TPF PARTNERS: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is seeking partners to help develop scientific instruments for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) mission, currently slated for launch in 2014 or 2015. The partners can help develop concepts for TPF-C's spectrograph or propose studies of an important element of the spectrograph, such as concepts for extracting and measuring the signal from an extrasolar planet, NASA says. The agency plans to fly two TPF observatories - TPF-C and a free-flying infrared interferometer known as TPF-I.
DEFENSE FAIRS: South Korea will increase funding for the country's defense contractors to take part in overseas defense fairs to $952,000 in 2005, up from $48,000 in 2004, the South Korean ministry of defense says. South Korea also says it had more than $400 million in military exports in 2004, a 75% jump from 2003's $240 million. The MOD attributes the increase to Daewoo International's $150 million contract to provide the Indonesian navy with four landing platform docks and $54 million in ammunition sales by South Korea to the United States and Australia.
UCAR REVIEWS: The Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) teams led by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman recently underwent reviews by DARPA in anticipation of the expected downselect early next year. The teams have been operating under bridge funding while the Army and DARPA work out funding issues that have delayed the next phase of the program.
ChoicePoint, which provides identification and credential verification services to government and industry, is buying i2, a United Kingdom-based provider of visual investigative and link analysis software for military, intelligence, and law enforcement markets. The transaction includes an initial payment of $90 million, with an additional payment of up to $10 million if some financial performance goals are met, ChoicePoint said Dec. 22. The acquisition is scheduled to close by Jan. 1, 2005.
Germany's procurement agency signed a contract with BAE Systems' Land Systems Hagglunds for 75 Bv206S all-terrain vehicles worth about 23 million pounds ($43.7 million), the company said Dec. 21. Hagglunds will work with Germany's Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH to deliver the vehicles, part of a planned German buy of 200. The vehicles, an armored variant of the Bv206, will be used by the German army's mountain brigade, based in Mittenwald.
In observance of the Christmas and New Year's holidays, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish Dec. 24 and Dec. 27 through Jan. 3. The next issue will be dated Dec. 27 and the issue after that will be dated Jan. 4. The next issue of NetDefense will be part of the Jan. 6 Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
United Defense Industries Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., will provide the U.S. Army with 43 tank simulators and related technical support under a $38.2 million contract modification, the company said Dec. 22.
Adm. James O. Ellis Jr. (USN-Ret.) has been named an adviser to the board of directors. Ellis was commander, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Dec. 22 that a recent test failure by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system should be viewed as a "learning experience" instead of a source of serious concern. "It's expected that there will be things like that that will occur," since GMD is still in development, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press briefing.
Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Support Concepts, which creates innovative technology to support aerospace and defense platforms, is working on new logistics and maintenance technologies, including systems for the Army's Future Combat Systems and the Navy's F/A-18 aircraft, a company official said. Boeing's defense research and development support arm is supporting the modeling and simulation of the FCS' need for network centric logistics, Greg Burton, director of advanced support concepts for Phantom Works, told The DAILY.
The Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) plans to hold a bidder's conference in Arlington, Va. on Jan. 14 to discuss a new broad agency announcement seeking technology to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The U.S. Defense Department's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program has delayed demonstrating 25-kilowatt solid-state lasers by about three months because the three teams involved in the effort need more time, according to program officials. Three electrically-driven lasers developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon had been scheduled for laboratory tests in December (DAILY, Sept. 29). But those demonstrations have been moved to March 2005.
Lockheed Martin has successfully conducted wind-tunnel tests of its Surveilling Miniature Attack Cruise Missile (SMACM), company officials said Dec. 22. During scores of hours of wind-tunnel tests Dec. 6-10 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, a quarter-scale model of SMACM showed "no significant anomalies" in the missile's design, said Jim Pappafotis, director of advanced programs for strike weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, Fla.
The U.S. Air Force has suspended flying F/A-22 Raptors based at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., following a similar move for F/A-22s at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., a service spokesman said Dec. 22. The Air Force instituted a "precautionary safety stand down" at all three bases in response to an F/A-22 crashing on takeoff at Nellis Dec. 20 (DAILY, Dec. 22). The Air Force has now stopped flying all 28 of its remaining F/A-22s. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.
The Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite communications program has fallen a year behind schedule and gone $1 billion over budget due to delays in the delivery of cryptographic user equipment being furnished by the National Security Agency (NSA), according to the Air Force. Facing a 20% overrun on the $5 billion program, the Air Force on Dec. 3 notified Congress that AEHF was in violation of the Nunn-McCurdy Act. If the overrun reaches 25%, the program will have to be certified as essential by the Pentagon or face cancellation.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has begun final assembly of the first production T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer at its Sacheon, South Korea facility, the company and T-50 partner Lockheed Martin said Dec. 21. "We have finished ground structural testing and we are over 60 percent complete with our flight-test program," N.S. Park, the general manager of KAI's Sacheon plant, said in a statement. "The development program is validating an excellent design, and this has allowed us to proceed with production with no major changes."
AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM: Adelaide, Australia-based Saab Systems will continue to work on Sweden's air defense system and a simulator under a 98 million kronor ($14.5 million) contract, Saab AB said Dec. 22. The system, called StriC, has been used by Sweden's air force since 1998. The simulator is called Strics. The work includes the integration of ground radar and NATO adaptations. Saab Systems is a subsidiary of Sweden-based Saab AB.
The Bell 210 helicopter made its first flight Dec. 18 at the Bell subsidiary Edwards & Associates in Bristol, Tenn., Bell Helicopter Textron said Dec. 21. The flight marked the first in a series of qualification flights as the Bell 210 goes through FAA certification testing. Bell expects to attain FAA certification in the first quarter of 2005, with deliveries following soon after.
