There's "no basis to question" the Department of Defense's need for another round of military base closures, the General Accounting Office said in a report issued days after the House Armed Services Committee recommended suspension of the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process until 2007. "While clear limitations exist in DOD's assessment of excess capacity, it does point to some areas that warrant additional analysis - and the current BRAC process is an appropriate forum for doing so," the investigative arm of Congress said in a May 17 report.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech defense officials have rejected claims in the Czech press that the Gripen JAS-39 aircraft has serious shortcomings. The Czech government is preparing to sign an agreement with Sweden on the 10-year lease of 14 Gripen fighters. An article in the May 14 issue of daily Mlada Fronta Dnes quoted unnamed "experts" as saying that the Gripen cannot carry the AMRAAM medium-range missile, and will not be equipped with NATO-compatible IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) systems.
The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) is spearheading a series of ad hoc meetings between DOD organizations and representatives of the commercial satellite communications industry that will help shape the military's use of commercial satcom.
NEW YORK - Raytheon Co. made procedural changes in the last nine months to reduce corporate risk, said Edward Pliner, the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer.
SpaceDev Inc. registered a fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth in the first quarter of 2004, with revenue of $1,015,000 for the three months ending March 31 compared to $902,000 in the fourth quarter of 2003. Profit from operations was $12,000 in the first quarter of 2004 compared with a loss of $364,000 in the first quarter of 2003 and a loss of $12,000 for the fourth quarter of 2003.
NEW DELHI - Pirate attacks increased alarmingly in the first quarter of 2004 and raised fears of maritime terrorism in the Singapore Straits and the Malacca Straits, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The maritime industry needs enhanced security measures in the Malacca and Singapore Straits to detect and deter possible attacks, the IMB said. Maritime security experts predict that the pirates' success may spur terrorists to hijack ships and ram them into other ships or shore facilities in a seagoing replay of Sept. 11, 2001.
SPACEHAB Inc.'s revenue continues to suffer from NASA's postponement of space shuttle missions. Executives cited the shuttle mission drought and termination of the company's Flight Crew System Development contract with NASA as key reasons that revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2004 was $14.8 million compared with $26.4 million for the same quarter in the previous year. Net income was $300,000 for the most recent quarter compared with a net loss of $62.7 million for the same period in the previous year.
The AIM-9X Sidewinder missile has been approved for full-rate production, Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Air-to-Air Missile Program Office (PMA-259) announced May 17. John Young, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, signed the Acquisition Decision Memorandum for the program on May 15. Production through 2018
The U.S. Army and the Canadian Air Force are starting to define separate but similar programs for buying new light-transport planes. The U.S. effort, which is being referred to as both CXX and the Future Cargo Aircraft, could get under way formally by this summer with the issuance of a solicitation for information from potential competitors. A request for detailed proposals is expected to follow in the first quarter of calendar 2005.
NASA will launch two missions in 2006 to explore the Aurora Borealis and mysterious high-altitude clouds, the agency announced May 6. The first mission, the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere Small Explorer, will determine the causes of the clouds that occur 50 miles above the polar regions every summer. Similar clouds have been observed on Mars. The second mission, the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms, will send five small spacecraft through geomagnetic disturbances that cause the Northern and Southern Lights.
A Patriot missile's destruction of a British Royal Air Force Tornado in the Iraq war underscores the need to give aviation and missile forces a better view of the battlespace, according to new reports released by U.S. Central Command and the British Ministry of Defence. "The airspace is very crowded," the U.S. report says. "More effort needs to be expended in finding ways to deconflict that airspace and ensure that everyone's situational awareness is complete."
Intelsat Ltd. will acquire Lockheed Martin's COMSAT General business for $90 million in cash or a combination of Intelsat stock and $50 million in cash. Lockheed Martin expects the deal will close by year-end and not have any material effect on the company's results. Intelsat also will purchase an Atlas launch vehicle from Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services for a future satellite launch. COMSAT General employs 30 people in its headquarters in Bethesda, Md., and in offices in Clarksburg, Md., Paumalu, Hawaii, and Landstuhl, Germany.
