NASA is developing a self-contained flight termination system for rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that the agency thinks could greatly reduce the ground infrastructure, turnaround time, and cost of future launches.
Sales for Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc. of South St. Paul, Minn., were up 25.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the same period a year ago, the company said Feb. 14. Sales in the first quarter of FY '05, which ended Dec. 31, were $1.8 million, compared with $1.4 million in the first quarter of FY '04. Strong sales in Europe and more units shipped to Cirrus Design were the main contributors to the increase, the company said.
TANK AMMO: Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will continue to produce 120mm training ammunition used by the Army's M1A1/A2 Abrams main battle tank and provide ammo logistics support under $54 million in orders, the company said. The orders were awarded by the U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command, Rock Island, Ill. This is the second annual procurement under a four-year contract. The potential total value is $220 million. Deliveries are set to start in December 2005.
The United Kingdom's Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF) has a new EADS-built communications network to provide increased command and control capability for its army, navy and air force, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said Feb. 11. The Cormorant system can be transported by air and set up quickly to allow communications between units and back to the U.K. "as soon as the JRRF arrives in a foreign trouble spot," the MOD said.
ON TRACK: The joint venture responsible for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program sees "robust" presidential support in the 33% proposed budget increase for fiscal 2006, a spokeswoman told The DAILY Feb. 14. While Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) has not seen details of President Bush's Deepwater-related proposal, released Feb. 7, it does not expect any schedule or program changes, spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell-Jones said. ICGS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
SUB WORK: The U.S. Navy awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a contract modification for $60.9 million for nuclear-submarine work, the company announced late Feb. 11. The contract initially was awarded last March and is potentially worth more than $1.1 billion over five years if fully exercised (DAILY, May 7, 2004).
FALCON CONTRACTS: Harris Corp. of Rochester, N.Y., has been awarded $12 million in contracts to provide Falcon(R) II tactical radios to the Danish Ministry of Defence, the company said Feb. 14. Harris has provided Falcons to the Danish Army Material Command (DAMC) for United Nations, NATO and Partnership for Peace missions.
TUAV: AAI Corp. will provide the U.S. Army with an additional Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) system and support equipment under a $14.4 million contract, AAI's subsidiary, United Industrial Corp., said Feb. 14. The system will be produced along with eight TUAV systems that were ordered in December 2004 under the fiscal 2005 full-rate production contract. Three mobile maintenance facility (MMF) units were also added to the contract. The work will be done at AAI's manufacturing facility in Hunt Valley, Md.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced Feb. 14 that it was unable to finish a flight-test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system because the interceptor failed to launch, possibly due to malfunctioning ground equipment. While program officials are reviewing test data to determine why the launch did not occur, "preliminary indications point to a fault with the ground support equipment, not the interceptor missile," MDA said in a statement.
The U.S. Defense Department announced Feb. 14 that eight more Air Force contracts have been referred to DOD's Inspector General to investigate whether they were tainted by a former Air Force official who has admitted wrongdoing in several other programs.
Microelectronic assemblies manufacturer Hytek Microsystems Inc. of Carson City, Nev., and microelectronic products manufacturer Natel Engineering Co. of Chatsworth, Calif., have agreed to merge, Hytek said Feb. 14. Under the agreement, Natel will pay $2 per share for all of Hytek's issued and outstanding shares of common stock. Hytek shareholders must approve the agreement, the company said.
As many as 150 representatives from roughly 33 states are expected to attend an informational briefing Feb. 15 in Washington to hear EADS North America discuss its competition for a new aerial refueling tanker production facility, a company spokesman told The DAILY.
LANDING CRAFT ARMOR: Ceradyne Inc. said Feb. 11 that it received a $2.8 million order for its lightweight ceramic armor for use on unidentified U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion vessels. The order, the first of its kind for the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company, was placed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center for delivery in late 2005.
Europe's Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift rocket returned to flight Feb. 12, launching the XTAR-EUR communications satellite and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Sloshsat scientific spacecraft. The ECA variant had not flown since its failed first flight in December 2002, which destroyed Eutelsat's Hot Bird 7 satellite and prompted a redesign of the rocket's Vulcain 2 main engine. Arianespace is phasing out the basic Ariane 5 in favor of the ECA, which can launch nearly 10 metric tons into geostationary orbit.
South Korea's defense ministry said it will resume a stalled $1.9 billion program to acquire early warning aircraft, according to the Korean Information Service. The ministry will receive bids for the program again in late March, and plans to pick a winner in December. Israel's Elta and Boeing had been competing for the work, Elta with a Gulfstream G-550 and Boeing with a 737. Elta's bid didn't meet requirements, falling short in radar detection range, the ministry said.
The number and severity of cracks in the center wing boxes of U.S. Air Force C-130Es led service engineers to "re-evaluate the service life expectancy" of the wing boxes and led to last week's grounding and restriction of some C-130s, an Air Mobility Command spokesman told The DAILY late Feb. 11. The Air Force said last week that 30 C-130E aircraft were grounded due to cracks in their center wing box sections and an addition 60 aircraft, including E, H, H1 and HC-130 N/P models, have been placed on restricted flight status (DAILY, Feb. 14).
DEATH SPIRAL: Pierre A. Chao, senior fellow and director of defense-industrial initiatives at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), says the U.S. military's operation and maintenance "death spiral" continues. The Pentagon is buying fewer platforms and looking to upgrade current systems, he says, so "this defense cycle has actually been an O&M cycle." Meanwhile, the private sector's candidate pool for new electrical and software engineers keeps dwindling - and becoming increasingly foreign born - even as platform complexity skyrockets.
The U.S. Army hopes to turn to industry soon to seek ideas about how to cut into the U.S. military's growing stockpile of excess ammunition and missiles, which costs the Pentagon and taxpayers billions of dollars every year as well as manpower and depot space, demilitarization officials said Feb. 11.
