CONTRACTORS IN THEATER: Contractor support on the battlefield is "the most economical way to keep up the operational readiness rate [ORR], and it's even cost-efficient in peacetime," says a spokesman for General Dynamics Land Systems, which builds the Army Stryker vehicles deployed in Iraq and has 56 contractors currently in theater. Lt. Col.
ABL UPGRADES: Although the Airborne Laser (ABL) program is not expected to attempt its first missile shoot-down until 2005 at the earliest, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency already anticipates it will want to make changes to the first ABL aircraft based on lessons learned from the intercept test. As a result, MDA has awarded the Boeing Co. a contract worth up to $500 million for future, still-to-be-determined improvements to the first aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 freighter modified to carry a chemical kill laser.
June 2 - 3 - Aviation Week presents NetCentric Conference & Exhibition, "Creating a Knowledge Industry to Support Global Security," Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. To register go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences. June 2 - 3 -- 80th Anniversary Symposium, "Celebrating the Heritage and Future of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces," Washington, D.C. For information contact Carole Berke at (703) 714-2362 or email [email protected].
Italian defense company Finmeccanica S.p.A. is developing a long-range projectile for 76-millimeter naval guns capable of precisely striking and disabling boats without injuring crew onboard.
The Senate returns to Capitol Hill June 1 to resume debate on the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization bill, including a provision for an advanced aviation technology test bed. The Senate Armed Services Committee voted May 7 to authorize $422.2 billion in budget authority for defense programs, $20.5 billion above President Bush's $401.7 billion request.
PRACTICE: Although it is not due to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko until 2014, the European Space Agency spacecraft Rosetta already has observed one comet, Comet C/2002 T7, or Linear. Rosetta launched March 2 and has begun the first phase of commissioning, or activating its instruments. In late April, Rosetta's camera system took images of Linear, and other instruments took measurements of it. Data from the observations shows the instruments are working well, ESA says.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the plan to equip the U.S. Air Force with 100 KC-767A tanker program should continue. "I support an analysis of alternatives to determine a cost-effective recapitalization program beyond the first 100 KC-767 aircraft," Hunter said in a statement. "However, we need to move ahead quickly with the first 100 KC-767s before further jeopardizing our refueling capabilties."
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on May 27 marked the shift from the obsolete Granite Sentry aircraft tracking system to the new Air Migration Evolution (AME) system. "We actually had the cutoff on the 19th of May, but today [May 27] was the ceremony," said Maj. Dave Patterson, spokesman for Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station here.
NASA's solar-powered Mars Exploration Rover (MER) "Opportunity" has begun periodically entering a power-saving "deep sleep" mode overnight to allow more operations during the day. Opportunity entered deep sleep on May 27, after a trial run on May 6. The new sleep mode is enabled by a software upgrade transmitted to both rovers in April. Opportunity has managed only one to two hours of activity on many recent days while examining the stadium-sized "Endurance" crater.
A U.S. Navy independent test agency has given the service the go-ahead to begin fielding Raytheon's Tactical Tomahawk (TacTom) cruise missile. The agency, formally the Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force, approved TacTom's fleet introduction in a recent report. The report has not been publicly released, according to the Navy's Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation, or PEO (W), which manages the missile program.
The U.S. Navy has selected General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works and Lockheed Martin for Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) final design contracts and option contracts for construction, the service said May 27.
TESTING: The Airborne Stand-off Radar (ASTOR), a ground surveillance aircraft under development for the United Kingdom, has begun flight-testing, prime contractor Raytheon Co. announced May 27. The first modified Bombardier Global Express business jet, which has a Synthetic Aperture imagery/Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI) radar mounted on the bottom and a satellite communications link on top, took off from Greenville, Texas, May 26 and flew for more than four hours.
Jane Alexander, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), said May 27 that the pre-solicitation phase for the second round of new technology grants is underway. DHS's science and technology directorate made 66 small business awards to companies in 23 states this year, in response to DHS' and HSARPA's first small business innovation research (SBIR) program solicitation.
The same private equity firms that bid on the purchase of PanAmSat and lost to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) most likely will seek to buy Intelsat Ltd. or make a major investment in the company, according to a space and telecommunications analyst. However, they may not want to bid if they have to go public with the company by a certain date, as is called for in the 2000 ORBIT Act, said Phil McAlister of the Futron Corp. The act was adopted to privatize intergovernmental organizations.
The General Accounting Office has endorsed Lockheed Martin's complaint over its losing bid to be the prime contractor for the M395 Precision Guided Mortar Munition (PGMM), clearing the way for the U.S. Army to reopen the competition. The GAO "has recommended that the Army reopen discussions" with Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which won the PGMM development contract, and with Lockheed Martin, said David Super, the Army's deputy program manager for mortars. "The Army will evaluate revised final proposal revisions from both offerors."
Finmeccanica's acquisition of the other half of AgustaWestland will pave the way for the company to pursue a more aggressive growth strategy in the U.S. market, according to Finmeccanica Inc. President Stephen Bryen. "As far as Finmeccanica is concerned, it's an opportunity for us, so we're looking at it that way," Bryen told The DAILY. "We're very pleased to be able to have control. It makes it easier to move forward with the company." Some have speculated that the acquisition could go through as early as June, Bryen said.
The U.S. Navy's AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) will be able to download information from sensors, engage targets and provide its own battle damage assessment, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) officials.
To reduce risk, Department of Defense program managers must know more about software developers, especially when using international suppliers to develop weapon system software, the General Accounting Office (GAO) said in a recent report.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A joint training center for air force pilots could be set up in central Europe to help cut training costs. The move was announced after a meeting here May 24 of defense ministers from the Visegrad Four (V4) countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Poland is to lead a working group that will examine the feasibility of such a center, and is to report back to the next scheduled meeting of V4 defense ministers in October. Spreading the burden
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said May 25 that a House-Senate budget resolution approved last week recognizes "the criticality of funding for NASA" and could set the stage to begin President Bush's space exploration plan. The resolution calls for $23.9 billion in budget authority for Function 250, or spending covering General Science, Technology and Space, including NASA's budget request of $16.2 billion. It allows the setting of 302(b) funding allocations for appropriations committee subcommittees, which they use to fund government agencies.
Since its establishment in October 2002, United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has become a "largely untold" success story and a leader in homeland defense training and interagency cooperation, according to Gen. Charles Wilhelm, (USMC-Ret.). Headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, NORTHCOM is the first command to have unified responsibility for the defense of the American homeland (DAILY, April 18, 2002). Air Force Gen. Ralph "Ed" Eberhart, who also leads North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), commands NORTHCOM.
JSF FACILITIES: Machines to produce major subassemblies for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are in the final stages of assembly and testing on the factory floor at company facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, JSF maker Lockheed Martin said May 26. The Fort Worth plant will be the final assembly point for the JSF. "These are the most advanced machines ever applied to fighter aircraft assembly," Tom Burbage, the JSF general manager, said in a statement.
The Defense Department could reopen the competition to modernize Air Force refueling aircraft, once two studies on the service's tanker needs are finished in about six months, a Pentagon spokesman said May 26. "Sure, it could be" reopened, DOD spokesman Larry Di Rita said during a Pentagon press briefing.
