BOMB BODIES: General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems of St. Petersburg, Fla., has been awarded an $89.7 million contract to produce MK80 series bomb bodies for the U.S. Army, the company said March 4. Production will include both inert and live bomb bodies in the 500-pound, 1,000-pound, and 2,000-pound case classes. The contract will be managed at the General Dynamics manufacturing facility in Garland, Texas. The work is set to be finished by July 2006. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Field Support Command at Rock Island, Ill.
INMARSAT 4-F1: The Inmarsat 4-F1 satellite is scheduled to launch March 10 aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The 15-minute launch window will open at 4:42 p.m. Eastern time. Built by EADS Astrium of Toulouse, France, Inmarsat 4F1 is a geosynchronous communications satellite weighing about 13,106 pounds (5,945 kilograms). It is the first in a new generation of satellites that will support Inmarsat's new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN).
REVOLVING DOOR: Boeing Co.'s head lobbyist, Roselee Nichols Roberts, is returning to the House Science Committee's Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. Roberts has been hired as a professional staff member and designee to subcommittee Chairman Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.). Previously, she was Boeing's director for legislative affairs, responsible for representing the company's interests to Congress for 17 years, including a decade with McDonnell Douglas Corp. before Boeing bought it.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Army Secretary Francis Harvey that the $117-billion Future Combat Systems (FCS) should be reclassified under more normal federal acquisition regulations. In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with the service secretaries on March 3, McCain said FCS still is budgeted as a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) item, which means the Army is "relieved of the obligation" of reporting costs and purchasing data to military auditors.
FIGHTING FRAUD: In the wake of a procurement scandal that rocked the U.S. Air Force last year, the Navy is establishing a new Naval Acquisition Integrity Office (NAIO) to serve as the service's central point of contact on the issue. The NAIO also will coordinate the Navy's anti-fraud efforts and keep a database for monitoring procurement fraud.
ARWG PACKAGE: The Acquisition Reform Working Group, an umbrella organization representing several trade associations affiliated with defense issues, will release its 2005 legislative package on March 7. The legislative wish list, targeted to become part of the annual defense authorization and appropriations bills, represents industry's lawmaking suggestions. ARWG issues are expected to include limiting Buy American efforts, as well as easing Defense Department outsourcing.
Navy Secretary Gordon England expects this week to approve a request to complete an environmental study on making the Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville, Fla., a homeport for a nuclear aircraft carrier. The environmental impact study (EIS) would provide answers about making Mayport capable of hosting a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The move comes as the Navy is proposing this year to mothball the 36-year-old, boiler-powered carrier USS John F. Kennedy while possibly maintaining Mayport as another East Coast nuclear carrier port.
NO CRISIS: "We are addressing the inequities between the active [duty forces], Guard and Reserves regarding training, the way they are treated in theater, and when they come home, but the Guard and Reserves are not in crisis mode," says Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey. "We've equipped seven Guard brigades from our active brigade equipment," adds Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pete Schoomaker. "But inequities exist because the Guard and Reserves were our last options" for deployment.
ARMY NEEDS: The U.S. Army is telling lawmakers that its unfunded requirements in the Bush Administration's fiscal 2006 budget request total $4.8 billion and include $33.5 million for overhauling Hellfire missiles, $183 million for Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) situational awareness equipment, $227 million for night-vision devices and $544 million for Stryker armored vehicles.
SOLE-SOURCE: If the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) decides to buy its boosters from just one company, the agency most likely would keep the considerable savings within the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program, says an Orbital Sciences Corp. official. Orbital Sciences is ramping up to build one booster a month for the GMD program. Lockheed Martin is producing a second booster for the MDA.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pressed Navy Secretary Gordon England on March 3 to explain why the Navy is looking at a sole-source shipyard strategy for DD(X) destroyer production when it argued against a similar situation years ago for submarines.
JSF DEFENDED: The U.S. Defense Department and Air Force seem unfazed by the Government Accountability Office's recent assertion that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has too much risk due to an "extreme" six-year overlap between development and production (DAILY, March 4). "We have every confidence in the Joint Strike Fighter program and its ability to provide the most effective technology in support of America's warfighters," DOD spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin says.
Satellite communications provider Intelsat Ltd. reported fourth-quarter 2004 revenue of $283.4 million, an increase of 23% from the same period in 2003, although it posted a loss in continuing operations due to a malfunctioning satellite.
SUB MAINTENANCE: General Dynamics Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., will perform routine maintenance work on the USS Connecticut (SSN 22) Seawolf-class attack submarine under a $62.4 million contract modification awarded by the U.S. Navy, the company said March 2. Electric Boat will carry out a Drydocking Selected Restricted Availability consisting of repairs, maintenance work and alterations. The work will be done at Electric Boat's shipyard in Groton between April and December 2005. Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics.
NASA is making progress in reforming its financial management and has begun a get-well plan called "Operation Clean Opinion" to set the agency back on the road to clean budget audits, according to Chief Financial Officer Gwendolyn Sykes. The plan addresses organizational weaknesses identified by auditors, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the NASA inspector general and internal reviews, Sykes said. Despite its name, it doesn't focus exclusively on audits, she said.
The Defense Department is defending its decision to cancel the Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM), saying the program faced possible cost and schedule overruns and offered capabilities that largely will be met by other air-to-ground munitions.
JASSM LAUNCHED: The U.S. Air Force resumed flight-testing of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) on March 3 by launching the Lockheed Martin-built missile from an F-16 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The Air Force said the test was successful, with the missile hitting its target as planned. Another flight-test is scheduled for later in March. JASSM testing had been suspended since a failed flight-test more than seven months ago.
L-3 Communications has completed the acquisition of General Dynamics' Propulsion Systems business, the company said March 2. New York-based L-3 said late last year that it would buy the Muskegon, Mich.-based unit for $185 million in cash (DAILY, Dec. 1, 2004). Propulsion Systems will be renamed L-3 Communications - Combat Propulsion Systems.
The U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) - which trains, equips and commands its own forces - is cutting unidentified defense systems that do not support anti-terrorism military efforts while other systems are being highlighted, SOCOM's commander told members of Congress on March 2. Army Gen. Bryan Brown, head of U.S. special operations forces (SOF), further said the global combatant command soon will add two new "flagship" programs: SOF Warrior Systems and SOF training centers.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has delivered the first fire-control radar for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to prime contractor Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman said March 3.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recently covered more ground in three consecutive days than either it or its twin rover, Spirit, did in their first 70 days on Mars, according to NASA. From Feb. 19 to 21, Opportunity traveled nearly a quarter of a mile, or 390 meters. During the previous week, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., sent both rovers a software upgrade that enhanced their ability to carry out day-to-day driving commands.
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, late March 2 announced a restructuring that would eliminate one of its 13 subcommittees, the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies panel, which also has oversight of NASA. The restructuring moves the SAC closer to the House Appropriations Committee, which recently cut its subcommittees from 13 to 10. NASA and other science agencies now fall under the committee's revamped Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee.
The F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programs face major challenges ahead despite making recent progress in tackling their development problems, according to congressional testimony by the Government Accountability Office.