NEW YORK -- The Department of Defense (DOD) is restructuring the way it conducts acquisition, management and logistics, said Michael Wynne, the acting undersecretary of defense responsible for those functions. Wynne spoke at the Credit Suisse First Boston/Aviation Week Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference here May 17.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. of Denver, Colo., on May 14 shipped the final launch vehicle in the Atlas II family. The Atlas IIAS is on its way to Cape Canaveral for a launch scheduled for June 30. The Atlas II series accomplished 61 consecutive successful missions over the last 13 years but was replaced by the larger Atlas III and Atlas IV. While the launch of the last Atlas II vehicle must wait for next month, the penultimate Atlas IIAS launch is set for May 19 with the AMC-11 telecommunications satellite on top.
The House Armed Services Committee recommended the Pentagon establish an independent panel to study how the American shipbuilding industry can become more efficient and globally competitive within a decade even as it cut funding to two major Navy ship programs.
International Launch Services, meanwhile, has moved up the launch of the AMC-16 satellite to the fourth quarter of 2004 and switched to an Atlas V 521 rocket. This will be the company's fifth mission this year for a single customer, SES Americom. The AMC-16 is an A2100 model being built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. The launch had been scheduled in the first quarter of 2005 using ILS' Russian Proton launch vehicle. ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.
Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power, a business unit of The Boeing Co.'s Integrated Defense Systems, has delivered the main combustion chamber for a high-tech rocket demonstrator engine. The engine is being assembled at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The combustion chamber completes the list of components needed for the new engine, called the Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator, which begins testing this year. NASA and the U.S. Air Force initiated the project as part of the Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology Program.
LINKED: Boeing's X-45A unmanned aircraft communicated with a manned T-33 aircraft while in flight May 7 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Boeing announced May 17. Operating at 14,000 feet, the X-45A and T-33 maneuvered around each other and ensured they could maintain a solid communications link. This summer, the X-45A and T-33 will fly a coordinated mission at Edwards managed by a ground operator.
AUTHORITY: The recently established NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has the authority to halt milestones or stop flights if it has safety concerns about a particular NASA program that haven't been resolved, according to NESC Director Ralph Roe. "We can impose that on a program," Roe says. "If the program still doesn't agree with our position, then the ...
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. - The U.S. Air Force, which recently indicated it wants to buy a second variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, plans to work out the details of that revised acquisition strategy by year's end, Air Force Secretary James Roche said May 14.
May 17 - 20 -- 2004 Global Demilitarization Symposium & Exhibition, Adam's Mark Hotel, Dallas, Texas. Contact Dawn Harper, (703) 247-2566 or email [email protected]. May 17 - 20 -- Force Project Symposium V, "Projecting the Joint Force - Assuring Strategic Mobility and Agility," Norfolk Marriott Waterside Hotel, Norfolk, Va. Contact Angie DeKleine at (703) 247-2599, email [email protected] or go to www.safeassociation.com.
TANKER SCRUTINY: The House Armed Services Committee wants Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to name a panel of experts to review future negotiated tanker contracts. The HASC placed the recommendation in the language in its markup of the Department of Defense authorization bill that it completed last week. And in an effort to address concerns about aerial refueling tankers, it recommends the Air Force enter into a multi-year contract for the aircraft.
The "ideological trench warfare" over missile defense has subsided over the past few years and the U.S. appears to be moving towards a consensus on the issue, according to Baker Spring, F.M. Kirby Research Fellow in National Security Policy at The Heritage Foundation. "The broader ideological debate is not going to be as sharp upon this issue in the future as it has been in the past," Spring said during a May 13 breakfast in Washington sponsored by the National Defense University (NDU). "And I think that the progress in that direction will continue.
