Bell/Agusta Aerospace Co. is relocating its company headquarters from Fort Worth, Texas, to Reston, Va., to boost its "visibility," the company said Feb. 3. The company is a joint venture of Bell Helicopter, a Textron company, and Agusta, an AgustaWestland company. Initial plans call for 20 to 25 employees to occupy about 8,000 square feet beginning in mid-March.
A new study from the National Academies endorses exploration as NASA's primary goal, calling it "a form of science" if conducted properly. The Space Studies Board of the National Research Council performed the study, which explored the role science should play in NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 and prepare for landings on Mars and beyond.
The U.S. Defense Department's fiscal 2006 budget request is expected to be $418.1 billion - $4.6 billion less than the department predicted it would need just a year ago - and it may undermine troop support and shipbuilding, among other U.S. military needs, Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) said Feb. 3.
A key U.S. lawmaker said Feb. 3 that he remains unconvinced that the American military needs the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), despite a recent push by RNEP proponents to revive work on the bunker-buster weapon.
EADS Defence Electronics of Ulm, Germany, has successfully conducted its first ground tests with the missile launch detection sensor MILDS-F on a Denmark air force F-16, the company said Feb. 2. The tests sought to show that the MILDS-F can be integrated into the F-16 Electronic Warfare System, and to collect data for the MILDS-F software that will be adapted to the environmental conditions on F-16 aircraft, the company said.
SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Navy "is not appropriately shaped for the world that we will face in the future," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark said at a conference here, repeating concerns he voiced earlier at a conference near Washington (DAILY, Jan. 12).
In preparation for the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), in a few months the Department of Defense's Joint Staff will roll out a series of strategy documents on U.S. national security, defense, military, and military strategy to win the war on terrorism, said Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp (USA), the Joint Staff's director of strategic plans and policy. Sharp spoke Feb. 3 at the Associa-tion of the U.S. Army's Land Warfare breakfast in Arlington, Va.
U.S. Coast Guard stations have been unable to meet current Coast Guard standards and goals in the areas of staffing and boats, an indication that stations are "still significantly short" of desired readiness levels in these areas, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Feb. 1. Furthermore, because Coast Guard funding practices for personal protective equipment (PPE) have not changed, stations may have insufficient funding for such equipment in the future, GAO said.
Three companies have received U.S. Air Force contracts worth $1 million each for work on the Orbital Deep Space Imager (ODSI) program, a projected constellation of geosynchronous orbit satellites that would significantly improve the ability of the United States to track and characterize objects in space.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Electronic versions of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report dated Feb. 7 will not be sent out or placed on the Web until shortly after 10:30 a.m. on that day, so we can include a special section detailing the U.S. Department of Defense's fiscal year 2006 budget request, which is embargoed until then. Print subscribers will receive the special section as part of the Feb. 8 issue.
The Boeing Co. announced Feb. 3 that its EA-18G electronic attack jet and laser-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) have achieved key goals. The EA-18G, which Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy, completed its wind-tunnel testing, which confirmed that the F/A-18F Super Hornet airframe is well-suited to the electronic attack mission, the company said. Boeing conducted 1,412 hours of tests in five wind tunnels from June 2004 until Jan. 27.
Several members of Connecticut's congressional delegation, including both U.S. senators, will host a closed-door session with U.S. Navy Secretary Gordon England late Feb. 9 to protest the recent upset award to provide the next fleet of presidential helicopters to a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp.
SPARE ENGINES: United Defense Industries Inc. of York, Pa., will provide the Army with 20 spare engines for M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles under a $9.9 million contract modification, the company said Feb. 3. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. The work will be done in York. Deliveries are set for February 2006 through October 2006. United Defense designs and produces combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions.
Lockheed Martin has been selected over Boeing to develop RATTLRS, a demonstration program intended to increase the capabilities and performance of expendable supersonic vehicles. "They won," said Jennifer Huergo, a spokeswoman for the Office of Naval Research, when asked Feb. 3 to confirm that Lockheed Martin had beaten Boeing.
ATLAS III RETIRES: Lockheed Martin's Atlas III rocket had its sixth and final flight in the early morning hours of Feb. 3 when it launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The flight marked the 75th consecutive successful flight for the Atlas series since 1993, including Atlas II, III, and V launches. Lockheed Martin has now phased out all the earlier Atlas rockets in favor of the Atlas V, which the company developed for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. The final Atlas II launch occurred Aug. 31, 2004.
The International Space Station's Expedition 11 crew has a "lengthy list" of experiments to conduct that will help enable long-duration missions by astronauts beyond Earth orbit, according to NASA Station Science Officer John Phillips. Phillips and Expedition 11 commander Sergei Krikalev will fly to the ISS onboard a Soyuz rocket on April 15. During their stay, "we will emphasize science that will lead us to go farther and longer into space," Phillips said during a press conference Feb. 3.
Raytheon's net sales increased 12% for both the fourth quarter of 2004 and the full year, boosted largely by military sales, the company reported Feb. 3. Raytheon's fourth-quarter net sales reached $5.7 billion, compared with $5.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003. Fourth-quarter profits reached $245 million, compared with $205 million in 2003. "This is our fifth consecutive quarter of predictable financial performance," Raytheon Chairman and CEO William Swanson said in a statement.
USAF VISION: Gen. John Jumper, U.S. Air Force chief of staff, conveyed his vision for the service during a meeting of Air Force officials Feb. 1 in San Antonio, Texas, according to a spokeswoman for the general. Topics discussed at the summit included the integration of air and space operations.
The House Science Committee Republican caucus late Feb. 1 held its organizational meeting for the 109th Congress and chose chairs for its four subcommittees. The caucus re-elected Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.) as chairman of the Environment, Technology and Standards Subcommittee, and Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) as chairman of the Energy Subcommittee. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) was elected chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, which oversees NASA, replacing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who was term-limited.
Bruce Murray is retiring as chairman of the board. Neil deGrasse Tyson will replace Murray. Bill Nye has been named vice president. Laurie Leshin has been named to the board of directors. Leshin is the Dee and John Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences and director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University.
Raytheon Co.'s GBU-10 Paveway laser-guided bomb, which had a troubled series of tests in late 2004, achieved a perfect score in a new round of tests, according to an industry source.
Although U.S. Air Force testers have rated the F/A-22 Raptor's performance as operationally "effective" (DAILY, Feb. 2), the stealthy fighter still needs better diagnostic software, parts reliability and interior and exterior lighting, the service said Feb. 2. Other areas needing improvement include maintenance instruction documents and flight-line procedures to assess the aircraft's radar signature, the Air Force said. 'Potentially suitable'
SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Navy's ability to fund fleet modernization depends on it making major changes in the way it develops and procures ships, retired Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski told the AFCEA/U.S Naval Institute West 2005 conference here Feb. 1. Citing a report he sent to Congress on Jan. 31 - his last day as the Director of the Department of Defense's Office of Force Transformation - Cebrowski said an alternative business model is needed to provide the Navy with the capable fleet it needs.
