INTELLIGENCE REFORM: The House of Representatives on Oct. 8 passed by a vote of 282-134 the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act (HR 10), a measure that would overhaul how the U.S. intelligence community is structured. The Senate passed its measure, the National Intelligence Reform Act (S 2845), on Oct. 6 by a vote of 96-2. Both bills would create a national intelligence director to oversee U.S. intelligence activities. The measures now go to a House-Senate conference committee.
The U.S. Air Force's top two officials flew aboard the V-22 Osprey for the first time Oct. 8, according to a spokeswoman at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., where the flying took place. Although the Air Force had no immediate comment on the trip by Air Force Secretary James Roche and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper, the Marine Corps spokeswoman said the event went as planned, including a parachute drop from the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor aircraft by Army Gen. Bryan Brown, head of U.S. Special Operations Command.
The Bush Administration's spending on research and development for space weapons is creating an "unstoppable momentum" that will result in deployment of those weapons in the near term, said Leonard Weiss, chairman of the Federation of American Scientists Panel on Weapons in Space.
The Department of Defense information technology (IT) budget over the next five years is expected to be down slightly from last year's estimate, says a new report by the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA). The DOD's IT budget is expected to be $28.7 billion in fiscal 2005, and it is expected to grow 4.4 percent to $35.6 billion by fiscal 2010, GEIA said Oct. 7. This compares with last year's estimation, when GEIA predicted a 4.6 percent growth rate for DOD IT through 2009, Jim Serafin, GEIA spokesman, told The DAILY.
The U.S. Department of Defense's Naval Air Systems Command at Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River, Md., has awarded London-based Rolls-Royce a $60 million follow-on logistic support contract for the F405-RR-401 (Adour) engines that power the U.S. Navy's T-45 training aircraft, Rolls-Royce said Oct. 5.
ENDGAME: House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Oct. 7 on the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization legislation. A compromise measure is expected to come up for a vote in both chambers Oct. 8, according to Harald Stavenas, a spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee. He declined to provide details of the agreement, except to confirm that a modified version of the "Buy American" provision had been retained in the compromise.
The Boeing Co. plans to begin flight-testing a laser-guided version of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) before year's end in hopes of fueling U.S. government interest in the weapon variant. The Boeing-funded testing, which will continue into 2005, will include dropping the modified air-to-surface munition from a fighter aircraft, said Donald Hutcheson, a Boeing business development manager for precision-guided weapons.
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has won a $6.9 million contract from the U.S. Army for the Common Drive Trainer (CDT) Stryker Variant, part of a line of drive simulators for training soldiers on tracked, wheeled, and heavy equipment vehicles. The contract, awarded by the Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), has a potential total value of $8.78 million if all options are exercised, the Army said Oct. 5.
The U.S. Air Force's chief of staff is expressing strong support for reviving the Space Based Radar (SBR) program, whose funding was recently slashed by congressional appropriators. "We think it is absolutely necessary to have a Space Based Radar," Gen. John Jumper said late Oct. 6. "I firmly believe that we need to continue this."
ISC2 CONTRACT: The Department of Defense has awarded Lockheed Martin Mission Systems of Colorado Springs, Colo., a $54.1 million contract modification for the Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2), the DOD said Oct. 6. ISC2 will modernize the command and control (C2) system of the U.S. Strategic Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command into an interoperable, integrated, state-of-the-art capability to support the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff and the National Command Authority, the DOD said.
IT CONTRACT: Anteon International Corp., an information technology and systems engineering and integration company based in Fairfax, Va., has won a five-year, $150 million contract to support the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS) and Linked Operations Intelligence Center Europe (LOCE) programs, the company said Oct. 5. The contract to support these two multinational information-sharing programs was awarded by the Department of Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center, Aberdeen, Md.
NASA is testing the ability of artificial intelligence software to find and analyze errors in a spacecraft's systems instead of having such analysis done on the ground, the aerospace agency said Oct. 7. NASA radioed Livingstone Version 2 software to the Earth Observing One (E-1) satellite, a testbed spacecraft launched in 2000. The satellite is controlled by software that is part of the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE). Livingstone Version 2 monitors the ASE software to detect errors, make diagnoses and transmit them to the ground.
