial production (LRIP) lot of H-1 upgraded helicopters. Work on the four UH-1Y and three AH-1Z aircraft will begin immediately at Fort Worth and the new Bell plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to Naval Air Systems Command. The finished aircraft are scheduled for delivery in 2007.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar program has mounted a Raytheon-built radar on a converted oil rig, MDA announced April 4. A Boeing-led team integrated the radar in Corpus Christi, Texas. The mating will be followed by several months of sea trials. SBX is designed to track long-range ballistic missiles and distinguish between warheads and decoys. Photo courtesy the Boeing Co.
NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operation for its twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which have been studying rocks on the red planet since January 2004. Originally designed for 90-day baseline missions, the rovers have spent the past 11 months doing extended exploration. "We now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," Rover Project Manager Jim Erickson said in a statement. The rovers now are approved to operate through September 2006.
