UPGRADES: Canada has awarded Raytheon Co. a $32 million contract to repair, overhaul and upgrade services to an additional 16 Phalanx radar and gun systems for the Canadian navy. Raytheon will provide total life-cycle support for Canada's Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS), including fleet repair work, field service support, overhauls and upgrades.
Scott Carson has been appointed vice president, sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Laurette Koellner will replace Carson as president of Connexion by Boeing. Rick Stephens will replace Koellner as executive vice president, Internal Services. Mary Armstrong replaces Stephens as president, Shared Services Group.
Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne said Dec. 8 that he expects to continue his duties when President Bush's second term begins in January. While Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also indicated that he will stay in his job, several other high-level officials, including Air Force Secretary James Roche and Air Force acquisition chief Marvin Sambur, have announced their departures (DAILY, Nov. 18, Nov. 19). "I have been asked by Secretary Rumsfeld to stay the course," Wynne said. "I intend to."
Dain M. Hancock, executive vice president and president of the aeronautics company, is retiring. Ralph D. Heath, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and general manager of the F/A-22 Raptor program, will succeed Hancock. Larry Lawson, vice president and F/A-22 deputy, will succeed Heath.
The National Academies panel tasked with assessing options for extending the life of the Hubble Space Telescope is recommending that NASA send the space shuttle to service the telescope as soon as possible, having concluded that the agency's planned robotic servicing mission is riskier and might not launch in time.
Northrop Grumman Corp. is in line to receive a contract from the U.S. Special Operations Command to demonstrate use of the Viper Strike precision munition from an AC-130 gunship.
Richard A. Falkenrath, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, has joined Civitas Group to focus to focus on homeland security and national security.
Communication upgrades that were installed on legacy Coast Guard cutters as part of the Deepwater modernization program played a big role in recent drug enforcement operations, the Coast Guard said Dec. 7. The C4ISR equipment on the ships allowed their crews to maintain a common operational picture and access real-time intelligence information, including from a Department of Defense satellite. The crews on the cutters Gallatin, Rush and Thetis seized more than 33,000 pounds of cocaine during the operations, the Coast Guard said.
ANALYSIS: Beta Analytics Inc. will provide intelligence analysis support, threat analysis and other services for deployed U.S. troops fighting terrorism under a five-year, $4 million contract, the company said Dec. 8. The U.S. Army Field Support Command/U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., awarded the contract to Beta, a subsidiary of Analex Corp. of Alexandria, Va. The AFSC integrates Army logistics support to military exercises and operations worldwide. The JMC operates U.S. ammunition plants and storage depots.
The European Union eventually will lift its arms embargo with China, and such action could occur as early as 2005, a Dutch official said Dec. 8. "I think it's fair to say the embargo will be lifted," said Boudewijn J. van Eenennaam, the Netherlands' ambassador to the United States. "The question's not if but when."
Northrop Grumman's Centurion harbor protection system could be used as a rapidly deployable system for the U.S. Navy for force protection and anti-terrorism operations in harbors and littoral waters, company officials told The DAILY. "Our goal is to develop a system ... that can be quickly stood up," David Miller, the marketing manager for the program, said Dec. 7. "We're looking for a market for that."
MODELING: ManTech International Corp. will provide modeling, simulation and analysis services to the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division Warfare Analysis, the company said Dec. 8. The work will be done under a one-year contract with four option years, which could be worth up to $23 million.
SHOULDER-LAUNCHED: Talley Defense Systems of Mesa, Ariz., will produce 4,067 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon High Explosive Dual Purpose Encased Assault Rockets for the Marine Corps under a $7 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Defense said Dec. 8. The work is expected to be completed in June 2006.
Overall sales in the aerospace industry rose 8% in 2004, jumping from $148.9 billion in 2003 to $161 billion, the Aerospace Industries Association said Dec. 8. At the end of last year AIA predicted only a $1 billion increase in overall sales from 2003, but instead it was $12 billion and could go higher still, AIA President and CEO John Douglass said at the AIA's annual year-end review and forecast luncheon. "We are clearly headed in the right direction," Douglass said.