The House of Representatives began consideration of its version of intelligence reform legislation, the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act (HR 10), on Oct. 7. The Senate passed its measure, the National Intelligence Reform Act (S 2845), by a vote of 96-2 the previous day. Both measures provide for wide-ranging reform of the U.S. intelligence community along the lines laid out by the 9/11 Commission.
Team US101 for the first time flew the US101 medium-lift helicopter it is bidding for the VXX Presidential Helicopter Replacement program, the Lockheed Martin-led team said Oct. 6.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Gregory S. Martin withdrew his name to be commander of U.S. Pacific Command, the Pentagon said Oct. 6, shortly after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), criticized his work as a former service acquisition official. Martin, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, requested that his nomination for the new post "be withdrawn," the Department of Defense said in a brief statement. "Admiral Thomas B. Fargo continues to serve as commander, U.S. Pacific Command."
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION, Arling-ton, Va. James "Rusty" Rentsch has been named lifecycle management director. ARINC, INC. Annapolis, Md. Maureen Woods has been appointed senior director, air traffic services. COMMITTEE ON THE PRESENT DANGER, Wash-ington Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic; Jose Maria Aznar, former prime minister of Spain; and George Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state, have joined the board. HAWK CORP., Cleveland
NO PAYMENT: NASA will only pay Spacehab Inc. $8 million for the loss of its Research Double Module, which was destroyed when the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed last year, Spacehab said Oct. 6. Spacehab filed an $87.7 million claim against NASA earlier this year (DAILY, Jan. 21) for the loss of the module, but said NASA has determined it owes only $8 million for an indemnification claim.
It is unlikely that the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) will file a lawsuit against the Boeing Co. or the U.S. Department of Defense in response to the sentencing of an ex-Boeing official for wrongdoing in an Air Force tanker deal, analysts said. However, EADS could use the threat of a lawsuit to gain leverage with the Air Force to reopen the negotiations, they said.
50 NANOSATS: Leading European space powers are proposing to simultaneously launch 50 nanosatellites in 2007 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. Each nanosat would weigh roughly 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram), and would be dedicated to a scientific experiment. The satellites would be deployed by a single Ariane 5 rocket. The mission was proposed during the recent 55th International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Congress in Vancouver, Canada.
A key Pentagon official is pushing the Defense Department's weapon system program managers to place more emphasis on safety when they design equipment. In a recent memorandum addressed to leaders across DOD, acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne wrote that program managers should be told to "integrate system safety risk management into their overall systems engineering and risk management processes." His memo calls for "active collaboration between system safety and acquisition communities as we execute our programs."
The National Reconnaissance Office is asking industry for ways to make it more capable and effective in launching satellites. It is interested in three specific areas - certification and qualification of parts, technologies for operationally responsive launches, and new approaches for secondary payloads. Proposals are due Nov. 29 and contracts of up to $350,000 each will be awarded by March 1, 2005, NRO says in a broad agency announcement (BAA) posted in the Oct. 4 issue of FedBizOpps.
In anticipation of future demonstrations of deep-space laser communications, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. is requesting information from industry on laser communication terminals that would be deployed in the stratosphere or in Earth orbit. The agency wants information on communication packages, telescope configurations, control strategies, and baffling or filtering schemes that would enable operation within three degrees of the sun. Responses are due Nov. 26.
Iraq has selected a Jordanian company to supply small aircraft to patrol oil pipelines and other critical parts of the country's infrastructure. Jordan Aerospace Industries (JAI), through its partner Transatlantic Traders Inc., was chosen over several other competitors on Sept. 28. The contract will be awarded Oct. 29, according to Bob Hunt, a spokesman for U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Huntsville, Ala. AMCOM worked with the interim Iraqi government on the program.
SUB WORK: Northrop Grumman was awarded a $36.5 million contract Oct. 5 to plan and execute dry-docking work on the nuclear-powered submarine USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN 709). The work, which will be performed at the company's facilities in Newport News, Va., will include removal and overhaul of various valves, steering and diving gear inspection and repair and torpedo systems repairs.
