General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products will build three Aegis Weapon System (AWS) gun and guided missile director and controller shipsets, the company said Nov. 22. The work will be done under a $12 million contract option from Naval Sea Systems Command. The original contract was awarded in September 2003, and the contract's total value to date is $27.5 million. Program management, assembly and testing will be performed at General Dynamics' Vermont-based Burlington Technology Center.
NASA's Swift observatory lifted off Nov. 20 atop a Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking the beginning of what program officials say could be a new era in quick-response astronomy.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) has been awarded a one-year contract to provide Slovenia's military with vehicle platforms, paramedic equipment and a mobile rescue center, the company said Nov. 19. Financial terms were not disclosed. EADS Defence Electronics Forces Support Systems of Friedrichshafen, Germany, is handling the order. The center will give Slovenia a NATO-standard mobile army surgical hospital that will be interoperable with other armed forces' medical services, the company said.
L-3 Communications will buy Boeing's Electron Dynamic Devices unit for an undisclosed amount, Boeing said Nov. 22. The Torrance, Calif.-based EDD will continue to provide Boeing with satellite components and other products and services, Boeing said. The sale includes five of the six major EDD product lines: linearized traveling wave tube amplifiers, space traveling wave tubes, military traveling wave tubes, passive microwave devices and electric propulsion.
Tadiran Communications of Petach Tikva, Israel, will provide secure voice and data communications to an unnamed country in Latin America, the company said Nov. 21. The systems, derived from the company's own research and development work, will sell for $19.7 million and be delivered in 2005 and 2006. Tadiran said the work is a "major step forward" in its move to increase exports to Latin America.
Alion Science and Technology will develop small, processor-based "reasoning modules" to help joint warfare teams make decisions in urban combat, the McLean, Va., company said Nov. 22. The modules are to help analyze combat situations in near-real time and help soldiers anticipate enemy actions. The company will experiment on the modules and evaluate how useful they are in a simulated joint urban operation.
A House-Senate conference committee has granted NASA nearly its entire $16.2 billion fiscal year 2005 budget request, including money to jump-start the Bush Administration's space exploration agenda, although lawmakers still are skeptical about parts of the program.
The Bush Administration's efforts to explore new nuclear weapons have suffered a blow in Congress. House and Senate negotiators for the fiscal 2005 energy appropriations bill have rejected the Bush Administration's $27.6 million request to continue the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program, which has been looking at whether two existing warheads could be hardened to destroy deeply buried targets. The panel also denied the Administration's $9 million request to study whether new nuclear weapons could be developed.
SPACE TOURISM: By a slim margin, the House of Representatives on Nov. 20 passed a revised bill (H.R. 5382) that would create a regulatory framework for the emerging suborbital space tourism industry. The bill is a modified version of legislation that passed the House nearly unanimously in March. Passage by the Senate is considered uncertain.
The Affordable Weapon System, a less costly cruise missile that Titan Corp. is developing for the Navy, is slated to undergo three more flight-tests at Titan's Desert Center, Calif., facility by late January 2005, according to a Navy official.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. will add the Large Aircraft Countermeasure (LAIRCM) capability to 18 additional C-17 aircraft under a $13 million Air Force contract modification, the U.S. Department of Defense said Nov. 19. The company was tapped last month to add three LAIRCM systems to Special Operations Command C-130s (DAILY, Oct. 5). The LAIRCM uses a laser to dazzle a missile's guidance seeker (DAILY, April 9).
PREDATOR UPGRADES: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems will upgrade six RQ-IL Block 5, four MQ-IL Block 1 and four MQ-IL Block 5 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to the MQ-IL Block 10+ configuration, the U.S. Department of Defense said Nov. 19. The work will be done under a $14.4 million Air Force contract.
SPACE COUNCIL: Ministers in charge of European space issues, markets, industry and research plan to meet Nov. 25 in Brussels for the first "space council," a joint meeting of the European Space Agency Council and the European Union Competitiveness Council. The event marks a first step toward developing, defining and implementing an overall European space policy, ESA said.
Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 -- Aircraft Survivability 2004, "Surviving in the Networked Battlespace," Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. For more information go to www.ndia.org. Dec. 1 - 2 -- Light Armored Vehicles, "Supportability and Survivability in War Zones," Hilton Washington, Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-882-8684, email [email protected] or go to www.idga.org. Dec. 2 - 3 -- The 14th Annual Aircraft Acquisition Planning Seminar, Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort, Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information go to www.conklindd.com.
SPENDING INCREASE: Ireland plans to spend 904 million euros ($786 million) on defense in 2005, an increase of 6% from 2004, the country's defense ministry says. Major equipment buys, including two light utility and four utility helicopters, will proceed, and "further progress can be made on the defense forces' building and modernization programs," says Willie O'Dea, the defense minister. O'Dea says he also intends to begin buying light tactical vehicles.
HARVEY'S SWEARING-IN: Former Westinghouse Corp. executive Francis Harvey was sworn in Nov. 19 as the 19th secretary of the U.S. Army, three days after receiving Senate confirmation (DAILY, Nov. 18). Harvey will oversee the Army's annual budget of $98.5 billion.
The United States and Australia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to support, produce and continue to develop the AN/BYG-1 Combat Control System, Australia's defense department said Nov. 19. The combat system will complement the new advanced capability torpedoes for the Collins-class submarines that were approved by the Australian government in late 2002 and also are being developed and produced under an agreement with the U.S. Navy, the defense department said.
