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.
SATCOM CONTRACT: The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $30 million contract to L-3 Communications' Narda Satellite Networks division, the New York City company said May 12. The contract is for Satellite Communications (SATCOM) systems, subsystems, components and maintenance for the Space and Naval Warfare System Center in Tampa, Fla. The SATCOM systems include FlyAway Tri-Band Terminals and Mobile Quad-Band Dual Hub Terminals.
The U.S. Marine Corps plans to send a high-level team to the Persian Gulf to assess the long-term maintenance needs for its aircraft deployed in Iraq. The team is scheduled to head to the region in about a week and a half and return to the Pentagon with its findings in mid-June, said Lt. Gen. Michael Hough, deputy commandant of Marine Corps aviation. The trip's leader will be U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Emerson, the assistant deputy commandant for aviation for the Marines.
PATRIOT FRATRICIDE: U.S. Central Command is blaming a faulty identification-friend-or-foe transponder on a British Tornado GR-4 fighter jet for the aircraft's March 22, 2003, shoot-down by a U.S. Patriot missile unit. "The investigation board determined that the Patriot crew fired in perceived self-defense in accordance with existing procedures and rules of engagement," Central Command says in a statement. The command has not yet announced the results of another friendly-fire incident, in which a Patriot battery shot down a U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornet.
Boeing is on track to launch the next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), called GOES-N, for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 1, according to Mark Spiwak, director of NASA/NOAA programs for Boeing Satellite Systems.
MORE FOR MEP: Fifty-five senators have asked Department of Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to restore funds to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program, which assists defense contractors and others with technical and business support. The senators are hoping to recover funding lost in fiscal 2004. The appropriated level of $39.6 million - $63 million less than the previous year - is not sufficient to maintain the national network of MEP centers, the lawmakers wrote in a May 13 letter.
MOON TO MARS: The President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration ("Moon, Mars and Beyond" commission) hopes to have its final report delivered to the president in early to mid June, according to commission spokeswoman Susan Flowers. By law, the report is due no later than June 7, but it won't be delivered to President Bush until time can be found on his schedule. Commission Chairman E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will deliver the report personally.
To adapt to post-Cold War needs for U.S. strategic strike forces, the Department of Defense (DOD) will have to create systems and processes that will provide a more flexible, integrated and reliable set of strike options on a global scale, according to a Defense Science Board (DSB) report. The report, "Future Strategic Strike Forces," made recommendations for new capabilities by 2030 relating to command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), battle damage assessment (BDA), delivery systems and payloads.
TOP-MOUNTED RADAR: Putting the radar for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system on top of the Airbus A321 instead of on the bottom would save money and reduce the risk of schedule delays, says Alan Doshier of Northrop Grumman Corp. That would require fewer modifications to the plane, which is the primary platform for the AGS, he said. Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) lead the industry team that recently won the AGS competition (DAILY, April 19).
LOSS FOR BOEING: Tanker Deal: Boeing estimates that losing $23.5 billion Air Force 767 tanker lease deal could cost it more $300 million in special charges and might kill the 767 program. The deal looks shakier after a recent Defense Science Board (DSB) report criticized the proposal to lease 100 refueling tankers (DAILY, May 14.). "On a consolidated basis, our potential termination charges would be $270 million as of March 31, 2004" ($184 million at Boeing Commercial Airplanes and $86 million at Integrated Defense Systems).
SHUTDOWN: A Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion spokesman said May 13 the company will shut down its San Jose, Calif., plant over the next year. Operations in space propulsion and liquid and hypersonic propulsion there will be shifted, program by program, to the company's plant in West Palm Beach, Fla., he said.
A report by an advocacy group finds that the national missile defense system scheduled for deployment this year is not likely to be effective against a real missile threat. "By deploying a missile defense before it is tested in a combat-realistic way, the administration seems intent on making political points at the expense of developing a working defense for the United States," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement May 13.
The number of payload launches projected for the next 10 years is down 14 percent from last year and down for the third year in a row, a consultant's annual report shows. The Teal Group projects 1,209 payloads from more than 100 prime contractors will be launched in 2004-2013, down from 1,410 projected in last year's report. "What is noticeable is the continuing decline in the number of commercial payloads relative to government payloads," said Marco Caceres, lead analyst for the report.
The House Armed Services Committee voted 60 to 0 on May 13 to authorize $422.2 billion for the Depart-ment of Defense after a day of deliberations in which the panel recommended more money for force protection, science and technology programs and munitions. The House is expected to consider the measure next week. The committee authorized $25 billion in supplemental funding for military operations in Iraq and a proposed supplemental "bridge fund" that would provide money for at least the first quarter of the next fiscal year.
Northrop Grumman expects sales in 2005 to grow more than 7 percent over 2004 sales, said Chuck Noski, Northrop Grumman's corporate vice president and chief financial officer. Noski spoke May 12 at the company's annual conference for institutional investors in New York City. In 2005, the company anticipates sales of approximately $30 billion, while the guidance for 2004 is $28 billion in sales. Also in 2005, the company expects continued margin expansion and solid double-digit growth in earnings per share.
