U.S. security forces airmen at Tallil Air Base in Iraq are using Lockheed Martin's miniature unmanned aerial vehicle, Desert Hawk, to gather information and identify threats, the Air Force says. The seven-pound, remote-controlled aircraft, part of the service's force protection airborne surveillance system, has a four-foot wingspan and can fly for about an hour using its rechargeable batteries. It's built from mold-injected expanded polypropylene.
The Army's Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is conducting experiments in support of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) effort in which manned Stryker vehicles work together with unmanned ground and air vehicles in simulated missions.
Almost $5 billion, or 90%, of the increase from President Bush's fiscal 2006 federal information technology (IT) budget request goes to support homeland security, anti-terrorism military operations and expanding health IT, according to Karen Evans, administrator of e-government and IT at the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
A group of leading suborbital space entrepreneurs intends to form an industry federation to develop technical standards and processes to promote the safety and growth of the personal spaceflight industry, the group announced Feb. 8. Individuals involved in forming the Personal Spaceflight Federation include Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Jeff Greason of XCOR Aerospace, Peter Diamandis of the X PRIZE Foundation and Mojave Airport Manager Stuart Witt.
CAE Inc. of Montreal has nearly completed the sale of its Marine Controls unit to New York-based L-3 Communications Corp., the company said last week. L-3 is paying $200 million in cash for the unit, which provides automated control systems and training systems for military and commercial ships. The remaining parts of the sale, including L-3's assumption of $41 million in CAE debt, is expected to close in the next few months, CAE said.
Technology services firm Alion Science and Technology of McLean, Va., will provide operational support services to the U.S. Air Force under a five-year, $40 million contract, the company said Feb. 8. Alion will furnish technical and management services to U.S. Central Command Air Forces (USCENTAF) Headquarters at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and also support USCENTAF's mission requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
GOING UP: If Congress approves the $419.3 billion fiscal 2006 defense budget that President Bush proposed Feb. 7, the baseline defense budget will have grown 40% since Bush was in office, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Joshua B. Bolten said Feb. 7. Over Bush's first term alone, the defense budget grew 35%. The baseline budget comparison does not include supplemental spending for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cubic Corp. of San Diego reported higher sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2005, but increased investment in new product development drove down earnings, the company said Feb. 8. Sales for the quarter, which ended Dec. 31, rose 11%, from $171 million to $190 million compared with the same period last year. But earnings fell from $7.4 million to $5.2 million, or 20 cents per share compared with 28 cents per share for the same quarter last year, the company said.
NO CONTEST: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. will not protest the U.S. Navy's presidential helicopter decision, which it lost to the Lockheed Martin-led Team US101. In a Feb. 3 debriefing, the U.S. Navy said the Team US101 "started with an aircraft - particularly the cabin - that more closely met the unique requirements established by the Navy, and that this was the major factor in the decision," Sikorsky said in a Feb. 8 statement.
The Defense Department is proposing to reallocate $161.3 million in fiscal 2005 funds to allow the Air Force to buy 15 more Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and the munitions to arm them, according to documents obtained by The DAILY.
The completion of a study on U.S. Air Force tanker modernization options has been delayed, possibly for months, according to the Defense Department. DOD was planning to give Congress the results of the tanker analysis of alternatives (AOA) by mid-February. But the department ended up canceling those briefings to give the Air Force and RAND Corp. more time to finish the study, DOD spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said Feb. 8.
The first flight-test of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system has been delayed again because of lingering effects from budget constraints and propellant problems, according to a senior defense official. The test had been scheduled for the January-March quarter and now is slated for the April-June quarter, the official said. The event was delayed earlier from September 2004 to January-March (DAILY, June 7, Sept. 30).
MISSILE PURCHASE: The U.S. Army will receive Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block IA Unitary missiles under a $45 million contract awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp., the company said Feb. 7. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. The work will be done at Lockheed Martin facilities in Dallas and Horizon City, Texas. Delivery is scheduled for 2006.
Plans to develop a standoff jammer for the B-52H bomber are moving ahead with a U.S. Air Force notice that it plans to issue a request for proposals for a lead systems integrator to carry out the pre-system design and development phase of the program. A two-year contract would be awarded in about July, according to a Feb. 4 FedBizOpps notice from the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. A pre-solicitation conference is slated for Feb. 16-17, the notice said.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is proposing to upgrade three radars to defend the homeland against a short- or medium-range ballistic missile launched from a ship offshore, according to a senior defense official.
General Dynamics Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., will perform $58 million in submarine work under two contract modifications awarded by the U.S. Navy, the company said Feb. 4 Electric Boat received a $41 million contract modification to do research and development work on the Virginia-class submarine program. The company will perform development studies for Virginia-class design improvements and continue to evaluate new technologies for succeeding Virginia-class subs, the company said.
The U.S. Air Force has authorized International Launch Services (ILS) of McLean, Va., to start operations for the launch of a classified national security payload, the company said Feb. 7. The launch will take place in mid-2007 on an Atlas V vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The launch is designated NROL-24 for the National Reconnaissance Office and is one of seven first assigned to ILS and the Lockheed Martin Atlas V launcher under the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
House Armed Services Committee Republican and Democratic leaders on Feb. 7 both provided lukewarm reactions to President Bush's fiscal 2006 defense budget proposal of $419.3 billion, although each pointed to different funding-priority concerns. "I am generally pleased with the budget request for national defense. President Bush and [Defense] Secretary Rumsfeld are continuing their commitment to military modernization and the well-being of our men and women in uniform," HASC Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said in a statement.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is citing the National Academies' recent report on the Hubble Space Telescope to justify NASA's decision to cut funding for Hubble servicing, saying the agency's favored robotic servicing mission became too difficult to support in light of the panel's findings. Little faith In their December final report, panel members expressed little faith in NASA's ability to pull off the challenging robotic mission in time to save Hubble, recommending instead that the agency mount another shuttle servicing mission.
DIGITAL RADIOS: Washington-based EFJ Inc. subsidiary EFJohnson has been awarded a $1 million contract to supply the Defense Department with Project 25 digital radios and accessories, the company said Feb. 7. The Association of Public-Safety Communication Officials International Project 25 is a joint effort of U.S. federal, state, and local governments that receives support from the U.S. Telecommunications Industry Association.
