As its space exploration plans become better defined, NASA hopes to assign enough work to sustain its work force close to its current level of 18,000, although for the time being the agency is budgeting for 2,000 fewer employees starting in 2007, according to agency officials.
Northrop Grumman successfully demonstrated captive-flight tests of its multimode, air-to-ground terminal guidance seeker during exercises in December at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the company said Feb. 16. The exercises showed the seeker's ability to find, fix, track, target and engage tactical moving targets based on information sent by ground controllers through a data link, the company said.
The U.S. Air Force has been paying high prices to Boeing for spare parts for its Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft partly because service officials didn't evaluate pricing information to get a better deal and didn't compete some of the equipment, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. Since late 2001, the Air Force has spent $1.4 million to buy three AWACS ailerons, $7.9 million for 24 engine cowlings and about $5.9 million for three radomes, which cover the surveillance aircraft's radar antennas.
BANGALORE - Bharat Electronics Ltd. has announced several contracts at the Aero India show held near here, including a $1.6 million deal with the government of Suriname to supply defense communication equipment and night-vision devices. The state-owned company also is said to be talking with Suriname's defense forces about supplying additional artillery combat command and control systems.
The Stafford-Covey Task Group is confident it will receive final information packages from NASA by the end of this month and complete its assessment of NASA's return to flight efforts by April, according to task group co-chair Richard Covey.
The U.S. Army Guard and Army Reserve have deployed 2,400 new recruiters to ward off a possible dip in force levels in the wake of the Iraq war, a Reserve affairs official said Feb. 17. "They are out there right now in anticipation of the challenge ahead," Tom Hall, assistant secretary of defense for Reserve affairs, told the Defense Writers Group in Washington. Hall said recruiting targets fell short for a time following the Gulf War in the early 1990s, and that while it may not happen again, it is prudent to act now.
The U.S. Navy is piecing together a plan for how to spend $600 million in requested funds to design an undersea superiority system, which would revolve around generating new ideas that entail offboard sensors and systems, officials said Feb. 17. Navy Secretary Gordon England told the House Armed Services Committee that the Navy has not yet decided how those funds will be allocated, namely because it is only one month into the concept.
The U.S. Army has ordered a fifth brigade of Stryker wheeled combat vehicles, General Dynamics Land Systems said Feb. 17. The $582 million order for 423 vehicles is part of a $4 billion contract awarded in November 2000. More than 1,000 of the vehicles have been delivered so far, the company said. Delivery of the vehicles to be built under the new contract is scheduled to begin in January 2006 and continue through January 2007.
Lockheed Martin will provide the U.S. Army and foreign military customers with 97 Arrowhead night vision sensor systems for AH-64 Apache attack helicopters under a $47 million contract, the company said Feb. 17. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Program Executive Office-Aviation. Deliveries will begin in July. The first Arrowhead-equipped Army unit will be fielded in June. The Army plans to buy 704 Arrowhead systems for its AH-64 Apache fleet by 2011, the Bethesda, Md.-based company said.
Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., will lead the development of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)-Lo sensor under a contract awarded by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) of San Antonio, Texas, the company announced Feb. 17.
The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center awarded the Boeing Co. a $5.4 million contract modification to store "government furnished property" until January 2006 in case the re-engining production line for the KC-135 tanker needs to be restarted, the U.S. Department of Defense said Feb. 17. Negotiations on the work were completed this month and the work would be completed by June 2006, the DOD said.
X PRIZE PRIZE: The Space Foundation has selected the X Prize Foundation as winner of the 2005 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which honors contributions to public awareness of space exploration and support of it. The award will be presented to X Prize Foundation Chairman and President Peter H. Diamandis on April 4, during the foundation's National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo. The X Prize Foundation sponsored the Ansari X Prize competition for commercial space flight, which was won by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne (DAILY, Oct. 5, 2004).
BANGALORE - Northrop Grumman is talking with the Indian navy and government at the biannual Aero India show near here about greater cooperation on E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, company officials said. India requested a price from the Los Angeles-based company last October for a full support package for six E-2C Hawkeye 2000 airborne early warning aircraft for the navy. Company officials said they are willing to consider some technology transfer related to the deal, subject to U.S. State Department approvals.
BODY ARMOR: Ceradyne Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif., has been awarded a $5.3 million contract to provide body armor for elite U.S. military personnel, the company said Feb. 17. The order is set to be shipped during the first six months of 2006. The contract is separate from previous orders for Small Arms Protective Inserts (SAPI), Joel Moskowitz, Ceradyne CEO, said in a statement.
Top Navy officials on Feb. 17 defended their proposal to retire the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and maintained that greater capability and new fleet efficiencies allow the Navy to keep the number of ships it operates low. "We've gone through some pretty radical changes in the fleet," Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, told the House Armed Services Committee. "Those factors have changed the way we look at all the numbers."
It would be irresponsible not to finish a study on the proposed Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Senate Armed Services Committee members on Feb. 17. "Proceeding with this study is eminently sensible. Anyone would look back five years from now, if we failed to take a responsible step like that and feel like we made a mistake," he told the committee.
FIRST NID: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte has been nominated by President Bush to serve as the nation's first national intelligence director. Negroponte, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been serving in Baghdad since June.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) successfully tested a full-scale Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) to support the shuttle's return to flight, the company said Feb. 17. The test, conducted at the company's Promontory, Utah, facility, was designed to validate the performance of a mid-life rocket motor, the company said. RSRMs are certified for flight for five years after their propellant is cast. This is the last scheduled test before the return to flight, currently set for a window opening in mid-May.
ORLANDO, Fla. - The U.S. Air Force will have to develop alternatives for equipping its fighter force if it is unable to reverse cuts in its purchase of F/A-22 Raptors, a top general said Feb. 17. Asked at an Air Force Association (AFA) conference here whether the Air Force will extend the service life of aging F-15s and F-16s if the F/A-22 cuts stand, Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, said that "obviously we're going to have to have backup plans" to ensure enough fighters are fielded.
NEW DELHI - India's air force soon will sign an $885 million contract to buy 20 Light Combat Aircraft from state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., with an option for 30 more, the head of the service said at the biannual Aero India show held near Bangalore. Three LCA prototypes have logged 357 sorties, and the first twin-seat aircraft is expected to be ready in the next year and a half, said Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, chief of the air staff. The first 20 aircraft will be fitted with GE F404 engines. Big buy
Northrop Grumman is working on technologies that will "take transformation to the street fight" and aid U.S. soldiers fighting terrorist insurgents in Iraq, according to company president and CEO Ron Sugar.
