Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher Jr. (USN-Ret.), undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere at the Department of Commerce, asked a Senate authorizing subcommittee April 29 to support a $3 million increase for the National Oceano-graphic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Satellite Operations facility. NOAA's overall budget request for fiscal 2005 is $3.4 billion, an 8.4 percent decrease from the FY '04 level of $3.6 billion.
American Pacific Corp. has agreed to acquire Aerojet's in-space propulsion (ISP) business for about $3.5 million in cash and the assumption of some liabilities, American Pacific announced April 26. The propulsion business has operations in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and in Westcott, United Kingdom. In 2003, the business had sales of about $13 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2004.
The test bed for the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) is slated to take aim at a new type of target April 29, according to the U.S. Army. For the first time, the test bed will target large-caliber rockets during an exercise at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The Army said the "primary objective" of the event is to use the test bed to track fast-moving, large-caliber rockets in flight. But shoot-downs of those rockets will be attempted if the tracking goes as planned.
A congressional group that advocates electronic warfare (EW) capabilities plans to focus on several relatively new issues this year, including how EW could defend commercial airliners against missiles and protect U.S. troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Boeing's earnings climbed during the first quarter of 2004, bolstered by "key transformational programs" in its Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) segment and orders for its commercial 7E7 aircraft, the company reported April 28. Boeing reported a net income of $623 million on revenues of $12.9 billion. That compares with a net loss during the first quarter of 2003 of $478 million on revenues of $12.3 billion. The first quarter of last year included goodwill impairment charges of $913 million, the company said.
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July or August, ahead of parent company Loral Space & Communications, according to SS/L President Pat DeWitt. "We will come out of Chapter 11 with no debt ... and we'll have substantial cash reserves and access to lines of credit," DeWitt said during a briefing in Arlington, Va., April 28. The company will file its plan for reorganization in May.
ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE, Edgewater, Fla. Don Canova, a heavy maintenance manager at Delta in Atlanta, has joined the board of directors. DFI INTERNATIONAL, Washington Brett B. Lambert has been named executive vice president of strategies, ventures and development. Elizabeth Baldwin has been named executive vice president for business operations. Steve M. Irwin has been named executive vice president of DFI Corporate Services. EDO CORP., New York
BATTLEFIELD TRAINING: AT&T Government Systems will develop live battlefield training systems under two multi-year contracts managed by the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, the company said April 28. The combined value of the contracts could reach $134 million, the company said.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to consider two bills April 29, one of which addresses finance laws regarding aircraft and another that is intended to speed the development of missile defense systems for commercial aircraft. The committee will hold a hearing and then mark up the Cape Town Treaty Implementation Act of 2004, which would extend commercial finance laws already in place in the United States to international transactions involving aircraft and aircraft engines.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) have completed their originally planned 90-day missions and have moved on to what the agency calls "extra-credit assignments." Opportunity finished its 90th day at Meridiani Planum on April 26, according to NASA, having traveled 811 meters (more than half a mile) and sent home 15.2 gigabits of data. Last month, the rover found geological evidence that a shallow, salty ocean once covered its landing site (DAILY, March 24).
MOSCOW - The launch of a Zenit-2 vehicle carrying a military payload, most likely a Tselina electronic intelligence satellite, has been postponed until mid-May at the earliest. Russia's Space Forces had been trying to launch the satellite since April 25, but encountered technical difficulties with ground support systems.
A requirement for eight surveillance aircraft to be used by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq has prompted a series of questions from builders of such aircraft. The planes would report on "potential threats, tampering, and malfunctions of essential infrastructure elements in divergent areas throughout Iraq," according to a FedBizOpps notice from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), the CPA's contracting agency.
Two House lawmakers have asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to assess the amount of time the U.S. Coast has spent repairing aging assets, and how much of those costs fell outside its scheduled maintenance operations.
Lockheed Martin reported "very strong" first quarter results for 2004, saying net earnings were $291 million, compared with $250 million in the first quarter of 2003. Net sales were $8.3 billion, an 18 percent increase over first quarter 2003 sales of $7.1 billion, and earnings for all five business segments grew 21 percent, the company said April 27. Of the five business segments, aeronautics had the largest net sales, $2.9 billion, followed by electronic systems at $2.1 billion.
Starting this summer, the FAA's Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) will begin forming "action teams" of government and industry representatives to begin implementing the office's plan for America's next-generation air transportation system. "This summer we will be asking government and industry for enough people ... to populate five or six action teams [of] maybe 10 people a team," JPDO Director John Kern said at a luncheon sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) in Washington April 27. "So it becomes a real program this summer."
T-38 PROPULSION: CPI Aerostructures Inc. will provide an additional five shipsets of structural inlets for the T-38 Talon trainer aircraft's Propulsion Modernization Program, the company said. The $828,000 U.S. Air Force order brings the value of the company's contract to $5.7 million, the company said April 27.
Aging facilities, systems and equipment and a lack of resources for upgrades is the biggest threat to the nation's nuclear weapons program, according to Jerald S. Paul, nominated for the new position of deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Lockheed Martin's Maritime Domain Awareness Center (MDAC), built to integrate C4ISR capabilities in the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, has been operating for six months although it had a formal ribbon cutting just last week.
Industry teams competing to develop the Joint Common Missile (JCM) are awaiting an announcement on the program's fate. Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne led an April 22 program review that is expected to give the go-ahead for starting the system development and demonstration (SDD) phase and picking a prime contractor. But Wynne's office has not revealed a decision.
The U.S. government hopes to decide in the next year or so whether to build a third interceptor site for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, according to the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, MDA's director, told the Defense Writers Group April 27 that Europe is the main area being explored for the potential third site.
U.S. Marine Corps officials are expected to decide on an armoring package for large transport trucks by the end of the week, according to Armor Systems International, which developed the Peel & Stick Armoring System for Humvees and other military vehicles. The peel and stick kits are composed of a semi-flexible composite material with a hard strike plate and adhesive sealed in a waterproof casing. The panels can be applied to any surface, the Washington state-based company said. Support
