Boeing flight-tested the A160 Hummingbird unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the first time since it bought the technology as part of its acquisition of Frontiers Systems Inc. in May, Boeing said Sept. 20.
Navy Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) hosted a lean management workshop last week to eliminate time, labor and cost wastes, according to Navy officials. The Sept. 13-14 workshop featured Lean Six Sigma, a management style that promotes efficiency and improves work processes (DAILY, April 3, 2002). "We have 82 lean experts in the four shipyards," said Douglas Smith, the engineering supervisor at Norfolk Navy Shipyard, Va.
SpaceDev is designing a reusable, piloted, suborbital space ship it calls the "SpaceDev Dream Chaser," the Poway, Calif.-based company said Sept. 20. SpaceDev founder and CEO Jim Benson signed a recent Space Act memorandum of understanding with Scott Hubbard, director of NASA's Ames Research Center, Calif., to investigate using the company's technologies for new small launch vehicles and flight-test platforms.
General Dynamics has completed its purchase of TriPoint Global Communications Inc. of Newton, N.C., the company said Sept. 17. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. TriPoint Global Communications provides wireless communication and ground-based satellite equipment for data, voice and video applications. The company also supplies wireless backhaul products, VSAT antennas and antenna systems, and earth station and base station communications services and products. TriPoint Global Communications has about 1,450 workers in 14 locations.
Ionatron Inc., which develops directed-energy weapon technology products, acquired substantially all of the assets of North Star Research Corp. of Albuquerque, N.M., which builds defense and aerospace high voltage equipment, Ionatron said Sept. 20. Tucson, Ariz.-based Ionatron paid $700,000 for North Star's assets, issued 199,063 shares of Ionatron common stock and assumed liabilities for warranty claims against the purchased assets in an amount not to exceed $35,000, Ionatron said. .
ONLINE PROGRAM: SpaceTEC, of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and RWD Technologies of Baltimore are offering an online certification program to test and qualify people as certified aerospace technicians, the companies said Sept. 20. The tests will be administered by RWD Technologies' CertificationNet. SpaceTEC's partner community colleges will administer the core skills certification exams at their proctored testing centers.
Markland Technologies Inc., a Connecticut-based integrated homeland security company, said Sept. 20 that it has recorded revenue of about $6.2 million for August and about $4.8 million for July. Most of the increase in contract revenues is attributable to the January 2004 acquisition of Virginia-based EOIR Technologies Inc., a major technology and services provider to the U.S. Army Night Vision Laboratories, Markland said.
Recent reports from the U.S. Department of Defense to Congress about budget reprogramming provide information "of limited quality," the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. They also don't contain data about money withheld from DOD's research and development programs in fiscal 2002 and 2003, the report says.
The first flight of the first NH90 helicopter bound for Finland's military was a success, the aircraft's manufacturer, Eurocopter, said Sept. 17. The more than one-hour flight took place Sept. 15 in France over Marseille and Eurocopter's headquarters and production site in Marignane. Two flight engineers and one test pilot conducted the flight under full fly-by-wire conditions, the company said in a statement. The flight envelope also was tested and the aircraft reached high speeds. A Finnish government representative watched the test.
The U.S. Air Force plans to delay the E-10A Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft by a year due to congressional budget cuts, according to an industry source. The fiscal 2005 defense appropriations act cuts $115 million from the Air Force's $539 million request for the E-10A. As a result, the initial operational capability, with four jets, will be moved from 2013 to 2014, the industry source told The DAILY late Sept. 20. Air Force officials could not be reached for comment.
PARTNERS: Communications companies Equant, Intelsat and iDirect Technologies have partnered to provide satellite-based wide area network (WAN) services, Equant said Sept. 20. The partners can provide communications services to underserved areas with features not previously available, Equant said. The company will offer its Internet protocol-enabled virtual private networks (IP VPN) service on Intelsat satellites. IDirect Technologies will provide broadband satellite access with its Netmodem product line.
The U.S. Navy says it "remains committed to fielding a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)," even though a request for proposals (RFP) that was supposed to be released months ago has yet to be issued.
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - The V-22 Osprey program is pursuing a two-part approach to fix a faulty cooling device on the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor aircraft. Program officials said they are devising both short- and long-term redesigns of an air blower that cools components in the V-22's nacelles, or engine pods. The changes are intended to make the Smiths Aerospace blower more durable so it can better withstand heat and vibration.
Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) aircraft division awarded BAE Systems Applied Technologies of Rockville, Md., a $6.6 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for shipboard communications systems. Under the agreement, NAVAIR can exercise an option for technical and engineering support services for the development, procurement, integration, testing, installation and certification of shipboard communication systems.
CHANGING GUARD: C. Michael Petters has been named corporate vice president and president of Newport News, succeeding Thomas C. Shievelbein, who is retiring, Northrop Grumman Corp. said Sept. 16. Petters, the sector's vice president of human resources, will begin his new job Nov. 1.
Computer Sciences Corp. has been awarded a four-year, $10.4 million contract by the Australian navy to install and design a shore-based and shipboard information technology infrastructure, the company said Sept. 16. CSC will provide program management and administrative, engineering, analytical and technical support for 17 RAN frigates, in addition to three naval communications stations and support and refueling ships, the company said.
CAE Inc. of Montreal has been chosen by the Netherlands navy to perform a $9 million upgrade of the Lynx helicopter full mission flight trainer (FMFT) at Naval Air Station de Kooy in Den Helder, Netherlands, the company said Sept. 15. The Lynx FMFT is part of the Joint Lynx Simulator Training Establishment (JLSTE), which trains Lynx helicopter aircrews in the armed forces of Germany, Holland, Denmark and Norway. The simulator is designed so the Lynx FMFT can work with various nations' Lynx helicopter fleets, the company said.
Raytheon Missile Systems has awarded a multiyear $30 million contract to Ducommun Technologies (DTI) to manufacture cable harness assemblies for the Block IV Tomahawk cruise missile. The total contract award extends over the 2005-2010 period of performance. The initial release under the contract for 2005 is approximately $7 million. All the work will be performed at DTI's Fort Defiance, Ariz., facility.
Sept. 21 - 22 -- Wireless Sensing Solutions, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosement, Ill. For information call Jennifer LaFond at (508) 424-4809, email [email protected] or go to www.wssconference.com. Sept. 21 - 23 -- Enterprise Integration Expo 2004, "Connecting the Enterprise through Information," Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, Calif. For information go to www.eiexpo.org. Sept. 21 - 24 -- ION GNSS 2004, Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif. Go to www.ion.org and follow the ION GNSS Meeting links.
SPACEWALKS: NASA has awarded Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International of Windsor Locks, Conn., a consolidated contract to perform work related to future spacewalks. The five-year contract, which has five additional one-year options, has a total potential value of $814 million, according to NASA. The company's work will include defining and integrating spacewalk requirements for shuttle flights and space station expeditions, sustaining engineering for spacewalk hardware, and extending the life of spacesuit components through the life of the shuttle and station.
COMPLETING ACQUISITION: Stork Aerospace will be able to continue the production of landing gear for the NH90 helicopter after completing the acquisition of the assets of bankrupt SP Aerospace & Vehicle Systems of Geldrop, the Netherlands, Stork says. Stork will pay 3 million euros ($3.6 million) and will make investments to complete orders and restart production that could cost up to 10 million euros ($12.1 million). SP Aerospace builds landing gear for the NH90 and Apache helicopters, the F-16 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and other programs.
LETTER CAMPAIGN: Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) and 19 other lawmakers have written a letter to House and Senate conference committee members working on the fiscal 2005 Defense Authorization bill, voicing support for energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) that promote the use of energy efficient technologies (DAILY, April 25, 2003). "Under ESPCs, contractors finance, install and maintain new energy efficient equipment in federal facilities at no up-front cost to the government.
Hurricane Ivan, which passed to the east of NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, has done "little or no damage" at either location, according to a NASA spokeswoman. Michoud, Stennis, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville reopened Sept. 17, with Stennis and Marshall adopting a liberal leave policy, according to Melissa Mathews at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
AVOIDING COSTS: The U.S. Transporation Command says it has saved $25 million in the first half of the year, while supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, after establishing a deployment distribution operations center in U.S. Central Command's area of operations. USTRANSCOM officials say much of the savings came from redirecting cargo movements from air to surface transport. For example, more than $2 million was saved moving 100 armored Humvees to Afghanistan by surface carrier.
