LABARGE INC. has been awarded a $3 million contract by General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products to manufacture Aegis combat system MK200 controllers, the company said. The controllers are a key part of the MK99 Fire Control System used in the Aegis. The Aegis system integrates electronic countermeasures, rapid-fire Gatling gun cannons and missiles to provide anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air warfare protection to the naval fleet. The controllers are deployed in fleets such as the Arleigh Burke class of guided-missile destroyers.
BAE SYSTEMS has been awarded a $41.9 million contract by the U.S. Navy to provide Digital Autopilot Systems (DAS) to upgrade 120 P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, the company said. The contract includes hardware qualification support, flight and ground testing and aircraft trial kit installations. Deliveries to the Navy will start in August 2005, and completion of the contract is set for 2009. The DAS consists of a combined autopilot control panel, two solid-state rate gyro assemblies and a digital autopilot computer.
NASA's Genesis mission is scheduled to culminate Sept. 8 when helicopter crews in the skies over Utah will attempt to catch in midair a sample capsule released by the spacecraft. Launched in August 2001, the Lockheed Martin-built Genesis spacecraft spent two years orbiting a libration point between the Earth and the sun collecting solar particles. Trapped on delicate wafers of gold, sapphire, silicon and diamond, the samples will shed light on the composition of the sun and the origins of our solar system, according to NASA.
EDO CORP. has successfully demonstrated new pneumatic-ejection equipment for the B-1B bomber in test flights at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the company said. Inert weapons weighing 500 and 2,000 pounds were released from a B-1B during tests in July and August. An improved weapons carriage and release rack were assessed under the B-1B Pneumatic Assisted Release (PAR) initiative. PAR equipment uses compressed air to eject weapons, rather than the pyrotechnics used in older ejectors.
The U.S. Air Force is considering buying more Theater Airborne Reconnaissance Systems (TARS) and adding upgrades to allow the fighter aircraft pod to work in all types of weather and send images directly to ground commanders, members of an F-16 squadron said Aug. 24.
Starting in fiscal year 2005, NASA's Mars Technology Program (MTP) will begin focusing heavily on technologies that will enable the agency's ambitious Mars sample return mission, scheduled for launch in 2013.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $400 million, 10-year contract by the U.S. Army Forces Command for the Aviation Joint Administrative Management Support Services (AVJAMSS), the company said Aug. 20. Lockheed Martin will provide aviation training and maintenance services under the indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract.
CRUISE MISSILE DEFENSE: Integrated fire control - along with improved combat identification, increased automation of battle management, the development of a single integrated air picture and better airborne sensors - will be key to meeting the U.S. Defense Department's goal of establishing a limited area defense against cruise missiles by 2010, says Capt. William Ault (USN), director of air and cruise missile defense interoperability for the Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense Organization (JTAMDO). The U.S.
CUTBACKS: Because of anticipated Department of Defense cutbacks on fighter aircraft and ships, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has removed a "trading buy" recommendation on the defense sector and now rates it at "market weight" on both an investment and a trading basis. "The key reason for the change is indications we are picking up that the three military services' new long-range spending plans (for fiscal 2006 through 2011) will begin to signal that some of the hard decisions on cutting back large defense programs are beginning to happen.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The U.S. Army has begun receiving money from the Pentagon to fix flaws that surfaced in the Patriot system during the Iraq war, according to service officials. The Army developed a reprogramming plan that transfers millions of dollars from various programs to pay for such things as software improvements for the Patriot's target identification capability (DAILY, Dec. 15, 2003). During the war, the Patriot, which is designed to shoot down enemy aircraft and missiles, mistakenly downed two coalition aircraft.
A new program to help the U.S. military quickly link multiple players in a targeting system is sparking the interest of officials who need a fast and reliable network that would be up to the challenges of future battlefields, according to Maj. Steve Waller (USAF) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Aug. 23 - 26 -- Joint ADL Co-Lab Implementation Fest 2004: Achieving the Military's Needs Through ADL, Holiday Inn Select UCF, Colorado, Fla. For more information contact Patrick Rowe at (703) 247-9471 or go to www.trainingsystems.org/events. Aug. 23 - 27 -- Aerospace Lighting Institute Short Course on Aircraft Crew Station and Exterior Lighting, Airport Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles, Calif. For information call (727) 791-0790 or go to www.aligodfrey.com.
