Michael Romanowski has been named vice president of Civil Aviation. J.P. Stevens has been appointed vice president of Space Systems and executive director of the Team America Rocketry Challenge.
The U.S. Air Force has stopped grounding part of its Boeing B-1B Lancer fleet, deeming the bombers safe to fly after a recent landing gear collapse on one of the aircraft, a spokesman for Air Combat Command said Jan. 5.
A story in the Jan. 5 issue of The DAILY headlined "DARPA 'committed' to autonomous systems despite UCAR cancellation" should have said that Lockheed Martin is part of the Northrop Grumman-led Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) team.
RECOVERY VEHICLES: York, Pa.-based United Defense Industries Inc. has won an $8.8 million contract modification to provide manufacturing technical assistance for the co-production of 21 M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles in Egypt, the company said Jan. 4. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. The work will be done mostly at the Egyptian Tank Plant in Cairo from January through December 2006.
FMTV ENGINES: Engineered Electric Co. will build 452 model 3116 diesel engines for the U.S. Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles under an $11 million contract from the Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, the Department of Defense said Jan. 5. The work is expected to be completed by January 2006.
EXTERNAL TANK: The first redesigned space shuttle external tank arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida via barge on Jan. 5 in anticipation of the shuttle's scheduled return to flight later this year. The tank traveled from Lockheed Martin's Michoud facility in New Orleans. Design changes made in the wake of the Columbia accident include the installation of heaters at the bipod ramp area, which does away with the need to insulate the ramp with the kind of foam that broke loose and doomed Columbia. The tank will roll off the barge Jan.
Electronic ballistics company Metal Storm Ltd. said Jan. 5 that is has not been given a contract award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), contrary to an announcement it made last month. Metal Storm said Dec. 21 that its "Metal Storm Weapons for Urban Environments" proposal was among 37 selected for awards under a DARPA program for developing technology for urban warfare (DAILY, Dec. 22). The researchers will receive between $130,000 and $2.7 million for initial six- to 12-month feasibility demonstrations, DARPA said.
Fairfax, Va.-based ManTech International Corp., which provides technologies for national security programs, has won a contract worth up to $76 million to provide training for C4ISR and other Defense Department systems, the company said Jan. 4. The contract has a five-year base period and eight six-month options. It was awarded by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego.
Amy Donahue, assistant professor of public administration at the University of Connecticut Institute of Public Affairs, will join the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
ASSAULT SHIP WORK: United Defense Industries Inc.'s Norfolk, Va., shipyard, NORSHIPCO, has been awarded a five-year contract worth up to $228 million to work on six LHA and LHD class amphibious assault ships, the company said Jan. 4. The contract was awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command. An initial $350,000 award is for advance planning on the USS Saipan (LHA 2). The total work package is scheduled for completion in 2010.
Spacehab Inc. filed an appeal Dec. 29 with the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals in Falls Church, Va., protesting NASA's "limited" response to its claim for the loss of the company's Research Double Module (RDM), the company announced Jan. 5.
Markland Technologies Inc. is to deliver to the U.S. Army a new type of mobile scout surveillance vehicle that will use infrared and night-vision technologies to detect enemy force threats, the company said Jan. 3. The Ridgefield, Conn.-based company's EOIR Technologies Inc. subsidiary is to develop an integrated sensor platform for the Hummer-based scout vehicle, which is scheduled to be delivered to the U.S. Army in the first quarter of 2005.
Due to an editing error, a Jan. 4 DAILY story, headlined "NASA to pick systems integrator for exploration by year's end," misprinted part of a quotation. The quotation should have read: "For this particular program, the integration of all the systems - the ground, the launch, the landing systems, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the comnav systems - is significant."
The U.S. Defense Department still seems interested in eventually developing a capability similar to the Joint Common Missile (JCM), despite a recent decision to kill the air-to-ground missile program.
PC-21 CERTIFIED: Switzerland's Federal Office for Civil Aviation has certified Pilatus Aircraft Ltd.'s new PC-21, opening the way for series production of the military training aircraft, Pilatus Aircraft said Jan. 3. Two PC-21 prototypes have logged more than 750 flight-test hours during the aircraft's development and certification phase. Pilatus Aircraft, based in Switzerland, said it will continue to work on additional systems, such as autopilot and instrument flying, to improve the aircraft's market potential.
The South Korean government plans to buy 500 modern military helicopters worth $7.6-$12.4 billion despite concerns about costs and other problems, the Yonhap news service said. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and defense, foreign, commerce and budget ministers met in late December and gave the green light to the Korean Multi-Purpose Helicopter project, Yonhap said. The aircraft will be purchased by 2012, replacing South Korea's aging fleet.
Sweden-based AerotechTelub has signed a contract worth about 80 million kronors ($11.7 million) to produce vehicle computer systems for Land Systems Hagglunds AB's CV9035 NL Combat Vehicle, which is being purchased by the Netherlands' army, AerotechTelub said Jan. 4. The systems consist of computers, displays and video distribution units. Deliveries are set for 2006-2010.
COMPLETED: Russia's Irkut Corp. has completed delivery of the Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft that India bought in 1996, the company said Dec. 26. The company also is implementing a 2000 contract with India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for licensed production of the aircraft in India, Irkut said.
Arianespace announced five new launch contracts Jan. 4, to orbit two British military satellites and three European scientific satellites. In mid-2006, the company is to launch the Corot stellar observation satellite for the French Space Agency CNES, on the first flight of the Soyuz 2-1B launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
U.S. Special Operations Command is moving ahead with a fast-paced effort to demonstrate technology for a new airborne radar. It plans to release a request for proposals for the system development and demonstration (SDD) phase of the "Silent Knight" program in late 2005, and award up to two contracts in March 2006.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program believes it is close to determining the cause of a recent failed flight-test, according to an MDA spokesman. Integrated Flight Test 13C (IFT-13C) was cut short in mid-December when the interceptor missile shut down while preparing to launch (DAILY, Dec. 16, 2004). Since then, the GMD program has been trying to find the "anomaly" that prompted the interceptor to turn off automatically.
The Bush Administration's planned cut of $30 billion from the Department of Defense's procurement and modernization budget over the next six years marks an inevitable downswing after years of increasing defense budgets, especially in the wake of growing costs in Iraq, several defense industry analysts told The DAILY. The cuts were detailed in the Program Budget Decision (PBD) No. 753, a budget document signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz on Dec. 23 (DAILY, Jan. 4).
