Despite the Stryker vehicle's requirement that it be transportable within a C-130 cargo aircraft, so far Stryker brigades in Iraq have not used the aircraft for intra-theater movement, according to Col. Peter Fuller, the Army's Stryker project manager. "I'm not saying it's always faster [than a C-130], but they find that it's very fast because it's a wheeled vehicle," Fuller said during the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's Light Armored Vehicles conference in Washington Dec. 2.
Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Telephonics Corp. has won three contracts worth more than $4.1 million to provide maritime surveillance radar systems to firms in France, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands, the company said Nov. 30. In France, Reims Aviation Industries picked Telephonics' RDR 1500 radar for the Namibia Fishery Department's Reims-made F406 aircraft. The radar will be used in fisheries patrol, Telephonics said.
SEASPARROW: Raytheon Co. will procure long-lead materials for the fiscal 2005-2006 production of Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles for the NATO SeaSparrow Consortium, the U.S. Department of Defense said Dec. 1. Most of the work under the $7.3 million Navy contract will be done at Raytheon's Tucson, Ariz., facility, although work also will be performed in Andover, Mass., Minneapolis, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Greece and Turkey. The work is expected to be completed in 2007.
The U.S. Defense Department is studying whether the B-2 bomber, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and four other weapon system programs should pursue a relatively new, more flexible approach to logistics aimed at increasing equipment reliability.
James H. Tate has been appointed to the board of directors. Tate is senior vice president and chief financial officer of Thermadyne Holdings Corp. of St. Louis.
More units are being chosen to fly the F/A-22 Raptor and Predator unmanned aerial vehicle as both aircraft are becoming more plentiful, the U.S. Air Force announced Dec. 1. The Virginia Air National Guard's 192nd Fighter Wing will pilot the Lockheed Martin-built F/A-22, joining the active-duty 1st Fighter Wing, whose Raptor role had already been announced, the Air Force said.
JSF WING: Lockheed Martin Corp. has finished building the skeleton of the wing for the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flight test jet. The wing structure, which was assembled in Fort Worth, Texas, will undergo more work before being mated with the fuselage. First flight is planned for August 2006.
Brig. Gen. Daniel L. Montgomery (USA-Ret.) has been appointed corporate lead executive for the Huntsville, Ala., region. Dennis Averyt has been named vice president, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Maureen Heath has been appointed vice president, civil space. Peggy Nelson has been named vice president and project manager, Prometheus 1. David Rosener has been appointed vice president, subcontracts. Ron Smith has been named vice president, Six Sigma.
Information technology and network products company SI International Inc. of Reston, Va., has agreed to purchase defense intelligence products maker Bridge Technology Corp. of Columbia, Md., for $30 million in cash, SI International said Dec. 1. SI International will pay for the purchase with cash on hand and borrowings, the company said. The buy hinges on approval by SI's board of directors and the satisfactory completion of a due diligence investigation. The companies plan to close the transaction within 30 days.
DELTA IV HEAVY: Boeing has scheduled the first launch of its Delta IV Heavy rocket for 2:31 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 10 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The flight is a demonstration mission for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Capable of lifting up to 28,950 pounds (13,130 kilograms) to geosynchronous transfer orbit, the rocket is the most powerful developed since the Saturn V, according to Boeing. It will stand 235 feet (71.7 meters) high when fully stacked.
Eric Dermond, founder and chairman, will retire effective Dec. 31. Max Dermond, president, will retire effective April 30, 2005. William Ochsner has been appointed Derco's next president.
Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin, which manufactures motion and control technologies and systems, has purchased Advanced Products Co. of North Haven, Conn., in a cash-for-stock transaction, Parker Hannifin said Dec. 1. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Advanced Products Co., which manufactures metallic and polymer spring energized seals, will be merged with Parker Seal Group, which provides sealing materials to motion and control markets worldwide, Parker Hannifin said.
DIVIDEND INCREASE: Raytheon Co.'s board of directors plans to increase the company's annual dividend by 10 percent, from 80 cents to 88 cents, starting with the first-quarter dividend of 2005, the company said Dec. 1. The payment of quarterly dividends is subject to board authorization. The board also authorized the repurchase of up to $700 million of the company's outstanding common stock, which is expected to be completed over 18-24 months, beginning in 2005.
To improve situational awareness and safety in United Kingdom military vehicles, Thales Defense Optronics has tapped L-3 Communications' Ruggedized Command & Control Solutions to supply its display and control module for the Thales Drivers Vision Enhancer system. The system will be installed on the British army's Future Command & Liaison Vehicle, the company said.
The Bush Administration's fiscal 2006 defense budget request will be sent to Congress on Feb. 7, 2005, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. The budget request is "in the preparation stage," so the Defense Department "will not discuss any details before then," the spokeswoman said. Action on the previous year's defense budget, which went to Capitol Hill on Feb. 2, 2004, was completed when President Bush signed the FY '05 defense authorization bill on Oct. 28. The FY '05 defense appropriations bill became law Aug. 5.
Chile's first Scorpene submarine, the O'Higgins, passed a major test milestone on Nov. 20 by firing two torpedoes while running at depth off the coast of France, sub designer DCN of France said Nov. 30. The O'Higgins fired an SUT torpedo and a Black Hawk torpedo, demonstrating that it can deploy and guide different types of torpedoes, DCN said.
The U.S. Air Force is expected to resume flight-testing of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) in February, according to congressional and industry sources. The Air Force still is deciding whether the tests will include early batches of the missile or be limited to later ones, a congressional source told The DAILY. Some on Capitol Hill are pushing for old and new alike to be tested to ensure both types are reliable.
Satellite service provider SES Americom has acquired Verestar of Fairfax, Va., for $18.5 million, the company announced Dec. 1. Verestar had been operating under bankruptcy protection since December 2003. SES Americom announced its intention to purchase the company in April 2004 and received final approval from the Federal Communications Commission on Nov. 19. SES Americom plans to fully integrate Verestar's operations, including its people, teleports and other assets around the world.
Although the U.S. Marine Corps is concerned about the survivability of its Light Armored Vehicle (LAV), there currently isn't funding for upgrades to improve it, Marine Corps officials said Dec. 1. The LAVs are vulnerable to heavy machine gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), said Col. Len Blasiol, director of the Materiel Capabilities Division at Marine Corps Combat Development Command. He spoke at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's Light Armored Vehicles conference in Washington.
The U.S. Air Force Research Lab's Space Vehicles Directorate continues to study the idea of getting satellites from the drawing board to orbit in what it calls "phenomenally short time frames, perhaps days." Last year, the operation, based at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., asked industry and academia for ideas to support research based on the Lego toy concept - using a small family of building blocks to quickly construct nearly any kind of complex structure in space.