ANTI-MISSILE OFFICE: The Joint Cruise Missile Defense Joint Test and Evaluation (JCMD JT&E) organization, which the Defense Department set up more than five years ago as a temporary means to promote improvements in cruise missile defense, is getting ready to close its doors in June 2005, says Col. William Holway (USAF), the group's director. But his organization, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., has identified several products that could continue to be useful to the military for training and testing, Holway says.
AUTHORITY APPROVED: Diedre A. Lee, director of the Department of Defense's defense procurement and acquisition policy, is giving U.S. Transportation Command the authority to establish a contracting activity to buy commercial transportation services. "This is a dynamic tool for the commander to streamline and accelerate support to the warfighter," says Gail Jorgenson, director of USTRANSCOM's acquisition office. "This will enhance and greatly improve our efficiencies for deploying, sustaining and redeploying forces."
SUIT WORK: International Space Station Science Officer Mike Fincke will continue to troubleshoot cooling system problems with U.S. space suits this week, NASA said Aug. 20. New space suit cooling system pumps were among the parts recently delivered to the station by a Russian Progress vehicle.
ADDRESS: Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and director of NASA advanced planning, will address the Wings Club luncheon in New York Oct. 21. Elachi will discuss how JPL achieved success with its Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, as well as how NASA will organize new exploration of the moon, Mars and outer solar system. Elachi also will discuss how new and dynamic medium-sized aerospace companies are helping lead these exploration programs.
PINPOINT LANDING: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Mars Technology Program (MTP) is working on a suite of technologies to enable "pinpoint landing" on the Red Planet to an accuracy of 100 meters (328 feet), according to Samad Hayati, chief technologist for the Mars exploration directorate at JPL. These technologies include coupled vision and inertial navigation, as well as guided parachute technology being developed by Boeing (DAILY, Aug. 18). The team hopes to demonstrate pinpoint landing techniques on Mars as part of a "Mars Testbed" mission scheduled for 2011.
UPSWING: The aerospace industry's upswing in hiring (DAILY, Aug. 19) coincides with recent shipment increases, according to the Aerospace Industries Association, which released the results based on Labor Department and industry data. Boeing announced it expects to ship about 284 aircraft in 2004, compared with 281 a year ago.
The research and development (R&D) costs for the U.S. Navy's future aircraft carrier, CVN-21, are increasing by about $728 million, or 20.2 percent, according to the most recent Selected Acquisition Reports, released by the Department of Defense last week. CVN-21 program development costs went from $3.6 billion to $4.3 billion, "due primarily to a revised estimate of development costs approved at Milestone B," DOD said.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The U.S. Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (Aegis BMD) program is on track to begin two key functions later this year, according to a program official.
J-UCAS: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is awarding competing contractors Northrop Grumman and Boeing contracts to continue their work in the next phase of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program. Northrop Grumman already has been awarded $30 million of a contract that could be worth more than $1 billion over the next five years, according to the company. A similar award soon will be made to Boeing, according to DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker.
ACQUISITION: Curtiss-Wright Corp. plans to purchase the assets of Synergy Microsystems Inc. for $49 million in cash to help move its embedded computing products into military platforms and commercial markets. Synergy will operate as a business unit of the Motion Control segment of Curtiss-Wright, based in Gastonia, N.C. Synergy designs, builds and integrates commercial-off-the-shelf embedded computing products such as single-board computers, digital signal processing cards and related software and support.
A U.S. Navy proposal to eliminate funding for the DD(X) destroyer program in fiscal year 2006 is a cry to Congress for help, according to a shipbuilding industry official. Sources said Navy officials are considering a budget that calls for funding four ships, not including the high-tech DD(X). Navy spokeswoman Lt. Pauline Pimental told The DAILY that the budget for FY '06 is in the predecisional phase and that no final funding decisions have been made.
