GMD INTERCEPTOR: The fourth interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was placed in an underground silo Sept. 22 at Fort Greely, Alaska, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced Sept. 23. Two more interceptors are to be installed at Fort Greely by mid-October. The Defense Department plans to begin operating GMD later this year to defend against long-range ballistic missiles.
The first production Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, a commercial version of the H-92 being bid for the next-generation U.S. Navy VXX presidential helicopter, is scheduled for delivery this weekend in Louisiana for offshore service on the Gulf of Mexico with Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. (PHI). A second S-92 for PHI is nearing delivery early next month, Sikorsky said Sept. 23.
NASA has approved an additional six months of operations by its Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), which have been exploring the surface of the Red Planet since January. The twin rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity," have spent the past eight months searching Mars' Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum regions for clues about the history of martian water. Their baseline mission was for three months of operation, although NASA scientists always hoped they would last longer.
INVENTORY: The state of Alaska's Department of Natural Resources is using imagery from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite for forest inventory management, the Longmont, Colo.-based company said Sept. 22. The state bought imagery covering 320,000 acres over the Haines State Forest.
Technology developer Planning Systems Inc. (PSI) and Capewell Components Co., which manufactures life support and aerial delivery products, have approved a sales agreement worth up to $5 million for Capewell to market PSI's precision air drop system (PADS) to overseas, non-U.S. users, the companies said Sept. 21.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has won a contract for production of new bomb fuzes, a development that the Minneapolis company said puts it in a stronger position to compete for additional business of this kind.
AEROSPACE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL, Memphis, Tenn. David S. Currence has been named chief information officer. AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES, Manassas, Va. John Appleby has been named vice president of science applications. BAE SYSTEMS, Rockville, Md. Lee H. Hamilton, a former member of Congress from Indiana and vice chair of the 9-11 Commission, has been appointed to the North America board of directors. COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP., El Segundo, Calif.
An upgrade to the S-3B Viking jet aircraft underwent two days of carrier suitability tests that concluded Sept. 1 in Patuxent River, Md., the U.S. Navy said Sept. 21. In the first day's catapult testing, Cmdr. Alan Micklewright of Fleet Aircraft Test Squadron VX-20 and Lt. Jamie Chitko of VX-1 flew VX-1's S-3B, an all-weather carrier-based aircraft. Micklewright and Lt. Cmdr. Scott Josselyn of VX-20 handled the second day's carrier landing tests in conjunction with the Mass Memory Unit (MMU) project.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved several amendments to NASA's fiscal year 2005 authorization bill Sept. 22, including two tailored to deal with the potential gap between the planned retirement of the space shuttle and the introduction of the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).
Seacor Holdings Inc. of Houston, Texas, has ordered three Agusta Grand helicopters from Agusta Aerospace Corp. of Philadelphia, Agusta Westland said Sept. 22. Agusta Aerospace Corp. is the U.S. branch of Agusta, an AgustaWestland company. The Agusta Grand is a new light twin-turbine helicopter that has payload and cabin space previously offered only in more expensive and larger helicopters, the company said. Deliveries are to begin in 2005.
The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) would continue to undergo design refinement if funding for the program is delayed a year, but Lockheed Martin officials said it could be difficult to retain its design team if lawmakers halt appropriations for the surface combatant.
Representatives of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry's campaigns met with members of the Aerospace Industries Association earlier this week and said the aerospace industry is vital to the nation's health, according to AIA. Former Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.) spoke to the Aviation and Space Stakeholders Commission at AIA's headquarters on behalf of the Bush Administration, and former NASA Associate Administrator Lori Garver spoke on behalf of the Kerry campaign.
The unitary warhead variant of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW-C) has taken a big step toward being fielded by achieving a relatively high 90 percent success rate in operational test (OT) firings, government and industry officials said Sept. 22.
Applied Ordnance Technology Inc., located in Waldorf, Md., won an $11.7 million Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center to design, develop, fabricate and test gun components, projectiles and propellant for the Advanced Modular Gun Demonstrator Program, the Department of Defense said Sept. 21. The contract will support the implementation and use of an Extended Long Range (XLR) gun design, which is a modular, high-energy, high-velocity test gun incorporating multiple chambers and a segmented barrel.
The critical infrastructure disruptions caused by a single electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the U.S. could cost the country $10 trillion or more, according to EMP commission member Lowell Wood. Caused by high-altitude nuclear blasts, an EMP can knock out electrical systems of all types on the ground over a very large area. The Commission to Assess the Threat from High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse first presented its findings to Congress in July following a two-year study (DAILY, July 23).
A contract to provide a national military command-and-control system to Slovakia has been awarded to the Northrop Grumman Corp., the company said Sept. 22. The command center is set for delivery in February 2005. It will be located in Bratislava.
The U.S. Navy needs to pick a replacement for its aging C-2A Greyhound cargo aircraft "in the next couple years," a service official said Sept. 22. The Navy is conducting studies on potential successors to the C-2A, a fixed-wing plane that is "starting to get old" after decades of use and will have to be retired by about 2015, said Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, the Navy's acting director of warfare plans and requirements.
DIVIDEND: Kaman Corp. of Bloomfield, Conn., which builds helicopters and other equipment for the aerospace and defense industry, declared a regular quarterly dividend of 11 cents per share on shares of common stock, the company said Sept. 21. The dividend will be paid on Oct. 27 to shareholders of record on Oct. 13.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, a business unit of General Dynamics, won a $26.5 million contract from the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command of Rock Island, Ill., to produce 45 M2HB machine gun overhaul kits, the company said Sept. 22. Total contract value could reach $49.9 million if all planned options are exercised.
MKV TEST: A key experiment for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicles (MKV) program has been moved from fiscal 2005 to the summer of 2006, Defense Department officials said Sept. 22. DOD officials indicated earlier that the critical design review for the experiment has been delayed four months, to February 2005, mainly because more work is needed (DAILY, Sept. 22). The experiment, or hover test, is intended to see if a single, miniaturized kill vehicle can home in on a target.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Sept. 21 to cut NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget to $15.5 billion, a figure $200 million higher than the agency's FY '04 enactment but $665 million lower than its request. The committee approved $268 million for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), which would be used to transport humans beyond low-Earth orbit, and $20 million for lunar exploration.
Inadequate wiring insulation caused one of the recent flight-test failures of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), a congressional source said Sept. 21.
EA-18G WORK: EDO Corp. of New York will provide an interference cancellation system for the EA-18G aircraft under a $14 million, three-year subcontract from the Boeing Co., EDO said Sept. 21. The work could be worth about $70 million over the life of the aircraft's anticipated production.
